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2020 BAH/BAS/Basic Pay Rates and Finance Friday Articles
The DoD released the 2020 pay info:
Here are my favorite articles this week:
9 Practical Tips to Find Contentment
Overweighting REITs: Why Don’t More Experts Recommend It?
Riding Out Private Real Estate Deals
Here are the rest of this week’s articles:
10 Guiding Principles for Physician Debt Management
Durn Furriners – A Discussion of Foreign Stock Allocation
Owning Oddities – Factor Investing
Spend Money On Experiences… And Some Things, Too
Supersavers and the Roth vs Tax-deferred 401(k) Dilemma
WCI vs PoF: A Pro/Con on Donor Advised Funds
What’s the Best Age to Take Social Security?
While On International Travel, Always Transact In Local Currency
Summary of Changes to New Navy Fitrep Instruction
The Navy recently updated its fitrep instruction. Here it is:
BUPERSINST 1610.10E – NAVY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION SYSTEM
The changes are not very relevant to this audience unless you are a reporting senior, but for those that are here is the summary:
The updated instruction is attached. Below is the NAVADMIN but here is a summary of changes:
This revision incorporates policy guidance contained in NAVADMINs 141/17 (Physical Readiness Program Policy Changes), 304/17 (Physical Readiness Program Policy Change), and 193/19 (Active Component LDO and CWO Fitness Report Officer Summary Groups). In addition, the following new guidance applies with the updated instruction:
- Incorporating reference (a) guidance when a member willfully does not meet deployability standards and authorizing the submission of a Special Report when a member willfully does not meet deployability standards.
- Requiring reports for Navy reservists who perform active-duty periods that are greater than 90 days and prohibiting reports for Navy reservists who perform active-duty periods that are less than 90 days.
- Assigning September 30 as the periodic report date for Chief Warrant Officer-1.
- Prohibiting delegation of reports on members in the grades of E5 through E9, including members frocked to E5, below the grade of lieutenant designated department heads.
- Prohibiting reporting seniors, raters and senior raters from evaluating members who have filed an accusation of sexual misconduct against the reporting senior, rater or senior rater while an investigation is pending to reflect the requirements of reference (b).
- Incorporating changes to flag officer reporting requirements, including changes to blocks 14-15 (Period of Report Table 19-1), requiring submission 15 days sooner and changing the verbiage for blocks 10-13 (Occasion of Report) to read, Special Reports will be selected for Concurrent or Operational Commander report.
- Adding billet specific language to the instruction requiring reporting seniors evaluating Navy Installation Commanding Officers (CO) to document in block 41 (comments on performance) their performance in managing family and unaccompanied housing programs. Additionally, reporting seniors evaluating Naval Facilities Engineering Command COs are required to document in block 41 (comments on performance) their performance in facility management of family and unaccompanied housing and enforcement of Public Private Venture business agreements.
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Deployment Gear Lists
The gear you need for a deployment will obviously depend on the type of deployment, but every time I deploy I take a look at the gear lists I have to see what I might need to bring that I’m forgetting. Some of the gear lists and deployment checklists I have are old and I don’t even know who created them, but I wanted to post them so people could use them if they so desired. Here they are:
CDR Temerlin’s Gear Organization
Recommended Blackhawk Stomp II Load
Thanks to Steve Temerlin and whoever else created these, and if you have any gear/deployment lists you’d like to share just use the Contact Me tab and you’ll then be able to send them to me over e-mail once I reply.
CNO Gilday Releases Guidance to the Fleet; Focuses on Warfighting, Warfighters, and the Future Navy
WASHINGTON (NNS) — Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Gilday released his initial guidance to the Fleet, Dec. 4.
The guidance was issued via a fragmentary order (FRAGO) and is intended to simplify, prioritize, and build on the foundation of “A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority 2.0,” issued by Adm. John Richardson in December of 2018.
“Mission One for every Sailor – uniformed and civilian, active and reserve – is the operational readiness of today’s Navy,” said Gilday. “A ready Navy – ready to fight today – with a commitment to training, maintenance, and modernization will ensure a Navy for ready for tomorrow.”
While Gilday said that the Navy’s strategic direction focused on Great Power Competition is sound, this guidance focuses the Navy’s efforts across three areas that are vital to achieving success now and in the future: warfighting, warfighters, and the future Navy.
Warfighting: A Navy that is ready to win across the full range of military operations. We must have a Fleet that is manned, trained, equipped, integrated, and ready to meet requirements of our senior leaders at any time. Alongside the Marine Corps, the Navy will deliver decisive Integrated American Naval Power.
Warfighter: A Navy that is world-class. We must recruit, educate, train, and retain America’s most talented men and women. Our people – uniformed and civilian Sailors – are our asymmetric advantage.
Future Navy: A Navy fully prepared to fight and win. Our Navy will be equipped with the right capabilities and numbers to meet the challenges of a complex and competitive maritime environment. We will look at what is required to operate forward, build the Fleet to match, and train together until we achieve integrated combat power across the force.
“Together with the United States Marine Corps, our Navy is the bedrock of Integrated American Naval Power,” said Gilday. “I am confident that we will maximize the Navy we have today while delivering the Navy that our nation needs and will rely upon tomorrow – and we will do so with urgency.”
The guidance also focuses on building alliances and partnerships to broaden and strengthen global maritime awareness and access.
“Combined with a robust constellation of allies and partners who desire to build and strengthen the international economic order, we are operating towards the same end – continued security and stability that results in a free and open maritime commons,” said Gilday. “We will continue to partner and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all nations who share a mutual respect for and adherence to international law as well as a vision of free and open maritime commons.”
To read Fragmentary Order 01/2019 in its entirety, click here.
To download a one-page infographic, click here.
Get more information about the Navy from US Navy facebook or twitter.
For more news from Chief of Naval Operations, visit www.navy.mil/local/cno/.
DOD Officials Testify on Military Health System Reform
Here’s a link to a summary article:
Changes to military health care system aimed at readiness
Here’s a link to the Congressional testimony:
DOD Officials Testify on Military Health System Reform
The Navy SG gives his opening remarks at the 25:30 minute mark, if you want to focus, although the whole thing is informative but admittedly long. They discuss:
- Billet cuts (start at 37 minutes or so)
- Access to mental health and suicide
- Access to OB/GYN
- Access autism services
- MTF realignment
- DHA transition
- Surgical readiness
Finance Friday Articles
Here are my favorites this week:
Are You Leaving Money On The Table?
Making the Call – Roth vs Traditional
The Ultimate Productivity Hack is Saying No
Here are the rest of this week’s articles:
6 TRICARE Resources You Might Not Know About
All-Time Highs Are Both Scary & Normal
A Primer on Real Estate Professional Status for Physicians
Beyond Fee-Only: 7 Things to Know About the Advice-Only Model
Bull Markets Last Much Longer Than You Think
How to Fast FIRE Your Way to Generational Wealth – Part I
How We Went From Full-Time Physicians to Semi-Retired MDs
How Your TRICARE Costs Will Change in 2020
I Made $15 Million Before I Was 30, And It Wasn’t As Awesome As You’d Think
Make these Five Tax Moves Before December 31st
Six Principles of Asset Location
Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement for Physicians
Strategies To Consider When Building An Effective Retirement Income Plan
Student Loan Advice: 7 Rules of Thumb
The Code, Conflicts, and Client Interest
There’s Always a Bear Market Somewhere
What Causes Physician Burnout? The Medscape Survey
Where Have All The Stock Market Returns Come From This Decade?
Why Opportunity Fund Investors Shouldn’t Settle for High Fees
Why the best person to give you money advice may NOT be an accountant or financial adviser
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Types of Deployments
This post will help you learn all that you can about deployments. I’ve done three deployments, one as a General Medical Officer (GMO) during the initial invasion of Iraq, and two after residency. In 2010, I deployed with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and in 2016 I deployed to Guantanamo Bay (GTMO). In addition, as both a Detailer and Emergency Medicine Specialty Leader I’ve deployed a number of physicians, so I’m pretty familiar with all the details of the current deployment situation.
In the current operational environment, there are a few types of deployments. They include platform-based deployments, individual augmentee (IA) deployments, global support assignment (GSA) deployments, and what I’ll call parent unit deployments.
Let’s deal with the last one first because it is the easiest to explain. For what I’ll call a parent unit deployment, you deploy when your parent unit deploys. For example, if you are assigned to the Marine Corps with a MEU, when that MEU deploys so do you. You go with the unit you are primarily assigned to. The same could be said for a medical battalion, a Preventive Medicine Unit, and many other units.
A platform-based deployment happens to people who are stationed at Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Commands/Units (NMRTC/NMRTUs). Some people who are primarily stationed at NMRTCs are assigned to what is called a “platform.” A platform is an operational unit of some kind. It could be the MERCY or COMFORT, a Marine Corps unit, an Expeditionary Medical Facility, etc. In essence, it is an operational unit who “owns” you if they get activated or deployed. In other words, if your platform is a medical battalion and that medical battalion gets deployed, you would go with them because it is your platform. If your platform regularly drills or does exercises, since it is your platform you may have to participate in these drills and get pulled away from your primary duties at your NMRTC.
How is it decided whether you get placed on a platform, and if so which one? The main determinant is most likely which billet you get orders into. Some billets at NMRTCs have secondary assignments to platforms. For example, the billet I was in at NMRTC Portsmouth was “mobilized to” or “MOB’ed to” an Expeditionary Medical Facility. That was my platform. To be honest, sometimes commands will rearrange platforms, so it is not always determined by the billet you are in. If you want to know if you are on a platform, you will have to go to your command’s Plans, Operations, Medical Intelligence or POMI officer. They are the ones who manage platforms and can tell you if you are on one.
Platform based deployments are the wave of the future in Navy Medicine, and you can expect an increased focus on platforms, platforms training, and deployments as a platform.
An individual augmentee or IA deployment is when a request in placed by an operational unit somewhere for an individual person, you are selected to fill that requirement, and you individually augment that unit. When they deploy, you deploy with them as an IA but stay attached administratively to your parent command. In other words, if you are at NMRTC Portsmouth but deploy as an IA, you stay attached to NMRTC Portsmouth the entire time you are deployed. This is the type of deployment most of us have experienced for the majority of our career, but the Navy is trying to get out of the “IA business” and is shifting, as already mentioned, to platforms.
The final type of deployment is a global support assignment (GSA). With this type, you detach from your current command, move or execute a permanent change of station (PCS) to a processing center that becomes your new military command, and then you are given orders to deploy. For example, my last deployment was a GSA. I detached from Navy Personnel Command, my old command, PCS’ed to my new command, the processing center in Norfolk, and then was given deployment orders to go to my unit in GTMO. During this time my parent command was Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center or ECRC, the processing center, and they were primarily responsible for my fitreps and pay issues.
The unique part of a GSA deployment is that pretty much as soon as you report to the processing center you have to contact your Detailer and Specialty Leader to get orders to your next command. The GSA orders usually only last up to a year, and you’ll need orders so you can PCS to your next command when you get back from the deployment. This is the major downside that people complain about with a GSA…the fact that you get PCS orders and have to leave your old command, which people may not want to do. On the other hand, it can be a major benefit. If you are stationed somewhere you don’t want to be, volunteering for a GSA can get you out of there because you’ll PCS away. In addition, because you are volunteering or accepting a deployment, it may give you some leverage with the Detailer or Specialty Leader. For example, you could say, “I’ll deploy on this GSA, but only if you are willing to write me orders to Hawaii as follow-on orders.” That may not always work, but it is worth a try.
Those are the major types of deployments that currently exist, and here are some additional resources:
CNO Message to the Force: We Must Be Protectors and Exemplify Our Values
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday
Mission one for every Sailor — active and reserve, uniformed and civilian — is the operational readiness of today’s Navy. That means being ready both in our personal and professional lives — and part of that readiness is continuing to hold ourselves to high ideals of integrity and service.
Reflecting on my first three months as chief of naval operations, I want each and every Sailor to think about who we are as a Navy and the constitutional oath we commit ourselves to. That oath is what binds us together. It is the foundation of our profession. It is our north star. It defines us.
It is no overstatement to say that naval service requires deeper and broader knowledge than it ever has before. You must summon all your energy to ensure that we are ready to fight today; not tomorrow, not in some distant future but today. That all starts with good order and discipline at every level of the chain of command.
To be clear, we must be men and women of integrity. We must be honorable. We must be standard-bearers. We must be above reproach. And we must not give anyone cause to question our fundamental values. That is what sets us apart as a fighting force.
Leaders, I am counting on you. I expect commanders at every level to epitomize integrity and exemplify our core values at all times. Senior enlisted leaders, I expect you to anchor up and show your Sailors what right looks like on the deck-plates, day-in and day-out. And I expect every Sailor to display the character and honor that has always defined our Navy. These ideals are central to who we are.
The responsibility for ethical and professional behavior must be taken seriously — and we must own it at every level. We must be protectors and exemplify our values.
I’m counting on each of you to set a strong personal example of responsible behavior, both on and off duty.
While there is much work to be done, the tenacity and ingenuity of our Sailors will take us where we need to go — and do so at a flank bell.
See you in the fleet.
Market-Based Approach Driving DHA Forward in MTF Transition
Here’s a link to the article about the DHA transition:
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 