Im 20 years old. My spouse and I will be ending our 1 year long distance in August 2025. We don’t have our finances together right now however we both have separate HYSA and separate bank accounts. We just want to know the best way to deal with our finances once we move in. We will be bringing in together roughly 5-6k monthly. Also we are looking to rent out an apartment or use our VA Loan to buy a house. We are both debt free.

Hello, I am 21 yrs old and have been active duty for about 2.5 yrs. Currently I am contributing 25% to traditional TSP and have 9k in it. I also invest $800 a month to my personal brokerage account and have roughly 20k in. I also have a Roth IRA w 1.5k(do not currently contribute to this). I’m looking into a few options to change things up. 1) Is maxing out my Roth IRA starting this year and dropping my Trad TSP to 5-10% to keep the 5% match. 2) Start contributions to the Roth tsp with the 25% I already contribute to trad tsp(or whatever will max it out). And 3) stay with trad tsp and keep doing everything the same. I don’t understand what the benefit of the traditional tsp is. Like how is it any different than my brokerage account (with long term holdings only) aside from the 5% match? Also what is the difference between my Roth IRA and Roth TSP? If it’s negligible I’d like to manage it more than just picking c and s fund. Any insights on this would be much appreciated.

Hope everyone is doing well, I have been married for 6 months now but finance would not let me get BAH because of wife living in another state. I am PCSing in March and my wife is coming with me. Will I receive back pay from the start date that we got married? And is it possible for me to start my BAH before I leave my current duty station?

Thanks in advance!

So I’ve been putting 10% in my Roth TSP and I just recently opened a Roth IRA, and I have a few questions to about it and to make sure I’m doing this right.

For my TSP, I’ve been doing the 10% of my base pay and then going 100% into the C Fund since I got out of boot camp in November. I’ve been watching my money grow slowly since. If I’m understanding it right, 10% of each paycheck should be going into my tsp. So if I’m getting paid 900, 90 of it goes into the TSP, but I haven’t seen my much growth into my TSP like that since the end of December. Like I have about $273 into right now and it’s been teetering between 260-270 all of January. Unless I’m looking at the site wrong or something. I’m also looking at my contributions page and it says my balance type is Traditional even though I have it changed to Roth in mypay.

For my IRA, I opened it up and just put 100 into my IRA and wondering what a good % of my paycheck I should be contributing to it and what I should invest in. I hear a lot of people say I should invest into 500s like S&P and VTSAX, and I should be trying to max my IRA every year. I’m just wondering what are things I should be looking out for as I’m putting my money into it and if I’m doing it right at all.

My lender is currently quoting me at 6.5% VA loan and 6.7% conventional loan. Obviously the VA loan has the funding fee. The house is $375,000 and I’m comfortable putting $40,000 down on the house.

He is steering me in the direction of the conventional loan as it doesn’t have the funding fee but I would have to pay PMI on the house which he said averages around .28%.

It does have an unfinished basement that we could do to increase equity but we wouldn’t do that right away. If I could get the equity above 20% than I could remove the PMI but on the VA loan I’m still .25% less interest.

I’m also not sure if we would finance right away because it may not be a forever home for us (3 - 10 years) depending if I have to move for work in the future (I’m a pilot).

His decision on recommending the conventional is that we could refinance on it within a year or two and we wouldn’t be out the funding fee that we would have had to pay upfront on with the VA loan. However, historically VA loans generally have better interest rates.

I’m trying to gather information and decide whether VA loan is better and if I should put 0 down and try to invest the money I saved and out perform the interest on the loan.

Hey people, I'm nearing that 2 year mark to cancel and I must have mist understood or got suckered into the only time to opt in, or was under the impression it'd pay to my parents. Unless they just messed up at opt'd me in, but I'm going to assume it was me and not them.

I have SRB, but I've been single the whole time. Don't think it's worth paying into? Or was this an error if it's non transferable. The info online I might be smooth braining but was a bit vague on transfers.

I don't expect to get married to be frank, and never know if that'll change though I highly doubt it. So at this point feel like I'm just washing nearly 200 bucks down the drain each month.

I did see it'd change after 10 years at 100% rating. Which I'm at 90, with paperwork in for 100% so would it worth eating 10 more years of it to have it free should I magically get married in X years?

Seems 100% waste to me, but at same time don't want to kick myself 5,10, 20 years down the road.
But again at same time 6% is a lot of be, effectively, throwing away on a "what if"...

Thanks in advance for any info, advice, etc.

Short backstory. SIL and daughter have a 3 year old child. They got married in August, but separated in Novemeber. Her and their child lived with him just long enough for him to start receiving his BAH, other than those 2 months she 100% supported herself and their son all year. He is now deployed to Poland and daughter and son are back in their home state. SIL plans to still collect the full BAH based on being married with a dependant but agreed to send $100 each paycheck for child support and that is all hes willing to do. Now he's refusing to file taxes together also. Which means my daughter will lose EITC and she desperately needs the money since he's left her in a huge financial mess.

I'm trying to help my daughter find some leverage to get him file together so they can evenly split the return which benefits them both. Can the military take away his BAH if they find out he's not supporting his wife and barely helping with his child? Or force him to send her money? Would filing married filing separately raise any red flags? I'm not trying to get him in trouble or make him pay more money. I just want to be able to inform them BOTH what their options are and the consequences of those actions. Ideally they would file together, split it 50/50 and maybe he could send a portion of the BAH to her so she can keep a roof over their sons head.

I want to buy a car from dealership because I’m planning to drive from California to my pcs order which is Washington but I heard that you need to register your vehicle in the state you are in so I’m kinda confused on that do I need to talk to my dealership in cali and tell them that I’ll be staying in washington is there any tips you can give me thank you!

If my husband is active duty with his home of record being GA but he is stationed in NC which state does he pay taxes too? I pay to NC state taxes but it is trying to have us owe to NC because his state taxes went to GA. How do I handle this while filing?

Hello!

My spouse and I were both domiciled in Texas. Spouse was stationed in California. I moved there eventually after we got married and worked as an RN. We filed our taxes under our home state of TX (no income tax), but I keep getting notices from the tax board in California (for the past 3 years) saying that I am still required to pay California income taxes. The first 3 notices, I informed them of MSRRA and they told me I was exempt and I would stop receiving the notices. I received another notice last month and told them the same thing and was told the same thing. Now, I have received ANOTHER call from them saying that I need to pay income taxes. I honestly am just so annoyed (for all the times I have had to call them and their ridiculously long wait times) and am just wondering if there were any other military spouses who have been a similar situation? I've even asked other military spouses (who also were RN's and had different home states) and they told me that they were covered under MSRRA. Am I crazy or am I missing something?!!

EDIT: They said I'm good and exempt again lol.

I’m a federal civilian who is going to enlist. I plan on working til late march, burning three weeks of sick leave then going to bootcamp late April.

With the new offer to pay out federal employees, assuming the gov honors the deal, could I receive that money while being in the military? My thoughts were that could be double dipping. The email does say you can find outside employment…

I heard that military retired pay can be tax exempt by submitting a w4 and other paperwork? Will it have to be paid back at tax time?

Quick question. What kind of pension does an airline pilot at a legacy get?

Can you stack all of these together?

So I just PCS’d and and with the way I have my rent set up in my new house the money is automatically taken out of my paycheck on the first, this is the first time they’ve taken the money from my paycheck and I only got paid(my rent is either however much my BAH is or whatever the market value for the apartment is) $500. My question is shouldn’t I have been paid more than just $500 if I’m an E-4 with a dependent?

AF E-1

My child’s father is navy and has our child down as a dependent. He gets extra money for her on a monthly basis. Would I still be able to claim her on my taxes or does it have to be him?

Im working as a Electrician but it doesn’t pay much here.

I was wondering about the military,the missions and stuff look really interesting but my only worry would be my salary,would I be able to live comfortably in the military?

I was looking into aviation(AMT) and if I don’t stay the full 20 then I’ll get my A&P and be a aircraft mechanic on the outside.I plan on using the benefits to try to get a degree while im in.

Just wondering how is the retirement pay, for those officers who have had the ability to retire at Captain or Major at 20-25 years of service?

How does your VA rating help/hinder you?

How much can I do with miltax? I will be filing MFJ with my spouse. There will be W-2, K-1, and 1099 income. Wondering if it will suffice or I’ll need to purchase TurboTax or freetaxusa. Thanks!

I’ve been two years in and is the first time I heard about SCRA. I had a loan before joining the military and already paid a year ago. Can I apply now SCRA even tho the loan is paid to get the interest refund?

In 2018, I put 1.86 year of my annual income (base pay+BAH) down and bought a house. My mortgage payment was 42% of my monthly income back then.

In 2025, if I wanted to buy the same house with the same pay grade and years of service, and I put 1.86 year of my annual income down, my monthly mortgage payment would be 69% of my income, which is unbearable.

I looked the data for 2014, the numbers would be the same as 2018: 1.86 year annual income down, and 42% monthly income would go to mortgage.

The house market has cooled down a bit and may continue to go down, but it probably will never be affordable as the years before 2020.

Recently did a PPM PCS and requested DLA in advance.

Transportation office is saying since I requested my DLA in advance, which ended up to be more than what I am owed for my move, I might owe the difference back/not get paid for weight tickets.

Example: 3,000 (DLA) - 1,500 (actual PPM reimbursement) = 1,500 (owed or money not to be reimbursed).

That’s sounds wrong to me and I was always under the impression that DLA and PPM reimbursement were 2 totally different things.

If anyone could help clarify.

My husband has requested transfer of his GI bill to our baby on Milconnect six months ago but the application wasn’t approved. He’s been in service for more than six years but apparently since he’s in the middle of his current contract and has less than four years of the obligated service needed needed to transfer, it didn’t go through. He was told by someone in his command that he should just finish his current contract and transfer after, which would still be a few (albeit less than four) years from now.

Does this mean that if he does wait, then the four years of obligated service for transferring the GI bill only begins then? Or does it start from six months ago when he initially applied?

Can I have my car loan interest rate reduced for my upcoming pcs oconus? (Got the vehicle after joining AD)

I PCS’d this year and I’m trying to claim it as a deductible. I have received my Travel/miscellaneous W-2 but do I need the travel 1099 as well? I’m also just curious on what the travel 1099 is.

Let me start by saying ,my spouse is usually in charge of the finances . In June 2024, I went to Japan for a month and didn’t realize that I didn’t get paid on the 7th of June (my travel day) . Fast forward to January 2025 , I was in the account trying to see what the difference in pay was for having switched from days to mids, when I realized the missing deposit . I checked my time card AND my LES & they both reflect that I got paid. my checks have been going to this same account since FOREVER. The checks before and after that pay period are there , but not the June 7th check. I went to the bank & they confirmed my discovery. I had statement s printed out & took them to finance and these ppl are looking at me crazy. I have a ticket in &am Awaiting a response . Has this happened to anyone ? What was the resolution?

Our daughters are 11 and 3. My husband currently has the GI bill for our older daughter. He was told that if we separate it then our youngest has to use it within two years. Is that true? Ideally, we would like to separate it between the two kids before he retires.

Recently retired, and got my 1099-R but I noticed no federal or state taxes were taken out.
Went onto MyPay and Federal is filled correctly (all but the optionals). State was blank, but I can't set it without putting a dollar amount.
Was no federal or state taken out because I've only gotten 2 payments thus far? Not completely sure how that works. Thanks!

Hello I took leave to Mary my wife in Japan. Will I beable to to go the Navy personal on base in Japan to Set her in my Child up on deers and. Also Will I beable to set my bah there to since we already has the lease to are place in Japan