MilitaryToFinance

Now I find myself faced with the dilemma of voting in favor of my own pocketbook or with actual principles. As much as I love money though I think I'm going to have to actually stick to my own principles here and not vote to pay myself. For those who aren't aware there is a proposed amendment to the state constitution in Ohio on the ballot this November, Issue 1. This amendment would authorize the state to issue up to $200MM of bonds to fund payments to any veterans of the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan or Iraq. The payments would be $100/month not to exceed $1,000 for anybody who served in the actual conflicts or $50/month not to exceed $500 for veterans who served elsewhere during those conflicts. So basically anybody who has been in the military as an Ohio resident during GWOT would get $500 and if you actually deployed (don't have details on where they draw the line) you would get $1,000. The logic behind this is a "thank you" to those who serve in the military and apparently this same amendment to give bonuses to soldiers has been passed in Ohio for WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. No politician is opposing it because it would be political suicide so I'm guessing it will pass. Personally I'm not for it even though it would give me money. I mean isn't the state supposed to issue bonds in order to fund something that will pay the funds back and generate revenue for the state. This is just issuing more debt to hand out cash to other people. Seems stupid to me.

Your idea sounds great but doesn't hold water to the facts. The idea that something "holds it's value" means that it would keep up perfectly with inflation. That is what an inflation hedge does. The numbers I put up clearly show that is NOT the case with gold. In 1980 if you had 1 oz of gold it was worth $850. Today you would need over $2,100 to buy the same amount of good as you could have bought in 1980 for your $850, but that requires TWO oz of gold as opposed to ONE oz of gold. So I'm sorry but it may sound like it makes sense your argument is factually incorrect.

Most of what you said was good except for that last part. The price of gold in January 1980 was $850. If the spot price of gold had simply kept pace with inflation it should currently stand at around $2,100 yet it is currently at ~$1,000. Less than half of it's inflation adjusted break even level. The S&P500 on the other hand was at 115 at the same point in time. For it to have just kept up with inflation it should be sitting at 287 yet it closed today at 1,097 approximately 4 times it's inflation adjusted level. And that's with the catastrophic market performance over the last few years. So you tell me, where would you rather be?

For those who watch Top Gear.

After all, who doesn't want to spend $200,000 on a pool table?

I have no idea about the runway thing but this actually came about for a reason. Funding. I don't remember the exact details but the basic gist is that Congress approved a bunch of money for building/developing new Weapon Systems and they needed money for the CAOC so they made it a Weapon System so that it would qualify. At least that was how/why it was explained to me.

No boobs but it is an original.

Yes they do. I see them all over Peterson from the Space Command folks.

I love how the Air Force contradicts itself in the same breathe. On one hand they say, we're switching to having the HAWC test you so that the testers will be more objective and you have to get the form perfect. Then they raise the maximum on the push-ups to the point where you will have to sacrifice form to get the max. If you are to break 90 and go all the way back up until your arms are fully extended there is no way you're going to get 67 good push-ups completed in 1 minute.

Somebody at work told me that they thought when you went TDY you could get reimbursed for some kennel expenses but I couldn't find anything about that in the JFTR. Anybody have some insight into that? I highly doubt it's true but worth looking into as it could save me a lot of money over the next few months.

Not sure if the European IP thing will screw you or not but if you have an Xbox360 or a newer Bluray player you can download movies directly from Netflix to the box and watch that way. Would save on the mailing times.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It's a really interesting book, part philosophy part statistics.

That's pretty much what I found too. I have my homeowners and car insurance through them. Along with banking, but my real estate agent told me she hates using USAA for mortgages and always seems to find better rates elsewhere.

Gotta love Montana. I just may have to move there some day. http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/ap...es-rights/news/

Can't be worse than "Bob" in Bangladesh.

I kept my '97 Toyota 4Runner from college. Went with a downpayment on a house instead of LT Mobile. 200,000 miles and running strong(knock on wood), it's pretty nice not having a car payment each month.

I know I'm a few days late but lodging sucks and doesn't have internet.

We're having the same issue at Vandenberg for training. They have an O-5 whose sole job is to nickle and dime the TDY students out of everything. She is "requiring" we submit all receipts, including dry cleaning, even if they are under the $50(or is it $75) limit that DTS imposes and we get a whopping $13.80 pre diem which buys you about 1 hamburger in CA. They also have lodging issuing people Non-A letters for the first week or two weeks of class and then making them move back on base. If they're staying off base in contracted lodging (I'm assuming that is the correct term since they were directed 3 different hotels they are allowed to use) should they still technically be allowed to remain off base for the duration of the TDY?

Where has been the biggest headache for people to PCS to with their arsenal? I would imagine getting sent to any of the CA bases would be a pain in the ass. I've been told you can fill out a form to get an exemption to some of their weapons bans if you're military and a non-CA resident. Anybody had any problems with other locations?

Back on the blues subject. I know you're technically allowed to wear black cowboy boots with your blues but really who does that? Maybe it's because people think of CO as being "out west" or maybe because 90% of the people at my base are missiles guys but I see it all the time. I always thought it was one of those weird things that nobody really did but every Monday I see at least 2 or 3 different people wearing cowboy boots and I think it really looks retarded.

Too soon?