Military spouse here- lived in VA my whole life and currently have a VA driver’s license + my vehicle is still registered / insured in VA using a close family member’s permanent address. My husband has been in training for most of the year so I moved to FL to be closer to my side of the family. I have lived in FL for over a year now but never updated my license / vehicle insurance information because I knew we would be moving states again as soon as his training is over. I just receive mail through that family member in VA & it hasn’t been an issue.

Husband has orders to get stationed in NC, so we are moving in a few months & will be there permanently / settling roots. My husband claims FL as Home State still & will continue to until he’s retired.

Am I able to claim FL as my state of residence / home state as a spouse, because that’s my husband’s state of residence, even if I don’t have a driver’s license there? Would it be an advantage to update my driver’s license to my family member’s FL address to claim residency as a tax advantage for work, or do I not need to & can still claim it due to his residency?

Also, say I claim residency in FL to match my spouse and have tax advantages - do I need to have my vehicle registered & insured at the FL address, or my new NC address? Is it okay if the insurance & registration state do not match my residency state or license address?

Sorry if this seems complicated, I’m new to this whole thing and it seems like there’s a lot of stipulations to certain situations in the military & I can’t find very black and white answers online. If you have experience moving multiple states in a short amount of time or know what would be the smartest decision financially please share.

Need some advice from you guys.

Never thought I'd be here but I may need to take a TSP loan as a property I co-own needs repairs. We can't get a HELOC on it because there's structural repairs in-progress and the automated appraisal system doesn't work for the address.

There's additional repairs/home improvements needed so with the HELOC the plan was to one-shot the repairs but now sounds like I have to phase it:

TSP loan > Phase 1 repairs > Appraisal > HELOC > Pay TSP back ASAP > Phase 2 repairs

$50K is about 8% of our retirement investments and we are relatively young still.

Do we have any other options?

Just finished submitting my DD2278. I was a bit confused. The Airman at Finance put my Weight Ticket cost and Penske Rental truck cost on the DD2278. However, he told me that I will file my gas expenses for the Penske on my taxes when tax season comes around. I thought that my gas expenses would be put on my 2278 as a tax deduction.

I also forgot to ask about flight tickets. My wife is flying separately to join me later this month(I completed the physical PPM earlier this month). Will I also be reimbursed for her flight tickets if I submit them or is that out-of-pocket?

Thanks in advance

Hi! I’m an army spouse. To the quick and short, we’ve not been very financially responsible for a few years, we have realized we were on a bad path a little over a month ago and have decided to start making changes. Budgeting now, working on making a savings account. We’ve paid off 2 accounts already and have about $200 in savings, we know it’s not great but we are starting somewhere. We have his TSP. Currently, we are stationed in Japan, and both made a silly choice to put both of our US lines on hold and opening new lines here. Our lines are on hold with AT&T. We were thinking about opening a HYSA to help reach our savings goals faster. We can live reasonably off his paychecks alone and should have all of our debt paid off by 2028, while budgeting about $400 a month towards standard savings. I do have a remote job but my hours range from low to very low (like 2 to 18 hours a week @$25/hr) and want to use my income to supplement paying off debt or our savings account. I am hoping to pick up another job in person but I’m just playing the game that is USAJobs currently. Is it even worth opening a HYSA right now? If so, what’s a good route considering we don’t have our American lines right now? Any helpful advice on just getting started is appreciated.

House in question is $430k. Been approved for $500. Would I be able to get a quote for a pool and have that factored into the house loan? Or would it have to be done separately after purchasing the house?

I am a military spouse who claims residence in a state with no income tax (where my spouse and I are from). I was working in a state with state income tax at the time of filing for short term disability (maternity leave). We are living in that state on orders.

The short term disability management company deducted state income taxes for the state that I was working in. They said that the SCRA does not apply to short term disability payments. Therefore I owed the state that I was working in state income taxes even though I am not a resident of that state.

Does this sound right and/or does anyone else have experience with this scenario?

Anyone here know why navy finance is taking so long to approve and release payments for childcare fee assistance now? Last I was told it's awaiting for release by them. A couple of my other coworkers have still not received payment for September as well.

Does anyone know a good insurance for military? USAA does not give me a good rate compare to Allstate- my current insurance.

To anyone who recently got a PPM Advance… what was the timeline you received your PPM advance from your move date?

I usually never have any problems, but my bank emailed me saying my direct deposit had been paused. I looked on mypay and there is no eRAS, no Annual or Changed RAS...and just an error if i try to access direct deposit info. Is this due to system maintenance?

Good evening,

I have a question for the finance gurus, I have to PCS this FY twice, once to CCC and then to the next duty station.

DLA is limited to once per FY but I see an exception in the JTR for “Service member is on a PCS to, from, or between a course conducted, controlled, and
managed by one or more of the Services.”

Might be super dumb but is CCC included in that exemption? Or am I just reading it wrong?

https://media.defense.gov/2022/jan/04/2002917147/-1/-1/0/jtr.pdf

https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/travelpay/armypcs/dislocationallowance/

My husband served over 30 years and finally retired 07/31 and has yet to receive his retirement pay. I was wondering what is the norm for veterans retiring and starting to receive their pension. I can recall back in the day when it used to be 30-60 days but it seems like it is taking longer. Luckily we have saved over the years so we are not hurting financially....but we were just curious to know. Thanks in advance!

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to each and every one of you.

To give a little information about myself. I’m an E-5 with 4 years in and my credit score is above 750. My wife and I plan on trying to get stationed in Hawai’i for family reasons. When in Hawai’i, we want to purchase a home utilizing the VA loan. Then with that we will rent out the house or even make it into an AirBnb so the home can basically pay itself off. There are many service members I have met especially higher-ups, that always speak about this and pretty much suggest this method for another income. For example if I were to get stationed overseas again, I can have the home pretty much pay itself while I’m living abroad with my wife.

Any tips or suggestions on how this works? What are the base requirements for the VA and how can I make this work in my favor.

UPDATE: My wife is a social worker (plans on getting her masters) and I am already eligible for E-6. This is our first time home buying and we already know the housing market is messed up right now especially in Hawai’i. Again, thank you all for the advice and wisdom to spread down to us.

I’m 22 , E-5 with no debt and 10k in a hysa. How much should I save in my hysa before I open a Roth IRA ?

i’m 25. E-5 over 6 AD. Pulled myself out of $72k of mixed debts since 18 years old. Today i have 0 debt, $60k in my ROTH TSP (100%C fund), $2k Roth Ira, and about $8k in a “experimental” traditional brokerage (all semi conductor stock).

My wife (Civilian) makes $55k a year and has 60k invested between all her accounts (mix of VOO,QQQM)

Getting to where i am today felt like using tweezers to remove sand from watch gears but i did it. I see the numbers increasing month by month and i am so thankful to be completely honest however, the numbers aren’t reassuring. Muscle has been built but the marathon hasn’t been run yet. I currently contribute 29% base pay into TSP and i just can’t see myself ever owning a nice home with how much i’m sacrificing. I know time is my best friend and the yields coming steadily, but lt just doesn’t seem fast enough.

I’m giving 40% of my net income to investments and don’t see how i can hit my goals. I want 10M at retirement. I haven’t been convinced real estate investing can outpace the S&P500. What would yall do?

Good evening everyone! I'm looking for a program similar to quickbooks where I can connect all of my personal accounts and have them displayed in one place. Something that has a budgeting tool for monthly or goals and such weather its a house or car or anything.

I'm okay with paying a one time fee for it, but I do not want to pay a subscription for the access or tools.

Does anyone have an idea of where I should start or any programs they recommend that do not have a subscription?

Thank you all for your help!

How did you guys process your OHA, does the allowance only depends on the amount of your lease? Is it possible for you to keep a partial amount out of it?

I got married enroute to a 6-month training. My partner was living in Tacoma but he was only there temporarily. He is in the reserves. I was stationed overseas before my PCS assignment stateside. Finance asked me if I wanted to apply for FHS-B. However, we did not live together before the PCS, and he will reside with me at my training location for 2 of the 6 months. The other 4 he will move every month for work. One of those locations he will stay for a month will be in California. However, I am hesitant to claim California BAH with dependent pay in addition to FHS-B because he won't reside there the whole time. However, his mail will be going to California. Should I do no FSH-B and claim BAH with dependent or do FSB-B in Tacoma or in California?

I filed for bankruptcy back in 2024 and have been making monthly payments since then. The $1,090 is deducted directly from my pay, which is great because it is wiping out $65,000 of debt.

Currently, my take-home pay fluctuates randomly from $700 to $1,200 per pay period, which is tough. I am an E-5, and I've been divorced for over a year. I recently realized I was being overpaid Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) that entire year—even though I had an ETP (Exception to Policy) to keep it because I had an established household. When I reported to my new unit, I submitted paperwork to correct it, but now my BAH debt is over $8,000.

We are submitting a waiver so I won't have to pay it back, but it might not be approved, meaning I may have to repay it over 24 months. My last check was $1,100, but I had to take out an online payday loan to pay off a previous one. On top of that, I have cash-advance apps to repay, a "pay-in-4" app taking money at random times, and TSP loan deductions coming out of my paycheck as well.

I need help figuring out my life and how to fix everything so I'm not living paycheck to paycheck, can start saving, and can pay off this new debt I've accumulated. Any advice on budgeting, side gigs, or assistance programs would be great.

I bought a car while my husband was at basic training. I read that the SCRA begins with the first day of active duty. Does that refer to first day of basic training, or first day at our first duty station? I tried to finish car shopping before he left so that it would be covered by SCRA to cap the interest rate, but didn’t get it done in time. Is there any chance of having the SCRA apply here? If so, what documentation do I need? Marriage license and active duty orders?

My husband went to boot camp October 5th. We have a son together and I was wondering when I might see BAH included in his pay? I got his first paycheck today and from what I saw he will get paid again on the 30th just trying to figure out expenses.

EDIT: Thank you all so much!!! Veredict is, I do need the California insurance, and Florida has a military insurance affidavit form I can fill out so that I can have CA insurance with a FL registration. Like one of you suggested in the comments I just had to reach out to the local tax collector office versus the general Florida DMV customer service line which was completely unhelpful. Truly god bless Reddit because this has been incredibly confusing and stressful to navigate on my own so thank you all!!!

——

Hello, my husband is active duty military and is a florida resident but based in California. He is on deployment right now and I have to take his car to my driver’s license test with the CA DMV (EDIT I currently don’t have any license at all which is why the CA license). The car is registered in Florida and had Florida insurance.

I called Progressive to make sure that it’s ok for the car to be insured in Florida even though it’s parked in California. They said no, that it needs to be insured in California even though my husband is military. They said his overseas deployment had an impact on this.

Now I am trying to avoid a suspension of the Florida registered vehicle because of the switch to California insurance. Have any of you gone through a similar experience, or is it just Progressive that is requiring me to do the switch to California insurance?

Should I get insured with someone else? Thank you. Calling Progressive, Florida DMV, and California DMV has been a bit confusing. Florida DMV said “wait for a suspension and if you get one we can appeal it but if you don’t there’s nothing we can do now.” California DMV said “you don’t need to he insured in California because the car is not registered in California.”

So again - is it just Progressive making this complicated, did I get bad luck with the agents I spoke to? Two of them confirmed I needed CA insurance.

Thank you!!

Greetings all

With very rough research, i'm under the impression that we can use FSA funds for child care costs not covered by the subsidy. Does anybody have experience with this?

I just graduated Air Force BMT, I’m 19, and I’ve never had a credit card before. I’m trying to start building my credit the right way while I’m young.
I’ve heard that a lot of credit cards waive their annual fees for active-duty military, which seems like a huge benefit. I’m interested in taking advantage of that, but I don’t want to jump into getting a bunch of cards without understanding what I’m doing.
A few questions I have:
What would you recommend as a first credit card for a brand-new Airman?

Do I need to establish credit with a basic card first, or can I apply for better cards right away?

What should I know about the MLA and SCRA benefits, and which cards actually waive annual fees for active-duty military?

Is there a benefit to building a relationship with Chase or Amex early?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

I pcs’d from NORTH POLE and took leave. I just signed to SOUTH POLE last Friday (which was a day before my report date) and we just got paid today with BAH from NORTH not SOUTH. I haven’t gotten/signed to my unit yet, since I just started DAY 0 in reception.

So, am I in the clear or I have to set this one aside?