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How many leaders out there take the time to teach their soldiers how to manage money?
Yesterday I was at the shoppette on post and a SGT in front of me tried to buy a cup of coffee with his debit card, it was declined. Mind you it was only the 5th of the month and apparently he had no money. Sure it could have been a bad card or reader but all too often I hear soldiers say they don't have money mere days after payday.
Why aren't leaders teaching their subordinates? Better yet how many leaders even know where their subordinates stand financially?
When I was a young buck my leaders would come by my house on occasion, not to white glove inspect but to see how I was living. Why don't leaders do this anymore? I know I have and was disturbed at some things I saw.
Our soldiers are ours 24/7 365 so why aren't leaders involved after duty hours?
I walked into one soldiers house and was immediately greeted by the overwhelming smell of cat urine. A quick glance around showed worn and torn furniture covered in stains and God knows what else. However he had a 60in TV and every game system created. Kids mattresses on the floor because they had no bed frames but he had enormous chrome rims on his car and his wife had designer accessories and manicured nails.
Needless to say we had a discussion back at the office the next day but this was just one example.
It was my policy that if a newly assigned soldier purchased a car near base and their leader was not present to prevent them from being screwed that I would crush the leader. Some say that is overbearing but I know what the "Honest. John's Used Car's" salesman will do. We all know a PVT doesn't need a $30,000 BMW at 27% interest so if you wouldn't take that deal why let a soldier do it?
Many of these kids are just barely off of momma's apron strings if they even had a mother or father growing up. It is our responsibility to mentor and teach in all aspects.
Yesterday I was at the shoppette on post and a SGT in front of me tried to buy a cup of coffee with his debit card, it was declined. Mind you it was only the 5th of the month and apparently he had no money. Sure it could have been a bad card or reader but all too often I hear soldiers say they don't have money mere days after payday.
Why aren't leaders teaching their subordinates? Better yet how many leaders even know where their subordinates stand financially?
When I was a young buck my leaders would come by my house on occasion, not to white glove inspect but to see how I was living. Why don't leaders do this anymore? I know I have and was disturbed at some things I saw.
Our soldiers are ours 24/7 365 so why aren't leaders involved after duty hours?
I walked into one soldiers house and was immediately greeted by the overwhelming smell of cat urine. A quick glance around showed worn and torn furniture covered in stains and God knows what else. However he had a 60in TV and every game system created. Kids mattresses on the floor because they had no bed frames but he had enormous chrome rims on his car and his wife had designer accessories and manicured nails.
Needless to say we had a discussion back at the office the next day but this was just one example.
It was my policy that if a newly assigned soldier purchased a car near base and their leader was not present to prevent them from being screwed that I would crush the leader. Some say that is overbearing but I know what the "Honest. John's Used Car's" salesman will do. We all know a PVT doesn't need a $30,000 BMW at 27% interest so if you wouldn't take that deal why let a soldier do it?
Many of these kids are just barely off of momma's apron strings if they even had a mother or father growing up. It is our responsibility to mentor and teach in all aspects.
Duty
Money
Mentorship
Leadership
Edited 10 y ago
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 3
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Me and the fellow NCO's in my platoon tried to talk about money management with the joes in our platoon about saving money. But you can only do so much. But when we got back from out deployment it was like talking to a wall. One soldier went and bought a thirty thousand dollar truck who cant afford the payments on it. One went and bought a BMW and another bought a Charger. Also we got a problem with soldiers going and getting apartments off post together and not staying in the barracks. Some people don't know how to save money. We tried to teach them to get a car but make sure the payment is not above 15% of your base pay.
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Ok Soldiers buying cars with saved up deployment money is nothing new but you got my attention with the part about soldiers going off post and getting apartments. Do you mean to tell me that soldiers are doing this without permission? If so I would be curious to know what is being done about it.
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I dont think the problem is solely within the ranks, many civilian young adults are doing the same thing. Fortunately for the troops there are leaders like you who are more concerned for them than their own parants might have been. Some kids are taught by their parants yet the child refuses to put the lessons to use, my own son for example, he is smart as a whip and has many wonderful attributes but would rather blow his money on the "now" rather than save it for the future, it makes me sad. My daughter on the other hand is very good with money, she has applied the lessons and even asks questions about how to do more with her savings.
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In my experience we did not really have an issue with our single enlisted aircrew. We did have issues with the non aircrew on the base. I think there was a issue that the airman on aircrew made a pretty good amount more money than their non flying counterparts. The enlisted crews would be able to save a lot of money because they were always on the road. Many deployed 3 to 4 times year, we were on 60 to 90 day cycles. Then when they were not deployed a bunch of them would be on 1 to 2 week overseas trips getting overseas Per Diem which could be around 100 a day. They were able to afford to buy large TV's, game consoles, stereos etc.
The non flyers would buy the same stuff on credit and be in debt pretty fast. The odd thing was that it seemed single airman flyers were better off financially then some of the married counterparts. Every now and then we would get a guy that would go into debt buying too many things all at once, or they were making purchases banking on the assumption they would be deployed or get on a few trips to make up for it.
When it came to buying cars or other high end items, the airman had to get permission from the squadron first sgt.
The non flyers would buy the same stuff on credit and be in debt pretty fast. The odd thing was that it seemed single airman flyers were better off financially then some of the married counterparts. Every now and then we would get a guy that would go into debt buying too many things all at once, or they were making purchases banking on the assumption they would be deployed or get on a few trips to make up for it.
When it came to buying cars or other high end items, the airman had to get permission from the squadron first sgt.
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