u/darquid

I’m 44 and recently retired from the military after 20+ years as an officer. I’m a CPA with an MBA and MS in Finance, and my background includes financial management, accounting/finance instruction, tax preparation, and internal audit.
I came across the current IRS-CI Special Agent announcement and it honestly looks like something I’d really enjoy. Financial investigations seem much more in my wheelhouse than spending the rest of my career in corporate accounting/audit.

I’m planning to apply, but I have a few questions for anyone familiar with IRS-CI or who entered the 1811 world later in life:

Age: My understanding is that veterans’ preference can allow someone over 37 to be considered. Has anyone here actually entered IRS-CI in their 40s using veterans’ preference? How did the age waiver/mandatory retirement piece work?

VA disability: I’m 100% P&T. I’m physically active (regularly run 3 miles around a 9-minute pace, cycle, etc.), and I’m not concerned about the basic fitness requirements. I’m more curious about the medical clearance process. Has anyone gone through IRS-CI medical with a high VA disability rating? Is the focus primarily on your actual ability to perform the job, or does the rating itself create issues?

Thanks-just want to see if it’s worth starting the process or if that door has already closed due to the above.

I retired August 1 and on the 4th I was moved to step 5, where I stayed until this morning. Next thing I knew in the afternoon I’d jumped right to step 7!

So…what can I expect for a wait time now?

How long should processing of this take? I submitted all the forms about a month ago and nothing yet. I've also inquired twice to PPC-DG-CustomerCare@uscg.mil with no response.

We just moved here and my wife’s big concern was finding sushi. I used to live here but she’s from New England and was worried even though I kept telling her it will be fine.

Today was her birthday so I looked up some places and got a reservation for the Chandler location.

I’m honestly not normally into sushi but I knew it was important to her. Luckily, the waitress was on point with recommendations without talking down to me like I rightfully knew not a whole lot. We figured we’d just get a few rolls like we normally do and be on our way, but we did a chefs choice of some of the fish flown in from Japan and didn’t regret a thing.

Pricey? Yes. Best restaurant and sushi experience we’ve ever had? Also yes.

Just landed a new job after retiring from the military. I don’t know what my disability percentage will shake out to be but let’s plan on it being between 50-80%.

I’ve got a wife and 2 kids and my wife is a stay at home mom. The kids are 7 and 5.

As I understand, we’ll have Tricare select for life which I’ll pay into.

My kids are fortunately not special needs and are generally healthy so far. Same with my wife.

Is there any benefit to getting the second jobs health insurance or dental or vision? Health insurance is so expensive but maybe dental/vision could be worth it?

I’m transitioning out of the military after 20 years and recently accepted a role with a defense manufacturer as a Cost & Materials Analyst. During the interview process, it was also described as a Program Financial Analyst role.

The position will focus on reviewing quarterly EACs, challenging forecast assumptions, analyzing labor and material costs, identifying margin risk, supporting revenue recognition, and partnering with program managers. The company uses Deltek Costpoint, and the role is very Excel-heavy.

I have an MBA, an MS in Finance, an active CPA, and a background in budgeting and financial management, but this will be my first true corporate finance role.

My long-term goal is to move into FP&A. For those of you in the field:

How well does this type of program finance/cost analysis role translate into traditional FP&A?

What skills should I focus on over the next 2–3 years to become a strong FP&A candidate?

If you were in my position, what would your ideal next role be?

Compensation-wise, I’m starting at $105k base (plus bonus and retirement contributions). After 2–3 years in this role, what type of salary range would you realistically target? Would this experience position me for a Senior FP&A role, or is there typically another step in between?

I’d appreciate any advice from those who have made a similar transition.

I did a factory reset and erased all settings. Is there anything I need to do besides that before the new buyer picks it up?

I’ve had a OG bike since 2021 and love it and the classes. I want to find a used bike+ on marketplace because the accuracy of the power meter and the better seat adjustment.

Besides that, we had a sole treadmill (f63) at our old house and I’d use an iPad to do peloton classes. For classes that were doing interval training, my sole was way to slow to keep up. Like if Olivia did a 15 second sprint, I’d only be sprinting for maybe 3-5 seconds before slowing down again. Plus the iPad was such a small screen it was hard to see much.

We just moved and I sold the sole. I’m thinking of getting a tread (the tread+ is just way too much money).

Is the tread quick to adapt to changes for interval classes? Also, is it reliable? My bike has had no issues (save the seat post Allen bolt slipping), and my sole treadmill needed the belt replaced after minimal usage.

We just moved back to Arizona after 20 years. Ok, I moved back, but it’s brand new for my wife and two boys (5 and 7). Yes, the scorpions and the heat are already making them second guess their decision to come with me. We’re in northeast Mesa right now.

Anyways, a month ago I drove down to check out some schools and went from Winslow and then down to Payson and strawberry and thought those places are close enough to plan a trip to for July during the week before school starts.

We are not campers. We did a KOA once that had a prebuilt tent with mattresses and all the amenities, and we liked that, so we would be good with a cabin or something. My kids have said they’d like to try fishing, so that would be on the radar, along with some good restaurants and things like that in addition to the natural bridge if we could do that.

Where would you recommend we look to stay?

I want to upgrade to a bike+ but I feel like I wouldn’t be able to sell my OG bike anywhere. My local FB marketplace has them listed for as low as $200.

Has anyone sold one recently with any advice?

I’d like to get a bike + for the power meter and better screen. However, my OG bike is just fine but my fb marketplace shows a million of them for sale.

Is anyone even buying these OG bikes used anymore? My local marketplace has them listed for $200 but I have no idea if that’s even moving them.

The other option is to just give it away unless someone has another sales strategy out there.

I’m retiring from the military this year at age 44 after 20+ years of service and am trying to decide whether to keep or decline SBP.

My SBP election is based on a reduced base amount of $3,500/month, which would provide my wife about $1,925/month ($23,100/year) if I die first. The premium is approximately $227.50/month.

What makes this decision difficult is that I already have other survivor protection in place:

Existing term life insurance: $1.1 million, expires when I’m 61.

Currently looking at a 30-year $400,000 term policy that would take me to age 74 for roughly $70-$85/month.

Current retirement assets:

TSP: ~$225k
Wife’s 401(k): ~$175k
Roth IRA: ~$60k
Total: ~$460k
Planning to contribute at least:

$10k/year to 401(k)/TSP
$5k/year to Roth IRA
Military pension: approximately $61k/year
Expected VA disability: likely around 70% (still being finalized)
Wife is one year younger than me
Two young children

I expect to work a civilian accounting/finance job after retirement, likely somewhere in the $85k-$120k range initially, but I value work-life balance and don’t know what long-term earnings growth will look like.

Wife likely won’t work for at least the first year while we relocate, settle the kids, and eventually buy a house.

One thing that caught my attention is that if I keep SBP and pay premiums for 30 years, total premiums paid would be about $81,900. Since the benefit is about $23,100/year, my wife only needs to outlive me by roughly 3.5-4 years for the household to receive more in benefits than was paid in premiums.
On the other hand, if I decline SBP and buy the additional term policy, I’d free up roughly $140-$160/month that could be invested for the next 30 years.

For those who have retired already or have run this analysis:

Did you keep or decline SBP?

Am I overvaluing the 4-year break-even calculation?

Does the existing life insurance make SBP
redundant?

Is a 30-year $400k term policy a reasonable substitute for SBP?

What factors am I not considering?

I’m less interested in the emotional side and more interested in hearing how others approached the math and risk management aspects of the decision.

Had a recruiter reach out to me on indeed stating they noticed I’m a cpa and asked if I’m interested in a tax job. I looked them up and they are in about 5 states in the US and they offer the standard suite of tax/accounting services.

I just got my cpa a few months ago and moonlit at a cpa firm this busy season. Other than that, it’s been government accounting and finance for experience. I didn’t like the firm I was at because it was antiquated in its processes and they worked insane hours 7 days a week.

The recruiter told me their firm is not like that, and instead of having a path to partner, people get rewarded through ESOP. I said my target salary is 90k and she didn’t even blink (mcol). I asked what insane hours are to them and she said while it depends, mostly it would be 50 during the busy season, which sounds amazing but suspect. She also said unlimited PTO (“really unlimited, not like other companies that claim it and don’t do it”), and hybrid ability.

She’s setting up an interview with the president for me next week and I’m trying to think of questions to ask to really sus out any potential issues.

I wanna know how the esop plan works
What would be expected of me on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, especially quarter end and tax season.

I started at 25 for a month and then 50 for two months. The only side effect I noticed was no interest in drinking alcohol. I was still getting agitated with my kids and general anxiety and stress, so I quit taking it. Maybe not the best idea, I know.

Been off it for a month and decided to try again.

It’s been two weeks on 50 and I haven’t noticed a difference yet. My stress and agitation is through the roof with my kids-5 and 7 year old boys that are in a phase of not listening.

I meet with my therapist this week. Do you think jumping to 75 or 100 would have any effect wrt the agitation I’m feeling?

I’ve traveled to a bunch of C&P exams thru ves in support of my BDD claim. One of the doctors said to expect a check in the mail in 10-14 days.

It’s been 5 weeks since my last exam. I’ll call them tomorrow-just curious if this is normal.