You
have an opportunity to do so much more: Part 1
By
Keith Bunn Jr.
April
29, 2012
This morning’s posting is to my fellow service men and
women out there...
Folks, there isn't a DAY that I don't kick myself for not
getting more out of the time I was in the service. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud
that I served, and I'm glad that I got to see and do all kinds of things all
over the world, but there is one area I wish I would have done better on &
that's in the financial area.
As some of you may or may not know, I was in and out of
the Army for a total of 8 years and I've served as both married &
non-married in my active duty days and I will break down my financial "regrets" in both those areas
separately in a two part blog series.
Part
1: Non-married soldiers
This is where I have my biggest regrets, because as a
single soldier living in the barracks, I really did have it made! I know you
may not think so right now but you do. You have a roof over your head, a bed to
sleep in, three meals a day provided in the Mess Hall, all your medical,
dental, and vision care provided, as well as all utilities provided. All that
is FREE!! A lot of people out in the civilian world
don't have that. I understand that this varies for you from time to time,
depending on if you're in the field training or somewhere in the world on
combat duty, but you have an opportunity that most of us out here in the
civilian world and some of the married service men and women don't have, and
that is, you can bank and/or invest just about your whole paychecks. You don't
have to buy a brand new car with a payment attached to it, you don't need to
party your tails off each and every free night you have, and you don't need to
buy all kinds of crap that you just have to pack up anyway every time you get
deployed somewhere.
Now I did some checking on http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp and the base pay for an E-1/Private coming into the military is $1,491 per month. If you
just took $400 per month, every month and invested that in good Growth Stock
Mutual Funds for just a three year tour of duty, which would be $16,852. That
still leaves you with $1,091 a month to live on. Or you could invest $1000 each
month for three years, which would be $42,130! In either case, you still have
money left over to buy other items you need to live every day.
Now here’s the thing, experts that are way smarter than
me have said that if you are to be a true investor of your hard earned money,
you should leave it alone for five years or longer to get the full benefit of
the investment. So let’s say after the three year tour was up and you stopped
putting money into that investment and never touched it until you were 65 years
old. For the $400, that would be worth just over $1.3 million and for the $1000 that would be worth just over $3.3 million. Now here’s the kicker… These
numbers are for an E-1for 3 years. You’re not going to stay an E-1 that whole
time unless you‘re just a loser and even then, you should make at least E-3.
And what if you were like a friend of mine who made it to E-9 and retired with
over 20 years under his belt. Those numbers would be significantly higher plus
receive your military retirement! These are the things no one told me when I
was in the military but now wish someone did.
I would very much like to hear the input of the retired
and/or active duty soldiers out there about what I’ve posted here today. Also,
if you’d like to run your own numbers of what you’d like to invest and where
you’d like to be at retirement, I have put a link to the investment calculator
I used below.
As with all my blog and social media posts, I welcome any
comments and feedback on the topics I write about. It is the only way you and I
will learn more about ourselves and each other, so ask away! Part 2 coming
soon!
Checkout my website, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter
& Linkedin for additional money ideas and facts.
www.cavusfinancialcoaching.com , http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cavus-Financial-Coaching/120347681380181 , https://twitter.com/#!/Cavuscoaching , and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/keith-bunn-jr/47/555/145
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