MilitaryToFinance

Would that be the same E-2 I always see at the bar or a club in his dress uniform trying to pick up girls? Never understood the desire to do that but I'm sure it works.

Not being on AD I can't answer that question but I have one for you. Why put the tax free pay in the TSP at all? You aren't getting any favorable treatment on it and your investment options are woefully limited. Unless you don't feel comfortable choosing your own investment vehicles it would make far more sense to open up a standard brokerage account somewhere and invest that tax free money on your own. You'll have the flexibility to get at the money should you need it and to invest in any means you see fit. Personally unless I'm trying to play the "lower my tax bracket game" I don't really think I'll contribute at all to the TSP. With no matching contributions and how low your tax bracket is(at least for the first 4 years or so) there are just lots of disadvantages and not very many advantages to the whole program. You won't be taxed on the income whether its in the TSP or not so why limit yourself to their crappy choices? This one really varies so much from person to person it is hard to give a blanket statement eitherway. When calculating your score things like the number of cards, debt used out of total debt, duration accounts have been open all play a part. So keeping a card open with no balance can help if you do have a balance on another card. With 2 cards at $10,000 max and carrying $5,000 in debt if you close a card you're using 50% of your available credit but leaving it open you're only at 25% of available. Typically you want to be under ~30%. On the other hand, if you have 7 or 8 credit cards with $10,000 each that shows you as a pretty big liability. Even if you only have $5,000 total in balances on those cards a bank will look at that and say, if we give you a car loan today, tomorrow you could rack up an additional $75,000 of debt instantly. Its a fine line and what is good for some is bad for others, working your credit score isn't as much of a science as you would think it is. Also, for those people(lots of college kids do this) who fill out the application for a credit card just to get free stuff and then immediately cancel the card. That still goes on your credit report and having lots of accounts open for short periods of time will hurt your score as well. Nothing in life is free.

I know this post was from almost 3 years ago but its on the first page of this thread so if you're reading through it for a first time like I am I really felt it needs to be addressed. The idea of doing #2 then #3 as stated above is terrible advice. Most CC interest is anywhere from 18-25%. So you can think of that as a negative return every year. So for every thousand dollars you invest instead of paying off your credit card you would have to return greater than 25% on that money to simply break even. PAY OFF YOUR HIGH INTEREST DEBT FIRST! Now if its student loans at ~6% this would make sense because averaging a 10% return is pretty simple. But anything with a high interest rate and you may think you're investing in your future but really you're just hurting yourself by not paying it off instead.

Got another leave question. As a non-rated guy how early can you reasonably take leave? I feel kind of retarded asking that but here's the scenario. I EAD 1 Sept and my RNTL to Peterson is 4 Sept. I'm supposed to be at a wedding on 25 Oct. I know technically over that month of Sept I should accrue 2.5 days of leave according to 36-3003 right? In order to get to the wedding all the flights on Friday the 24th leave in the morning or early afternoon so I would have to take a day of leave or a half day(I have no idea how 1/2 days work in the military to be honest) to catch a plane. But if I take Friday off then I have to take Sat/Sun as well right? Which would be more than the accrued leave to that point wouldn't it? Also if I take those 10 days of permissive leave to find a house when I report to Peterson will that play into it at all? Thanks for the help.

Does this cross the line?

Sounds a lot like ours. They considered an AS700 class but luckily didn't have time to implement it last year. Our COC has left now so assuming the new one isn't terrible they should be able to avoid that fate. If not, I feel very bad for them.

Type I's are very very hard to come by still. With your grades and stuff it is possible but set your eyes on a Type II and then be pleasantly surprised if you get a Type I. And yes, your interview will take place at the nearest ROTC detachment to your home address. It just saves you time and money. Be aware if you goto a state school for your interview they will probably try on you the same move they pulled on me. At the end of the interview they said, there are no guarantees of what you'll get if we send your packet to ROTC HQ but if you commit to coming to UC(the school I was interviewing at) I can award you a Type 7 right now and give you full tuition for our school. I just politely said I had not applied to UC and was not planning on attending a college in Ohio. So they sent my stuff on and I got a Type II. Its just their version of the hard sell, so don't be caught off guard if it happens to you.

If your daughter has half a brain she'll be fine. Your commander is never going to say, hey you're doing great at Field Training. Even if you're the top of your class it just doesn't happen. If she is the type who tries too hard its entirely possible that her "being behind" is more in her head than in reality. She may not get DG but honestly you have to do something really stupid to fail field training. I wouldn't sweat it if I were you.

I wasn't actually basing the rent on what the local BAH is I was just looking at being competitive with rentals rates. Just giving the area I would probably be renting to other military people so however much I charge it would be their BAH that was helping pay my mortgage. That was all I meant by that statement.

Bringing a thread back from the dead here since it is kind of close to what I wanted to ask. How many people on here actually own as opposed to rent? And if you do own have you subleased a room in your house? I'm looking to buy a place when I get out to Peterson. I figured out that my BAH will pretty much cover my mortgage+interest. So I'll pay HOA dues and utilities out of pocket. It sucks but its not too bad and not all that much more than renting from what I've been told. My biggest debate is having a roommate. It would be very nice to have somebody else's BAH paying my mortgage for me but after living in a fraternity house 2 years and now in a house with 4 people I'm ready for my own space. I guess it will be a matter of if my greed outweighs my desire to have extra space. I'm sure the fact that I'm a 63A and not in Ops makes a bit of a difference in whether you own or rent. Obviously in pilot training and such it wouldn't make much sense to buy for just a year or so at one location but after that how many bought a house?

We aren't even in D.M. Smith anymore. They kicked us out 2 or 3 years ago and moved us over by the basketball coliseum. Our Col was a Nav but is too laid back, its really the Lt Col that took over as COC two years ago that brought about most of the drastic changes like AS700's registering for Lead Lab.

You categorize with whatever fiscal year you graduate. So FY11 if you stay an extra year.

Good luck with that. My dad lost his brother in a motorcycle accident so convincing my parents proved impossible. Just wait till you graduate college and are completely off their payroll. Then its up to you and they really can't tell you what to do. That being said I still haven't bought one but I've been thinking about it.

I'm not sure if this is motivational or demotivational personally.

I'm going straight in as a 63A. No tour of duty in anything else unless my Cadre just forgot to mention that detail.

I'm non rated and didn't find out last year until June but I think that was just a screw-up at our Det.

If he were planning for the summer of 09 maybe. All the recruiters will filling internship slots from November thru February for the summer. You aren't going to go out on April 21st and find a good internship.

Got a Glock-21 as a 21st birthday present from my dad. I love that gun although its too bulky to carry so I'm looking for a CCW now.

Just deleted it off Wikipedia.

And before anybody who hasn't seen the story gets offended you can read about it here in the link. Moron stole a guys car and then got caught by a car forum in Calgary. If you're a cripple in small city, don't steal a rare car. http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?thr...mp;pagenumber=1