I am a career soldier with 32 years completed. During my career I have served with the Navy as a Weapon Surface Technician for almost 5 years then transferred to the Medical group as a Medical Assistant (Medic) then became a Registered Practical Nurses with a Operating Room certification and I have been working in the OR since 1993. I will have served +35 years by the time I retire in July 2013. The pre retirement plan has been in motion since 2007 when we decided to buy our Truck a F350 diesel, crew cab, short box, SRW, 4X2. The 4X2 option turned out to be a  big mistake cause a truck in snow on 2 wheels don't do so well. You would figure that a Canadian living in the province of Quebec that usually gets a lot of snow would know better but yeah! what can I say? But... In a stroke of luck or call it faith... when I returned from Afghanistan in 2008 and visiting family in Montreal, the beast got stolen . Luck is that I had opted to take the car insurance with full replacement value option. So now I have a 2009 F350 with 4X4 (paid extra).  Both the Truck and House will be paid for by summer 2011. The plan was to buy the Fifth wheel at that time and combine both payment to pay it off the by the time we retire... well that did not happen. Who said a military man had to be excessively discipline... Yeap! with some recalculation, we place our order 3 weeks ago and our unit a Big horn 3410 RE by Heartland will get here in 3 to 4 weeks. Both S & D are young adult 21 and 20 still requiring mom and dad help but will be 24 & 23 by retirement. If every thing goes as plan will it the road then. Beside we (Carole and I) can always text them our advise right!

Richard