Where soldiers get their money

I was walking through the parking lot one day in March, and I saw this car:

You've got to love how soldiers spend their money, but ever since then, I've wondered, "Where do they get it from?"

In a word, DEPLOYMENT.

You get several benefits for being "in theater." On a monthly basis, you'll get:

• your base pay
• full BAS (subsistence)
• the same housing allowance (if you have a family)
• $225 for combat pay
• $150 for hardship pay
• $105 per diem for incidentals, and
• $250 in family separation allowance, if that applies.

Plus, you don't have to pay federal income taxes, you get to keep up to $10,000 in a 10% interest bearing account, and you're limited in the ways you can spend your money.

And of course there's whatever special pays you qualify for (language, jump pay, etc).

What interests me is the way lump-sum payments are figured. At the end of the year, SLRP payments are included in taxable income, but the taxes are pro-rated based on how much of the year you were outside the country.

When you consider how many soldiers have spent multiple tours overseas, it's not hard to imagine how much they've saved up. Unfortunately, they're not always quite as wise about how they spend it.