Bonus: How to spend?

HisChamaoleGirl

If you or SO received a bonus for enlisting or re enlisting, how did you spend it? Did you just use it as extra "fun" money or did you set it aside for a specific purchase or goal?

 

HisChamaoleGirl

My first re enlistment bonus was put towards buying a car (didnt own one at the time) and into a savings account.

DH and I werent planning on receiving a bonus for re enlisting, but our deployed status offered us a small bonus each. But who's going to complain about "free" money anyways? We were planning on re enlisting anyways so the extra bonus was a pleasant surprise. We both put half of our bonus towards our home savings account and the other half is going to be used for a trip/vacation to see SS. 

DowagerCountessofNJ

Any bonuses we receive from our jobs goes right into our savings account unless there is a bill that has a higher interest rate than what we get through our savings account.

Brandienee85

Pay off debt first and save next.

HisChamaoleGirl

Brandienee85:

Pay off debt first and save next.

That is good advice! This past deployment covered most of our debt and due to budgeting the rest of it will be paid off by the end of Dec.

iluvmytxrgr

When I joined, I used part of it to get by while I was looking for a job. I was a Reservist.  I saved the rest.  When J re-enlisted the first time, we paid off his truck.  This last time, it wasn't very much.  We paid off a credit card. 

Honeydewchestnut

We used H's bonus to pay off half our student loans.  

ksrawr

Pay off debt and last year H bought my computer with it.  This year it will go towards some christmas travel and prob finish paying things off (he gets a portion of it every year)

SunnySky06

His last bonus went toward paying off his CC and buying a few anniversary gifts. Luckily we're debt free so if he gets a bonus this upcoming reenlisment it will probably just go into savings and IRA. 

NSL

He gets a couple of annual bonuses, and we split them between savings, paying off student loans, and trips/home remodeling.  This year we're going to Napa, reprinting the living room, and installing central air.

kyrgyzstan

Not that H will ever get a reenlistment bonus (can you tell I'm mildly bitter?), but if he did, I'd first max out Roth IRAs for both of us, then put it in his TSP, then pay off debt.

kacasey276

Strip clubs DUH!!!  JK

 We paid off our debt, bought a new tv for our house and put some into savings...

Z&FsMM

DH's last reenlistment bonus we used to  finish paying off 2 of our cars, our motorcycle and made lump sum payments to our student loans.  He was deployed at the time and had always wanted a dirt bike so we purchased one of those also before he came home.  I also used quite a bit for travel and taking time off for when a close friend was KIA while DH was still deployed. While we obviously did not plan to spend the money on that, we were glad we had the money and didn't have to pull it out of other savings since I had to take off so much time without pay. We also finally took our honeymoon!  We did quite a bit actually with the last bonus actually.

Z&FsMM

Brandienee85:

Pay off debt first and save next.

This was our idea.  We have savings already, but it was financially not smart to put the entire lump sum into savings when we still had car payments and student loan payments with higher interest rates than our savings.   

StarJay

WishIcouldbeinthe'stan:

Not that H will ever get a reenlistment bonus (can you tell I'm mildly bitter?), but if he did, I'd first max out Roth IRAs for both of us, then put it in his TSP, then pay off debt.

C has missed the re-enlistment bonuses for his AFSC by a matter of months EVERY time.  But if he ever got so lucky, our plans would be similar to yours.

booyey

I'd max out Roth IRAs first, then pay off any debt, then invest. Honestly, I'm not a big "fun money" person...when we want to have fun or buy something we just do it rather than separate our money out into "pots." 

I am getting a bonus in March and I can't wait. :-)