The Money Fit Show · Season 1, Episode 32
Maximizing the Financial Benefits of Joining the US Military
Military service can provide pay, retirement savings opportunities, education benefits, training, and access to financial counseling, but those benefits are easier to use well when a service member has a plan. Mario Pile returns to The Money Fit Show to discuss thinking beyond the next paycheck and deciding what you want military service to help you build.
Planning what you want from military service
Play Season 1, Episode 32 directly through Spotify without leaving Money Fit.
Military benefits are more useful when they are connected to a long-term plan
Mario Pile and Todd Christensen discuss a problem Mario observed both through his own military experience and his work with veterans: some service members enter the military focused mainly on receiving a steady paycheck without first deciding what they want their years of service to help them accomplish.
Military compensation can include much more than base pay. Depending on service, eligibility, and circumstances, a service member may have access to retirement savings through the Thrift Savings Plan, education benefits through programs such as the GI Bill®, job training, financial counseling, and other resources.
The larger lesson is to learn what is available while there is still time to use it. Someone who understands a benefit early in their military career has more opportunity to build it into decisions about saving, education, training, future employment, and the eventual transition back to civilian life.
Topics covered in this episode
- Thinking proactively about what you want military service to help you accomplish rather than focusing only on the immediate paycheck.
- Learning about the Thrift Savings Plan and available GI Bill® education benefits early enough to include them in longer-term financial and education planning.
- Finding military financial-readiness professionals and personal financial counselors who can help service members understand benefits, budgeting, saving, credit, retirement, and other financial decisions.
- The episode's discussion about evaluating the value of higher education by considering cost, benefits, career goals, and available military education assistance rather than looking only at the sticker price.
- Considering community college as one possible lower-cost route toward a degree or future university transfer when it fits the student's goals and education plan.
- The wide range of career fields, technical specialties, education opportunities, and leadership paths available across enlisted and officer service.
Know the benefit before the opportunity to use it passes
A retirement account, education benefit, training opportunity, or financial counselor cannot help much if a service member never learns it exists. Early in a military career, identify the financial and education benefits available to you, understand the decisions required to use them, and revisit those benefits as your goals change.
Financial, education, and transition resources
Mario's former direct staff page has changed since this episode aired. These links point to current official resources for Veterans Upward Bound, military financial readiness, retirement savings, and VA education benefits.
Mario Pile
Mario Pile returned to The Money Fit Show after his earlier discussion about Veterans Upward Bound and the transition from military service into education and civilian life.
At the time of this episode, Mario served as Project Director of Veterans Upward Bound at Boise State University. A U.S. Air Force veteran himself, he brought both personal military experience and professional work with veterans to the discussion about education benefits, retirement savings, career planning, and making purposeful use of military service.
