Your first apartment/house at your first facility

[HenryTheAce]

Neither do I, but I read his post and parsed out-

High cost of living
Not typical 5
Lots of unusual ops
Class B

That’s how I knew.

I hear ya, that is unique. I didn’t even know ADW existed until reading his answer.

 

[ajmezz]

I thought it was run by the Air Force until it showed up on my list lol.

 

[rugbydog11]

First facility my annual salary started at 57ish. I think I got a slight pay raise after ground to 60 ish. CPC at 64.5.
I was paying 770 a month in rent for a decent 1 bedroom. Looking back I should have found cheaper and put more into the TSP.
That was level 5 rest of US locality. Fairly cheap city to live in.

 

[Bart Harley Jarvis]

Of course its easier to buy your own food but like i said if you dont have a car its a good option to have. Its not like you have to keep the food pack for your entire stay, if you wanted to cancel after the first round i think she will let you.

I'll have my own car just didn't know if it was worth doing the food option. Sounds like I should just get all my groceries myself!

 

[Jason Scavilla]

BE SMART, take what you get at AG Pay and use that as your guideline for EVERYTHING. MAX OUT YOUR TSP, I regret not doing that sooner, I also lived on ACK with Rest of the US locality which is a joke. It only took me 3 months to fully certify but the training has since changed. Anyways, as the first guy responded says is BE SMART, it is a truly life lesson and DO NOT be stupid with your money. I've been in the agency 11 years come May and at my 2nd facility now DAB Tower/Tracon. I am more than happy to talk to anyone about finances and being smart about shit. Like someone else earlier said save your per diem money if you can and use it later for moving expenses, paying your cable bill, etc. Hope this helps.

P.S. - PM me any questions you need help with, more than happy to help.

 

[breakaway2000]

Like others have stated, if you go to a tower only, your path to D3 and CPC is much, much quicker. Cost of living is a big issue that plagues a number of facilities around the country and should be a deciding force in how you choose to rank your inevitable list at the academy.

To provide a slightly different opinion, I came into the agency with a little savings and have chosen to buy a home at each facility I've been at (I did a month to month lease at my first facility for two months prior to buying). Timing is everything, but I've made out quite well over the years. Whenever I move on, I keep my original house and rent it out. When I retire, I imagine I'll have upwards of a few million in real estate, with the goal of having everything paid off. Everyone's financial strategy is different, I simply urge you to figure out one that works for you and stick with it. Like Jason said above, you'll never regret putting too much money in your TSP.

 

[Bart Harley Jarvis]

Like others have stated, if you go to a tower only, your path to D3 and CPC is much, much quicker. Cost of living is a big issue that plagues a number of facilities around the country and should be a deciding force in how you choose to rank your inevitable list at the academy.

To provide a slightly different opinion, I came into the agency with a little savings and have chosen to buy a home at each facility I've been at (I did a month to month lease at my first facility for two months prior to buying). Timing is everything, but I've made out quite well over the years. Whenever I move on, I keep my original house and rent it out. When I retire, I imagine I'll have upwards of a few million in real estate, with the goal of having everything paid off. Everyone's financial strategy is different, I simply urge you to figure out one that works for you and stick with it. Like Jason said above, you'll never regret putting too much money in your TSP.

I don't know where i want to end up yet but even though a tower would be quicker wouldnt it benefit me long term to go somewhere that has both for potential TRACON transfer?

 

[Dolan]

BE SMART, take what you get at AG Pay and use that as your guideline for EVERYTHING. MAX OUT YOUR TSP, I regret not doing that sooner, I also lived on ACK with Rest of the US locality which is a joke.

So imagine you're at ZOA instead of ACK, you're looking at YEARS until you see your first raise. Using your advice to use AG pay as a guideline for how to live the only action that makes any sense at all is to quit. Many people have resigned for this exact reason. Living as cheap as possible is good advice though!

 

[jdatc]

So imagine you're at ZOA instead of ACK, you're looking at YEARS until you see your first raise. Using your advice to use AG pay as a guideline for how to live the only action that makes any sense at all is to quit. Many people have resigned for this exact reason. Living as cheap as possible is good advice though!

Years at ZOA till you see D1?

I can understand waiting a while for school due to backlogs for the D/H sides whatever and then training to get D2, but years to get D1?

 

[Bart Harley Jarvis]

So imagine you're at ZOA instead of ACK, you're looking at YEARS until you see your first raise. Using your advice to use AG pay as a guideline for how to live the only action that makes any sense at all is to quit. Many people have resigned for this exact reason. Living as cheap as possible is good advice though!

Im terminal so I'll probably work my way up a little quicker then that but I definitely plan on getting an apartment as if i'd have AG pay just to save some initially.

 

[Dolan]

Years at ZOA till you see D1?

I can understand waiting a while for school due to backlogs for the D/H sides whatever and then training to get D2, but years to get D1?

All the information I have from there is second hand but yeah I've heard them and ZNY are just brutal.

 

[GulfBravoPapa]

I lived with my grandma for a year before buying my own condo. I went to a standalone tracon (dndon believe they offer this anymore) and took like three years to reach CPC. At one point in time we had more trainees than CPCs so training was very slow.

 

[DankVectorz]

If you're lucky you'll have someone else in your class also going to your facility. Don't be shy about getting a roommate if you're single. I had another N90 guy in my class and we wound up being roommates for almost 2 years after we got here. Saved us each literally at least $20k by having a roommate.

 

[Huntin_GI]

With regards to ZOA, how are people supposed to move there and afford even a studio apartment? Families seem out of the question.

 

[ajmezz]

FAA hears you, FAA don't care.

 

[DankVectorz]

With regards to ZOA, how are people supposed to move there and afford even a studio apartment? Families seem out of the question.

Well people do it so clearly it's possible. May not be fun, but consider it incentive to certify fast.

 

[CF]

Well people do it so clearly it's possible. May not be fun, but consider it incentive to certify fast.

If you have to you can live outside the bay area and commute. It can be a brutal drive but there are cities less than 2 hours away that are half the price on rent.