Started watching your videos two years ago when I started my journey towards my sf career. After training for the last year and a half, setting my finances in order and absorbing all information possible. I’m finally on my way to being a professional soldier. Killed the asvab and got my 18x contract and ship in august. Thanks for the time you’ve put in it’s been a good motivator for me to seek out everything I’ve needed to be successful to this point.
Rebecca Sundvall Hey I wish you good luck. Lots of reading helps with word knowledge and comp. math was my week point as I haven’t studied it for over a decade. So that’s what I focused on in terms of studying. A great resource on RUclips is grammarhero. I highly recommend checking it out. Asvab study books are also a great resource. For other subjects I didn’t feel I needed to delve to deeply into and was well served by life experience and personal knowledge stemming from various interests.
@@et9650 hey what is the GT score based on? Like yourself my weakest area is math and I am also taking a year to get in the perfect shape because I'm planning on signing a 18X contract too
Good for you bro!! I’m currently training for sf too I’m only 5 months in tho but I plan on going in towards the end of next year, hoping to eventually be a special forces medic when it’s all said and done, good luck brodie!!!
I was drafted into the US Army in 1964 and as an E-1 my pay was $78 a month. During basic training, they also "persuaded" us all to take out a U.S. Savings bond of $25 per month which came off the top of that princely amount of $78. I spent the next two years of my life in abject poverty.
John-former CG man here. After boot you could have changed the savings bond to quarterly. Don't know if you would have gotten grief if you dropped it. In the CG in 1963 all hell broke loose over "persuading" recruits to take a savings bond BUT after making it non mandatory your boot company got honor points if everyone signed up-another form of "persausaion"
I loved my time in the Army. Not for the money. But I was able to learn new skills back in 2004. I'm now a nurse. After 11 years as a medic I was well ahead of my civilian counterparts.
join the navy we get flight deck pay and hazardous duty pay and imminent danger pay and family sep pay and base pay and sea pay 💰 become a seaman today
@@aladinhegic3306 34 max age. for Navy not sure for the others... Go to recruiter ask to take the DLAB test in addition to the ASVAB... DLAB is the Defense Language Aptitude Battery...Every service has Linguists
@@aladinhegic3306 : The maximum age to enlist in Active Duty Navy is 34. In order to receive the FLPP - Foreign Language Proficiency Pay: - Only if you are in a job that may require you to speak foreign language (English does not count). - You still have to take the test (reading & writing) in order to test your proficiency (there are 3 levels - Level 3 pays the most). - Different languages/levels pay different amounts. The least amount you can get for a single language is $100/mo. (taxable) and the most is $500/mo. (taxable). But your "total" FLPP cannot be over $1,000/mo.
Become a Navy SEAL or EOD Tech. On top of the Base Pay, BAH, BAS, & Enlistment Bonus, you (without being deployed overseas) will also get the SDAP, Jump Pay, Dive Pay, Demolition Pay, & Language Pay (if qualified). And if you are deployed overseas, then there are more $$$$.
@@SV-kr9fu Proficiency is based on your fluency test...if you are a native speaker of say Farsi.... then you can literally test higher simply because you are a native speaker...When I attended DLI FLC, there was no language pro pay... but the people who attended very often were already bi-lingual and though a bit rare.. there were a few polyglots in the Enlisted ranks... You'd be surprised at the number of PhD's who were students there.. One Fellow Student was a former High School teacher who was already conversant in Spanish French and German. (not a great demand for those Languages though). As for Navy Seal, I did 2 separate tours as a recruiter my second tour was with Officer Programs. ... I have a theory about SEALs and spec ops operators in general... SEALS are FOUND... before they are trained. If you don't have what it takes physically and mentally, the school is not meant to teach that...rather...its function is to weed out those who have no business being there... Unlike other service schools... BUDS has had classes where only a handfull have graduated... and at least one where NOBODY graduated. If you're telling the man to join SEALS because of the money... you're doing a disservice to both the SEALS and him.
Im an e2, and I think I live like a king. People who say military pay is bad dont use all their benefits. Basically every cost imaginable is free especially as a joe. Every pay check you get is 100% savable income. In the civilian world you have a lot of money essentially automatically gone just for life expenses. Sure the pay in the military is not the highest, but i can think of no job that can compete with the thousands in savings.
Totally untrue. Haircuts, personal toiletries, laundry expense and uniform replacement that the clothing allowance does not cover add up. Yes you can live VERY frugally, but your life will be very boring!
Great video... Driving the point home, a full military career will nearly guarantee that you will never be uber rich, but at the same time, you will likely never go hungry or homeless. It's amazing to be approaching 25 years of active duty service and to know that I will likely never have to concern myself with worry about my retirement.
Couple things you didn’t mention: (1) The “free” medical is easily equal to $10-$15K per year for an equivalent family in the 1stCivDiv. (2) majority of the benefits are non-taxable income (i.e., BAH). It’s important for service members to consider these before they punch out, because these are real-world costs they will incur in the civilian world but are transparent while active duty.
HeidiDan T is absolutely correct about free medical benefits. Service personnel can even get free lasik, boob jobs, complete dental, etc. Cost saving is huge, because in the civilian life, medical plans can easily cost 800 to 1500 a month out of your pocket, not even including deductibles. Another thing that is not mentioned in the video is all service personnel contribute to social security and medicare, therefore can obtain the benefits after working 30 plus years. Another thing that is not mentioned in the video, military pay have been getting cost of living increases in the past 20 years without fail. Civilian federal employees have missed COLA too many times in 20 years.
Commanders - “feed your horses, feed your men, then feed yourself”. Glad enlisted are getting taken care of better. Funny paratroopers get the same $150 they used in WWll to 'help' guy men to enlist.
Jump pay during WWII was $50 a month (huge when you think a PVT in WWII earned $50 a month in Base Pay). When I went to jump school in 1990, Jump pay was $110 a month. Some time in the 90s, it bumped up to $150 a month.
You are correct Trash Panda. When I was training for my Commission in the Australian Army it was rammed down our throats that we were to put the welfare of our men before our own. Once in service as an Officer those of us who put this into practice gained the respect and support of our men and that is the best thing an Officer can have.
@@danieldunn4769 absolutely shit now pal. They changed it in 2015 and it doesn't benefit anymore. Theres no point doing our 22 years because we wont see a penny until we are 67
Jamie Quinton That’s what I’ve heard. I’m US military stationed here in England and occasionally at work the conversation pops up. Compared to the benefits we get, the British have it rough with that.
What do you expect HE is a college professor😏they don't teach anything anymore, other than to be socialist, anarchist,snowflakes and screeching lunatics....
Colorado News and Reports i had some great military science teachers. Most all viet nam vets. It was the west point A-hole working on his masters that couldn’t provide any real information.
About 20 years ago, I asked 3 different Navy Recruiters about the pays for Navy EOD Tech. and they couldn't give me one straight answer, instead, I got 3 different answers (and I learned later that none of them were correct).
I served in the Navy from 64 to 84 retiring as an E7. Been drawing my retirement check ever month since. They didn't have TSP when I retired. Great video and thanks for making it.
I'm like a young one who has not yet served. but I'm thinking about serving in the US Army. 20 years of service is not too much for me? now for the youth. 4 years is enough to serve in the army, isn't it?
Joined the Navy at 18 with 7k in the bank. I did janitorial and smoked a lot of pot in high school. Left the Navy after months with 32k in the bank. Invested 29k in the S&P in late 90. Started working at UPS, Exide Battery and did concrete on Saturdays. Invested 1k a month every month into it, Cashed out 250k from the S&P and invested with my Financial advisor Lyra Holt Dean(Look her up). Cashed out and Semi retired at 31. Took a year off. Traveled. Came home and started working part time for the insurance, entertainment and pocket change. Work isn't work when you don't have to work. Becoming wealthy can be done in few years. It feels like 60hr work weeks. Feel the pain of discipline early or feel the pain of regret later. I wish everyone well!
I dont know what experience / knowlege you have of it, or your stance but a video on PTSD / Mental Health and dealing with stressors would be a awesome video.
@@LifeisaSpecialOperation Thank you for making the videos you do. I have assigned them as "Disciplinary actions" to the junior firefighters I instruct. If they're late / unprofessional for example, they must write a paper on why what they did was wrong & how it could cause them to be unsuccessful in the fire service.
Glad to hear the pay has been increasing. I joined the Army in July of 1980 and my base pay was 418.88 cents a month, with a take home of 226.00. At that point we used to report for pay, had OD Green uniform with a white t-shirt, ran PT in boots, 1911 and M3 Grease was still in service, lived in a WW2 barracks at B Btry, 1st Bn 51st ADA, with the 7th Inf Div at Fort California. I retired in 2000 and miss the Army everyday. Good memories and better friends.
Thanks! Can't wait for the retirement pay video. I'm 22 years retired active and guard( 4 and 18) with 10 years total active time due to schools and deployments
I joined the USAF in 1962. After basic and tech school I was promoted to A3C (E-2). My pay check was $37.00 and if I remember we were paid twice a month. Even then it wasn't much but boy did I have a good time with what I had, and even when broke, which was most of the time, you were well taken care of.
Life is a Special Operation videos like this one as well as the videos released prior to today’s, are very informative, interesting and just awesome to watch. Thank you and keep them coming. 🇺🇸🇺🇸
This makes me even more wanna join in to the US Military, not for the money but for the knowledge and skills that I can acquire in the training/field, not just that but you gotta have the best gears that can help you finished the mission flawlessly. I'm from the Philippines, ever since I was in my highschool I always wanted to be in the US Military. Unfortunately, I'm not a US citizen.
I'm going into the navy as a NMM and planning on retiring after 20-25 years, I've been thinking about if it's worth retiring in the military or leave after my 8 year contract and go work as a nuclear engineer as a civilian. Your video really helped me out, keep up the great work and thank you for your service.
As an E-3 in boot camp in 1971 my base pay started at ~$180.00/month. In 1995 when I retired with 23 years as an E-6 my base pay was $1876.00. As such my monthly pay at retirement was about what an E-1 over 4 months would get now. At that time sea pay was less than $15.00/month.
This was exactly the information I was looking for, thank you. I'm a 31yo with an electrical degree that could enlist as an E2, very happy living out of my camper van and pocketing my BAH into a retirement plan, would love to get free eye surgery and be trained in multiple fields like EOD, small arms repair, and wheeled vehicle maintenance. Armys lookin pretty good atm. The best part is I'm never going to marry or have kids so this could be what I'm looking for.
@@halomrchief seems to be that I only care about the quality of the work I'm doing instead of people pleasing, so civilian companies kind of hate me, haha. I hate having to play the game, I just want to build.
Not to mention that for SOF units especially they usually give you enlistment bonuses when you first join, usually around $40-60k, as well as reenlistment bonuses up to $100,000.
Make sure you check you companies military pay differential policy if you attempt to file for that benefit while on military leave. As a Leave Administrator who works on these types of benefits you should be aware each company can choose there basis of awarding military diff pay. Some will go strictly off the LES, some will go off the current federal military pay chart only. So as a reminder if you are taking leave from your employer for military service don't be mad at the results if their not in your favor, as employers can choose how they want to make that benefit work.
Love your videos man! Would you consider doing any videos in the future about languages / language learning in the military? I’ve heard you mention it a few times in several different videos.
As an Enlisted Nuclear Power operator I picked up extra pay throughout most of my career. Almost all of us are Sub designated coming in to the program. However, carriers need a gaggle of operators too, so many of us were "involuntarily surfaced". About mid-career for me, the Navy finally decided to close the pay equity gap between surface and sub operators by giving us SDAP. It didn't make up for the missing sub pay entirely but it did soothe the burn a bit. And of course we never got a cool pin for our uniforms like all of the other top tier specialists because "We were just doing our [incredibly difficult, dangerous job that required high IQs, years of training, and carried phenomenal penalties for mistakes] job." *My commentary inserted.
Beats the heck out of what I earned when I joined the Army back in early 1970. I earned $69 a month as a buck private in training. I actually got a raise of $55 for combat pay when I went to war in Viet Nam for a total of $124 a month (if memory serves). Upon Deros end of 1971 from the Army two years later as a buck Sergeant of about $326 (aprx) a month. Baby you've come a long way since those days.
Love your videos im joining the United states Marines I'm 26 I love learning languages I was nervous about the money thank you now I know I'm exited to join the marines in October thank you for your videos
Leroy Ray,enlisted in fifty and was given ten dollars when I started basic,made a grand seventy two dollars a month plus room and board and clothing. Spent eleven months in Alaska for seven dollars and fifty cents more per month. Became an aircrew member and rode a 26 over North Korea thirteen times,gained airman second and drew one hundred,twenty four dollars per month.came back stateside and made airman first but loss of overseas and hazard pay kept my monthly at one hundred and twenty four dollars per month.
If you price that in terms of gold, you would be making ~$3400/month today. Gold in 1963 was $35/ounce, so you were making 2 ounces of gold per month (in gold buying power).
@@seanf5634 so true Sean and now the paper money is worthless pretty much. I remember nickle candy bars for snickers, Hershey and mars. they were bigger then also. In the mid 1970's I made about $330 a month as an E3
Flight pay is more than just preventing people from going to the airlines. As a military pilot, you are expected to be in "flight status" which means you have to pass an aviation physical every year. Flight pay is to give you initiative to remain in top physical status (whether its a gym membership or a diet that does not consist of fast food). If you're not flight status, you don't rate wearing your flight suit!
When my dad retired as an E9 with 26 yrs TIS in 1978, his monthly base pay was $1443. My friend, who retired last year at the same grade and TIS, was making $7119. When I told dad this, his jaw dropped and he just sat there in silence.
In 1975 a E-1 made $344.10 a month In 1980 the pay was increased to compete with the civilian world and nearly double overnight. Any one that served prior to 1980 didn't do it for the paycheck but for county.
I enlisted in the Navy in 1966. Base pay for me as a recruit in boot camp was only $30/mo, but what could I have spent the money on, with no opportunity to go “ashore”? I am happy that military pay has gone up so much! The incentive to re-enlist is waaay higher now!
I'm so thankful for the DoD. You'd be an idiot not to enlist/commission with the base pay, tax free deployment money, BAH, BAS, COLA (overseas), and TriCare, mental health, commissary, BX, school,... the list goes on. It's TOO EASY
I was shocked to see that a Pvt. makes $1600 per mo. I made less than $600 - but then again - that was 36 years ago. Good to see that our service men / women are taken care of.
You may want to do a video on "Why it is better to Buy than Rent", as a retiring E=8 whose family was in real-estate when he came in explained to me.. He BOUGHT a house everywhere he was stationed and NEVER SOLD THEM, choosing to have local realtors rent them for him. By the time he was ready to retire, his first house (that he had slowly and systematically upgraded and planned to live in) was PAID FOR by the renters who had lived there, and the others he still owned were all investment properties bringing in a nice income for he and his wife. This knowledge( unfortunately) came TO LATE to help ME, but a good video on the Whys and Hows of doing this could work wonders for FUTURE RETIREES.
If I understand this chart right a newly enlisted private E-1 in the US Army makes $1602.30 a month. When I enlisted I took home $70 a month as an E-1.
An Aircraftsman, lowest rank in the Australian Airforce after recruit in his first year is on $64000 a year. Even if he never gets promoted because he is a useless prick, after 10 years he will be on $102000. If he is switched on and makes it to Warrant Officer, he will be 134000. There is extra for deployments, housing, languages, flying pay etc. Yes, we are very well paid :0)
In Australia you make a fortune even for menial jobs such as being a warehouse worker, waiter or fast food chain employee. When I lived in Sydney I was offered an Admin job at AUS$134,000 and asked them if it was April fools when they gave me that number.
Glad to see service members are being paid more competitively now. In the late '70's when I got out as an E-5, my annual pay was only about $8,000, which included sea, overseas, and hazardous duty pay. Hell, I made that much the first three months I was out! Had the pay been more competitive I might have stayed in for 20.
I guess some things change. When I retired with 20 years active duty I received 50% of my base pay. But having been in the Coast Guard I received an extra 10% for good conduct, plus back then I had a brief break in service so I also got to add 2 years of reserves to my pay. So after 20 years of active I retired with 60% of the 22 year pay scale. Not to bad for 1989 when I retired.
Gidday from Australia, pay in the Australian Armed Forces is very much higher. The lowest starting pay is $47,000 AU per annum but quickly rises after that. A soldier after a couple of years is on $65,000 plus all the allowances for renting or buying a home. If a soldier, sailor or airman is sent overseas on active duty, they will earn over $100,000 AU pa, all tax-free.
So a quick intangible thing regarding “free” medical. You get what you pay for (as a military brat and prior service, All I’ve known Is military medical care). Once I got out, these past 4 years, and had private insurance... I’ll never go back to tricare or any military facility again. To put it in perspective, the overwhelming majority of disabled vets are not combat vets (and I am one of them due to the medical care I received or lack there of, being an aircraft maintainer didn’t help either). This leads me to another intangible piece especially when your enlisted. Depending on your career field (MOS or AFSC), if you do the math, you’d be working for below minimum wage pay. At one point I was making 2$/hr (considering I was working an average of 14hr days not including 3 days per week of additional 1.5hrs of pt making my days/shift easily a 15hr day (that’s home station, ops tempo is no different when deployed, if anything it’s nicer). Then there’s also not having holidays or being compensated for working during the holidays (I didn’t have Christmas off the entire time I was in 8+ years) I only had New Years off. Then there’s the fact that you can’t simply put in your two weeks notice if you don’t like job and leave (officers have a lot more freedom when it comes to that). Even if you have medical issues, good luck getting a waiver so your heath won’t worsen while you try to separate. It can take months to get out ahead of your DOS/when your contract ends, and by then, your even worse off (medically speaking). The mission comes first , “service before self” and you will quickly learn that; your needs and your family needs comes second, unless your a well positioned E9 or officer above an Lt... until then the IG is your best friend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud to have served and thankfully that has allowed me to acquire my AS, BS and Master’s without a school loan and my VA disability is my workmen’s comp/country service fee for permanently altering my health. Just know that, depending on your career field, work/life balance will be shit. Just don’t go in and enlist as open general or as a cop in any branch, and at least in the USAF...do not go in as services or aircraft maintenance if you value personal time.
Most everything you said is completely wrong and misleading. First of all, It's salary so when you divide what you are making by 24, it's going to seem low. An E-4 right now, makes about 16.50/hr (more if you're married) if you translate that to a civilian 9-5 job. I know, PT and being in the field and all that 12+ hr days but so what? When I was in, I had so many 3day and 4day weekends, it was so nice. Idk what its like being a mechanic but I was Infantry and it was nice. Obviously the healthcare isn't going to be as good as private, but I didn't really have a problem at all. Even private civilian hospitals you might run into issues. The military is a sweet gig, especially if you have a family. Idk about other branches, but the Army takes care of families. They have some damn good programs.
Andrew Tolbert I never had a 9-5 or weekends and that was my point. I wasn’t misleading at all. If you read my entire post it would explain why I was getting paid below minimum wage. As an aircraft mechanic, we were 24/7 ops. Home station or deployed, our ours and tempo never changed (except deployed was 7 days per week). If I had a family while I’ve was in it would have been worse. I never saw my dad (f-16 crew chief). When I say we averaged 14-16hrs a day, that’s legit home station hours not including PT. Also no holidays. My days off for the first 4 years were weekdays (Thur fri or mon tue) and I mostly worked nights (in civilian works there’s additional compensation for that). I would see but family until the weekend and even then would be exhausted. You seriously dismissed my whole entire description and justification on how we got (at least my career field) paid less than minimum wage. I know for a fact infantry don’t pull these hours unless deployed. I joke with my army and marine buddies that the only time they earn their pay is when they’re deployed, other wise they ARE a 9-5 gig except for PT days or exercise (oh did I mention I never got lunch? while i was in). Read my whole post
@@at6062 3-4 day weekends? The infantry does NOTHING! Aircraft maintenance... 12 hour+ days, 6 days a week, deployed or at home. You want church on Sunday? Sorry, work called, you’re going in instead! You want to eat lunch? You’ll eat it never! I had to skip meals constantly.
Haha imagine if the UK Gov even paid close to that. It would be a dream I'll tell you that. Even tho we have a higher exchange rate it's still lower! I went through basic and got paid $950-1000.
People also forget the VA housing benefits. I was able to leave off base rental housing at year 4 and purchase my first home using VA loan subsidies. My own examples aside, my brother in law is a Lt Colonel and he currently has 3 homes all purchased on VA loans. One in San Diego, one in Beaufort, and one in San Clemente. Each purchase was done using VA loans. One of the biggest benefits new recruits have to think of is not always the fact that the military will pay for your college or your kids college with the GI bill but that despite your credit rating, background, race etc, they will get you into your first or second home. By underwriting your down payment, ignoring poor credit decisions in the past etc, you will own a home when you are done with your 4-5 years of service. That can be a huge benefit in savings and future net worth depending. Where as with home prices now, youre looking at $50,000-$100,000 pure cash down payment as a civilian in order to buy a home which is a sizable chuck of change for even engineering roles or nursing roles etc. Where as the military will just comp that down payment to you, that is fucking massive in creating wealth for a young person and its an often understated benefit of service.
The breakdown of 20 years is great but lets be real its going to go up a good amount in 20 or even 10 years so its very difficult to track how much you will really make. Also that 5 percent put into the right fund for 20 years could net 6 figures easily.
I’m joining the military for a career to fall back on, yeah the money is good but I’m not joining because of the money. I use to be in the JROTC and it was an inspiration and influence that what made me love the military.
I enlisted in 1981 with three years of college and received just over $800 a month, basically half of what an E 1 makes now! That's pretty sad. When I got out in 88 as an E 6 they offered me $16,000 to re enlist. This was just as Desert Shield was being set up. That's less than an E 1 makes now! After Desert Storm pay rates were increased in order to improve retention. My wife had lost her sight and there wasnt anyone to help take care of her and our daughter so I had to get out. It cost me a ton of money but my family came first!
In 1967 I went from E3 (under 2 yrs) making $99 @ month to E4 over 2 yrs and my pay doubled to $198 @ month. I thought I was rich! Shortly after that I was transferred to downtown Frankfurt, Germany and got another $30 @ month for food. With an exchange rate of 4 DM to a dollar and German beer costing 1/2 DM for .5l bottle what more could a young GI ask for?
The money is great and assuming your home life is stable, this sounds great. What concerns me are the issues beyond the military that creep into ones life. I.e. divorce/cheating which takes an emotional and mental toll, discharges, PTSD, etc. my hats off to those who serve and endure all that.
A couple of things, I had enlisted in the Air Force and got drafted into the Army while waiting to get in. So much for a career, get in and get out! I made E-4 in 11 months and after taxes I had $186.00 in my pocket every month. They got me as a civilian acquired skill, critical MOS and a secret clearance. No training or background checks required! Never hungry?? Horse pucky, there was never enough food in the mess hall and almost no milk, ever! When there was food it was usually so bad it went into the edible waste can! My $186.00 went to the NCO club for food or outside the base for food. Any other left over money went to the bar! I did use the GI bill for school and bought two homes with it. Today I have been in the VA system and they do us good! The year was 1968 right after TET. Other then a few missions it was fun and I'm glad I served. Just the VA benefits was worth the risk. As a kid I saw no benefit to being in the service. I was wrong for a lot of reasons! Wish I could do it again!
When I was last in service as an E3 back in 1991 the monthly pay was just over $800 a month. All I can say is that it's depressing how quickly the dollar is losing value. I would spend half my pay on a gold coin every month as a form of savings ($400). Today those gold coins are $2,000+ each. I can hardly imagine what another 20 years will bring at this rate of currency conjuration. 42% of ALL USD ever created has happened in the last decade.
When I join in 1964 E-1 was $68. In Viet Nam as an E-4 I made $319 tax free a month. We were promised half base pay if you retired at 20 years and full pay at 30 years. They didn't live up to that and by 20 years you had to take the new system.
Just remember retirement is only based on your base pay ! All allowances such as BAQ, BAS, clothing, flight pay, etc are not taxable. If you should get a reenlistment bonus that is taxable. Odds are if your just now or recently joined the system will change by the time you retire. Nothing is guaranteed.
Question is ? pay, benefits, extra $ is good compared to civilian job and only gets better. Why don't more enlisted personal re-enlist after first time.
Funny how you say "back in the day"? When I was in the military (1980 - 1984), I was bringing home $475 a month after taxes as an E5, with 4 yrs service. Though the pay has increased since as you put it "back in the day"...it still should be alot higher now - 2021...!!! With that being said - I enjoyed my time in the military, life after the military, and now retirement. 👊Respect👊
I enlisted in the Army in 1966, my base pay was $87.90, pay increased in July 66 and my E3 pay was $121.80. Don't join the Military was a definite true story back then.
I’m leaving for bootcamp on July 6th doing infantry and the pay is something i understand very well in the Marine Corps. People constantly say you’re barely getting paid but forget that u can literally survive the military without spending a single dime from ur paycheck and that will benefit u so well in the near future This video just proved how well your life will be if u work hard while active to rank up and only spend ur money when needed to I’m still 18 and people would say I don’t know what adult money is yet but I feel like because I know what it feels like to save for what u want for years the money thing will be a simple thing for me
Twin you are right,I had that same attitude until I started running with hot women's and fast car's, and that cost me to barley get by on pay check to pay check. You hang tuft it is easy to fall off the wagon.
Just for reference, the year 20 income of $77k would put this person in the 56th percentile of US household incomes, so assuming the spouse doesn't work, enlisting in the military is a steady career. With the spec ops pay, it would go up to $89k, which is the 61st percentile. Averaging out lifetime earnings, you would be in the ballpark around the 50-60th percentile compared to all Americans (it's a much tougher calculation, but suffice to say almost everyone has very low pay at 18 but increases their incomes over their 20s and 30s). So you aren't doing it for the money if you can find a career path to do better than normal, but it's not bad and you have done service defending the nation. The 40% check for the rest of your life is pretty good too.
I joined the British Royal Marines Commandos in 1996 as an enlisted Recruit. I was on £23.00 ($28.00) pounds per day then only £43.00 (c.$51.00) per day after 3 years service. I was in training with a 17-year-old recruit who, due to being considered a 'boy soldier', was on £9.85 (c.$12.00) per day. Needless to say before the war on terrorism and the rise of social media, British military pay was an insult to those that served. I left after my minimum term of five years.
You missed the Sea Pay/Submarine Pay charts, which is a huge part of Navy pay. Add in Nuclear Proficiency pay and the highest paid members of the military are nuclear submariners.
When I enlisted E1 pay was $121.00 per payday. After I retired from the military my civilian pay was more per year each year than I made in a 22 year naval career.
Started watching your videos two years ago when I started my journey towards my sf career. After training for the last year and a half, setting my finances in order and absorbing all information possible. I’m finally on my way to being a professional soldier. Killed the asvab and got my 18x contract and ship in august. Thanks for the time you’ve put in it’s been a good motivator for me to seek out everything I’ve needed to be successful to this point.
Rebecca Sundvall Hey I wish you good luck. Lots of reading helps with word knowledge and comp. math was my week point as I haven’t studied it for over a decade. So that’s what I focused on in terms of studying. A great resource on RUclips is grammarhero. I highly recommend checking it out. Asvab study books are also a great resource. For other subjects I didn’t feel I needed to delve to deeply into and was well served by life experience and personal knowledge stemming from various interests.
@@et9650 hey what is the GT score based on? Like yourself my weakest area is math and I am also taking a year to get in the perfect shape because I'm planning on signing a 18X contract too
Jose Yanez it’s a composite score of the 10 categories. There are breakdowns you can find here and on google.
Good luck. It will make a man out of you. Whatever you do, don’t quit and you’ll be fine.
Good for you bro!! I’m currently training for sf too I’m only 5 months in tho but I plan on going in towards the end of next year, hoping to eventually be a special forces medic when it’s all said and done, good luck brodie!!!
I was drafted into the US Army in 1964 and as an E-1 my pay was $78 a month. During basic training, they also "persuaded" us all to take out a U.S. Savings bond of $25 per month which came off the top of that princely amount of $78. I spent the next two years of my life in abject poverty.
John-former CG man here. After boot you could have changed the savings bond to quarterly. Don't know if you would have gotten grief if you dropped it. In the CG in 1963 all hell broke loose over "persuading" recruits to take a savings bond BUT after making it non mandatory your boot company got honor points if everyone signed up-another form of "persausaion"
I loved my time in the Army. Not for the money. But I was able to learn new skills back in 2004. I'm now a nurse. After 11 years as a medic I was well ahead of my civilian counterparts.
join the navy we get flight deck pay and hazardous duty pay and imminent danger pay and family sep pay and base pay and sea pay 💰 become a seaman today
I speak 4 language, can I use that in military? I'm 24 and is it late for me to join ?
@@aladinhegic3306 34 max age. for Navy not sure for the others... Go to recruiter ask to take the DLAB test in addition to the ASVAB... DLAB is the Defense Language Aptitude Battery...Every service has Linguists
@@aladinhegic3306 : The maximum age to enlist in Active Duty Navy is 34.
In order to receive the FLPP - Foreign Language Proficiency Pay:
- Only if you are in a job that may require you to speak foreign language (English does not count).
- You still have to take the test (reading & writing) in order to test your proficiency (there are 3 levels - Level 3 pays the most).
- Different languages/levels pay different amounts. The least amount you can get for a single language is $100/mo. (taxable) and the most is $500/mo. (taxable). But your "total" FLPP cannot be over $1,000/mo.
Become a Navy SEAL or EOD Tech.
On top of the Base Pay, BAH, BAS, & Enlistment Bonus, you (without being deployed overseas) will also get the SDAP, Jump Pay, Dive Pay, Demolition Pay, & Language Pay (if qualified). And if you are deployed overseas, then there are more $$$$.
@@SV-kr9fu Proficiency is based on your fluency test...if you are a native speaker of say Farsi.... then you can literally test higher simply because you are a native speaker...When I attended DLI FLC, there was no language pro pay... but the people who attended very often were already bi-lingual and though a bit rare.. there were a few polyglots in the Enlisted ranks... You'd be surprised at the number of PhD's who were students there.. One Fellow Student was a former High School teacher who was already conversant in Spanish French and German. (not a great demand for those Languages though).
As for Navy Seal, I did 2 separate tours as a recruiter my second tour was with Officer Programs. ... I have a theory about SEALs and spec ops operators in general... SEALS are FOUND... before they are trained. If you don't have what it takes physically and mentally, the school is not meant to teach that...rather...its function is to weed out those who have no business being there... Unlike other service schools... BUDS has had classes where only a handfull have graduated... and at least one where NOBODY graduated. If you're telling the man to join SEALS because of the money... you're doing a disservice to both the SEALS and him.
Im an e2, and I think I live like a king. People who say military pay is bad dont use all their benefits. Basically every cost imaginable is free especially as a joe. Every pay check you get is 100% savable income. In the civilian world you have a lot of money essentially automatically gone just for life expenses. Sure the pay in the military is not the highest, but i can think of no job that can compete with the thousands in savings.
yeah im putting 70% of my paycheck into retirement or savings and i am living very comfortably.
I was making more money as a Civie but I definitely have more expendable income now.
You should do a short tour. The money is unreal.
Yep! Live in the barracks and eat in the chow hall with your meal card.
Totally untrue. Haircuts, personal toiletries, laundry expense and uniform replacement that the clothing allowance does not cover add up. Yes you can live VERY frugally, but your life will be very boring!
"You will never go hungry in the military"
Well damn hell right about that!
Somebody never went to ranger school
That is a load of BS!
You'll be provided food thats for sure, now as for the taste and quality some of have different standards
Bro i was hungry af all the time
Guys, I don't mean it literally
Great video... Driving the point home, a full military career will nearly guarantee that you will never be uber rich, but at the same time, you will likely never go hungry or homeless. It's amazing to be approaching 25 years of active duty service and to know that I will likely never have to concern myself with worry about my retirement.
Couple things you didn’t mention:
(1) The “free” medical is easily equal to $10-$15K per year for an equivalent family in the 1stCivDiv. (2) majority of the benefits are non-taxable income (i.e., BAH). It’s important for service members to consider these before they punch out, because these are real-world costs they will incur in the civilian world but are transparent while active duty.
HeidiDan T is absolutely correct about free medical benefits. Service personnel can even get free lasik, boob jobs, complete dental, etc. Cost saving is huge, because in the civilian life, medical plans can easily cost 800 to 1500 a month out of your pocket, not even including deductibles. Another thing that is not mentioned in the video is all service personnel contribute to social security and medicare, therefore can obtain the benefits after working 30 plus years. Another thing that is not mentioned in the video, military pay have been getting cost of living increases in the past 20 years without fail. Civilian federal employees have missed COLA too many times in 20 years.
The worse free medical.. 👍🏼 navy dudes using you as test pigs !
Are the pay grades that are shown online taxed already or no
big p The base pay shown on the pay scales are pre-tax and service members are taxed on this pay.
@@SC_XOLOs You have no idea what you're talking about.
Commanders - “feed your horses, feed your men, then feed yourself”. Glad enlisted are getting taken care of better.
Funny paratroopers get the same $150 they used in WWll to 'help' guy men to enlist.
Jump pay during WWII was $50 a month (huge when you think a PVT in WWII earned $50 a month in Base Pay). When I went to jump school in 1990, Jump pay was $110 a month. Some time in the 90s, it bumped up to $150 a month.
@@JohnGatesIII Right, an extra $60 pay on top of their $50.00 enlistment pay. I thought for some reason it was $50 and $100 to join airborne. Weird.
@@JohnGatesIII yeah most bonus pays like jump or flight pay suck. Perdium gets retarded though. Like you can make stupid money as an e-4 with perdium.
the jump pay was $50.00 per month not 150 i was over seas 2 yrs got out 1955 187th rct still $ 50.00 then but we didnt jump for money .
You are correct Trash Panda. When I was training for my Commission in the Australian Army it was rammed down our throats that we were to put the welfare of our men before our own. Once in service as an Officer those of us who put this into practice gained the respect and support of our men and that is the best thing an Officer can have.
Better pay than the British Army. All the best from Belfast, Northern Ireland 🇬🇧
The Brits have some fancy as hell MRE's though! 😂
@Serg how are post retirement benefits in the UK?
@@danieldunn4769 absolutely shit now pal. They changed it in 2015 and it doesn't benefit anymore. Theres no point doing our 22 years because we wont see a penny until we are 67
Jamie Quinton That’s what I’ve heard. I’m US military stationed here in England and occasionally at work the conversation pops up. Compared to the benefits we get, the British have it rough with that.
*Belfast, Ireland 🇮🇪
Excellent job explaining this. 36yrs ago I asked about this from our military advisor at Texas A&M and he couldn’t come close to this.
What do you expect HE is a college professor😏they don't teach anything anymore, other than to be socialist, anarchist,snowflakes and screeching lunatics....
Colorado News and Reports i had some great military science teachers. Most all viet nam vets. It was the west point A-hole working on his masters that couldn’t provide any real information.
Colorado News and Reports sir he was a military advisor for the Corps of Cadets. He was a Captain in the Army.
Current Cadet here! Gig 'Em!
About 20 years ago, I asked 3 different Navy Recruiters about the pays for Navy EOD Tech. and they couldn't give me one straight answer, instead, I got 3 different answers (and I learned later that none of them were correct).
I served in the Navy from 64 to 84 retiring as an E7. Been drawing my retirement check ever month since. They didn't have TSP when I retired. Great video and thanks for making it.
I'm like a young one who has not yet served. but I'm thinking about serving in the US Army. 20 years of service is not too much for me? now for the youth. 4 years is enough to serve in the army, isn't it?
This really helps the new generation get a good grasp on how much they can really make Thank you for making this
Joined the Navy at 18 with 7k in the bank. I did janitorial and smoked a lot of pot in high school. Left the Navy after months with 32k in the bank. Invested 29k in the S&P in late 90. Started working at UPS, Exide Battery and did concrete on Saturdays. Invested 1k a month every month into it, Cashed out 250k from the S&P and invested with my Financial advisor Lyra Holt Dean(Look her up). Cashed out and Semi retired at 31. Took a year off. Traveled. Came home and started working part time for the insurance, entertainment and pocket change. Work isn't work when you don't have to work. Becoming wealthy can be done in few years. It feels like 60hr work weeks. Feel the pain of discipline early or feel the pain of regret later. I wish everyone well!
I dont know what experience / knowlege you have of it, or your stance but a video on PTSD / Mental Health and dealing with stressors would be a awesome video.
Great video idea. Thanks
@@LifeisaSpecialOperation Thank you for making the videos you do. I have assigned them as "Disciplinary actions" to the junior firefighters I instruct. If they're late / unprofessional for example, they must write a paper on why what they did was wrong & how it could cause them to be unsuccessful in the fire service.
Beer, friends and the occasional dust up works for my mates and I.
Glad to hear the pay has been increasing. I joined the Army in July of 1980 and my base pay was 418.88 cents a month, with a take home of 226.00. At that point we used to report for pay, had OD Green uniform with a white t-shirt, ran PT in boots, 1911 and M3 Grease was still in service, lived in a WW2 barracks at B Btry, 1st Bn 51st ADA, with the 7th Inf Div at Fort California. I retired in 2000 and miss the Army everyday. Good memories and better friends.
Too bad it doesn’t match inflation all that well.
Thanks! Can't wait for the retirement pay video. I'm 22 years retired active and guard( 4 and 18) with 10 years total active time due to schools and deployments
I joined the USAF in 1962. After basic and tech school I was promoted to A3C (E-2). My pay check was $37.00 and if I remember we were paid twice a month. Even then it wasn't much but boy did I have a good time with what I had, and even when broke, which was most of the time, you were well taken care of.
Thank you for your service and it seems like a lot of other people who joined around the same time got low money sadly.
Life is a Special Operation videos like this one as well as the videos released prior to today’s, are very informative, interesting and just awesome to watch.
Thank you and keep them coming. 🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thanks, Josh
Wow-I enlisted in the navy in 1957 starting at 78 dollars a month! Four years later, I was an ET2-P1 and OI div. leader at$196/mo.
This makes me even more wanna join in to the US Military, not for the money but for the knowledge and skills that I can acquire in the training/field, not just that but you gotta have the best gears that can help you finished the mission flawlessly.
I'm from the Philippines, ever since I was in my highschool I always wanted to be in the US Military. Unfortunately, I'm not a US citizen.
You don’t need to be a citizen to join the military of USA?
I'm going into the navy as a NMM and planning on retiring after 20-25 years, I've been thinking about if it's worth retiring in the military or leave after my 8 year contract and go work as a nuclear engineer as a civilian. Your video really helped me out, keep up the great work and thank you for your service.
As an E-3 in boot camp in 1971 my base pay started at ~$180.00/month. In 1995 when I retired with 23 years as an E-6 my base pay was $1876.00. As such my monthly pay at retirement was about what an E-1 over 4 months would get now.
At that time sea pay was less than $15.00/month.
This was exactly the information I was looking for, thank you. I'm a 31yo with an electrical degree that could enlist as an E2, very happy living out of my camper van and pocketing my BAH into a retirement plan, would love to get free eye surgery and be trained in multiple fields like EOD, small arms repair, and wheeled vehicle maintenance. Armys lookin pretty good atm. The best part is I'm never going to marry or have kids so this could be what I'm looking for.
Why don't you work as an electrician for an American company? You can earn more.
@@halomrchief seems to be that I only care about the quality of the work I'm doing instead of people pleasing, so civilian companies kind of hate me, haha. I hate having to play the game, I just want to build.
Not to mention that for SOF units especially they usually give you enlistment bonuses when you first join, usually around $40-60k, as well as reenlistment bonuses up to $100,000.
Make sure you check you companies military pay differential policy if you attempt to file for that benefit while on military leave. As a Leave Administrator who works on these types of benefits you should be aware each company can choose there basis of awarding military diff pay. Some will go strictly off the LES, some will go off the current federal military pay chart only. So as a reminder if you are taking leave from your employer for military service don't be mad at the results if their not in your favor, as employers can choose how they want to make that benefit work.
as of 2018, TSP only matches up to 5% after 2 years in service, which can make a big impact on your decisions if you dont do the full 20
Always look forward to your videos.
My first paycheck after MOS school was $269, August 1991, Active Duty Infantry, 4 years total.
Marines 1990-1994
Love your videos man! Would you consider doing any videos in the future about languages / language learning in the military? I’ve heard you mention it a few times in several different videos.
Tom, I can add it to my video list but it is going to be a very long time before I get to it. Great idea.
As an Enlisted Nuclear Power operator I picked up extra pay throughout most of my career. Almost all of us are Sub designated coming in to the program. However, carriers need a gaggle of operators too, so many of us were "involuntarily surfaced". About mid-career for me, the Navy finally decided to close the pay equity gap between surface and sub operators by giving us SDAP. It didn't make up for the missing sub pay entirely but it did soothe the burn a bit. And of course we never got a cool pin for our uniforms like all of the other top tier specialists because "We were just doing our [incredibly difficult, dangerous job that required high IQs, years of training, and carried phenomenal penalties for mistakes] job." *My commentary inserted.
I'm from Canada and I love these videos! Thank you for the great content!
Beats the heck out of what I earned when I joined the Army back in early 1970. I earned $69 a month as a buck private in training. I actually got a raise of $55 for combat pay when I went to war in Viet Nam for a total of $124 a month (if memory serves). Upon Deros end of 1971 from the Army two years later as a buck Sergeant of about $326 (aprx) a month. Baby you've come a long way since those days.
Love your videos im joining the United states Marines I'm 26 I love learning languages I was nervous about the money thank you now I know I'm exited to join the marines in October thank you for your videos
When I was drafted in 1963 as an E_1 my pay was (get ready) $78.00 a month, believe it or knot.
Leroy Ray,enlisted in fifty and was given ten dollars when I started basic,made a grand seventy two dollars a month plus room and board and clothing. Spent eleven months in Alaska for seven dollars and fifty cents more per month. Became an aircrew member and rode a 26 over North Korea thirteen times,gained airman second and drew one hundred,twenty four dollars per month.came back stateside and made airman first but loss of overseas and hazard pay kept my monthly at one hundred and twenty four dollars per month.
If you price that in terms of gold, you would be making ~$3400/month today. Gold in 1963 was $35/ounce, so you were making 2 ounces of gold per month (in gold buying power).
@@seanf5634 so true Sean and now the paper money is worthless pretty much.
I remember nickle candy bars for snickers, Hershey and mars. they were bigger then also. In the mid 1970's I made about $330 a month as an E3
Sorry Leroy.
Flight pay is more than just preventing people from going to the airlines. As a military pilot, you are expected to be in "flight status" which means you have to pass an aviation physical every year. Flight pay is to give you initiative to remain in top physical status (whether its a gym membership or a diet that does not consist of fast food). If you're not flight status, you don't rate wearing your flight suit!
for the amount of trauma soldiers go through they make shit money
I mean that's not terrible pay at all i've seen worse but i do agree the military should get a pay rise.
Dirt poor money.
@@iamj369 But most of your money will go to housing,Bills,and food. Military members can just save up most of their money.
@@alphaleader9113 that’s only if there on bass if I’m not mistaken
@@jacobismith1201 You get BHA if you're not living on base.
When my dad retired as an E9 with 26 yrs TIS in 1978, his monthly base pay was $1443. My friend, who retired last year at the same grade and TIS, was making $7119. When I told dad this, his jaw dropped and he just sat there in silence.
In 1975 a E-1 made $344.10 a month
In 1980 the pay was increased to compete with the civilian world and nearly double overnight.
Any one that served prior to 1980 didn't do it for the paycheck but for county.
I enlisted in the Navy in 1966. Base pay for me as a recruit in boot camp was only $30/mo, but what could I have spent the money on, with no opportunity to go “ashore”? I am happy that military pay has gone up so much! The incentive to re-enlist is waaay higher now!
I'm so thankful for the DoD. You'd be an idiot not to enlist/commission with the base pay, tax free deployment money, BAH, BAS, COLA (overseas), and TriCare, mental health, commissary, BX, school,... the list goes on. It's TOO EASY
I was shocked to see that a Pvt. makes $1600 per mo. I made less than $600 - but then again - that was 36 years ago. Good to see that our service men / women are taken care of.
Hell, in 1965 when I went into service, pay for a E1 private was $78.00 a month!
No, it wasn't. It didn't go that high until October 1, 1966.
- Finance Corps, 1966 - 1988.
Bruv y’all ancient
@@thnd3rb1rd I still got my pay voucher from June 1 1963 as an E_1 was $78.00 a month was you in the military during that time???
@@luke_5187 if you live long enough you will become ancient to,just stop and think about it from an 81 year old.
So true
You may want to do a video on "Why it is better to Buy than Rent", as a retiring E=8 whose family was in real-estate when he came in explained to me.. He BOUGHT a house everywhere he was stationed and NEVER SOLD THEM, choosing to have local realtors rent them for him. By the time he was ready to retire, his first house (that he had slowly and systematically upgraded and planned to live in) was PAID FOR by the renters who had lived there, and the others he still owned were all investment properties bringing in a nice income for he and his wife. This knowledge( unfortunately) came TO LATE to help ME, but a good video on the Whys and Hows of doing this could work wonders for FUTURE RETIREES.
If I understand this chart right a newly enlisted private E-1 in the US Army makes $1602.30 a month. When I enlisted I took home $70 a month as an E-1.
I don’t really care as long as I have a roof, food, and water I can do any job in the military...
Wow! In 1979 US Army Private E1 was only $419.00 per month. Gotta love inflation.
I went in the same year and made the same.........don't regret going in at all. You cannot put value on a positive life experience!!!!
4:25, cannot tell you the amount of times I was that very guy sitting on the ramp, watching the world go by...
In January 1962 As a 2nd Lt, US Army, my base pay was $222.30 per month. Of course gasoline was about $0.30 per gallon.
An Aircraftsman, lowest rank in the Australian Airforce after recruit in his first year is on $64000 a year. Even if he never gets promoted because he is a useless prick, after 10 years he will be on $102000. If he is switched on and makes it to Warrant Officer, he will be 134000. There is extra for deployments, housing, languages, flying pay etc. Yes, we are very well paid :0)
Careful ignoring exchange rates
AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS!
$1 USD = $1.34 AUD
An RAAF recruit gets paid $35,151, which is $22,737 USD.
@@jamesrustles8670 sure there a lil difference but aus in one of the highest paid army
In Australia you make a fortune even for menial jobs such as being a warehouse worker, waiter or fast food chain employee. When I lived in Sydney I was offered an Admin job at AUS$134,000 and asked them if it was April fools when they gave me that number.
Glad to see service members are being paid more competitively now. In the late '70's when I got out as an E-5, my annual pay was only about $8,000, which included sea, overseas, and hazardous duty pay. Hell, I made that much the first three months I was out! Had the pay been more competitive I might have stayed in for 20.
I dont want to do it for the money, thats just a bonus
For some reason, a few guys will say this, but when I say I'm willing to take their pay check they don't give it.
I said the same thing when I was a boot until I got married
Lmao
WalnutMantis how long have you been married ?
How long before they crush his spirit?
I made just over $100 per month when I enlisted in 1967. [And, combat pay was $50 per month in 1968 and 1969.]
I guess some things change. When I retired with 20 years active duty I received 50% of my base pay. But having been in the Coast Guard I received an extra 10% for good conduct, plus back then I had a brief break in service so I also got to add 2 years of reserves to my pay. So after 20 years of active I retired with 60% of the 22 year pay scale. Not to bad for 1989 when I retired.
What are you up to now? What did you do with that money?
My first paycheck from the army was 438.00 a month. Things have changed for certain.
Gidday from Australia, pay in the Australian Armed Forces is very much higher. The lowest starting pay is $47,000 AU per annum but quickly rises after that. A soldier after a couple of years is on $65,000 plus all the allowances for renting or buying a home. If a soldier, sailor or airman is sent overseas on active duty, they will earn over $100,000 AU pa, all tax-free.
Now convert all that to USD, braniac!
@@afcgeo882 You type into Google, "currency converter". Now that was not too hard. $100,000AU is $74,000US.
So a quick intangible thing regarding “free” medical. You get what you pay for (as a military brat and prior service, All I’ve known Is military medical care). Once I got out, these past 4 years, and had private insurance... I’ll never go back to tricare or any military facility again. To put it in perspective, the overwhelming majority of disabled vets are not combat vets (and I am one of them due to the medical care I received or lack there of, being an aircraft maintainer didn’t help either). This leads me to another intangible piece especially when your enlisted. Depending on your career field (MOS or AFSC), if you do the math, you’d be working for below minimum wage pay. At one point I was making 2$/hr (considering I was working an average of 14hr days not including 3 days per week of additional 1.5hrs of pt making my days/shift easily a 15hr day (that’s home station, ops tempo is no different when deployed, if anything it’s nicer). Then there’s also not having holidays or being compensated for working during the holidays (I didn’t have Christmas off the entire time I was in 8+ years) I only had New Years off. Then there’s the fact that you can’t simply put in your two weeks notice if you don’t like job and leave (officers have a lot more freedom when it comes to that). Even if you have medical issues, good luck getting a waiver so your heath won’t worsen while you try to separate. It can take months to get out ahead of your DOS/when your contract ends, and by then, your even worse off (medically speaking). The mission comes first , “service before self” and you will quickly learn that; your needs and your family needs comes second, unless your a well positioned E9 or officer above an Lt... until then the IG is your best friend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud to have served and thankfully that has allowed me to acquire my AS, BS and Master’s without a school loan and my VA disability is my workmen’s comp/country service fee for permanently altering my health. Just know that, depending on your career field, work/life balance will be shit. Just don’t go in and enlist as open general or as a cop in any branch, and at least in the USAF...do not go in as services or aircraft maintenance if you value personal time.
Most everything you said is completely wrong and misleading. First of all, It's salary so when you divide what you are making by 24, it's going to seem low. An E-4 right now, makes about 16.50/hr (more if you're married) if you translate that to a civilian 9-5 job. I know, PT and being in the field and all that 12+ hr days but so what? When I was in, I had so many 3day and 4day weekends, it was so nice. Idk what its like being a mechanic but I was Infantry and it was nice. Obviously the healthcare isn't going to be as good as private, but I didn't really have a problem at all. Even private civilian hospitals you might run into issues. The military is a sweet gig, especially if you have a family. Idk about other branches, but the Army takes care of families. They have some damn good programs.
Andrew Tolbert I never had a 9-5 or weekends and that was my point. I wasn’t misleading at all. If you read my entire post it would explain why I was getting paid below minimum wage. As an aircraft mechanic, we were 24/7 ops. Home station or deployed, our ours and tempo never changed (except deployed was 7 days per week). If I had a family while I’ve was in it would have been worse. I never saw my dad (f-16 crew chief). When I say we averaged 14-16hrs a day, that’s legit home station hours not including PT. Also no holidays. My days off for the first 4 years were weekdays (Thur fri or mon tue) and I mostly worked nights (in civilian works there’s additional compensation for that). I would see but family until the weekend and even then would be exhausted. You seriously dismissed my whole entire description and justification on how we got (at least my career field) paid less than minimum wage. I know for a fact infantry don’t pull these hours unless deployed. I joke with my army and marine buddies that the only time they earn their pay is when they’re deployed, other wise they ARE a 9-5 gig except for PT days or exercise (oh did I mention I never got lunch? while i was in). Read my whole post
@@at6062 3-4 day weekends? The infantry does NOTHING!
Aircraft maintenance... 12 hour+ days, 6 days a week, deployed or at home. You want church on Sunday? Sorry, work called, you’re going in instead! You want to eat lunch? You’ll eat it never! I had to skip meals constantly.
Haha imagine if the UK Gov even paid close to that. It would be a dream I'll tell you that. Even tho we have a higher exchange rate it's still lower! I went through basic and got paid $950-1000.
The UK pay is higher than the US.
I hate how people complain about the pay the military isn’t about being paid it’s about you doing right and honor
Fascinating 👍🏾 🖤
That E-1 Pay is before taxes, we were making 300 a paycheck in bootcamp.
People also forget the VA housing benefits. I was able to leave off base rental housing at year 4 and purchase my first home using VA loan subsidies. My own examples aside, my brother in law is a Lt Colonel and he currently has 3 homes all purchased on VA loans. One in San Diego, one in Beaufort, and one in San Clemente. Each purchase was done using VA loans.
One of the biggest benefits new recruits have to think of is not always the fact that the military will pay for your college or your kids college with the GI bill but that despite your credit rating, background, race etc, they will get you into your first or second home. By underwriting your down payment, ignoring poor credit decisions in the past etc, you will own a home when you are done with your 4-5 years of service. That can be a huge benefit in savings and future net worth depending. Where as with home prices now, youre looking at $50,000-$100,000 pure cash down payment as a civilian in order to buy a home which is a sizable chuck of change for even engineering roles or nursing roles etc.
Where as the military will just comp that down payment to you, that is fucking massive in creating wealth for a young person and its an often understated benefit of service.
The breakdown of 20 years is great but lets be real its going to go up a good amount in 20 or even 10 years so its very difficult to track how much you will really make. Also that 5 percent put into the right fund for 20 years could net 6 figures easily.
I’m joining the military for a career to fall back on, yeah the money is good but I’m not joining because of the money. I use to be in the JROTC and it was an inspiration and influence that what made me love the military.
I am so happy I am retiring with my High 36!
I enlisted in 1981 with three years of college and received just over $800 a month, basically half of what an E 1 makes now! That's pretty sad. When I got out in 88 as an E 6 they offered me $16,000 to re enlist. This was just as Desert Shield was being set up. That's less than an E 1 makes now! After Desert Storm pay rates were increased in order to improve retention. My wife had lost her sight and there wasnt anyone to help take care of her and our daughter so I had to get out. It cost me a ton of money but my family came first!
They're actually moving away from the check for life in the Navy. They gave us the option to either stay with check for life a couple months back
Wdym are you talking about fleet reserve or something else
phoenix jones reserve
In 1967 I went from E3 (under 2 yrs) making $99 @ month to E4 over 2 yrs and my pay doubled to $198 @ month. I thought I was rich! Shortly after that I was transferred to downtown Frankfurt, Germany and got another $30 @ month for food. With an exchange rate of 4 DM to a dollar and German beer costing 1/2 DM for .5l bottle what more could a young GI ask for?
Pay should be higher. They deserve more.
Good vid ... and strong message : private sector is always more profitable for those who dare ...
IVAN BELKOV what’s that?
@@lcwtd4336 what is your question ?
IVAN BELKOV what is private sector?
@@lcwtd4336 the private sector equal to the army is the private contractors and defense companies
The money is great and assuming your home life is stable, this sounds great. What concerns me are the issues beyond the military that creep into ones life. I.e. divorce/cheating which takes an emotional and mental toll, discharges, PTSD, etc. my hats off to those who serve and endure all that.
A couple of things, I had enlisted in the Air Force and got drafted into the Army while waiting to get in. So much for a career, get in and get out!
I made E-4 in 11 months and after taxes I had $186.00 in my pocket every month. They got me as a civilian acquired skill, critical MOS and a secret clearance. No training or background checks required!
Never hungry?? Horse pucky, there was never enough food in the mess hall and almost no milk, ever!
When there was food it was usually so bad it went into the edible waste can!
My $186.00 went to the NCO club for food or outside the base for food. Any other left over money went to the bar!
I did use the GI bill for school and bought two homes with it. Today I have been in the VA system and they do us good!
The year was 1968 right after TET. Other then a few missions it was fun and I'm glad I served.
Just the VA benefits was worth the risk.
As a kid I saw no benefit to being in the service. I was wrong for a lot of reasons!
Wish I could do it again!
Your videos are always Phenominal Sir!
Keep up the great work!
This guy should be a recruiter
When I was last in service as an E3 back in 1991 the monthly pay was just over $800 a month. All I can say is that it's depressing how quickly the dollar is losing value. I would spend half my pay on a gold coin every month as a form of savings ($400). Today those gold coins are $2,000+ each. I can hardly imagine what another 20 years will bring at this rate of currency conjuration. 42% of ALL USD ever created has happened in the last decade.
When I join in 1964 E-1 was $68. In Viet Nam as an E-4 I made $319 tax free a month. We were promised half base pay if you retired at 20 years and full pay at 30 years. They didn't live up to that and by 20 years you had to take the new system.
Just remember retirement is only based on your base pay ! All allowances such as BAQ, BAS, clothing, flight pay, etc are not taxable. If you should get a reenlistment bonus that is taxable.
Odds are if your just now or recently joined the system will change by the time you retire. Nothing is guaranteed.
Your videos are very informative and presented very clear and very precise. Thank you PO 1st class Crosson.
Great video! I love the outro!
Question is ? pay, benefits, extra $ is good compared to civilian job and only gets better. Why don't more enlisted personal re-enlist after first time.
In the thumbnail you can see a marine holding what little money he has left after a long friday night
Funny how you say "back in the day"? When I was in the military (1980 - 1984), I was bringing home $475 a month after taxes as an E5, with 4 yrs service.
Though the pay has increased since as you put it "back in the day"...it still should be alot higher now - 2021...!!! With that being said - I enjoyed my time in the military, life after the military, and now retirement. 👊Respect👊
when I was in the service in 1963 I was getting like 150.00 a month and 100.00 a month for off base housing pay with 1 dependent.
When I went into the Army in March 1968 my base pay was 93.00 a month.
even with inflation that was only 700$ a month. which is less than half of a basic trainee makes now.
Why do you always forget to add the Coast Guard
The what guard now?
I saw some coasties at flight med the other day. Didn't know they actually existed. I thought they were like unicorns.
They’re not dod
flight2k5 They’re still a branch of the military. And the title of this video very clearly says “All Branches”
Because they’re not considered in the department of defense. They are in the department of the homeland so you don’t really add it
I enlisted in the Army in 1966, my base pay was $87.90, pay increased in July 66 and my E3 pay was $121.80. Don't join the Military was a definite true story back then.
I’m leaving for bootcamp on July 6th doing infantry and the pay is something i understand very well in the Marine Corps. People constantly say you’re barely getting paid but forget that u can literally survive the military without spending a single dime from ur paycheck and that will benefit u so well in the near future
This video just proved how well your life will be if u work hard while active to rank up and only spend ur money when needed to
I’m still 18 and people would say I don’t know what adult money is yet but I feel like because I know what it feels like to save for what u want for years the money thing will be a simple thing for me
Twin you are right,I had that same attitude until I started running with hot women's and fast car's, and that cost me to barley get by on pay check to pay check. You hang tuft it is easy to fall off the wagon.
I wish this wasn’t one of the last things I looked into before I joined, but I’m happy with what I’ll get and I’ve never been worried about the money.
Just for reference, the year 20 income of $77k would put this person in the 56th percentile of US household incomes, so assuming the spouse doesn't work, enlisting in the military is a steady career. With the spec ops pay, it would go up to $89k, which is the 61st percentile. Averaging out lifetime earnings, you would be in the ballpark around the 50-60th percentile compared to all Americans (it's a much tougher calculation, but suffice to say almost everyone has very low pay at 18 but increases their incomes over their 20s and 30s).
So you aren't doing it for the money if you can find a career path to do better than normal, but it's not bad and you have done service defending the nation. The 40% check for the rest of your life is pretty good too.
My 1st check at Ft Ord in 1970 was $90/mo cash
The video we all wanted
I was an e3 in 1969...My pay was $110.00 per month.
I joined the British Royal Marines Commandos in 1996 as an enlisted Recruit. I was on £23.00 ($28.00) pounds per day then only £43.00 (c.$51.00) per day after 3 years service. I was in training with a 17-year-old recruit who, due to being considered a 'boy soldier', was on £9.85 (c.$12.00) per day.
Needless to say before the war on terrorism and the rise of social media, British military pay was an insult to those that served. I left after my minimum term of five years.
You missed the Sea Pay/Submarine Pay charts, which is a huge part of Navy pay. Add in Nuclear Proficiency pay and the highest paid members of the military are nuclear submariners.
ive been researching the military for a while now and i am excited
When I enlisted E1 pay was $121.00 per payday. After I retired from the military my civilian pay was more per year each year than I made in a 22 year naval career.
Interesting video! The mushies got me thinking about it 🕺🏽
It's inflation more than improving "quality of life", but I do agree.
My pay the first full month of basic in 1970 as an E3 (ROTC) was $87.00.
And I am sure that things were much cheaper back then.
Awesome video!
Very informative....lots of information for my son...tks!
Man I love this channel and I just saw 4 videos