This page will be a work in progress as I take all the content that is available and organize it as if it were a book. If there is something missing that you feel particularly qualified to write, let me know.
Chapter List
- What We Wish We Had Known
- Pathways to Becoming a Naval Physician
- Career Progression and Promotion Board Math
- Medical Corps Career Paths
- 101-Year Old Physician Looks Back on Navy Medical Career
- Authorship and Academic Careers in the Navy
- History of the Medical Corps
- History of the Medical Oak Leaf and Acorn Corps Device
- Normal Promotion Timeline and the Jobs/Achievements That Get You There
- Playing the Game and Managing Your Military Career
- Specialty Specific Career Paths
- The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
- The New Medical Corps Career Progression Slide – What Does It Mean to You?
- Who’s On Your List?
- You Didn’t Make CDR. Now What?
- You Made CDR! Now What?
- Women in the Navy Medical Corps
- Diversity in Navy Medicine
- Acting Secretary Accepts Inclusion Board’s 15 Recommendations
- Black Men in White Coats Virtual Film Screening
- DOD Revises Transgender Policies to Align With White House
- Looking Back at the Filipino Pioneers of Navy Medicine
- Navy Diversity Initiatives Detailed in SAILOR TO SAILOR: February 2021 Newsletter
- Navy Medicine Diversity Demographics for 4th Quarter of FY20
- Navy Pediatrician Rises from Humble Beginnings to Make History
- Navy Promoting Black Men in White Coats Movie
- Navy’s diversity effort will review grooming policies, selection boards and other areas
- Veterans group launches podcast series for Black History Month on Black veterans and their mental health
- Naval Leadership & Mentorship
- Pay & Reimbursable Expenses
- FY21 Special Pays Plan and NDAA 21 Pay Increases
- How to Apply for Continuation Pay Under the Blended Retirement System
- Military Times 2020 Guide to Military Benefits
- Reminder to Graduating Residents – You are Now Eligible for GMO Incentive Pay
- The Fellowship-Retention Bonus “Loophole” Still Exists; Are You Eligible?
- Why Board Certification and Other Pays Probably Will Not Increase Until FY22
- Personal Financial Planning
- Joel Schofer’s Personal Finance Guide
- Thrift Savings Plan Guide
- Steps to Financial Freedom
- 1st Step to Financial Freedom – Establishing an Emergency Fund
- 2nd Step to Financial Freedom – Get Properly Insured
- 3rd Step to Financial Freedom – Debt Management
- 4th Step to Financial Freedom – Contribute Maximally to Your Tax-Favored Retirement Accounts
- 5th Step to Financial Freedom – Invest in Stock and Bond Index Funds
- 6th Step to Financial Freedom – The Rent vs Buy Real Estate Decision
- 7th Step to Financial Freedom – Saving for Future College Expenses
- Blended Retirement System
- 2021 BRS Continuation Pay
- Make Sure You Snatch the Blended Retirement System Match
- My White Coat Investor Post – The Military’s New Blended Retirement System
- Old vs New Retirement System Explained
- The Blended Retirement System Lump Sum – Probably Not a Good Idea
- The New Blended Retirement System
- Why Most of You Should Switch to the Blended Retirement System
- 2 Quick TSP Investing Tips for Beginners (and Maybe Not-So-Beginners)
- 3 Things Every Young Medical Student and Physician Needs to Know
- 6 Short Books That Can Transform Your Financial Life
- Aim to be Debt-Free by Retirement
- Another Simple Way to Get Rich in the Military – Become a Super Saver
- An Update on Disability Insurance for Military Physicians and Dentists
- Are the Thrift Savings Plan Lifecycle Funds Too Conservative?
- A Simple and Military-Specific Summary of How to Save for Retirement
- Asset Allocation
- Asset Location
- Automate Your Bill Paying
- Buy the Big Three
- Calculate Your Required Nest Egg
- Cap Alternative Investments
- Change to TSP Catch-Up Contributions
- Check Your Beneficiary Designations
- Check Your Fund Expenses
- Debt, College, and Discretionary Spending
- Disability Insurance for Military Physicians
- Disability Insurance for Reservists
- DOD’s Military OneSource MilTax Offers Free Tax Services to Service Members, Families
- Does the TSP G Fund Count as a Bond or Cash in my Asset Allocation?
- Do the TSP Target Date Funds Miss the Mark?
- Do You Need a Financial Advisor?
- Eliminate Duplication
- Estate Planning in the Navy
- Estimate Your Retirement Income Needs
- Fidelity’s Free Mutual Funds
- Financial Blogs I Recommend
- Financial Podcasts I Recommend
- Getting Retirement Credit for HPSP in the Reserves
- How Much Do You Get Paid as a Navy Doctor?
- How to Buy Life Insurance When You’re in the Military
- How to Easily Figure Out the Dollar Value of Staying In vs Getting Out of the Military
- How to Get Legal Assistance
- Invest in Your Taxable Account Thoughtfully
- How Valuable is a Military Pension?
- If You Rent or Live on Base, You Need Renter’s Insurance
- It’s Easy to Get Rich in the Military
- Learn About Insurance with My Junk Mail
- Lessons to Learn from the 2020 Stock Market Decline
- Look for Insurance Gaps
- Military Death Benefits – Beyond SGLI
- Military Physician Disability Insurance Enhancements
- My Investment Portfolio
- My Research on Crowdfunded Real Estate Investing
- New TSP Lifecycle Fund Asset Allocations
- Overconfidence in Investing
- Personal Finance for the Military Physician – A 2021 Update
- Prepare for a Long Life
- Put Retirement First
- Retirement Planning – The Easy Way
- Reassess Your Emergency Fund Due to COVID-19
- Rich Grandpa, Poor Grandpa
- Save Some for Your Future Self
- Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Protects Military
- Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and an Important Note Regarding Individual Disability Insurance Eligibility
- Should You Invest in Real Estate?
- Simple Steps I Take to Protect My Credit and Identity
- Size Does Matter (For Your Expense Ratio)
- Supplemental Disability Insurance for Active Duty Physicians
- The $121,500+ Guest Room
- The Basics of Saving for Retirement
- The Easiest Way to Figure Out Your Optimal TSP Investment Plan
- The Military Pension and Retirement Asset Allocation
- Three Questions
- Track Your Net Worth
- Tricks for Long-Term Asset Protection
- What I’m Doing With My Portfolio During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- What is an Active Duty Credit Alert?
- What is an Expense Ratio?
- White Coat Investor Tip on Pensions and Asset Allocation
- Why are the TSP Investment Expenses So Low?
- Will the Government Ever Get Rid of the “Free Lunch” of the TSP G Fund?
- Winning the Game
- Moonlighting
- Graduate Medical Education
- 2020 BUMED GME Note and By-Site Training Goals
- Authorship and Academic Careers in the Navy
- Full Time Outservice Fellowship Gouge
- How to Get a USU Faculty Appointment
- How to Get Published in Medical School and Boost Your CV
- Modified Dates for Flight and Dive Application to Align with GME Dates
- Navy HPSP FAQ and Information Booklet
- Tips to Build Your Career During Residency
- Tips to Get Selected for GME
- Other Educational Opportunities
- 2 Educational Programs – SECDEF Executive Fellows and Low-Residency Graduate Education Program
- 2022 Legislative Fellowship Call for Applicants
- Academic Year 2021-22 Naval War College Fleet Seminar Program for JPME I
- Basic Readiness Officer Course (Artist Formerly Known as BMDOC) Still Not Available
- CNO Gilday Updates Professional Reading Program
- Could a Master’s Degree Get You Promoted?
- FY20 War College Cheat Sheet
- FY21 Navy Medicine Leadership Catalog
- Joint Professional Military Education I Primer
- Modified Dates for Flight and Dive Application to Align with GME Dates
- NAVADMINs for 2 Master’s Degrees Available
- Navy ACHE Regent’s Fellow Accelerator Program
- New Naval Postgraduate School Graduate Certificate Program Provides Context, History to Great Power Competition
- SG Book List and Talks with Authors Compilation
- U.S. Naval War College Launches Streamlined Program for Earning JPME-I Credit
- The Best Education You Can Get in the Navy
- GI Bill
- Leadership Opportunities
- FY21 Executive Medicine Application Process and Opportunities
- FY21 Milestone Note and Opportunities
- FY21 Senior Operational, Post-Command, and Senior Executive Medicine Opportunities
- How to Evaluate the Promotion Potential of a Billet/Position
- Playing the Game and Managing Your Military Career
- The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
- Using Social Media to Build Your Professional Influence
- Preparing for Important Interviews
- CNO Gilday Releases Guidance to the Fleet; Focuses on Warfighting, Warfighters, and the Future Navy
- CNO Releases Navigation Plan 2021
- CV, Military Bio, and Letter of Intent Templates
- Day 1 Messages from the New SG, RADM Gillingham
- How to Prepare for Important Navy Interviews
- Know Your Bosses
- Learn About Irregular Warfare
- President Biden’s Interim National Security Strategy Guidance
- SECDEF Outlines His Top Three Priorities on Defense, People, Teamwork
- SECDEF Talks With Sailors About Navy’s Role in National Security
- Fitness Reports
- Basic Anatomy of a FITREP
- Greater Emphasis on Education and Learning in FITREPs
- How to Find Out Your Reporting Senior’s Fitrep Trait Average
- Joel Schofer’s Fitrep Prep for Medical Corps Officers
- Language for Writing Your Block 41
- NOB Fitrep vs New Guy/Gal Promotable (P) Fitrep – Which is Better?
- Summary of Changes to New Navy Fitrep Instruction
- The Top 5 Critical FITREP Mistakes
- Tips to Improve Your Concurrent FITREP
- Updated Fitrep Prep and More Detail on Fitrep and Promo Board Changes from Recent NAVADMIN 137/20
- Personal Awards
- Officer Service Records
- How to Read Your Performance Summary Report (PSR)
- New Process to Digitally Submit Your Promotion Board Photo
- Officer Photographs Once Again Removed from Promotion Boards
- Updated Instructions on How to Get the Executive/Expeditionary Medicine and Managed Care AQDs
- What are AQDs and How Do You Get Them?
- Promotion Boards
- All the Posts About Letters to the Board in One Place
- Did You Really Fail to Select for Promotion?
- Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
- Electronic Submission of Letters to the Board Now Available
- FAP & NADDS Graduates – Check the Reserve LCDR Promotion List
- FY17 CAPT Board Convening Order Deconstructed
- FY22 O4 and O5 Promotion Opportunities
- FY22 O6 Medical Corps Promotion Board Stats
- FY22 O6 Promotion Opportunities and the Documents Provided to the Boards
- FY22 Promotion Boards – What are They Looking At and How Can You Get Ready?
- How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
- How to Get an Official Promotion Certificate
- How to Get on a Promotion Board
- How to Get the FY22 Medical Corps Promotion Lineal List (Even Though You Don’t Really Need It)
- Is Commander the New Terminal Rank? (And Other O6 Promotion Board Takeaways)
- Joel Schofer’s Promotion Board Prep
- More Promotion Board Changes Likely Coming
- NAVADMIN Announcing FY22 O5 and O6 Board Dates and Zones
- NDAA 2020 Limits Promotion Opportunity to Max of 95%
- New Medical Corps Promotion Checklists
- O5 Promotion Board Takeaways
- Promotion Board Changes in 2016
- Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?
- The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
- Updated Fitrep Prep and More Detail on Fitrep and Promo Board Changes from Recent NAVADMIN 137/20
- What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
- What is DOPMA and Why Should You Care?
- What Should You Do If You Didn’t Promote?
- What’s New in the FY22 O4 Promotion Board Convening Order?
- What’s New in the FY22 O5 Promotion Board Convening Order?
- What’s New in the FY22 O6 Promotion Board Materials?
- Why Didn’t More GMOs, UMOs, and Flight Surgeons Promote to O4?
- You Should Care About Promotion Board Precepts and Convening Orders
- Geographic Career Progression, PCS Orders, and the Rules of Detailing
- DoD Now Offering Permanent 100% Reimbursement Rate for Do-It-Yourself Moves
- How Long Do You Have to Stay in the Navy if Executing PCS Orders?
- How to Evaluate the Promotion Potential of a Billet/Position
- How to Manage Your PRD and Not Get Stuck with a Hotfill
- 2021 Non-Specialty Specific Billet Opportunities
- Playing the Game and Managing Your Military Career
- Read Your Orders – Executing a Close Proximity Move
- Specialty Leader vs Detailer – What’s the Difference?
- The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
- Updated Tour Lengths for Physicians
- Operational Assignments & Deployments
- Commandant of the Marine Corps: Notes on Designing the Marine Corps of the Future
- Deployment Gear Lists
- Deployments and Dwell Time
- Details of New Hospital Ship Emerge
- Modified Dates for Flight and Dive Application to Align with GME Dates
- Now is the Time to Develop Future FMF Leaders
- One Way to Get Operationally Relevant and Advance Your Career – Go Undersea Medicine
- Opportunities to Go Operational with Flight Surgery or Undersea Medicine
- Shortly Thereafter, Things Started to Explode
- Speedy ‘Ambulance Ships’ a High Priority for Navy Medicine, Admiral Says
- The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
- The Saga of USS Kidd: A Look Back at the Historic Deployment of Jacksonville’s Rapid Response Team
- Types of Deployments
- What are KSAs?
- A Rank Appropriate Guide to “Alternative” Billets & Career Paths
- The Career Intermission Program
- Executive Medicine
- Change in the Military Health System
- BUMED Human Capital Management Strategy Plan 2020-2025
- Bypassing Pentagon Pleas, Lawmakers Say Military Health System Reforms Will ‘Stay the Course’
- Details of New Hospital Ship Emerge
- DHA, HA leaders discuss MHS Transformation at AHA panel
- DHA Preparing to Complete Treatment Facility Transition by Fall 2021
- DHA set to takeover all military hospitals by end of 2021, even after transition halt during pandemic
- Interview: Lt. Gen. Ronald J. Place, MD, Director, Defense Health Agency
- Memo Giving Authority, Direction, and Control of MTFs to DHA
- Military Hospital Transformation – Introducing the Market Construct
- MTF facilities, markets set to resume transition heading into 2021
- Navy rethinking plan to cut medical military billets
- Navy’s Top Officer Pledges ‘Closer Look’ at Planned Medical Billet Cuts
- The Future Joint Medical Force Through the Lens of Operational Art: A Case for Clinical Interchangeability
- Tidewater set to become fifth Military Health System market
- Two Messages from the Navy Surgeon General About Today’s MTF Transition and Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Commands
- Retirement and Resignation
- Transitioning to the Naval Reserves
- Transition to Civilian Employment
- Ethics
- Specialty Specific Information
- Aerospace Medicine
- Allergy/Immunology
- Anesthesiology
- Cardiology
- Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Clinical Informatics
- Dermatology
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Diagnostic Radiology
- Emergency Medicine
- Endocrinology
- Family Medicine
- Fleet Marine Force
- Fleet Medicine
- Flight Surgery
- Gastroenterology
- General Medical Officer
- General Surgery
- Global Health
- Hematology/Oncology
- Infectious Disease
- Internal Medicine
- Neonatology
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Obstetrics/Gynecology
- Occupational Medicine
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopedics
- Otolaryngology
- Pain Medicine
- Pathology
- Pediatrics
- Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
- Plastic Surgery
- Preventive Medicine
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonary/Critical Care
- Radiation Oncology
- Rheumatology
- Sports Medicine
- Undersea Medicine
- Urology
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 