Throwback Thursday Classic Post – How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
The FY21 promotion board NAVADMIN was released in December. If you are in-zone or above-zone for an upcoming promotion board but you’ve been on active duty for less than 1 year, you should read #5 from the NAVADMIN, which says:
5. In-zone and above-zone eligible officers in the grades of lieutenant,
lieutenant commander, and commander, whose placement on the Active-Duty List
is within one year of the convening dates of these boards, are automatically
deferred unless they specifically request to be considered. The officer may
waive this deferment and request consideration for promotion, in writing,
emailed to NPC_Officer_SELBD_Elig_Waivers.fct@navy.mil or mailed to:Commander, Navy Personnel Command (PERS-802)
5720 Integrity Drive
Millington, TN 38055-0000The request must be received by PERS-80 not later than 30 days prior to the
convening date of the board. All officers are reminded it is their
responsibility to ensure their personnel records are substantially accurate
and complete.
What does this mean and why would it apply to you? Maybe you had prior service, you went to medical school, and now you’re a senior LT who is in-zone for LCDR right away. Maybe you did a civilian NADDS residency and you are in-zone right away for LCDR. There might be other situations that would put you in this position, like getting time-in-grade credit for a PhD.
If you believe you are in this position, here is what I’d do:
- Confirm you are in-zone or above-zone. How can you do this? The easiest way is to either read the Promo Prep or get the FY21 lineal list. Or you can use this document from PERS.
- If you wish to be considered for promotion to LCDR, CDR, or CAPT, so what it says above. Send the letter simply requesting this. It can probably be a very short letter. There is no need to be verbose.
- Finally, contact PERS-802: Selection Board Eligibility Branch because I know people who did only #2 (sent a letter) and were not considered. Here’s what their website says:
If you have questions concerning promotion boards, eligibility for promotion boards, please contact the MyNavy Career Center at (833) 330-MNCC or askmncc@navy.mil.
- PERS-802, Branch Head: (901) 874-4537
- Officer Active and Reserve Eligibility Section, Lead: (901) 874-3324
- Enlisted Active and Reserve Eligibility Section, Lead: (901) 874-3217
- Also, here is a great article on this topic from the August 2018 Medical Corps Newsletter:
6 Director Positions Available in Southern California – Merry Christmas!
Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton will have the following leadership positions available this upcoming spring/summer:
- Director, Branch Clinics (March 2020)
- Director, Medical Services (March 2020)
- Director, Public Health (June 2020)
- Director, Mental Health (June 2020)
- Research Medical Director (June 2020)
- Designated Institutional Official (June 2020)
All position descriptions are above. They are available to all Corps who are in the PCS window for next summer. This is probably clear, but you need Detailer clearance to apply if you are not already inbound or at NHCP. I’m sure an e-mail from the Detailer would suffice.
Interested applicants can submit their CV, Bio, and Letter of Intent to CDR Dave Lang (the DFA at NHCP – contact info in the global) by 31 January 2020 (for Branch Clinics and Medical Services), and 1 March 2020 for the remaining positions.
Merry Christmas!
December Message to the Military Health System Team from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, HON Thomas McCaffery
MHS Team:
Earlier this month, I joined many of you at the annual convening of AMSUS (the Society of Federal Health Professionals) at National Harbor, Maryland, to discuss the status of the Military Health System: what we’ve achieved, where we’re going as an organization, and how we will get there. Directly following AMSUS, I testified before the House Armed Services Committee alongside the Military Department Surgeons General, Joint Staff Surgeon, and the Director of the Defense Health Agency. Each engagement provided an important opportunity – and critical audiences – to share our steps in carrying out reform across the military medical enterprise to better meet the Department’s needs, and to reaffirm the MHS’s collective vision for the future.
I underscored the new challenges an ever-changing security environment presents to our military and, more specifically, to military medicine – challenges requiring our organization to adapt and evolve to best serve the combatant commands and the Military Departments as we together advance the National Defense Strategy. This period of MHS reform is a time to embrace change and forge an improved system of military health that delivers on our readiness mission to ensure that troops are fit to fight, and that medical professionals are ready to support them in training and on the battlefield.
To better deliver on our mission, the MHS is laser focused on three key areas of organizational reform. First, consolidated management of the direct care and purchased care systems. Second, a reinvigorated focus on readiness within the direct care system. And third, optimizing the size and composition of the military medical force, including the recruitment, education and training, and sustainment of skills to deliver on our readiness mission. For the most current updates on our MHS reform areas of focus, I’m attaching the prepared statement that the DHA Director LTG Place and I provided to the HASC at the recent hearings.
I would like to thank Army Surgeon General LTG Dingle for inviting me to speak at the MEDCOM Leadership Lecture Series on 10 December. This event afforded me the opportunity not only to speak about my leadership philosophy and approach, but also to hear MEDCOM leaders’ thoughts and perspectives on the various changes underway in the MHS.
In the weeks ahead, I hope many of you are able to enjoy some well-deserved time with friends and families over the holidays. For those deployed or unable to take R&R due to serving our warfighters and patients: thank you for your selfless service to the Nation. Each of you across the MHS is playing a part in significant change in our enterprise – helping to inform those changes, making them real, and dedicating your talent and expertise to our mission. I am grateful for your contributions and look forward to our continued work together in the New Year.
Tom
Should You Invest in Real Estate?
Just about everyone who invests does so in major asset classes including stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. When it comes to real estate, though, you’ll find widely divergent opinions about its importance in an investment portfolio. There are some well-respected people and institutions who say that real estate investing is unnecessary, and there are others who will tell you it should be your primary asset class. I’ve recently debated whether I should start investing more heavily in real estate, so I wanted to lay out the basic arguments for and against real estate investing.
What is Real Estate?
The answer to this question is not simple because real estate investing comes in many forms. There are relatively passive ways of investing in real estate, such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). According to Investopedia, a REIT is “a type of security that invests in real estate through property or mortgages and often trades on major exchanges like a stock.” In other words, you can simply invest in a REIT like you do any other stock, mutual fund, or exchange-traded fund (ETF). Just send your money to your investment company, and you own a little slice of passive real estate.
There are more active methods of investing in real estate, such as fixing and flipping. You purchase a property, you make improvements to it, and then you sell it to someone, hopefully for a profit. As you can imagine, this would take quite a bit more work than investing in a REIT.
There are probably over 100 other ways you can invest in real estate. If you’re interested, I’d check out an article on Bigger Pockets, one of the largest websites about real estate investing, entitled “The Top 100 Ways to Make Money in Real Estate.”
Arguments Against Investing in Real Estate
Regular readers know that Vanguard is my go-to source for both advice and my own investments. Vanguard considers real estate an alternative investment, and according to them “alternatives usually come with more risks and higher costs.” They believe that a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds provides enough diversification and that alternative investments are unnecessary. Only “sophisticated investors” should consider alternatives, and they see direct real estate investment as “expensive and time-consuming.” Most people have exposure to real estate in the equity in their house and diversified stock/bond funds that often include REITs, real estate companies, and mortgage-backed securities. For these reasons, Vanguard doesn’t think additional investment in real estate is necessary.
Another argument against real estate investing is that it can quickly become a second job. While you can hire property managers, they are probably not going to provide the level of service that the owner would provide. Most of us are already fully employed and don’t need a second job. In addition, owning investment properties can create additional legal risk.
When you purchase an individual property, it is like buying a single stock. You are taking what is called an uncompensated risk. Larry Swedroe defines an uncompensated risk as, “Risk – that is, the risk of owning single stock or sector of the market – that can be diversified away. Since the risk can be diversified away, investors are not rewarded with a risk premium (higher expected return) for accepting this type of risk.” Essentially, you are putting all your eggs in one basket that is not diversified by location or property type. Investing in real estate via a REIT can avoid this problem because REITs invest in properties that are diversified.
Real estate is an illiquid asset class with high transaction fees. While I can sell my stock or bond mutual funds or ETFs in seconds on-line and pay extremely low expenses to do so, it will take me weeks or months to buy or sell a property. In addition, I’ll likely pay 5-10 percent of the price in transaction costs.
Arguments for Real Estate Investing
Real estate is easily acquired, most often by purchasing your own single family house or condominium. You have to live somewhere, and there are several tax advantages to owning where you live. Interest payments on your mortgage and property taxes are probably tax deductible. If you sell your property, capital gains of up to $250,000 if you’re single or $500,000 for couples are tax-free. In addition, paying a mortgage forces you to save by making regular payments, some of which pay off the principle balance of your loan. That is money you’ll get back when you sell.
When compared to stocks or bonds, which have a global, efficient market, real estate often has a local, inefficient market. This means that if you are willing to look, you can probably find some bargains out there much more easily than you can find a bargain stock. Here’s a review of a good book on real estate investing for physicians.
One of the goals of diversification is to have investments that are not correlated with each other. In other words, when investment A drops in price you have investment B that does not. When compared to stocks and bonds, real estate is not perfectly correlated with other investments and therefore provides diversification. An article about the diversification benefit of REITs makes for an interesting read, if you’re interested, although it is a little old. Vanguard came to the conclusion that over-weighting REITs in a target date fund was not worth it. And this very well regarded guy doesn’t believe in over-weighting REITs either.
You can use leverage or “other people’s money” to increase investment returns. Instead of buying a property for $120,000, you could buy three $160,000 properties with a $40,000 down payment on each. This can increase your returns, but in a down market it can also dramatically increase your losses. As many found out during the housing market crash, leverage is a double-edged sword.
Real estate is an inflation hedge. Burton Malkiel says, “A good house on good land keeps its value no matter what happens to money.” Rents and property values tend to rise as prices rise, preserving your purchasing power. Since your mortgage payment doesn’t change with inflation, while rents are going up your mortgage payment remains the same. Stocks do hedge inflation somewhat, but the companies they represent and the stocks themselves tend to get hurt as the prices of raw materials rise.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot of different ways to invest in real estate, passively investing in REITs, fixing and flipping, owning rental properties, and all sorts of other investment opportunities. Like Vanguard, I don’t think it is necessary to invest in real estate, but it is something to consider if you think you will either enjoy it or believe the value it adds to your investment portfolio is worth the effort.
Intermediate and Senior Leadership Courses Available in the DC Area (Local Attendees Only)
Navy Medicine Professional Development Center (NMPDC) in Bethesda will be hosting facilitators from the Navy Leadership and Ethics Center (NLEC) for the instructing of two separate leader development courses in the coming months. Courses are as follows:
- Intermediate Leadership Course (ILC)
- 3-7 February 2020
- O4s (to include O4 selects)
- Senior Leadership Course (SLC)
- 6-10 April 2020
- O5s (to include O5 selects)
These are great opportunities for Navy Medicine officers local to the DC area to attend leader development courses while being offered locally. Currently these classes are only being offered to local attendees.
The point of contact for registering for the courses is LT Ryan Rigby (contact is in the global).
If you want to read how to get into these courses, you can read about them in this document.
Finance Friday Articles
Here are my favorite articles this week:
Ask The Experts – Rental Property Q&A with Roofstock
Is Sustainable Investing Good for You?
These Charitable Investment Strategies Deliver a ‘Three-fer’
Here are the rest of this week’s articles:
9 Financial Considerations as You Approach the End of Your Career
Candy Land – Should You Invest in Things Other Than Index Funds
Fellowship Rarely Makes Sense Financially
Going Part-Time: Is It Worth It?
Having the Financial Talk… With Your Parents
Low Blows – Are Investors Benefiting from the Cut in Fund Fees?
Pros and Cons of Target Date Funds
Pulling Your Retirement Levers
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Tips to Get Selected for GME
(With GME results recently released, I figured this was as good a time as any to re-release this so that people who didn’t get selected for the GME they wanted could use this to strategize for next year. Enjoy!)
The Graduate Medical Education Selection Board (GMESB) results were released last week month with a 10 JAN deadline to accept or decline any spots you were offered. Undoubtedly there were some people who didn’t get what they want. I’ve participated in the last five GMESBs and would like to offer tips for people looking to match for GME in the future. We’ll cover general tips and those specific for internship and residency/fellowship:
General Tips
- You can increase your score at the GMESB by having publications. If you want to give yourself the best chance of maximizing your score, you need multiple peer-reviewed publications. Any publications or scholarly activity have the chance to get you points, but having multiple peer-reviewed publications is the goal you should be trying to reach.
- Be realistic about your chances of matching. If you are applying to a competitive specialty and you’ve failed a board exam or had to repeat a year in medical school, you are probably not going to match in that specialty. There are some specialties where you can overcome a major blight on your record, but there are some where you can’t. If this is applicable to you, the residency director or specialty leader should be able to give you some idea of your chances. Will they be honest and direct with you? I’m not sure, but it can’t hurt to ask.
- If you are having trouble matching in the Navy for GME, you may have a better chance as a civilian. By the time you pay back your commitment to the Navy, you are a wiser, more mature applicant that some civilian residency programs might prefer over an inexperienced medical student. You’ll also find some fairly patriotic residency programs, usually with faculty who are prior military, that may take you despite your academic struggles.
Tips for Medical Students Applying for Internship
- Do everything you can to do a rotation with the GME program you want to match at. You want them to know who you are.
- When you are applying for internship, make sure your 2nd choice is not a popular internship (Emergency Medicine, Orthopedics, etc.). If you don’t match in your 1st choice and your 2nd choice is a popular internship, then it will likely have filled during the initial match. This means you get put in the “intern scramble” and you’ll likely wind up in an internship you didn’t even list on your application.
- Your backup plan if you don’t match should be an alternative program at the same site where you eventually want to match for residency. For example, in my specialty (Emergency Medicine or EM) we only have residencies at NMCP and NMCSD. If someone doesn’t match for an EM internship at NMCP or NMCSD, they will have a better chance of eventually matching for EM residency if they do an internship locally, like a transitional internship. Internships at Walter Reed or any other hospital without an EM program are quality programs, but it is much easier to pledge the fraternity if you are physically present and can get to know people, attending conferences and journal clubs when you can.
- You need to think about what you will do in your worst-case scenario, a 1-year civilian deferment for internship. Many of the medical students I interviewed did not have a plan if they got a 1-year deferment. I think every medical student needs to do one of two things. Either they should pick 10-15 civilian transitional year internships (or whatever internship they want) and apply to those just in case they get a 1-year deferment, or they should just plan to apply to internships late or scramble if this unlikely event happens to you. Most medical students do not grasp the concept that this could happen to them and have no plan to deal with it if it does. It is an unlikely event, especially if you are a strong applicant, and you can always just scramble at the last minute, but this is an issue that every medical student should think through. If you are going to just scramble at the last minute, that is fine, but it should be an informed choice.
Tips for Officers Applying for Residency or Fellowship
- You should show up whenever you can for conferences and journal clubs. Again, you want them to know who you are and by attending these events when you can you demonstrate your commitment to the specialty and their program.
- Always get a warfare device (if one is available) during your FS, UMO, or GMO tour. Not having it is a red flag.
Director, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute – CAPT/CAPT(s)
Here is another great opportunity for a qualified O-6/O-6 Select to be the Director of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI). The desired report date is June 2020. The announcement is found here – please note the requested material in the paragraph at the bottom of the first page.
Packages (CV, Bio, and letter of intent) should be submitted to CDR Melissa Austin (contact in the global) NLT Friday, January 17 to allow for internal processing.
All the Posts About Letters to the Board in One Place
The question most people ask me is answered in these posts:
Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?
Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
The bottom line is:
Pretend that you did not send a letter to the board, the board is over, and you were not selected for promotion. Are you going to be kicking yourself for not sending the letter? If the answer is yes or maybe, then send the letter. As long as you keep it short and sweet, there is no real downside.
Frankly, I think that when officers send letters to promotion boards they are often just making themselves feel better, and there is nothing wrong with that. You want to make sure that when the promotion board results come out, no matter what happened, you feel like you did everything you could to get promoted.
You don’t need to mail letters anymore:
Electronic Submission of Letters to the Board Now Available
You can’t send letters to the board the day before the board anymore:
Letters to Promotion Boards Now Due 10 Calendar Days Before the Board
If you know you are getting out of the Navy and really don’t care about getting promoted, you should read this post:
What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
Have you been on active duty for less than 1 year? Read this:
How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
You now need to use your DoD ID number and not your Social Security number on letters to the board. Read this:
Use DoD ID Number and Not Your SSN on Letters to the Board
Happy holidays!
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 