If you’re a military family...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband is an O5. I am a SAHM. We max out our Roths each year and put $500 a month into our kids 529s ($250 each). My husband transferred his full GI Bill to them evenly, so they will both have two years of college plus housing paid for by the GI Bill.

Additionally, we put $700 to $1000 in a non retirement brokerage account made up of Vanguard ETFs.

We have 6 months of expenses in a savings account.

We both own relatively nice cars, Volvo and an Audi, and we don't have loans on either. We own a house in another state and our rental income is about $500 above the mortgage payment.

We rent a single family home in Alexandria for $3800 a month.

In non pandemic times, we take one or two big vacations a year, and around five long weekend trips.

After all that, we still have extra money at the end of most months. We live pretty frugally though. We get takeout once a week. I cut the kids' hair myself. We don't buy new clothes or shoes very often. We use 3 year old cell phones. We have a Netflix subscription and no other tv services. My kids both do sports, but just on local rec teams, so not very expensive.

I think it comes down to how you are spending your money. My best friend from college is a doctor and so is her husband and they have less disposable income than we do. And that is because they have a giant mortgage and car loans. Their kids play travel sports that cost $10k a year. They eat out four nights a week and belong to a fancy gym and she gets her hair and nails done once a week. Not to mention the med school loans they both have.

If you really feel like you aren't living as well as other military of similar rank, I would suggest taking a good look at your monthly expenditures.

Ignore PP. This is a well thought out plan. What is your HHI, NW and ages?

It’s a nice plan for higher ranking officers or dual income families but that’s not how most live. Op has high housing costs.

I was under the impression that OP was married to a higher ranking officer. I missed what her housing costs are. Even BAH for a lower ranking officer (O3) in this area is $3200 a month. That seems like a pretty decent amount to me, especially since she has a job also.

[Anonymous]

Dh was a military doctor. The people we know in the military are officers now and have very good lifestyles. I would say half have working wives and half have stay at home wives. All vacation a little but no one I know travels what I would consider luxuriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Let me guess you only know officers. You don’t need $10k a month to retire. Most live on far less.

The OP is an officer family...so we aren't talking about enlisted.

If you live in an expensive locale then you need more than 5K a month. Neither of us come from inexpensive areas of the country so even if we left DC and went "home" 5K wouldn't cut it.

She started the discussion about military families. Not high ranking officer families. Once your kids are out of the house, you own a house, $5K is plenty.

[Anonymous]

The military officers we know are cheapskates when it comes to their kid's college education, but renovate their kitchens multiple times and will own 2 newer SUVs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The military officers we know are cheapskates when it comes to their kid's college education, but renovate their kitchens multiple times and will own 2 newer SUVs.

They have guaranteed paychecks and often military parts for their education so they don’t know to save. Some have gi bills they can give to their kids but depending on when you were in, you may not have one like my spouse. We save heavily for college as being enlisted and not having that opportunity, you want your kids to have a better and easier life and appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The military officers we know are cheapskates when it comes to their kid's college education, but renovate their kitchens multiple times and will own 2 newer SUVs.

Totally and completely agree. Not must military though. I see that in all. $1M+ houses plus renovations and expensive cars, trips, clothes but will justify not spending for children’s education

[Anonymous]

Why do you care if the military family is saving for college? Don’t they have gi bills? And what if the kids went to school on their own dimes?

My parents didn’t pay a penny for my college or grad school. DH was on a military scholarship.

[Anonymous]

DH is an O5 and I work at a nonprofit. We have save $400k for three kids (6th, 3rd and 1st grades) in 529s. We also have 30 months of GI benefits. Would love to know strategies for using GI (i.e. majority to older child to let the 529s grow).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH is an O5 and I work at a nonprofit. We have save $400k for three kids (6th, 3rd and 1st grades) in 529s. We also have 30 months of GI benefits. Would love to know strategies for using GI (i.e. majority to older child to let the 529s grow).[/https://www.katehorrell.com/whats-your-gi-bill-strategy/

I thought this made some good points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The military officers we know are cheapskates when it comes to their kid's college education, but renovate their kitchens multiple times and will own 2 newer SUVs.

Totally and completely agree. Not must military though. I see that in all. $1M+ houses plus renovations and expensive cars, trips, clothes but will justify not spending for children’s education

We are saving for college. Not saving properly for college is not limited to military. We know physicians who struggle paying for private colleges.

Anyone who is middle or even UMC may have difficulty saving hundreds of thousands of dollars for children’s college. Many don’t have proper retirement savings either. This has nothing to do with the military. You can always wonder how Sally or John have such an expensive house. Maybe they overspent on the house. Maybe they went into debt. Maybe a rich grandmother passed away and they received an inheritance.

We live in Mclean. I don’t wonder who has and who doesn’t. We live below our means and send our kids to public school. We travel a lot. I don’t care who thinks we are saving or not. We did a 500k home renovation.

[Anonymous]

Op, you guys probably have a HHI of ~$200k. This is not a military question but a UMC question.

I have a friend who is a SAHM with a military spouse. They seem like they manage their money well. Whenever they move, they buy and rent out. They have 3-4 homes now. Most of their travel is to visit family and they take one vacation per year. They follow a budget and she spends wisely. They go way further with their ~100k than some other friends I have who have HHI of $200-300k who have much more expensive lifestyles, require childcare, eat out all the time, luxury cars, etc.

[Anonymous]

This is such a classic officer wife mentality. The post oozes arrogance and is a shameless (and odd) brag.

“Id love to hear about your savings if you are a military family” 😂 so fake I cannot even deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... are you saving for retirement and kids’ college? My DH is an active duty military officer, and I’m a teacher. I don’t make a ton of money but have managed to be employed everywhere we’ve been stationed. The vast, vast majority of my husband’s colleagues are men with stay at home wives. We are constantly baffled at how these families seem to have tons more disposable income than we do. Trips (yes, even through covid), bigger houses that they seem to buy at every duty station, luxury vehicles... Don’t get me wrong, we live comfortably, but we take minimal vacations, have old cars, and a small rental house everyplace we go. We are diligently saving for retirement and kids’ college. But I blown away when I see how our day-to-day lifestyle is so much more low cost than these contemporaries... when I know (due to the fact that the military pay is about even and I work and most wives don’t) that our HHI is considerably higher. My husband says he is certain that none of his colleagues are putting away the $1500/month college tuition we are. And that the others are probably just counting on the military pension plus making $$$ working for a contractor after retiring from the military.

I’m posting this here because I obviously can’t directly (and rudely) ask this if our military friends and aquaintances in real life. I’m genuinely curious. I’d love to hear about your savings if you are a military family. Thanks!!

I'm in the Foreign Service which shares some similarities with military officer families. At first glance salaries are quite flat so families' financial circumstances should be similar. However, there are considerable differences when you consider whether/how often both spouses work, kids, and the allowances and differentials earned at different posts (plus to what extent and officer serves domestically versus abroad--FS receive housing abroad but no housing assistance when serving domestically). Add to that differences in family money plus whether officers enter with student loans or savings from pre-FS work (perhaps less relevant for military). Then layer on top of that the fact that different families have different financial priorities. This is will result in different lifestyles and different net worths. So...no family with exactly your earnings and circumstances is somehow affording to save like you do and have a splashier lifestyle, likely those you're observing have different priorities and circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is such a classic officer wife mentality. The post oozes arrogance and is a shameless (and odd) brag.

“Id love to hear about your savings if you are a military family” 😂 so fake I cannot even deal.

To them enlisted don't exist...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! We make about 350K per year and max out everything. That's sound financial planning. His 5K pension is only about half we'll need in retirement.

So, you are comparing yourself to making $350k to other families making $60-100K... and you need $10K a month in retirement. You sound very high maintenance.

Who makes 60-100K? Most of the military families we know in the DC area are making 200K+

Not sure what you mean by high maintenance. We are 20+ years from retirement so 10K won't be worth what it is today.

Let me guess you only know officers. You don’t need $10k a month to retire. Most live on far less.

The OP is an officer family...so we aren't talking about enlisted.

If you live in an expensive locale then you need more than 5K a month. Neither of us come from inexpensive areas of the country so even if we left DC and went "home" 5K wouldn't cut it.

She started the discussion about military families. Not high ranking officer families. Once your kids are out of the house, you own a house, $5K is plenty.

Who owns a home outright by the time they retire? When someone moves every 2 years they might hang on to one property in Fort Hood Texas but that's not exactly buying you much anywhere else.

The OP is an officer's wife - she says so. They will be getting 5K+ in retirement or nothing at all (20 years or bust).

I have a financial planner because we are wealthier than most. So appreciate your thoughts, but I'll trust the professionals.