Finance Friday Articles
Recently there was a NAVADMIN about how time is running out to elect the Blended Retirement System (BRS). You have to opt-in by the end of the year if you are BRS eligible.
If you’re not sure if you are BRS eligible, read my article on the White Coat Investor site.
Here are the Finance Friday articles for this week:
A Little Perspective (an article about the recent stock market drop)
Continuing Financial Education (CFE) Week 2018
Deadly Serious (an article about why you need an estate plan)
Disability Insurance For Female Physicians: The Agony Of Defeat
Should You Track Your Net Worth?
Tax Code Changes You Should Know: Deductions, Exemptions, and Credits
The Key To Financial Success As A Doctor – Staying Hungry
WCI’s Fire Your Financial Advisor Course in Action: A Couple Creates Their Financial Plan
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 
November 23, 2018 at 20:17
I am eligible for the BRS, but planned to stay in the legacy system and do 20 years up until the POM 20 Navy Medicine Billet Reduction news. I am a radiology resident and I am seriously considering now opting in to the BRS. As I fear I will either be not needed as a Radiologist and ask to leave the military or be asked to serve as a GMO/FS/UMO and loose my new highly specialized skills that I worked four years to gain.
Dr. Schofer, I was hoping you could comment/give us your thoughts on Opting in to BRS now in the context of the POM20 Navy medicine billet reduction news. I realize there are still many unknowns, but any insight is appreciated.
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November 24, 2018 at 07:15
The POM20 cuts are of billets, not bodies. I’m not sure that this new information makes it more likely that you are kicked out or forced to do something you don’t want to do. It will probably make it more likely that people have to PCS because their billet is no longer funded, and it will probably reduce the variability in places you could go as the Navy consolidates, but it really is hard to say what the downstream effects are right now. There is so much up in the air.
In the end, though, my recommendation regarding the BRS isn’t changed by POM20:
1. If you are suring you’re getting out before 20, take the BRS.
2. If you are not sure, take the BRS.
3. If you are sure you are staying in for 20, keep the legacy.
You sound like you are #2. You might have been #3, but now POM 20 made you #2.
Can anyone really say they are #3? Is anyone really sure they are going to stay in? Life changes, so I don’t think you can go wrong by taking the BRS.
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