Me and my wife are considering joining as a couple instead of her pursuing her own civilian career, but we're worried about the bonuses, what stacks, what doesn't, how would bah work, of course tricare wouldn't stack so that would be value lost, quite a big one too, etc.
BAH in particular, my understanding is having a civilian spouse would almost guarantee bah, especially if we can't live together due to university, but I'm guessing the dynamic would change a lot if we were both in.
Any help clarifying it for us?
Edit:active duty army or air force
Joining as a couple, does it make sense financially?
byu/Longjumping-Bake-557 inMilitaryFinance
Posted by Longjumping-Bake-557
5 Comments
Active duty or reserve/national guard?
What branch? Recommend air force or space force if trying to get stationed together. Enlisted or trying to go officer? I assume the former since you referenced “…due to university….”
For what its worth, mil to mil always seem to do very well financially.
If you are both active, you will both receive single rate BAH until/if you have children. Then the higher? Ranking individual gets dependent rate while the lower ranking continues to get single rate.
You will both receive BAS which is currently $480ish if I remember correctly, which is a nice chunk of change every month. (That’s enlisted BAS, officer is a bit lower due to the higher base pay)
If you want to up the odds of being stationed together in a more favorable location, I would lean towards USAF. USAF tends to have the better bases IMO and a higher chance for international travel. This will also depend heavily on your AFSC as certain career fields are limited to 4-5 bases. Jobs that come to mind when thinking of huge base selection would be Egress, AMMO, SecFo(don’t do it), services. If you and your spouse get different jobs the likelihood of many base selections will be lower.
Mil to Mil is a cheat code for being financially secure.
It could make sense financially. Romantically? Different story.