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About Me:

Amy

I created this blog because I like reading other military spouse's blogs. Part of being a military spouse is having the uncertainty of not knowing where you will have to live next or for how long. It often means moving around every few years and dealing with the deployment of a loved one. Financial advice isn't one size fits all and often financial advisors tailor their advice to the non-military folks out there, saying to buy a house right away and talking about 401k's instead of TSP's.

About 5 years ago (very soon after my husband and I got married) I saw David's Bach's book, "Automatic Millionaire" and it truly changed my life and how I thought about money. We started out with pretty much nothing when we got married. I had $1,000 in credit card debt, and my husband had $1,000 saved from a recent re-enlistent bonus.

We have since managed to save for a downpayment on a home, open and contribute automatically to 2 retirement accounts, and get rid of all our credit card debt once and for all. At the time this blog was first written I was very excited to write that we had "increased our networth from $0 to $18,000!" Now that number has gone up a bit.

Retirement.
We save 15% of his pre-tax income in the Thrift Savings Plan, which is the government's version of a 401k retirement account, only with no matching funds. We also try to max out our Roth IRA every year (some times it doesn't quite happen but close enough).

Saving.
We used to save 25%, or $1,000, per month of his take home pay but still had credit debt and as you'll see in some of the old blog entries we struggled with that for a while. We've notched down savings a bit, but still save regularly and have an emergency cushion that we're comfortable with.

Home.
After moving back in with my parents we saved like crazy and managed to save $33,000 for a downpayment on a our first home! We financed the rest with a 15 year mortgage since we had recently begun listening to Dave Ramsey and liked a lot of his ideas. We pay an extra $300 a month towards principle which means that if everything goes as planned the house will pay off in 10 years instead of 15!

Cars.
Part of the reason that we can save so much is that we have no car payments. I'm no finance expert, but I firmly believe that people spend too much on new cars when they should be saving instead.

Our goals now are to pay off the house and save for when my husband gets out of the army, whenever that may happen...

The D word

June 19th, 2007 at 11:41 pm

Nope, not divorce...deployment. Frown My DH is supposed to be deploying in a few months to some far off country and will be gone for 15 months. Tours of duty overseas used to be 12 months but they've recently been extended. Very upsetting!

I would be so lonely here, so I think I'm going to move back in with my folks and try to finish college. I'm ussually a glass-half-full kind of person, so finishing school would probably be the best thing to do while he's gone.

I still don't believe he's leaving though. It's funny, I say I'm an optimist and believe the glass to be half full, but really I'm an optimist because I refuse to believe that the glass even exists. *sigh*

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “The D word”

ktmarvels Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 01:30 am 1182303059
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I'm sorry that he'll be leaving. I know deployment can be rough. Thankfully I haven't had to go through it yet, but its only a matter of time. DH finishes training in October, then he's fair game. I understand about refusing to believe the glass exists...that's how I am with his possible deployment.
LuckyRobin Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 02:14 am 1182305694
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That's got to be tough. Finishing your education while he is gone sounds like a very good idea.
boomeyers Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 02:22 am 1182306129
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Thats right! Make a plan of what you are going to do so you have a set path in front of you. Sorry to hear this. My friends husband will be going BACK to Iraq very soon. Seems like we just got him back. His is sooo close to retirement, yet just not quite close enough!
dimes Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 04:29 pm 1182356951
1182356951

That sucks! Fifteen months is TOO LONG for deployments.
I agree with the others though, do something productive and save money/pay off debts. Keeping yourself as busy as possible helps the time to pass quicker.
fern Says:
June 20th, 2007 at 04:43 pm 1182357820
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Luckyrobin took the words right out of my mouth. Make the most of the time remaining, i guess, and yes, bury yourself in studies and keep busy so the time goes by fast.
armyamy Says:
June 22nd, 2007 at 08:34 pm 1182544440
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Oh my, Dimes reads my blog!

Well, thanks for all the comments you guys...I really appreciate all the advice and words of encourgement!
creditcardfree Says:
August 2nd, 2007 at 02:26 pm 1186064787
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Having been through deployment with my husband...my best advice is to keep busy and try new things. You'll be amazed at how much you will grow in strength while he is gone. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your husband during this transition time. Oh and if he seems like a whole different person in the week or days leading up to the final pull out it is just his way of coping with leaving...nothing personal.

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Army Amy's Amazing Personal Finance Blog (wow!

Saving money while my husband's in the Army and I work for peanuts.

The D word

7 Responses to “The D word”

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