Hello, I leave for basic training with the army in 2 weeks. I am active duty and starting out as E-3 due to some college. I wanted to post my future financial plans to see if there is anything I should change, add, or just something I missed.
First: I plan on switching my checking account from chase to Navy Federal.
Breakdown:
Pre-tax monthly income: ~ $2375
Checking: ~ $1000/month (will be used to cover my student loans ($585) and a personal loan ($216) and have a little extra
Savings: Plan to open an AMEX HYSA with a 4.25% yield and deposit ~ $500/month
Retirement/TSP: 80% C Fund, 10% I Fund, 10% S Fund and would deposit ~ $300/month
That’s all I have planned. I feel like there could be more I can do to maximize the money I make while serving so I wanted to post here for opinions. Thank you!
PS. Once I have my active duty orders, I will use them to get SCRA benefits on my student and personal loan. Student loan not gonna change much but my personal loan will drop from like a 17% interest rate down to 6%
Planning my financial future
byu/CyberAssassin2 inMilitaryFinance
Posted by CyberAssassin2
2 Comments
Swap your savings and TSP amounts.
Thumb rule is 15% of gross compensation should go to retirement. The RMC calculator places E3 civilian equivalent income at roughly $60k, so you really should be contributing $750/mo, but this isn’t feasible due to the debt you’re carrying.
Did you sign a contract for the military to pay off your student loans? They used to be common but not sure these days.
Navy Fed has been great to me.
Personally I would go all in on C fund, The gov I fund blows compared to those at vanguard and fidelity.
When TSP matching kicks in, make sure you max the match.
Before TSP though, when you have low income a ROTH IRA is more desirable.