Hello Dude,
One thing not yet brought up, is that one thing you will be entitled to (in addition to your base pay and possible bonuses) would be BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing). As non-prior service, you may not have considered or known about this.
For Active Army, the current BAH rate for E-1 through E-4 with dependents for DC053 is $1614 per month. You may draw this rate while in Initial Entry status. Once you are assigned to Ft. Bragg for the pipeline, it will probably be considered a permanent duty station for pay purposes (QP's please correct me here if I am incorrect) and your authorized BAH rate would drop to the rate for the local area (NC182) which is $867.00 per month for E-1 through E-4.
The rate for National Guard may be slightly different, and there may be different rules as to what location your BAH can be based on (you might get to keep the BAH or something close to it for DC instead of Ft. Bragg).
Good luck to you whatever your course of action.
You can read up on BAH/etc.
>>HERE<<
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Originally Posted by The Dude
Hello everyone.
I was wondering if someone could maybe give me some advice or tell me how they might have dealt with a situation similar to mine.
I'd like to join 20th SF as a REP-63, I'd be looking at maybe leaving early spring or so.
What I've been struggling with is how to afford it. I currently make in the mid 50s. I'm not worried about affording deployments so much, because I know there are some bonus and tax incentives, etc. What worries me is the initial training OSUT, Airborne, SFAS, etc.) and how to overcome that income disparity.
It's not that I'm whining about the pay, it's just that housing in my area is notoriously expensive (DC Metro), so our house payment is a fairly significant part of our monthly budget. I have my first child on the way, and I'd prefer not to lose my house in serving my country. It'd also be a much easier sale to the wife if I could assure her that our financial risk is minimal. Do you guys know of any options I might have, or know other guys that were in a similar situation and how they handled it?
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