Most young military families are unfamiliar with how to manage finances. Many commands have required such families to get financial counseling and lectures as a matter of routine. This has gone on for decades, it is not new.
What has happened in recent decades to the military family way of life is not something to be proud of. The benefits and subsidies have been ‘outsourced’ to predators who see young military families as food.
As the cost of living has escalated the service pay has not kept up forcing many military families to wade into risky credit situations.
Here’s an example:
A military parent is getting paid at the end of the week. The family needs to pay rent and there’s not much left for food and utilities, etc. The parent receives on any given week several flyers and mailers about applying for a credit card. The family applies and receives a credit card with a $300 credit line, just enough to buy food until the next payday.
After about 6 months, the military family has paid their $300 credit card balance on time responsibly. The credit card company rewards them by ‘automatically’ increasing their credit line to $1500. The addiction grows, the loanshark pushes more of the financial meth, the family acts responsibly for a time until an incident or event occurs such as a death in the family, a marriage, a vehicle breakdown, etc. any event that causes the family to step outside their ‘responsibility zone’ and use the extra credit line.
Before they know it, the upright responsible military family is in a lot of debt and they struggle to get out from under it as the service member’s pay is stretched to more than they can bear. Often this forces the spouse to seek work outside the home to make ends meet. As the family is stressed, thoughts of separation or divorce begin to emerge and a path to a breakdown comes into view.
Before Bush 41, this scenario was not so prevalent because the military was much more supportive of military housing for families and education for military children. This kept military families insulated from the civilian loan practices that have grown today to be predatory.
In Today’s World, living within one’s means is vital but not always feasible with a family to take care of. A military member can live within his/her means if they remain unmarried, childless, living in low-rent apartments and staying out of the way of most civilians. It’s doable that way but is not healthy for future generations of military members and certainly not an attractor for recruitment.
The problems you mention, make me wonder if, any personal finance/money management education, is part of any military education or training programs.
Especially with young service members, for whom the military is their first real job, and in most cases being stationed far from family and friends, it’s easy to see how they fall prey to predatory credit card or loan schemes.