for married army people?

Question

How much do you get paid in the army if you are married? My husbend is going to be joining and I just would like to have an idea about how much he will be makeing?

I happen to be a stay at home mom and have a little one to take care of I would like to know because of how much we make now. I know that we are going to be takeing a drop in pay and would like to know so that I can get ready for the change in how I do your bills and food for the house. And there is some of a difference in pay for single men and married men my brother in law was in before he married and his pay will increase

Answer 1

The exact same as if you were not married, you do get a large substanance allowance and a higher housing stipend though. By having children you BAH and substanance allowance does change, but pay grade is only effected by rank. BAH depends on where you live - Missouri is cheaper than Cali. I have found that the best way to work things is to make a budget and the military makes it easy - only eat what your substance allowance lets you - generic food (the commisary is great), don't eat out, do eat fancy, since you are at home make everything, don't buy premade foods (I grind my own wheat (really!), I amke my own bread) We have cut sweats out and that cuts back on food a ton. Try to live in a place that is cheaper than your BAH - then you get the left overs, space your bill out so that you can split them between the 2 pay checks, use USAA for your banking (no fee checking, great service pay bills on line for free and with moving all the time it helps a ton, etc) get your credit cards reduced down to 6%under the soldiers and saliors act (USAA takes it down to 4% - while deployed you get that intrest back when he gets home) put money away in savings every month( you NEED savings as a back up, go down to one car, don't have a lot of stuff to PCS - you get the left over money. There are a lot of tricks that you will learn, use coupons - there are military ones for the commisary that are great (militaryshoppers.com) - I save about $30 a month in coupons - most of the time you will qualify for WIC - don't be ashamed to use it. You don't have to have TV - the library on base has videos for the kids and there is nothing good on TV anymore anyway. Some companies give discounts on cell phones for military - I know that verizon does - it just has to be in his name.Watch what you spend - be careful with credit cards. Get power of attorney - you will need it - I got ours done by a private attorney and he did a will package as well and since we were military and did not use JAG - he gave us a great price. Good luck

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Answer 2

I assuming he is joining as an elisted soldier?

If this is the case being married he will get paid the same and single soldiers (just because your married doesnt mean you work harder or deserve more) the only different will be in the BAH which is the Basic Allowance for Housing and the amount of BAH you get is calculated by the average living cost of where you will be living. In Texas at Fort Hood you will get around $850 BAH something close to that which is added to your base pay.

So lets say your husband is joining the Army as a Private E-1 with a base pay of about $1200 + BAH lets say you will get $850 + BAS (basic allowance for substinance) which is food, another $300 that all equals $2350 a month now subtract all the taxes :P and you will probably break even around $2000 or so a month.

Now during the time he will be in training you can save your BAH by living at home with your parents or friends.

A good refference is http://usmilitary.about.com/od/2007paycharts/l/bl07enlbasepay1.htm

Answer 3

The DFAS link below will tell you the pay for the ranks and the years in. Married or unmarried... there is no difference in base pay. NONE!!! Not sure who is telling you this, but it's not true.
Now, allowances (above and beyond base pay) .....
BAS basic allowance for sustinance - pay for his food. No change w or w/o dependants.. it's for him, not you.
BAH basic allowance for housing - there is a difference in housing allowance based on w or w/o dependants. This is the ONLY thing that changes due to marriage. This is only if you on living on the economy and not living in gov't quarters. And BAH will only cover about 85% of your rent and utilities, it will not cover everything. All areas are different. Please see the second link.

Now.... leaving his pay:
SGLI servicemans group life insurance, plan on about $32 a month for $400,000 term coverage.
He can also choose to get insurance for you and little one, but think it makes more sense to go another route instead of term insurance, but that is a personal call.
Dental Insurance - $27.63 a month for a family.
And don't forget the favorites, Federal Tax, State Tax, and FICA.

If he is just now enlisting and you already have a little one, plan on qualifying for food stamps. Depending upon rank when little one gets to school, reduced lunch program as well.
The military is not a high paying career.

Answer 4

Because of your MOSs, it becomes more likely that you will get stationed together. Because they need 42A pretty much at every post, it is much more likely that HRC can find a spot for your wife at the same base they put you. When people have more uncommon MOSs, it becomes more difficult to co-locate them, and in the army more difficult means less likely to happen. First thing you've got to do is get your paperwork through. For your wife, being a 42A, she should know the right people in her PAC to get it pushed through quickly. For you, you need to make sure you go talk to them every now and then to see where your stuff is. If you've got a good section sergeant or platoon sergeant, he could definitely help you out. There's no HRC requirement to choose one spouses' place over the other, so they could move her to you, move you to her, or just move you both. Also, one of you re-enlisting for a new duty station could speed the process, but it's hard to say with the current changes that are going on with re-up. Good luck.

Answer 5

Regardless of rank, he'll get BAS (Basic Allowance for Substinance-FOOD). The BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) will depend on rank and duty station if you reside off post. He'll also get a few exta bucks in his pocket when he deploys for being married. Your best bet is to check out the DFAS website and download a pay chart that lists all pays & allowances.

Answer 6

Why? You already got HIS money spent?