Leaving for the army soon, anyone here have any info on

>Leaving for the army soon
lel ur fucked m8

>>1895063
I put 1% into the TSP at the beginning just to have one open. Honestly it didn't do me any good because I ended up saving about 40% of all the money I made while I was in and got better returns in my other accounts. For lots of dudes it was a method of hiding money from themselves so they didn't spend every red cent at bars or on cigarettes.

If you can even imagine a scenario where you might re-up for any reason go ahead and open one for a small percentage. You'll be given the opportunity during basic training and that's the easiest time to do it because it's just filling out a form that they give you. Once you're in the 'real Army' you'll have to track that shit down at finance and it has the potential to be much more of a pain in the ass.

Some other advise: Start an "I-love-me" book to place all your army-related documents in ASAP because it will come in handy. Save as much money and leave as you can for when it comes time to get out. The transition to civilian life can be rough and having a couple of months of paychecks and 30k to fall back on makes things much easier. Don't marry a stripper. She doesn't love you. She just wants that tricare and she will be entitled to a portion of your shit when you get divorced after she fucks 25 dudes for some weed.

>>1895063
Put it in an L-fund.

The L-fund distributes your money so that it becomes less risky as you get older. It starts at 90% stocks 10% bonds and grows more towards bonds as you reach 59 1/2.

I think it's L-50 is the one that reaches 90% bonds in 2050

>>1895063
Don't forget to enter dependents on your account lol. You know if you die so they can get your money

>>1895897
cant save leave like you used to anymore, can only save 60 days or else it just poofs disappears.

Want some tips about the army? I got some tips.

1. save as much money as fucking possible, put it in cd to keep your grubby hands off it, or invest it right off the bat.

2. keep a fuck me in your savings of a couple grand.

3. buy a cheap used car like a saturn or ford ranger. Do not ever lend anyone the keys, offer rides for gas, but never give anyone the fucking keys ever. Also with a truck you make side cheddar when people are always moving around town.

4. Get married, by this not to some random hoe, find a high school friend, tell her you can get her health insurance or throw her a couple hundred a month. This does two things. A.)gets you out of the ghetto barracks B.) puts more money in your pocket, and gives you an excuse to skip out on shit. If you dont always eat at the dfac.

5. Choose an mos like 25s so you can actually get a job outside of the military.

6. Take online classes for the local community college of wherever home is, have the education shit pay for some of it.

God theres lots more. Dont be a FNG and buy all this cool tactical gear, nowadays you get all the shit you need from cif/unit and if you deploy rfi hooks it up. Only buy gear after you've got some time in the field and figure out what you really need.

Never lend money out to other soldiers, it wont ever come back, and never sign any shit like loans or car leases for them. Theres a lot of retards and a lot of manipulative buddy buddy retards.

Also any medical shit get documented. A little cough, ankle sprain whatever. Command and leadership hates it but it will save your ass with the VA.

how much money do they pay you idiots?

>>1897075
Most people won't save 60 days on their first enlistment. Hell half my company had to go negative for pre deployment leave.

Most of this is also good advise. Except you're going to need to buy a headlamp. Also the most tactical thing you can do is to put your phone and your tobacco in a zip loc freezer bag. Put all your clean clothes in one wet weather bag and your dirty clothes in another. Put your name on every piece of gear and don't loan it out to anybody.

>>1897116
4 1/2 year E-4 making 29k base pay, keep in mind though that we don't pay for housing, get an allowance for food, and the cost of currency differences depending where you're stationed. Add up all that + free education, you're looking at 75k + a year if you're maxing out tuition assistance

Also I work 32 hours a week

>>1895063
Dude, just buy a Mustang bro, you'll get so many bitches.


OOORAH

>>1897299
shit i went negative pre deployment, still managed to ets terminal with 45 days. One tip is for the silly summer block leaves I would request 4 days to maximize the amount of time off and save leave days. A lot of times the company ncoic would be a mech sfc that i was cool with and he would send me home or let us off after a morning formation to make sure we were still alive. The only time i went home in the summer was 4th of july and put a mileage packet in. Then on exodus you can do your leave usually in a way where you dont have to take the max 15 and can drop a four day or two to save some leave.

You're right on that headlamp, i think i got out with like 5 of them, they break, but they are the most useful thing you will ever spend some money on. And as for clothes 1 gal freezer ziplock or if you can find them will be the shit for int he field. Ranger roll your clothes with a pair of socks and undies and you can pack away a few days worth, then sit on it when you ziplock it. Also keep one for just socks if your like me and change your socks more than your shirts and shit.

>>1897335
you dont really get an allowance for food, atleast from what i noticed on my les, it seemed you would make like 30 bucks or so, but the chow hall was closed every other weeekend so i guess thats how they compensated for that money. Its like the song "give ya a hundred dollars, take back 99"

The larger yearly amount that becomes significant is that you dont pay for housing, dont pay for most food, and your healthcare. The healthcare issue sucks because if your in a combat mos leadership will shit on you for not being a man and sucking it up. And thats why when vets get out they all have bad knees and shit, but pogs will be pretty fine but collect a check from the VA, because they still went through sickall and the channels to get shit fixed while in and documetation proving service connection.

Healthcare is a shit show.