Military Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Getting Out and then?
Hello Ladies!
DH has been in the military for the past 4 years and will (thankfully!) be getting out in March of next year. We are excited about this mew chapter in our lives, but are not sure about a few big decisions. We are looking into buying a home in the area we plan to stay in permanently. We have the job situations pretty much covered (DH does at least) and we will be getting BAH through the GI bill since he'll still be in school while he's working. Has anyone here used the VA home loans??
After being in the military for so long, how do we estimate our monthly expenses?
Any advice is welcome! Thanks!
Re: Getting Out and then?
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Also to add, if you are Army you need to make sure you have some money put away. I say this because we were under the impression because my H taking a lot of terminal leave before actually ETSing that he would still get DLA or an advance on travel expenses. To say the least when you ETS you do not recieve DLA or any type of advance (the advance we knew but was blindsided by the no DLA). We just get ourselves moved back and our stuff (we are overseas). We can put in for a travel vocher but it has to be sent back here and this place is very well known for losing things or being very slow.
So with that make sure you have enough put away that you can set up a household and live off of if you or your H have not secured a job.
Good luck!
What branch of military is your DH? I know in the Army we have a program called ACAP and it helps the servicemember prepare for civilian life. He will practice interview skills, learn about his benefits, etc in that program. I highly suggest he goes to all appointments to help better transition. It sounds like you already have a good plan in place by taking advantage of the GI Bill with BAH and other job opportunities. Good luck to your and DH!
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Also to go with this, you mentioned that your H has something lined up for a job. Well nothing is written in stone this economy is not getting any better and I wouldn't count on anything until you have an offical job offer that is signed and even at that point it is still iffy.
Just a tidbit that I didn't see you mention, but you may already know, is that BAH for the GI bill is set at an e-5 rate IIRC.
If you're staying in the same area, then shouldn't you already know your monthly expenses? If not, start tracking now so that you can have a good idea of your current expenditures and can plan and adjust accordingly.
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I know all of our monthly expenses while we are renting, I'm just trying to figure out what additional expenses come with home ownership (besides obvious ones such as something breaking, or needing paint, etc) What monthly expenses do home owners face that long-time renters probably won't think of? I know the insurance will be different, but are there any other things I'm not thinking about? I just want to be sure I'm not forgetting anything
As a home owner on my own and with DH, I have found that the joys of homeownership sometimes do not outweigh the hardships.
1) Homeowners Insurance is damned more expensive than renters. And be very clear about your coverage. Our neighbors had a trampoline...another neighbor's kid got hurt. The first set's company dropped them.
2) Have enough in your savings to cover:
a) At least 6 months mortgage and taxes. There is never a guarantee that either of you will have job/keep going to school to cover your house. Your DH's education is only going to last soo long. Then he will have to find a job.
b) Enough money to cover any major expense not covered by insuarnace. I had a home warrantee policy when I bought my condo. My very old AC died - No big deal since it was coverd right? EXCEPT that my very old heating unit/pump was in perfect condition, but it was not compatible with any of the new A/C units. I HAD to replace them...but they were not covered by my warrantee policy. That was $3000 dollars out of pocket.
c) HOA increases. This also happened to me. I was blessed that it was only a $20 a month increase...but that adds up.
3) Lawn/Bug Maintenance. When you own, its ALL on you. Those are additional costs that can make you cringe and cry. That extra $20 month increase was due to an infestation of roaches from the neighboring apartment complex that got flooded due to Hurricane Isabel. While the condo association paid for the initial bombing of the buildings, I had to pay for my monthly bug-guy OoP.
And do not get me started on FL and its termites and fire ants....the amount of money we spend to keep the fire ants out of our yard so our dogs can go out and pee...is ONLY going to increase now that we have a toddler who will go out and play.
4) Taxes increase all of the time. And property values drop. I bought my condo way before the bubble and sold it at the height. The woman who bought it from me lost almost $90k in value just 2 years later.
Today, we are $40k in the hole...and we bought it for $30k less than the people before us did. We are ok, since this is where we want to retire too...but if you are not in it for the long haul, it could bite you in the hiney.
5) Even basic house maintence and decor is going to be more expensive. We are renting our house in Germany and while we are very clean (given we have renters in our house, we want to throw some good karma) we are also not worrying about the toddler fingerprint stains on the walls. Were it my house, I would be painting the walls once a year to keep the house fresh and clean looking.
6) Finally, it is MUCH harder to get home loans these days. Just for us to refinance (and we have STELLAR credit), it would cost us a good chunck of change. I have had two friends who have retired, all with great credit and jobs, and had to put down 20%.
I am not trying to turn you off of buying a home. But you wanted to know the extras that go with homeownership. Well there you are. If I were in your place, I would not buy until your DH is done with school (I would use take advantage of the BAH and rent way below) and you have a crazy huge savings account. And NONE of the money in stocks.
Do you have health insurance lined up for after your DH is out? That is something that is crucial to have and can be very expensive. You may have to spend several hundred dollars a month in premiums in addition to co-pays and deductibles. When I married my DH and went from my health coverage at work to Tricare, I was amazed that we didn't have to pay a penny (on Prime). This is a big adjustment for some folks when they get out.
Do you do your grocery shopping at the commissary? If so, you may want to increase what you have budgeted for monthly groceries. Typically, one's dollar goes farther at the commissary than the local supermarket.
Have you talked to the company where you have your car insurance? What will your costs be in your new location? Do you need city/county vehicle registration stickers? When I moved to VA, I had never heard of city stickers and the car tax. What about the cost to get licenses in your new state? Not an on going expense, but it's got to be paid.
Have you looked into utility costs where you are moving? When we moved to Nashville, it could have cost us more than I considered to get utilities turned on in the house we rented.
Good luck with the transition.
This is what I really wanted to say. You say your H has a job lined up but this I have a hard time believeing, because my husband has been job searching for months and no one wanted to hire someone who could not start right away. He got very lucky with the Job that he will be starting next month and the only way he got it is because of how some things fell into place, that does not happen often. A employer is not going to hold a job unfilled for 7 months just to give it to your H. In all honestly who is to say that job is still going to be there in 7 months anyway no job is written in stone. Heck look at all the Navy and AirForce that was "released from duty" this past year. Look at all the jobs that layed off people to include teachers, no job is safe.
Rent till your H is out of school and has a job, because you never know where that job is going to take you. We would very much would like to own our own home but we know in a year that H will be moving within the Company to a different more permant location so its pointless to buy a house now, just to try and have to sell it in a year, lose money, possibly have to pay a morgage and a rent payment and stick with the upkeep of two homes all while trying to sell a house that could be halfway around the world. That right there is to much stress.
Save your money by renting below your BAH, have a good down payment or a emergancy fund for your future home for repairs that will pop up.
Hi, My fiance is getting out of the Marine Corps next summer. We are going through the process of buying a condo- closing next week!
The VA loan process was a little more complicated than a normal loan, and there are several benefits. First off, you don't have to put any money down. This is a huge benefit for someone in your position where you might not have a lot of savings with your husband getting out soon. With interest rates so low, it actually makes sense to take out a bigger loan at such low rates and save your money in a high interest account. We decided not to put any money down when we saw how little of an affect it would have on our mortgage. VA loans also have a funding fee which is about 1%. This gets added to your loan and goes to the VA to keep the program running. You want to find a lender that has experience with VA loans.
I would also recommend budgeting your mortgage payment and HOA (if a condo) in your BAH range. We were fortunate enough to be able to do that.
I highly recommend taking a course on base about home ownership. We did this together a few weeks ago and the speaker talked about credit scores/report, budgeting, and other basics to cover before buying a home. This course was free, I'm assuming all branches have classes like this.
Start looking at homes online to get an idea of what your budget can get you. Contact a realtor and lender to get pre-approved so you can quickly jump on an opportunity.
Best of luck to you!
We went through the same things two years ago. We did buy a house immediately, and I do wish we had waited, or not bought at all. It's not the end of the world, but you might want to wait a while and get a feel for the local market before your take the plunge.
This is just our personal experience, but out of the 8 or 9 guys that we knew who left the military to use the GI Bill to go back to school, DH is the only one who hasn't dropped out; whether it be to reenlist, find a job with health insurance, or a host of other reasons. I guess my point is, like life in the military, be prepared to be flexible. You never know what's going to happen.
Also be prepared to be shocked by the price of health care, especially if you have to buy a private plan. I have to buy one for myself, as my job does not provide any health insurance. I pay over $300 a month, and that's for a bare-bones plan. I only get $300 to go towards doctor's visits until I have to pay for them out of pocket. It's nuts.
Also save up as much money as possible. DH only had two weeks left of his first semester when the GI Bill living allowance finally showed up. Out of the last 5 semesters, only once has there not been an issue with receiving the money in a timely manner.
Good luck! It can be scary trying to figure everything out, but for us, it was worth it.