How much money do you spend while on active duty?

AGbullet

USNA 2027
Joined
Jun 8, 2022
Messages
29
I feel like you wouldn't really need to spend all that much since the military would pay for your living expenses and everything else. Could you just save all of your money?
 
You could save as much of your pay as you would like, If you secure base housing and eat at the chow hall. I have seen it done. I have also seen a pay check disappear in a matter of minutes. Most will fall somewhere in the middle. The choice will be yours.
 
For officers, you probably do better by getting a rental off post. Usually you can’t even find on base housing as a bachelor JO.
Also, officers normally don’t eat in the chow halls in garrison. There are exceptions. When I was a commander and “owned” some of the cooks in the chow hall I would eat there about once a week. Also, I would sometimes go there on holidays such as Thanksgiving.
But as a JO you can save money if you are careful with your spendings. Don’t get a new car. Avoid eating out. Don’t go to Starbucks each day. Watch out for recurrent charges on your credit card. Use TSP.
 
For officers, you probably do better by getting a rental off post. Usually you can’t even find on base housing as a bachelor JO.
Also, officers normally don’t eat in the chow halls in garrison. There are exceptions. When I was a commander and “owned” some of the cooks in the chow hall I would eat there about once a week. Also, I would sometimes go there on holidays such as Thanksgiving.
But as a JO you can save money if you are careful with your spendings. Don’t get a new car. Avoid eating out. Don’t go to Starbucks each day. Watch out for recurrent charges on your credit card. Use TSP.

Yep, and learn to live w/ roommates.

My Seahawk driver is now living in a friend's house he knew from back in school & paying, IIRC, under $1,000 monthly in rent.

Plus diverting 1/3 of his pay to his Roth TSP.
 
I feel like you wouldn't really need to spend all that much since the military would pay for your living expenses and everything else. Could you just save all of your money?
Depends on a lot. I've generally been able to find rentals under BAH that effectively saved me money as opposed to living on base. Later, I've bought homes so my mortgage builds wealth, later renting them (admittedly a headache at times) when I PCS.

You have a car payment? Insurance? Cell phone? Netflix? A meal out? A new laptop? Video games? Movie tickets? Concert? Just....hobbies? You aren't going to save all of your money. The trick to building financial freedom is prioritizing investment goals first then enjoying what remains after.

That's the perspective I have as an Officer. When I was junior enlisted and living on base, yes, I could effectively save all of my money. Did I? Haha, nope! I wasted it and had fun but I wish I'd been setting some aside to benefit from long term compounding.
 
When my son got to his army base as a JO, he shared a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 fellow officers. He originally wanted to live alone but when this opportunity came up and he saw how much money he could save, he jumped at the chance. He spent well under his BAH this way and was able to save enough for a house down payment sometime later.
 
You have a car payment? Insurance? Cell phone? Netflix? A meal out? A new laptop? Video games? Movie tickets? Concert? Just....hobbies? You aren't going to save all of your money. The trick to building financial freedom is prioritizing investment goals first then enjoying what remains after.

All good points. The only thing the military gives you money for is housing, if you live off post, and a negligible amount for food. The rest is on you. Otherwise we'd all be millionaires because all we'd have is just money for investment!
 
What is TSP?

This has now been added to the Acronym list.
Thrift Savings Plan. Under the Blended Retirement System (BRS), the government contributes to your TSP account (1% automatic, matching up to 5%). BRS combines the traditional military retirement pension (2% x YOS x average of your highest paid three years in service) with a 401k like plan. This came about in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It allows military members to get some type of retirement benefit regardless of service time.

Way too many three letter acronyms (TLAs) in the military.
 
My buddy has two sons in the Navy. One is close to getting out and has bought a house near Norfolk and his brother rents from him when in port. The way things look they'll be together most of the next few months since they were both out for long deployments last year, but once the renter re-ups he'll probably be heading back out again.
 
This is for those who dont live on base. The reality is that you get one salary check and that includes actual salary, food and housing. So it's not like your housing and food are all paid for and all you have to worry about is all the misc expenses of your life. YOu have to decide how much to spend on housing. You can get single and use your housing allowance, get a bigger place and spend more than your allowance or you can get roommates and keep part of your allowance. You can eat out every day or you can eat in every day or somewhere in the middle. So how much you spend while AD is the same as how much you spend when you arent in AD. It all up to you. So if this is really a question of how much can you save while being on AD, then start with how much you actually receive and how much do you want to save. The difference is how much you can spend. Then ask yourself, can you live spending X amount of dollars. If yes, great. If no, then you need to be more realistic on how much you want to save. In the end, if you are AD, you will pay rent or a mortgage, pay utilities, pay for internet, pay cable, pay car insurance, car payments, gasoline, repair, entertainment, drinking and so on. HOw much will spend? You can blow all your money every month or save crap load or someone n the middle. Its up to you
 
Do single junior officers typically share an apartment to cut costs?
It also seems like it depends are where you are stationed. DS is an Ensign currently stationed in Japan. For him, and I think any other base in a foreign country, he is reimbursed, up to a set limit, for what he actually pays in rent. So there is no incentive to have a roommate. He found a great apartment near base where the rent was conveniently exactly his reimbursement amount (funny how that works near a base). His friends that are stationed stateside get a set BAH (basic allowance for housing). They get the same amount no matter if they spend it all on rent/mortgage or not. Many of them have roommates and are able to pocket some money.
 
It also seems like it depends are where you are stationed. DS is an Ensign currently stationed in Japan. For him, and I think any other base in a foreign country, he is reimbursed, up to a set limit, for what he actually pays in rent. So there is no incentive to have a roommate. He found a great apartment near base where the rent was conveniently exactly his reimbursement amount (funny how that works near a base). His friends that are stationed stateside get a set BAH (basic allowance for housing). They get the same amount no matter if they spend it all on rent/mortgage or not. Many of them have roommates and are able to pocket some money.
Additional facts. The BAH is indexed to local cost of housing in U.S. It also goes up with each promotion.
 
As with any job early in life, how much you save is mostly up to you. If you spend money on things that many people enjoy -- housing, eating out, vacations, nice car, furniture, movies, etc., then as a JO you will live OK but won't save a lot.

If, however, you have one or more roommates, mostly cook your own food, drive a basic used car, find furniture at garage sales or on-line sales, limit the number of extravagance of vacations, etc., you can save a decent amount. IMO, it's easier to save on deployment b/c you eat on the ship and have limited opportunities to spend money. Some folks give up their homes during deployment -- others don't.

When I was on AD, an officer I knew was determined to retire / retire after 20 years - he and his wife had a couple of kids and the wife didn't work outside the home. Someone who went to their house said they had only the most basic furniture (i.e., beds, table for eating) that looked like he'd made it himself. His wife cut his hair (and it looked like it, not in a good way). They cut costs in every way possible (vacations were with family, one car with wife driving husband to work). Don't know how it all worked out in the end, but that's one option.

For me, living w/o roommates was important as was having a nice place to live. I liked nice clothes. I skimped on vacations, eating out, and my car.

It's all a matter of priorities. You'll never get rich as an officer but you also won't starve.
 
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