Finance brief, VA Benefits II

Instead of doing Lightning Forge-related work at Schofield Barracks today, I dressed in business casual and attended some Transition Assistance Program seminars.

The first one was the was the Finance Brief. It lasted from 8:00 to 2:00, and covered the basics -- creating a budget, maintaining your credit score, and some investing basics.

Given the vast majority of the roughly 40 in attendance were junior enlisted (I was one of only three officers), I'd say the brief was well-suited for its audience. When asked if there was anyone who had a mortgage, I was the only one who raised their hand. Many had never worked outside the Army.

Although the instruction ended at about 12:00, we each had to produce an annual budget before we could be marked off as complete. This took up the remaining time.

I was in no rush, since I had to be back at 2:00 anyway, so I let others knock theirs out first (so they could leave). But I also had a few information gaps that prevented me from making a truly effective budget. At the moment, there are four things I don't know:

1. How much my VA disability will be (50 percent?)
2. When the VA will finish their determination (and when I'll be available to start a new job)
3. What I'll be making at this new job (it won't be the same)
4. Where I'll be living in a year (Hawaii? Mainland? Overseas?)

As a result, my budget had to make some huge assumptions that made it fairly useless. For my purposes, I think it's better to simply stick with the system I already have, which is less predictive and more like a ledger.

Nevertheless, I found the seminar was productive. I learned of a bunch of useful websites, saw how much health care premiums *really* cost, and got some estimates on how much my tax withholdings will be.

The last time I worked a civilian job in Hawaii was 2003, and deductions sucked up over 30 percent of my paycheck. This included insurance, taxes, health care, and Social Security. It was one of the main reasons I left the U.S. to teach English in Korea, and I don't look forward to that again.

From 2:00 to 3:30 was VA Benefits Part II. This seminar covered the things that weren't discussed in the previous one -- specifically, more education programs and health care information.

As a medical retiree, it looks like I'll be covered by VA health care, for all its warts and bruises. My family seems to be eligible for Tricare For Life, which is a REALLY good deal compared to what I'm seeing in the private sector.

With these knocked out of the way, I'm done with the required six Soldier For Life--Transition Assistance Program seminars. I have some optional ones scheduled next week.