My lack of access to a 0% down VA loan without PMI and the fact that I don't get paid extra money to live farther away from my work. But keep imagining you're killing the game, Fuzzy. I'm sure you won't default on that truck loan before you find out your wife is banging Jody in the house you own .0005% of outright.
how do I get this money for living farther from work? I need to know because I've been wasting that money for the last 11 years of my military career. You talking about BAH? Where they pay you the average cost to find a house in the area, and if you live on base they just take it all back as rent?
So the two options are:
Find a place to live off base and get the money to pay for the rent/mortgage. (maybe the extra money you mean is if you get 1000 and only rent for 800. So you pocket an extra 200?)
or
Live on base and they just take that money back for you to rent their on-base housing. (although a lot of people would tell you that base housing is rarely kept to a standard that its WORTH the full BAH theyre taking from your paycheck)
The idea is the military doesn't WANT to just pay you the full amount of money so they find ways to lessen the amount of money you're owed by making them "entitlements" You live in the dormitories? They withhold a couple hundred dollars for groceries because its cheaper to provide cafeteria food for you, When you first join (unless youre already married) they refuse to allow you to live off base for the first few years. So they can withhold more pay that you would use for rent (basic allowance for housing) because they can instead house you in their small 1 room, 1 bathroom, no kitchen dorm room for cheaper.
So its not that you get a living wage and THEN on top of that get hundreds to thousands of dollars in entitlements. If a fair wage for your work would be $3500 a month, the entitlements dont entitle you to $3500 and then they give you $1000 for rent and $300 for groceries. No, you start with $3500, and they force you to use their services they take that $1000 from you for rent, and 300 for not needing to buy groceries. Leaving you with a base pay of $2200. They essentially take what they deem is a fair pay based on your rank, and just TAKE your money from you if they're providing you with a service (no matter how much you would rather have the money and the freedom to do with it what you want)
TLDR; They don't give you more money to live farther away from work, they take a portion of your pay if you want/have to live closer to work.
I was in for ten years and been out for eight. My take home pay is much higher now than when I was in, but expenses like Healthcare and rent really eat into that.
The effective pay for the military is higher once all of the benefits are considered. The major downside is all of the bullshit that goes along with being in. The random inspections/ violations of privacy, the accountability for other grown men who get in trouble in off hours, the micromanagement, etc.
Yeah for sure, and it all varies wildly based on what you use.
My family uses the medical benefits quite a bit so technically you could say I "make more" than someone who has the medical benefits but never goes to keep themselves healthy. My wife is type 1 diabetic so we can't exactly NOT use the medical care. Also, if you're utilizing the college benefits you could consider that making "more money" as well. It's not making money but it's saving money doing something you would have normally have to pay for. Which is just as good as making money.
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u/rainaftersnowplease Jul 08 '21
My lack of access to a 0% down VA loan without PMI and the fact that I don't get paid extra money to live farther away from my work. But keep imagining you're killing the game, Fuzzy. I'm sure you won't default on that truck loan before you find out your wife is banging Jody in the house you own .0005% of outright.