I'm with noonin on this. I used it to buy a new car (emotional purchase, but damnit i wanted it!) and my fiance a wedding ring. I had some left over for other expenses, and if you've never been a 2d Lt before let me tell you - you may not get paid for 2-3 months, or at least not get paid correctly, you may buy a house at your base and need a down payment, you may want to install cable, pay your bills, and at the very least pay off your student loans with it (3% vs 6%, SAVE money by taking out a loan!).

Your choice. Don't use it to party with. I know a guy who did that and he was a lush, blew 25k his senior year and thought he was entitled to it. He was a shit O and was given the choice between a crap assignment or getting out. That's basically how the AF fires you.

Do you think real millionaires use credit cards?

Yes, most do.

As a matter of fact, most very successful business owners had to get credit (i.e. venture capital to start their business). It's not necessarily a credit card... but same general principle.

The loan is leverage (at 2%). It all depends on how you use it.

Just in case anyone is looking for some more information about the USAA Career Starter loan, I put up a blog post about:

Is the USAA Career Starter Loan a Good Deal?

Also, here's how I used my USAA cadet loan. Basically, I took $15k, invested in 50% large cap, 25% small cap, and 25% international mutual funds. The other $10k I put into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 year CDs at $2000 to create a CD ladder.

After letting the $15k grow for 1.5 years, I sold it, and paid off another student loan I had at 6.8% (my USAA loan is at 2.99%). I've got about $10,000 left to pay off on on the USAA loan. The CD ladder I've just let mature and become my emergency fund.