What financial issues do service members struggle with most and why?

In my experience, the soldiers who have struggles is because they don't do any financial planning. Not just the brand new privates that go out and buy expensive cars either.

Within my first 4 1/2 years I deployed twice and reenlisted twice. I got a bonus each time. I had about $40K saved up due to deployments and the bonuses - and not having many bills. I had a car payment and my cell phone. I had internet after the second deployment. That's it since I lived in the barracks til I made SSG.

I would have probably a hell of a lot more if not for my ex husband. I've been able to start saving again and have almost 20K after paying off credit card that he racked up and only have a car payment left (I traded in my last car when it was about paid off and got the one I have).

Prior to him I also would not charge too much on a card and would pay off immediately.

I do kick myself that I never did a TSP though.

I know that things do happen and sometimes shit hits the fan and unforeseen things happen that cause people to lose everything at times. But some people just don't know how to manage money. They have a spouse who can't manage money. Things like that.

I believe the main reason Service Members have financial problems is lack of personal financial management training. My kids are mature adults now, but I know they didn't get any training in high school on how to manage money. They had to rely on our family for what little knowledge they gained about financial basics such as managing a checking account. We were challenged ourselves and did a poor job teaching our kids. Our saving grace was automated personal finance programs. We started with a simple checkbook program on an Apple IIe (yes, I'm that old) and moved on to using Quicken on our PC. These programs greatly simplified keeping track of income and expenses and budgeting for the family. I highly recommend personal financial management software.

In the current economy, inflation will take an increasingly bigger bite out of paychecks. The DoD may give a cost-of-living pay raise, but that's based on history, not predictions of future inflation pressures. Consequently, military members will always lag behind the cost of living under current administration economic policies. Fortunately for the Service Members, this may be a temporary situation because it's likely, IMO, that the Democrats will be voted out of Congressional majority in 2022 and the Administration's poor economic policies will be moderated or reversed.

Lack of investment was a major shortfall in my military experience. We didn't invest any of our pay during my 22 years of service. We only had minimal savings. The expenses of raising 3 kids were a major factor along with lack of money management education. The DoD has helped this situation by introducing TSP. This at least gives all Service Members an opportunity to invest some part of their pay for their future. If I had started investing only a small part of my pay when I was a 2LT and kept up systematic investment for the next 40+ years of my working life, I would be a lot better off financially than I am now. Again, it's all about understanding money.

Start early, finish early. We were married at 18 years old. We had our first child on my 19th birthday. We had three kids by the time we were 25. When I commissioned we had one child and one on the way. The increase in salary from poor college student working part-time to full time 2LT was great. We thought we were rich. We weren't smart enough to save any of the "excess" money, but spent it on improving our standard of living. Then came multiple TDYs and a PCS after pilot training. The Government covered a lot of our expenses for these moves, but not all. We arrived at our first duty station nearly broke. We rented an inexpensive apartment off base. After a year we climbed far enough up the housing list to get a three-bedroom duplex on base--one of the best deals ever! We lived paycheck to paycheck as our kids grew. We were fortunate enough to have enough money so my wife could choose to be a stay-at-home mom. This was a great benefit to our kids--a fact they frequently acknowledge. Our youngest kid finished high school the year I retired from the Air Force. As all of the kids became self-sufficient, we had some discretionary funds. My civilian job offered a 401k and we invested for the first time. Over the next 30 years we invested in a 401k and TSP so we have a small retirement savings account.

1) I don’t think service members have any more or less or different financial struggles than anyone else in America. It’s just better documented and tracked. These problems persist everywhere with those with no fiscal education.

2) I think service members by their very nature of having cash flow security (we know how to reach you wherever you run off to) are targets for creditors and excessive consumerism.

3) I think there is a subset of young service members who all the sudden come into financial security (they never remotely had prior to their service) that gets taken advantage of by creditors and consumerism.

4) The moment they enter the service into the training system they are earning money. That money is not usable, in that while in training SM’s are fed, housed, and clothed. They don’t have any freedom to even use that money. Then all the sudden, once let out of the gate they have accumulated a nice fat down payment for whatever crazy thing that comes to mind. This can be compounded even further when they continue to be cared for if they live in the barracks.
a. This also applies to service members that get put on deployments who accumulate significant savings while in a position unable to spend it until they finally get home with a fat savings account.

5) Examples of predatory lenders or sellers.
a. Why on earth was there vehicle sales kiosks in a WAR ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How is it there was a BRAND NEW Harley Davidson in f-ing BAF on display for service members to be tempted by?????
b. I’ve gone to a few “Veteran” job fairs, and more than half the vendors there were education institutions ready to pounce on that GI Bill money. So more were there to TAKE than to GIVE.

The final cumulation of my rant:

Young adults need to be able to exit high school with the ability to make informed consumer purchasing decisions in life. At the very least, they need to be able UNDERSTAND the entirety of the financial decision when buying a home, financing a car, or saving for the future.

I am a CFA/MBA and it took me over half an hour to build the Excel model to back into the actual financing costs of a ZERO PERCENT INTEREST LOAN for a car, and make it so I could change the variables to apply to any loan and price terms. A loan is NOT ZERO percent if the price of the car is not the same if you were to pay full in cash right there. That there kids is why word problems in math are so important to understand.

That is what’s wrong with our society. Financial consequences are hidden in highly complex financial terms and not disclosed in a manner a layman can understand. We all face this. Service members are merely looked under the microscope a little closer.