Can someone explain the wealthy military officer phenomenon?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

You can live where ever you want. The rule is for your husband, not you and you can live in a cheaper area and not just Bethesda.

Shut up. Even the military, for all its MANY faults, prefers to keep the servicemember with their civilian spouse. Hell, they try to keep dual military couples together.

You were blessed. We were separated two years because of it. Sure, it's nice to stay together but it's not realistic for everyone. Check your privilege but you were probably an officer family.

Um. Enlisted or not, the military never expected your husband to live within a certain radius of his place of employment and for you to not.

Actually, yes they did. We couldn't afford it, so I stayed behind. See how that works.

Troll. You can't "not afford" to move on accompanied orders.

No, we could not afford it. I had a good job and close to retirement. We needed my income till my husband could retire and get a job and start over working their way up which isn’t easy to do in your late 30s.

This really isn’t relevant and you’d think you’d know better than to tell someone just to live apart from their spouse because you chose not to. It’s not that you couldn’t afford it. It didn’t make financial sense.

No, we could not afford it as I did not have a job where he was going and we could not afford to live on just his salary. Enlisted don’t make that much.

Please stop. An E-7 currently makes around $65k a year, plus BAH, plus BAS, but whatever other incentive pay they're entitled to. E.g., enlisted aircrew AIP can be up to $600 a month.

Very few make it to e7 and my spouse did not. You think $65 is a lot of money? Can you live off that? So, no, we could not afford for me to give up my job.

Also, yes, I made $52k when I married my husband, and I lived off it just fine. In Miami, no less.

I made less than that when we married but the pint is it took two incomes. Yea you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

You can live where ever you want. The rule is for your husband, not you and you can live in a cheaper area and not just Bethesda.

Shut up. Even the military, for all its MANY faults, prefers to keep the servicemember with their civilian spouse. Hell, they try to keep dual military couples together.

You were blessed. We were separated two years because of it. Sure, it's nice to stay together but it's not realistic for everyone. Check your privilege but you were probably an officer family.

Um. Enlisted or not, the military never expected your husband to live within a certain radius of his place of employment and for you to not.

Actually, yes they did. We couldn't afford it, so I stayed behind. See how that works.

Troll. You can't "not afford" to move on accompanied orders.

No, we could not afford it. I had a good job and close to retirement. We needed my income till my husband could retire and get a job and start over working their way up which isn’t easy to do in your late 30s.

So you chose to stay for financial reasons. It wasn't that you "couldn't afford" it. The military would have paid your relocation expenses and given your DH accompanied BAH.

No, we could not afford it. Relocation expenses were not the issue.

You chose not to. The military gave your spouse enough BAH to live in Bethesda, because a servicemember with financial issues is a security liability. You decided not to. I get it! We've had to lower our standard of living because BAH didn't go as far in one place as another. But I didn't pretend we "couldn't afford it."

Wrong person. We’ve never lived in Bethesda. And, enlisted bah is very different from officer.

Well, they gave you enough money to live wherever.

Do you think enlisted deserve housing like officers? Do you not understand there are benefits to be salaried vs. hourly, for example? Or that factory workers should live in CEO's just because you would prefer that lifestyle? Your constant insistence that things are different is weird. Sure, the officer lifestyle is different. Do you want it? Then go to school, get a commission, and make it happen. Stop whining you don't earn as much.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

When I married my husband, he was an O-2. He would be getting $1600 a month for housing now based on our location then. How is that lots of money? He would have been getting the same as an E-6! (Because you're wrong, and enlisted DO get money toward housing. Please stop spouting off your ignorance.)

Your ignorance is showing. You have no clue about enlisted. It is a decent amount of money. You don’t have to live in Bethesda and most live in cheaper areas like us.

You know these numbers are public, right? Here, I reduced the rank a bit.

E 5 with DEPENDENTS:
$ 2880.00
E 5 without DEPENDENTS:
$ 2538.00

But keep going about how you can't afford Bethesda.

Have you purchased or rented in Bethesda in the last decade? That's not a lot. I don't think your numbers show what you want them to.

I just did a search on Zillow for rentals. If you don't have dependents, you get a roommate. If you have dependents, you live in a 2 bedroom apartment. It's not tough.

So you acknowledge you can’t get an apartment rental on your own or ever purchase a house at that amount? Stop acting like it’s so much money.

BAH is a housing allowance, not a means to pay your mortgage.

They do it to reduce your pay so you get less in retirement benefits.

Ok. And?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

You can live where ever you want. The rule is for your husband, not you and you can live in a cheaper area and not just Bethesda.

Shut up. Even the military, for all its MANY faults, prefers to keep the servicemember with their civilian spouse. Hell, they try to keep dual military couples together.

You were blessed. We were separated two years because of it. Sure, it's nice to stay together but it's not realistic for everyone. Check your privilege but you were probably an officer family.

Um. Enlisted or not, the military never expected your husband to live within a certain radius of his place of employment and for you to not.

Actually, yes they did. We couldn't afford it, so I stayed behind. See how that works.

Troll. You can't "not afford" to move on accompanied orders.

No, we could not afford it. I had a good job and close to retirement. We needed my income till my husband could retire and get a job and start over working their way up which isn’t easy to do in your late 30s.

This really isn’t relevant and you’d think you’d know better than to tell someone just to live apart from their spouse because you chose not to. It’s not that you couldn’t afford it. It didn’t make financial sense.

No, we could not afford it as I did not have a job where he was going and we could not afford to live on just his salary. Enlisted don’t make that much.

Please stop. An E-7 currently makes around $65k a year, plus BAH, plus BAS, but whatever other incentive pay they're entitled to. E.g., enlisted aircrew AIP can be up to $600 a month.

Very few make it to e7 and my spouse did not. You think $65 is a lot of money? Can you live off that? So, no, we could not afford for me to give up my job.

What? Anyone who makes it to 20 years makes E-7. Are you in your early 20's? You sound like you might be, in which case you probably need to adjust your expectations regarding...life.

Nope. It takes about 25 years or really pushing your career which is hard if you are getting your education or have a family.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

I'm curious what the average DCUM thinks a lot of housing is for the Bethesda area?
For 2024, it's $4260/month for an O6 with dependents in Bethesda. Remember you move often so you don't have a lot of time to build up equity. That person took about 18 years to get to O6. I don't know anyone living large in Bethesda on that. The people we know that are able to live fairly close in are dual earners.
There is so much mis-information on this thread.

O means officer. Clearly you don’t get the differences. Most houses are 800-1,000,000. Most cannot afford it. We could technically do it now but it’s silly to spend that much nor would I want to live in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

You can live where ever you want. The rule is for your husband, not you and you can live in a cheaper area and not just Bethesda.

Shut up. Even the military, for all its MANY faults, prefers to keep the servicemember with their civilian spouse. Hell, they try to keep dual military couples together.

You were blessed. We were separated two years because of it. Sure, it's nice to stay together but it's not realistic for everyone. Check your privilege but you were probably an officer family.

Um. Enlisted or not, the military never expected your husband to live within a certain radius of his place of employment and for you to not.

Actually, yes they did. We couldn't afford it, so I stayed behind. See how that works.

Troll. You can't "not afford" to move on accompanied orders.

No, we could not afford it. I had a good job and close to retirement. We needed my income till my husband could retire and get a job and start over working their way up which isn’t easy to do in your late 30s.

So you chose to stay for financial reasons. It wasn't that you "couldn't afford" it. The military would have paid your relocation expenses and given your DH accompanied BAH.

No, we could not afford it. Relocation expenses were not the issue.

You chose not to. The military gave your spouse enough BAH to live in Bethesda, because a servicemember with financial issues is a security liability. You decided not to. I get it! We've had to lower our standard of living because BAH didn't go as far in one place as another. But I didn't pretend we "couldn't afford it."

Wrong person. We’ve never lived in Bethesda. And, enlisted bah is very different from officer.

Well, they gave you enough money to live wherever.

Do you think enlisted deserve housing like officers? Do you not understand there are benefits to be salaried vs. hourly, for example? Or that factory workers should live in CEO's just because you would prefer that lifestyle? Your constant insistence that things are different is weird. Sure, the officer lifestyle is different. Do you want it? Then go to school, get a commission, and make it happen. Stop whining you don't earn as much.

Actually yes I do.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

When I married my husband, he was an O-2. He would be getting $1600 a month for housing now based on our location then. How is that lots of money? He would have been getting the same as an E-6! (Because you're wrong, and enlisted DO get money toward housing. Please stop spouting off your ignorance.)

Your ignorance is showing. You have no clue about enlisted. It is a decent amount of money. You don’t have to live in Bethesda and most live in cheaper areas like us.

You know these numbers are public, right? Here, I reduced the rank a bit.

E 5 with DEPENDENTS:
$ 2880.00
E 5 without DEPENDENTS:
$ 2538.00

But keep going about how you can't afford Bethesda.

Have you purchased or rented in Bethesda in the last decade? That's not a lot. I don't think your numbers show what you want them to.

I just did a search on Zillow for rentals. If you don't have dependents, you get a roommate. If you have dependents, you live in a 2 bedroom apartment. It's not tough.

So you acknowledge you can’t get an apartment rental on your own or ever purchase a house at that amount? Stop acting like it’s so much money.

BAH is a housing allowance, not a means to pay your mortgage.

They do it to reduce your pay so you get less in retirement benefits.

Ok. And?

Stop whining about how the military get sooooooo much tax free housing allowance that they are scum sucking off the taxpayers all while they live large in retirement.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

I'm curious what the average DCUM thinks a lot of housing is for the Bethesda area?
For 2024, it's $4260/month for an O6 with dependents in Bethesda. Remember you move often so you don't have a lot of time to build up equity. That person took about 18 years to get to O6. I don't know anyone living large in Bethesda on that. The people we know that are able to live fairly close in are dual earners.
There is so much mis-information on this thread.

O means officer. Clearly you don’t get the differences. Most houses are 800-1,000,000. Most cannot afford it. We could technically do it now but it’s silly to spend that much nor would I want to live in Bethesda.

Fill me in because that’s exactly my situation and our BAH and my spouses ranking. What don’t I get? I literally said the people we know have to be dual earning families to live close in and added the actual amount. We only have one earner and must live further out because we can’t afford Bethesda with that BAH. What would you like to clarify?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

When I married my husband, he was an O-2. He would be getting $1600 a month for housing now based on our location then. How is that lots of money? He would have been getting the same as an E-6! (Because you're wrong, and enlisted DO get money toward housing. Please stop spouting off your ignorance.)

Your ignorance is showing. You have no clue about enlisted. It is a decent amount of money. You don’t have to live in Bethesda and most live in cheaper areas like us.

You know these numbers are public, right? Here, I reduced the rank a bit.

E 5 with DEPENDENTS:
$ 2880.00
E 5 without DEPENDENTS:
$ 2538.00

But keep going about how you can't afford Bethesda.

Have you purchased or rented in Bethesda in the last decade? That's not a lot. I don't think your numbers show what you want them to.

Bah has gone up. It was nothing like that when my spouse was active duty. You think that’s a lot when you combine pay at under $70k a year.

Bah goes up when housing goes up. You know it’s tied to the market in that area, right?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It’s because the taxpayer funds a huge portion of their expenses (housing while on base, no down payment for Va loans, the list goes on). Welfare queens to the max

+1. Even one of Reagan's hires (Stockdale, I think his name may be) wrote a book a few years ago describing the US military as socialistic. But if you dare question it, you're labeled a "communist" or worse. DH has several retired military in his family, and when they start bragging about their free health care and whatnot at Thanksgiving, I say "you're welcome."

Maybe when the conversation turns to the safe and free society we live in, your retired military family members can turn to you and say, “You’re welcome.”

Oh, they do, at every turn.

Good, I’m glad you are making sure to thank them for their service.

You are thanking them, right, and that’s why they’re saying, “You’re welcome”?

Thanking them for their service is cringe. They didn’t do it for you.

This.

The elephant in the room is that many people join or stay in the military because it is their best (financial ) option.

That is not politically correct but it is true. (That is why they use bonuses to get them to re-up, not flags or the constitution!)

Come on. That's not true. Of all the officers that got to retirement there isn't a single one I know that did it for a paycheck. Many easier careers that don't totally burn your family and regularly puts you at risk.

Yes, they did it for the pay check, retirement pay and health insurance. No one stays in past 8-10 years except for that. For us, it was the health insurance.

Sure, they stay until 20 for the benefits or you get out pretty quick. That said, all the ones I know actually care about the military and our country. It's not like "showing up" for a paycheck at a 9 to 5.

Yes it’s for the pay check. Yes, it’s the same.

Your non-military job can order you to deploy to a war zone? Your non-military job tells you where you are going to live? No, it's not the same.

Actually yes there are civilian jobs that deploy to war zones and my spouses job dictates where we live.

The pp asked if your job does that and the answer is clearly no. They didn’t ask if it’s possible to take a civilian job that goes to a war zone (by definition they can’t deploy from a civilian job). Those people are called military contractors.
So you don’t get points for dancing around the questions. Your spouse can also quit their job if they don’t want to move in most instances.

[Anonymous]

This is just another hate on military. Feel free to sign up or encourage your children and then maybe you all can enjoy the cushy benefits.

DCUM is not know as military friendly. Shocker there are wealthy people in the military, there are also wealthy civilians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

When I married my husband, he was an O-2. He would be getting $1600 a month for housing now based on our location then. How is that lots of money? He would have been getting the same as an E-6! (Because you're wrong, and enlisted DO get money toward housing. Please stop spouting off your ignorance.)

Your ignorance is showing. You have no clue about enlisted. It is a decent amount of money. You don’t have to live in Bethesda and most live in cheaper areas like us.

You know these numbers are public, right? Here, I reduced the rank a bit.

E 5 with DEPENDENTS:
$ 2880.00
E 5 without DEPENDENTS:
$ 2538.00

But keep going about how you can't afford Bethesda.

Have you purchased or rented in Bethesda in the last decade? That's not a lot. I don't think your numbers show what you want them to.

I just did a search on Zillow for rentals. If you don't have dependents, you get a roommate. If you have dependents, you live in a 2 bedroom apartment. It's not tough.

So you acknowledge you can’t get an apartment rental on your own or ever purchase a house at that amount? Stop acting like it’s so much money.

BAH is a housing allowance, not a means to pay your mortgage.

They do it to reduce your pay so you get less in retirement benefits.

The flipside is the BAH is tax free. An o5 with dependents is getting $4,200. Smart families buy and then sell or rent when the move. If you are smart, you can build a very large nest egg that way

[Anonymous]

The military is the closest thing to democratic socialism we have in the US, and they deserve every penny of it. Wish the rest of us could have similar benefits, but at least someone does!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Straw man. Base officer housing might not be that nice (though why you brought up enlisted housing I have no idea), but BHA definitely is.

Married to an officer. We don’t have access to base housing. Many in the Bethesda area don’t.

This isn't true at all. You have access to base housing on other bases, but you choose to live in Bethesda. You can go to Ft. Mead, Andrews, Bolling, etc.

I actually can’t. Husband has to live within a certain radius of the hospital.

But don’t they still give you lots of money towards your housing costs??

For officers yes, enlisted no and it depends on rank. If they can afford Bethesda they are higher ranking officer.

When I married my husband, he was an O-2. He would be getting $1600 a month for housing now based on our location then. How is that lots of money? He would have been getting the same as an E-6! (Because you're wrong, and enlisted DO get money toward housing. Please stop spouting off your ignorance.)

Your ignorance is showing. You have no clue about enlisted. It is a decent amount of money. You don’t have to live in Bethesda and most live in cheaper areas like us.

You know these numbers are public, right? Here, I reduced the rank a bit.

E 5 with DEPENDENTS:
$ 2880.00
E 5 without DEPENDENTS:
$ 2538.00

But keep going about how you can't afford Bethesda.

Have you purchased or rented in Bethesda in the last decade? That's not a lot. I don't think your numbers show what you want them to.

I just did a search on Zillow for rentals. If you don't have dependents, you get a roommate. If you have dependents, you live in a 2 bedroom apartment. It's not tough.

So you acknowledge you can’t get an apartment rental on your own or ever purchase a house at that amount? Stop acting like it’s so much money.

BAH is a housing allowance, not a means to pay your mortgage.

They do it to reduce your pay so you get less in retirement benefits.

The flipside is the BAH is tax free. An o5 with dependents is getting $4,200. Smart families buy and then sell or rent when the move. If you are smart, you can build a very large nest egg that way

It’s been mentioned a time or two. Really? No one is getting rich doing this when they’ve got a crappy military salary. It makes saving for a down payment incredibly challenging to hold on to a house and buy another when your salary is really low. Sure there’s a VA loan with a less down but you’ll max those out pretty quickly if you buy more than one house. Unless you have other money flowing, this isn’t some amazing strategy. Not only that but you’ve got a rental property across the country to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just another hate on military. Feel free to sign up or encourage your children and then maybe you all can enjoy the cushy benefits.

DCUM is not know as military friendly. Shocker there are wealthy people in the military, there are also wealthy civilians.

+1
With all the big talk here about how great the benefits are, it’s shocking they are having trouble finding people to sign on! Send your kids to the service academies for free education DCUM! (Yep, I’ve seen how those threads go).