Active Military Driving $80K+ cars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running joke in military circles actually. Many, many have cars above means.

Also, veterans get preferences for fed jobs. So what they typically do is get a fed job after leaving the military. Once their clearance is processed and they start their new job, they will talk to other vets who are collecting 40k/yr in disability. And they will inevitably apply for disability due to their "PTSD" despite never having seen a second of actual combat.

+1. And then once they start collecting their disability, they buy an expensive car. If you live in VA, ‘disabled’ veterans don’t pay personal property taxes on their cars or on property taxes on their primary residences. So they collect their retirement, their GS 13-15 pay, and their ‘disability’. Look around. There’s an influx of Virginia plates with red ‘DV’ letters on them the past few years. There is an entire Reddit complete with guides and links on how to get to 100% disabled status. Veteran’s Benefits are ballooning out of control, but it’s a political sacred cow to touch. It’s not sustainable.

Rest assured that you sleep at peace tonight because of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, & Marines defending you and yours. Those disabled veterans spent the best part of their lives in far-flung places around the world selflessly doing their duty. Only in Maryland, DC, and NOVA do attitudes like yours exist. I feel sorry for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running joke in military circles actually. Many, many have cars above means.

We live near Ft Carson. A lot of young soldiers enlist then buy muscle cars or pickup trucks as soon as they get their first paycheck. And then the army moves them here from Texas and they end up in a ditch the first time it snows because they have factory tires on a real wheel drive vehicle and have never driven in snow before.

You probably see the AFA kids with great cars too! I grew up in that area.
Remember that many officers never paid anything for school, were paid during school, have advantageous tax situations, and moonlight with good 2nd jobs (my relative who is a military orthopedic surgeon does this and makes bank). They also get great retirements if they stay in long term so they can double dip.

[Anonymous]

They don’t really have much by way of housing costs, right? The military provides a nontax giusing allowance for those who can’t live on base that in this area can, I think, clear $3,500 a month. The FL thing is a thing too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don’t really have much by way of housing costs, right? The military provides a nontax giusing allowance for those who can’t live on base that in this area can, I think, clear $3,500 a month. The FL thing is a thing too.

^ housing

[Anonymous]

The military has tons of benefits, including college paid for for a kid, if one can stick it out in a safe, desk jockey job for awhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don’t really have much by way of housing costs, right? The military provides a nontax giusing allowance for those who can’t live on base that in this area can, I think, clear $3,500 a month. The FL thing is a thing too.

It's closer to 4k for an officer with dependents. Also, two officers can pretty much double the allowance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running joke in military circles actually. Many, many have cars above means.

Also, veterans get preferences for fed jobs. So what they typically do is get a fed job after leaving the military. Once their clearance is processed and they start their new job, they will talk to other vets who are collecting 40k/yr in disability. And they will inevitably apply for disability due to their "PTSD" despite never having seen a second of actual combat.

+1. And then once they start collecting their disability, they buy an expensive car. If you live in VA, ‘disabled’ veterans don’t pay personal property taxes on their cars or on property taxes on their primary residences. So they collect their retirement, their GS 13-15 pay, and their ‘disability’. Look around. There’s an influx of Virginia plates with red ‘DV’ letters on them the past few years. There is an entire Reddit complete with guides and links on how to get to 100% disabled status. Veteran’s Benefits are ballooning out of control, but it’s a political sacred cow to touch. It’s not sustainable.

Rest assured that you sleep at peace tonight because of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, & Marines defending you and yours. Those disabled veterans spent the best part of their lives in far-flung places around the world selflessly doing their duty. Only in Maryland, DC, and NOVA do attitudes like yours exist. I feel sorry for you.

Oh please. The former JAG attorney I worked with was a disabled veteran because he had carpal tunnel from his time behind a desk. There’s plenty of fraud, waste, and abuse going on with veterans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t really have much by way of housing costs, right? The military provides a nontax giusing allowance for those who can’t live on base that in this area can, I think, clear $3,500 a month. The FL thing is a thing too.

It's closer to 4k for an officer with dependents. Also, two officers can pretty much double the allowance.

Bottom line is that some officers can live large, even in DC. Nothing wrong with that, necessarily. But taxpayers need to know.

[Anonymous]

How is this any different than GS-11 HR people driving $100k SUVs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Husband is retired now, former Air Force, but there was a certain type of power couple we encountered often enough in the aviation community that it became recognizable over time. It wouldn't surprise me at all that their kids would attend a private or Catholic school in Alexandria when they did their tour at the Pentagon or Andrews. We always wondered how some of them afforded it, and while I'm sure there might have been family money sometimes or the wife may have had a secret job no one ever talked about, some had to have just been trying really hard to project a certain image but the cars were leased and they weren't saving much.

This is a couple I know. Aviation (husband) + finance (wife). Could definitely afford whatever they want.

Knew some Air Force couples in their twenties who assumed husband would get a lucrative pilot job when he left the Air Force. They didn’t save at all because they assumed there would be big bucks down the road.

[Anonymous]

We’re a dual income family spouse is military and we pay everything in cash- brand new cars houses etc and it’s family money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re a dual income family spouse is military and we pay everything in cash- brand new cars houses etc and it’s family money.

The inside-the-beltway DCUM snobs can’t believe there is more than a smattering of family money in the military. They fail to grasp the demographics of kids attending the service academies and of families with flag-rank officers in 2-3-4 generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re a dual income family spouse is military and we pay everything in cash- brand new cars houses etc and it’s family money.

Just because you have cash, doesn’t mean not taking on debt is smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re a dual income family spouse is military and we pay everything in cash- brand new cars houses etc and it’s family money.

The inside-the-beltway DCUM snobs can’t believe there is more than a smattering of family money in the military. They fail to grasp the demographics of kids attending the service academies and of families with flag-rank officers in 2-3-4 generations.

Yeah, great look when your flag officer look more like the British aristocracy than the young men and women they lead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re a dual income family spouse is military and we pay everything in cash- brand new cars houses etc and it’s family money.

The inside-the-beltway DCUM snobs can’t believe there is more than a smattering of family money in the military. They fail to grasp the demographics of kids attending the service academies and of families with flag-rank officers in 2-3-4 generations.

Yeah, great look when your flag officer look more like the British aristocracy than the young men and women they lead.

Typical DCUM. What does this even mean^^^? My DH was an immigrant to this country and retired as an O-5 at 20 years. This meant nonstop moving for my family as I tried to balance a career in managing nonprofits.

It is incredibly difficult for traveling spouses to have successful careers and the ones that do, apparently are belittled on DCUM. Some how we aren’t deserving of financial success because “we” owe MORE than others think we deserve. I was luckily enough to work “remotely” before it was a right and tried to hirer other professional military spouses to pay forward my “leg up”. DH retired last year and I make more than his civilian salary, disability and retirement combined—working for nonprofits. How much does my family need to give to be deserving of “nice things.” We’ve given up our extended families, sacrificed untold amounts of weekends and holidays for service. Apparently we don’t deserve financial freedom.