The Soldier and his Money

This question has been languishing in my mind for quite some time already. Why are most soldiers deep in debt? Why in their dire need for money almost ALWAYS resort to applying for loans?

I have been looking at data provided by friends in Finance Center, PA for these past months. As of June 2011, 95 % of soldiers have loans whose monthly payments amount to 3k on the average/month. In my former unit 3Mech Bn, almost 24% of the its enlisted personnel (EP) has a take home pay of below 6k a month not including the Subsistence Allowance (SA) (data from July 2011 payroll).

I, being a mother of 2 children, find it hard to think how my family would live with only 6k per month as a budget. Knowing for a fact that for most soldiers, they are the sole breadwinner in their families and their wives have no paying jobs unless they find other means of earning money like having a small sari-sari store or buy-and-sell scheme on the side but these cases are more the exception than the norm.

This concern has thus spawned this idea of mine, to write a blog where our soldiers can find useful information about many topics on money, about loans, capcon/dividends that they typically wouldn’t even care to know – but they should. What I will write here will come mostly from my personal research, experience, interviews and stories from people in the military service i have known and hopes that I may be able to reach more people, educate them and help improve their financial lives.

To my readers, if you have friends who are soldiers, please share them this blog. If you are a leader in your own unit or office, please share this blog too and my advocacy as well. If you are a soldier, congratulations and bless you for finding this blog! I hope we can help each other starting to today and in the future.

Ang inyong lingkod,

Balitangsink

“Kapag may kaalaman, may kalayaan.”