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One caveat for the "join the military" idea. Be VERY careful with what you negotiate with the recruitment office, and be VERY careful with the exact terms your

One caveat for the "join the military" idea. Be VERY careful with what you negotiate with the recruitment office, and be VERY careful with the exact terms your enlistment contract specifies. I have a good friend who enlisted for a number of reasons after college, and managed to negotiate something like a $60k payment against the principal of his student loans in exchange for his enlistment. Most of these deals don't apply to the principal, and as a result a lot of money winds up as interest which doesn't do the enlistee as much good. After boot camp, my friend was recommended for immediate OCS and received a commission. This meant he was no longer "enlisted" and the Army considered this as a violation of his contract, so they refused to pay down his loans. After a protracted legal struggle, he wound up getting discharged, but it wasn't easy for him at all and wound up costing him quite a bit of time he's not going to get back. I know that the plural of anecdote isn't data, but I think there's still a valuable lesson to be learned from this, and I'd hate to see someone else lose years on a false promise.

hugh3 16y ago
Oh, I didn't even think about the fact that they might pay down his loan debt. I just thought that the military might give him a steady paycheck (and some apparently much-needed discipline while he's at it). Also, your friend decided to get discharged because they offered him a much better and more lucrative job as an officer rather than as an enlisted grunt + $60K bonus?
- bartonfink 16y ago
  He enlisted for personal reasons, not for monetary reasons. He was looking for a challenge, and thought that enlisting and kicking ass in the military would help him get that. Money was never an issue - he will make plenty of money. He left in the middle of a full-ride to law school, and when he left he was top of his class. The second person on the curve had something like a 65% average. He wound up getting the same scholarship back and is now putting up similar numbers. He's going to be fine monetarily speaking.
- Retric 16y ago
  Officer pay is crap. An O1 makes 15k more than an E1 for the first 2 years. And someone that can become an officer should hit E-4 within 2 years at which point the gap is around 800$ a month. Considering the time it takes to become an officer it would probably take him 7+ years to make up that 60K bonus. PS: An O3 with 10 years exp is making less than 70k / year.

hugh3 16y ago

Oh, I didn't even think about the fact that they might pay down his loan debt. I just thought that the military might give him a steady paycheck (and some apparently much-needed discipline while he's at it). Also, your friend decided to get discharged because they offered him a much better and more lucrative job as an officer rather than as an enlisted grunt + $60K bonus?

bartonfink 16y ago
He enlisted for personal reasons, not for monetary reasons. He was looking for a challenge, and thought that enlisting and kicking ass in the military would help him get that. Money was never an issue - he will make plenty of money. He left in the middle of a full-ride to law school, and when he left he was top of his class. The second person on the curve had something like a 65% average. He wound up getting the same scholarship back and is now putting up similar numbers. He's going to be fine monetarily speaking.
Retric 16y ago
Officer pay is crap. An O1 makes 15k more than an E1 for the first 2 years. And someone that can become an officer should hit E-4 within 2 years at which point the gap is around 800$ a month. Considering the time it takes to become an officer it would probably take him 7+ years to make up that 60K bonus. PS: An O3 with 10 years exp is making less than 70k / year.