When to split

I'm often asked how long I plan to stay in the military. The best answer I can come up with is:

"I have no idea."

It sounds like I haven't thought about it, but that's not true; it's just the most honest thing I can come up with (or "up with which I can come," if I were to avoid ending the sentence with a preposition). There's no way of knowing -- after two years as lieutenant -- how I want to spend the next 18.

With that said, though, I can think of 4 milestones at which it makes sense for me to get out:

1. After three years. Though it might make sense to stay in a few months more to get promoted to captain, at this point I'll have gotten all my federal student loans repaid, I'll probably have been deployed, and I'll be able to say I'd had at least some measure of leadership responsibility. If I can transition to the State Department, it might be worth it.
   
   
2. After six years. By this point, I imagine I'll have finished my command time, shown I can be committed to a job and responsible for millions in property, and potentially be in a great position for an executive job in the private sector. If I can be posted to Korea or get an Olmsted Scholarship, I'd go for this.
   
   
3. After ten years. At six years, you can pass on the benefits of the Post 9/11 GI Bill to your dependents in exchange for a four year service obligation. That's a pretty lucrative incentive for me -- to be able to pay for a kid's college expenses without anything out of pocket. If I can get selected to be a Foreign Area Officer in my seventh year, it would be all the more worthwhile.
   
   
4. Twenty years. Depending on how things would work out as a foreign area officer, it might be great to do that until retirement. For my year group, making lieutenant colonel is practically a given, and bird colonel is a possibility. The pension for either rank is decent to say the least.

So who knows? It could be three years; it could be twenty. At this point, it's impossible to foresee.