I retired at 38 years old (20 years of military service, plus 100% disability got me there) and I pretty much just sit around my house all day now.
I spent 2 decades traveling the world and experiencing an extremely busy, productive life. Now I just wanna sit in my quiet, countryside home and enjoy some peace.
It’s not that I can’t get up and out of the house; I’m not that kind of disabled. I just enjoy focusing on myself for once. Investing in my own hobbies, not being at the beck and call of someone else. No deadlines, no alarms every morning, not worrying about making rent this month or feeding myself. It’s wonderful.
Definitely the hard way. I tried to get a CPAP machine, but the VA kept telling me I was borderline and didn’t require it. After 4 sleep studies in 3 years, I eventually got it. But I was already 100% when I retired, so it’s not helping or hurting my rating.
I only expected to submit 2 VA disability claims when I retired; one for my legs and one for my back. But I sat down with a VA counselor before I retired and they spent 3 hours reviewing my medical records and talking over every single inch of my body. By the end, they had 33 claims written up, 30 of which the VA accepted. PTSD alone got me 70% and the other 29 claims inched me all the way to 100%.
For non-military folks, VA disability is not a straight addition equation. A 20% rating and a 20% rating don’t equal a 40% overall rating.
There’s some equation the VA uses that has diminishing returns on each rating. So two 20% ratings might only be a total of 25-30% overall disability.
Not to mention, sometimes the VA will accept a claim but give it a 0% rating, meaning it doesn’t affect me at all, but it might be a problem later in my life. They’re on my record so the VA will cover any issues related to it, but I don’t get any further benefits because it’s not currently impacting my life or health.
So making it to the coveted 100% rating is actually quite difficult. I got a nice boost with that one 70% rating, but the rest required piling on a bunch of smaller ratings to push me through the last 30%.
Damn you had it rough. Sorry to hear bro. Hopefully you’re doing better now. And yeah the VA isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; more like trickle down shit. But good on you for toughing it out and getting what you’re owed.
There are lots of government jobs with pensions. Plenty cities and counties here in Texas have great pension plans. My sister works for a county library system and will be able retire at 48
There’s minimum retirement age to begin drawing the pension and there’s being able to afford it. Usually drawing at the minimum age you can leads to a smaller pension.
I worked briefly for the Parks Service. Theoretically I could have retired 57 if I stayed in, but the math became more favorable at my salary if I stayed in until I was 60 to 62. Which is still better than average, but not quite as amazing as it looks on paper
There are definitely formalae related to tenure and age. My sister will have put in 25 years with the county library system when she’s 48, which is how that math works. I know a guy who retired from the city government where I live a couple years ago at 53 and draws that pension. He went back a year later at a lower level position with little responsibility and earns that salary now in addition to his pension
bruh did you even clock bro’s comment? bro was high key grindmaxxing af for like twenty years bruh, bro just wants to enable chill mode and not have to lock in and shit and I’m just like fax bro. bffr
I retired at 38 years old (20 years of military service, plus 100% disability got me there) and I pretty much just sit around my house all day now.
I spent 2 decades traveling the world and experiencing an extremely busy, productive life. Now I just wanna sit in my quiet, countryside home and enjoy some peace.
It’s not that I can’t get up and out of the house; I’m not that kind of disabled. I just enjoy focusing on myself for once. Investing in my own hobbies, not being at the beck and call of someone else. No deadlines, no alarms every morning, not worrying about making rent this month or feeding myself. It’s wonderful.
Did you get 100 the cpap way or the hard way lol?
Definitely the hard way. I tried to get a CPAP machine, but the VA kept telling me I was borderline and didn’t require it. After 4 sleep studies in 3 years, I eventually got it. But I was already 100% when I retired, so it’s not helping or hurting my rating.
I only expected to submit 2 VA disability claims when I retired; one for my legs and one for my back. But I sat down with a VA counselor before I retired and they spent 3 hours reviewing my medical records and talking over every single inch of my body. By the end, they had 33 claims written up, 30 of which the VA accepted. PTSD alone got me 70% and the other 29 claims inched me all the way to 100%.
For non-military folks, VA disability is not a straight addition equation. A 20% rating and a 20% rating don’t equal a 40% overall rating.
There’s some equation the VA uses that has diminishing returns on each rating. So two 20% ratings might only be a total of 25-30% overall disability.
Not to mention, sometimes the VA will accept a claim but give it a 0% rating, meaning it doesn’t affect me at all, but it might be a problem later in my life. They’re on my record so the VA will cover any issues related to it, but I don’t get any further benefits because it’s not currently impacting my life or health.
So making it to the coveted 100% rating is actually quite difficult. I got a nice boost with that one 70% rating, but the rest required piling on a bunch of smaller ratings to push me through the last 30%.
Damn you had it rough. Sorry to hear bro. Hopefully you’re doing better now. And yeah the VA isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; more like trickle down shit. But good on you for toughing it out and getting what you’re owed.
Bruh, retiring that early?
20 years of military service (plus full disability) gets you a decent pension. Pretty much the only way an American can get a pension anymore.
There are lots of government jobs with pensions. Plenty cities and counties here in Texas have great pension plans. My sister works for a county library system and will be able retire at 48
There’s minimum retirement age to begin drawing the pension and there’s being able to afford it. Usually drawing at the minimum age you can leads to a smaller pension.
I worked briefly for the Parks Service. Theoretically I could have retired 57 if I stayed in, but the math became more favorable at my salary if I stayed in until I was 60 to 62. Which is still better than average, but not quite as amazing as it looks on paper
There are definitely formalae related to tenure and age. My sister will have put in 25 years with the county library system when she’s 48, which is how that math works. I know a guy who retired from the city government where I live a couple years ago at 53 and draws that pension. He went back a year later at a lower level position with little responsibility and earns that salary now in addition to his pension
Did you miss the disability part? Leave them in peace if that’s what they want.
bruh did you even clock bro’s comment? bro was high key grindmaxxing af for like twenty years bruh, bro just wants to enable chill mode and not have to lock in and shit and I’m just like fax bro. bffr
Wouldn’t you if you could?
If I could retire now while I’m still able and clear headed I fucking would in a heartbeat.