what are the financial benefits of going to college

Raising The Flag in Iwo Jima 1945

The post-obit is a terrific guest postal service from Spencer, a captain in the The states Air Force, who gives a complete overview of the financial benefits of joining the military.

In that location are many dissimilar paths you can take in life. Blue collar, white neckband, no neckband – the jobs y'all do often reverberate your upbringing. If y'all come from an flush community or family, one path you might non have considered is joining the military. Armed forces service has many rewards, some of which tin can be a costless college education, an heady non-standard task, travel opportunities, and the hazard to practice some amazing things effectually the world.

A higher degree is a necessity to attain substantial financial goals, unless you're the side by side Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. Just college is getting more than and more expensive every year, mode outpacing inflation. Student loan debt only gets yous a negative start on your journey to financial liberty. Alternatively, armed forces service tin enable you to get a gratis higher degree, take a job lined up when you graduate, and make coin while you go to schoolhouse.

Slicing Through the Military's Mysteries

At university I joined Air Force ROTC during my freshman yr and somewhen picked up a two.5 year ROTC scholarship which covered my tuition for those last years. I graduated and commissioned as a second lieutenant in 2010.

In this mail I'd like to explicate a few facets of armed forces life for the uninformed:

• Choosing between commissioning as an officer or enlisting
• Whether you lot should join the military or go a higher degree
• The three main options for becoming an officer: Academy, ROTC, or OTS
• Enlisting and then using your GI Bill for higher
• How service commitments work
• Fiscal advantages to war machine service y'all may not accept considered

Hither's some of the benefits joining the armed forces could take for you:

• Free college didactics at the school of your choice
• A rewarding and exciting task guaranteed when you graduate from academy
• A pay scale that doubles your pay in simply v years of working
• Taxation gratis income and taxation free investments
• Admission to the TSP, the best retirement plan in the world
• The chance to encounter and do things other people only hear and dream well-nigh

Bring together the Military as an Officer or Enlisted?

Hither's a quick guide to military rank and hierarchy. In the military y'all accept E and O paygrades, which also translate to rank. (There'south also warrant officers, or "W" paygrade, but nosotros won't get into that in this post.) Es are your enlisted forcefulness, ranked E1-E9. Os are your officeholder corps, ranked O1-O10.

Lower rank enlisted are your lowest members of the totem pole. These are your privates, airmen, seamen, and marines. These are your blue collar, entry level positions. However, many of the jobs young recruits perform take a lot of grooming and are highly specialized. Crypotologists (code makers and breakers), drone sensor operators, and cargo aircraft loadmasters are all immature enlisted personnel. Many of these recruits only have a high school diploma and tend to be adequately young likewise. These are E1s (recruits) to E3s.

Next you have the not-commissioned officers. These are your middle managers, promoted out of the enlisted ranks. They are skilled at their task and have years of experience doing their job. They lead the lower ranked enlisted and prepare them to get NCOs i 24-hour interval. These are your E4s and 5s, your sergeants. A strong, knowledgeable, and professional NCO corps is one of the principle reasons the US military is the best in the world.

Above NCOs you accept the SNCO, Senior Non-Deputed Officers. These are the E6-E9s, the Main Sergeants (in the Air Force) and higher. These are your almost senior enlisted personnel, who have worked years to get to this rank and have thousands of hours of cumulative experience in getting the task done. Most take at to the lowest degree a bachelor's by this stage in their career and many have master degrees as well.

Above all the enlisted force you take the commissioned officers. These are what civilians would consider white collar professionals. Doctors, lawyers, pilots, – all of them are officers.

At the bottom, the lieutenants and captains (O1-O3) are the workhorses of the officer corps, frequently directly leading dozens if non hundreds of troops. These immature officers are also unremarkably the most technically proficient members of the officer corps. They fly the planes, launch the missiles, and analyze intelligence from our assets around the world.

Your middle managers are your majors (O-4) and your directors are lieutenant colonels (O-5). Your noncombatant Vice-Presidents loosely translate to colonels (O-6) and CEOs translate to generals (O7-O10). In the unabridged DoD, with over a 1000000 employees, there are only 400 generals. Generals are your Presidents and CEOs. Many of them have much more than power, more employees, and larger budgets than whatever Fortune 500 CEO.

Enlistment or Commissioning

If you take a college degree or are thinking of getting ane, commissioning and condign an officer is what I recommend. In that location are astonishing jobs on both the officer and enlisted side. Both enlisted and officers get to be leaders, managers, technical experts, and contribute mightily to the war effort.

Nearly enlisted personnel go their bachelor degrees very early in their career or come in with one, so don't for a second recollect that but because you lot're an officer you're the smartest guy in the room or take all the right answers. It doesn't go well for the brand new second lieutenant who tells the experienced NCO how to exercise their job. Respect goes both means.

There are advantages and disadvantages to either an enlisted or officer path. While in that location is more responsibleness and career BS to deal with as an officer, I recall the increased pay and task opportunities brand upwardly for information technology. Withal, you lot accept many astonishing job opportunities every bit an enlisted member. And then information technology's

Joining the War machine versus Going to College

Serving in the military and getting a college degree are often viewed equally two separate activities. This couldn't exist farther from the truth. Today's military is a well educated professional fighting force. To be an officer, a bachelors degree is required every bit a minimum. To be competitive for promotion to executive level (O-v and higher) you lot need a master's degree at a minimum. Many senior leaders accept PhDs from top universities.

There are several ways to get the military to pay for your education. They crave varying levels of commitment and pain. In my opinion, the most painful option is to attend a service academy. There are four major service academies in the US:

• US Military University (Regular army) in W Bespeak, NY
• United states of america Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD
• US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO
• U.s. Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT

At these academies you'll go through an initial summer form of a few weeks similar to basic training. You'll take a tough twelvemonth your first year where yous are harassed past upperclassmen and take many more restrictions placed on yous than your friends at normal universities.

The Academy admissions procedure is crazy. When I went through information technology took months of interviews, tests, physicals, medical waivers, and a nomination from my United states of america Senator. It's much more in depth than a regular higher application. But a few of the requirements include:

• A rigorous physical fitness examination
• A armed services concrete evaluation
• Pinnacle Saturday/ACT scores
• Grade rank
• Letters of recommendations
• Essays
• A nomination from a U.s.a. Congressman or Senator

The nomination from the US Congressman can be the hardest, as they only have a certain number (usually less than x) slots to give out every year. Your unabridged packet is scored and weighted and then y'all are ranked against your peers. The top several hundred get acceptance letters and so the rest are put on a waiting list in case the top candidates don't accept.

Your reward for indelible all this pain and annoyance is a FREE top notch education, peculiarly in the engineering fields. You lot'll even go paid a few hundred dollars a month while you are a cadet or midshipman. Definitely meliorate than graduating with $60,000 in debt similar I did.

At the end of the day you get to commission as an officer in the Us armed forces. Not besides bad. Yous'll pin on the rank of 2d Lieutenant (Regular army, Marine Corps, Air Force) or Ensign (Navy) (O-1).

Reserve Officer Training Corps – ROTC

The Reserve Officer Preparation Corps or ROTC is offered at hundreds of major universities around the nation. There are three flavors: Ground forces, Navy, and Air Forcefulness (Marines fall under the Navy ROTC). If you don't have a scholarship, you don't need to commit to the service until summer before your junior year.

ROTC usually consists of a i-3 60 minutes course for your yr group taught by a military machine instructor, a 2 60 minutes weekly leadership grade, several physical preparation or PT meetings a week, and usually a special consequence in one case a month or then. It takes up about every bit much fourth dimension as a junior varsity sports program would, 10-fifteen hours a week depending on committed y'all are.

If yous're smart (dissimilar me), you'll apply for a four twelvemonth scholarship in loftier schoolhouse. You can try ROTC for the showtime twelvemonth with no obligation and so sign your paperwork sophomore year. Iv yr scholarships cover room and board, tuition, books, and pay a monthly stipend.

ROTC was the option I chose. I joined upward in my freshman year and picked up a ii.v year scholarship my sophomore year. This paid for the residual of my schooling, a book stipend every semester, and a monthly stipend as well. Amazing how much fun you can have in higher on just $450 a month! When you graduate, yous'll be the same rank as someone who graduated from the service academy and the same task opportunities.

Officer Candidate Schoolhouse OTS/OCS

Your last choice for condign a commissioned officer is Officer Training Schoolhouse or Officer Candidate School (OTS/OCS). This is an intensive 10-17 week (depending on the branch of service) form that produces commissioned officers apace. OTS/OCS consolidates iv years of basic officer grooming that the Academies and ROTC teach into a few months.

This program is usually a gap filler when there'southward a time of state of war and the military needs more officers than the ROTC or Academies are producing per yr. OTS/OCS can be even more difficult to go into than the service Academies and spots can exist extremely limited at times. The same bachelor degree requirements use.

Upon graduation you'll receive a commission in the US armed forces and the same rank, pay, and privileges equally an ROTC or University graduate.

Enlisting and And so Using Your GI Pecker for School

One way of getting your higher degree and serving your country requires a fleck more than thinking alee. If yous were an extremely bright high school student, you lot could follow this programme of delaying college and using your GI Bill to get a gratuitous didactics.

The Post ix/11 GI Nib covers 100% of in-country public tuition at any academy, pays a book stipend, and gives you 36 months of BAH (Basic Housing Allowance) entitlements. You can transfer the benefits to a spouse or a child every bit well. Itís an amazing benefit for our veterans.

1. Enlist out of high school, serve 3-4 years on active duty, save equally you go.
2. Split, utilise your GI Bill benefits to go to academy for free. You'll be much older and wiser than your young man students and probably actually learn something, rather than just be a typical xviii-22 yr old.
3. Get the degree you lot want, the job you lot desire, and start your life with no college debt.

Do not practise this just for the free education. Military life is non easy and if you join simply to get GI Bill benefits, you lot will probably struggle at boot army camp, struggle while you lot serve, and you may not get the feel you thought you would.

If y'all already plan on serving and want a great way to kickstart your adult life and become a gratuitous higher education, the GI Bill option might be for you.

Service Commitments

Service commitments are a legal contract between yous and your military co-operative. They are usually incurred at enlistment or commissioning, when y'all get training, when you receive certain benefits, or based on your job.

For virtually officeholder career fields, yous're committed to 4 years after you commission and then can re-enlist for 2-4 twelvemonth chunks. Enlisted service commitments are usually less than officer, usually considering the training and cost of producing an officer is more than producing a new enlisted service member.

For Air Force pilots, the commitment is 10 years. And the clock doesn't start ticking until your training is consummate, which could take upward to 2 years. Imagine committing yourself to a job that y'all accept very footling thought how it works or what it will exist like for 12 years. Not an piece of cake conclusion to make. Not many people sign contracts for that many years of their life.

Most people will serve these periods completely. Sometimes the DoD offers early on retirement (called TERA, or Temporary Early Retirement Authorisation) or separation bonuses (VSP – Voluntary Separation Pay) to incentivize troops to get out early if the service is overmanned. These overmanning situations are normally acquired by Congressional downsizing.

Military Officer Promotions

The armed services is non a meritocratic gild. Promotion is primarily based on years in service, non performance. For a young officeholder fresh from commissioning, you lot'll promote in 18-24 months from 2nd Lieutenant (O-one) to 1st Lieutenant (O-2). That promotion rate is about 100%. Ordinarily it takes a DUI or a criminal conviction to not brand that promotion. Sad simply true.

Subsequently 1st Lieutenant you'll make Captain (O-three) in another 2 years. Now you're iv years since you lot graduated college and you've moved up 2 ranks! And and then did everyone else. At this betoken in your career rank doesn't differentiate the top performers from the lesser.

It's not until O-4, or Major, that the services really kickoff differentiating between the elevation and bottom performers. You normally encounter your kickoff promotion lath for major around 6 years of existence a helm, or 10 years of total service. Promotion to a higher place O-4 becomes much more difficult and the rate drops to below 50%.

Normally about 80% of those captains who stick around long enough to run into their major's boards promote. The other 20% who are passed over will eventually be forced to dissever, due to the up or out culture in the military. Every bit soon every bit you become good at your chore, the military will make you move on to the next one! It doesn't create many efficiencies. See Tony Carr's John Q. Public blog for a more detailed discussion on the malaise amidst the Air Forcefulness officer corps.

How Much Can You Make in the Military

If you join the military thinking you lot'll be living fat off the government gravy train, call back again! Your benefits packaged may exist fair subsequently a few years, but your pay for your first few years of service will be depression. A young enlisted service member could be making every bit petty as $20,000 their first year of service. A freshly graduated lieutenant will be making less than $twoscore,000.

Your pay consists mainly of:

Bones PAY + ALLOWANCES + SPECIAL PAY = Full PAY

Basic pay, for 2014, is calculated off of that tabular array above, and is prepare by Congress every year in the National Defense force Say-so Human activity (NDAA). Bones pay is subject to income revenue enhancement.

Allowances are revenue enhancement free pay for specific needs, like housing, nutrient, or clothing. Most service members receive BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing), unless they live in war machine housing. BAH is paid either with or without dependents, then in that location is an economic incentive to go married when you work in the military.

About service members as well receive BAS (Basic Allowance for Subsistence), unless they're on a government repast plan. These allowances can make up a substantial portion of a soldiers income.

Special Pays are usually subject field to income taxation and are paid for special duty or skills. Pilots and aircrew receive flight pay, submariners receive submarine pay, and bomb squad guys receive Chancy Duty pay. When you're in Afghanistan or any state of war zone you'll receive Hostile Fire or Imminent Danger Pay, which is about $225/month. If you deploy to Africa or other remote locations, y'all'll usually receive Hardship Duty Pay, depending on the location.

Let's take a married, 4 year Air Forcefulness Helm living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her Basic Pay is $5168, BAH (with dependents) is $1449, and BAS is $246. And so in full sheís making $6,863 per month, or $82,356 per year. Since the BAH is untaxed, her taxable income looks like $65,000 to the IRS, which saves her some money at revenue enhancement filing time.

If she deploys to a gainsay zone, her unabridged income is tax free. If she moves her stuff into storage and breaks her lease (immune under war machine lease clauses) at her apartment, she could bank nearly of that income. Deployment is an excellent time to top off your Roth TSP, Roth IRAs, and whatsoever other investment accounts.

Financial Advantages for War machine Personnel

Showtime off are the revenue enhancement advantages. Allowances are untaxed and can be substantial (20-40% of your income). If you deploy or get TDY to a gainsay zone, your entire paycheck for that month is tax gratis. One time you hit a certain number of taxation free months, youíll actually drop below the poverty level and probably qualify for the earned income revenue enhancement credit. What a crazy tax system nosotros have!

I believe the Thrift Savings Program (TSP) is the all-time retirement plan available in the world, and information technology'southward only bachelor to federal government employees and the military. The super low cost funds (10% of what Vanguard charges, or 0.03% on boilerplate) mean that yous go along more than of the money you make in your pocket. Passive, depression-price index funds trounce 80% of actively managed funds over twenty year time horizons. The TSP offers every service member access to the cheapest passive alphabetize funds effectually.

With the Roth TSP and Roth IRA, you lot tin put away your low tax or non-taxed income in taxation free, watch it grow tax free, and then savor it taxation gratuitous in retirement. The funds bachelor are limited, only I don't think y'all should be trying to striking home runs with your TSP/401k. The limited choices really forces you lot to diversify and invest in a smart asset allocation and not bet it all on 1 or two stocks.

When yous deploy, there is a special savings vehicle offered by the Treasury chosen the Savings Eolith Programme (SDP). The SDP gives you a federally guaranteed 10% render on your money while you're deployed and up to 90 days after you render. Yous tin deposit up to $10,000 in the program. Earning $1000 extra per year isn't going to brand you a millionaire, but it is a great place for your emergency fund cash that would otherwise be making 1% in a savings business relationship.

Another tremendous benefit is the access to VA Habitation Loans. These are loans guaranteed by the United states Department of Veterans Affairs and offered to active duty, reservists, guardsmen, and veterans who served honorably. These loans do not require PMI and tin be for 100%+ of the value of the property. A down payment is normally not required. This can be a great tool to achieving abode ownership or building a real manor empire around the world every time you PCS (motility)!

The Gilt Ticket: A Military Pension

Military pensions are rare. Only about fifteen% of the total force makes it to retirement. Even then, the pension is calculated just off your Basic Pay, non your total income. If you become out correct at 20 years, y'all'll collect fifty% of the average basic pay for the last three years, which usually works out to $40-fifty,000 for an officer and $25-30,000 for an enlisted member. Non exactly a lavish income that demands Stealth Wealth.

Congress has recently targeted military pensions and then don't count on it to be completely unmolested while you receive it. Congress recently tried to change the way pensions were adapted for inflation to salve money, which would have taken thousands of dollars away from veterans. With just a little savings you could have $500,000 to $1,000,000 in the bank easily when you pull the trigger and retire from the military.

Now you're somewhere between 38 and 42 and if you invested wisely, you lot might be able to retire early on like Doug Nordman. A military pension would make a great slice of income to add to your financial independence portfolio.

If you'd rather keep your olfactory organ to the grindstone, you lot can get started on the 2nd career or starting that business you ever thought nearly on those long deployments overseas. And you'll accept a little bit of income to support you while you become started.

I hope this primer on armed services life, enlisted vs. officer, how to get to the military to pay for your college, and military fiscal benefits was helpful. The armed services can exist a great place to get a gratis college educational activity, start your working life, serve your country, or make a career of it and earn that alimony cheque.

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Updated for 2019 and beyond.

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Source: https://www.financialsamurai.com/financial-benefits-of-joining-the-military/

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