But on positive side – I’ve discovered his blog and added it to my RSS collection

Yes, adding to the top line by increasing earnings MAY lead to bottom line growth for savings.

Yes, every reduction of the fat middle MAY lead to bottom line growth for savings.

Top line gets taxed (usually); middle line is after tax (usually).

It would seem that there is room in the big tent (i.e., the save more party) to accommodate the top and middle line champions.

For my part, I’d like to reduce taxes. Then everyone would have more to save. But, I’m such a dreamer.

If you are saving $100 per month now, earning an extra $100 doubles your savings. That is huge. A couple of years of sacrifice: working extra hours, applying for higher paid jobs, starting a side business, etc. can payoff hugely.

It is not so hard for most people to save an extra $10,000 per year if they are willing to work for it.

1) bad examples – I knew many people who blew their bonuses on new cars, TVs – stuff – and then found they had tied themselves in for 6 more years.
2) good math – I took a look at what I could expect to get paid on the outside. With my bonus and my Army pay, I would make about the same as at a civilian job in the first year. That meant, of course, that I would be getting paid much less than that for the remaining 5 years (this all assumed a 6 year re-up to get the biggest bonus)
3) suitability – this isn’t strictly a financial consideration, but I found that I wasn’t well suited for the military way of life. It was good for the 4 years of active duty that I served, but I wasn’t sure i could do another 16 years until retirement. The problem was that after 4 years of service, if I re-upped for another 6 years to get the best bonus, I would then be 50% of the way to retirement. The military doesn’t give partial credit, so if you don’t serve at least 20 years, you get nothing in the form of retirement. Taking the bonus would have committed me to 10 years of service, and that, in my mind meant 20 years, because walking away from the retirement package when I was over half way there seemed stupid. In the end I decided I didn’t want to make the military a career.

While I don’t see myself going through such a tough experience, I think it made you a much better person because you had to persevere through a seemingly impossible situation.

-DC

Great job!

Thank you for sharing that story and the lesson learned from that experience.

I’ve failed so much in my 20′s, that I decided to start my own blog to keep myself honest and share things. I’ve probably lost over $500,000 in the past 24 months due to the stock and property market due to my bonehead moves. But, things are coming back, and it’s all about STAYING IN THE GAME for the long run!

I recommend not counting your property or illiquid investments in your net worth. You can’t count on them!

Best,

RB

Jason – thank you very much for your transparency. I really enjoyed the article in part because I wanted to see how it would turn out, in part because you have a good writing style. I can only imagine how dark those days must have been and am glad to see you plodded on, learning as you went, and have gotten past those decisions.

I’d like to emphasize again that this is MY journey, and mine alone. While I hope that my mistakes can be learning points for others, I sure wouldn’t recommend that anyone try to take my route to learn about personal finance. Take tips from everyone, but don’t emulate anyone. Do YOUR thing.

Did you even read the article?

If you’re on the front lines, bleeding, with your head split open from friendly fire and your hands holding a weapon that obliterated a village of families who live in the mountains, will you think it was worth the money? If you join because you are passionate about the military’s agenda, fair enough. But make no mistake that 21st century recruiting is a poverty draft, in which many young people join simply because they need the money.
___________

Your agenda and view of the military is quite obvious, despite the dribble you wrote at the end of your post. Do you have any statistics to indicate the percentage of military personnel that find themselves split open from friendly fire, or having obliterated a (presumably completely innocent) village of families? Better yet, do you have any stats on the numbers of recruitees that join simply for the financial benefits alone? The financial benefits of joining the military are a small part of the overall benefits, which in some cases exceed those that can be obtained in the private sector:

1. Training on honesty, integrity, responsibility for one’s actions, pride in teamwork – just to name a few;
2. Travel opportunities around the world, with the vast majority of overseas military folks outside of current war zones;
3. Difficult to rival health, disability and life insurance benefits;
4. Financial assistance for hands on training and classroom education;
5. Actually providing a service, as opposed to the vast majority of white-collared paper pushing jobs in America.

For every member of our military that decides to join for the financial benefits alone, I’d venture to say that there’s at least another 10 Americans that “talk out of both sides of their mouth” about the military, without having any actual first-hand knowledge or factual statistical information to back up their negative and overexagerated claims (which tend to always be followed by cut-and-paste “I respect the military for putting their lives on the line” mumbo jumbo).

When I was in high school going through the college selection process, I remember the college counselors coming in and talking about masters degrees already.

We were enrolling in undergrad programs and they were prepping us for grad school!?!?!?

And high school counselors NEVER suggested trade school to anyone that I was ever aware of. It was as if a student not planning on college beyond high school wasn’t any of their concern.

Whether we choose to see and acknowledge it or not, the higher education system is set up to self perpetuate.

More students in college = higher tuition = more debt = more college graduates = lower salaries for college grads because they aren’t in short supply any more. It’s the power of the free market at work all around.

And I make this observation as a college grad myself.

This has been one of my favorites in a long time because I see myself in this story, despite having a different life many of the circumstances are the same, and the kind of stupidity exhibited sure was the same.

That forgiving yourself thing is so hard. The human mind just doesn’t work like that, we want to engage in what ifs and sunk cost fallacies. But that’s what you have to do, isn’t it?

People need to wake up and realize that education in the US these days is a BUSINESS. They are out to make money and most do not care what your future looks like. They don’t care if you get a job with your liberal arts degree or many other degrees, for that matter. They don’t care if there is a market for your skills. They want the tuition paid. Period.

And after you are done and paying back your loans, their alumni organization will call you regularly to ask for donations!

I think this is unacceptable and something needs to be done about this greater problem. A good education should not cost $80,000 or whatever. That is absolutely ridiculous!

Is a freshman English and Goverment REALLY worth $2,000 (or insert whatever other ridiculous number here)?

HELL NO.

If you or your parents have the money, go for it. But I have an issue with rampant “brand-conscious” education that wreaks of marketing, and not actual value. People need to pick up the clue phone and stop paying that much.

To #30, Andrea, I agree that people shouldn’t join the military just for financial reasons and the military does push that to some degree when recruiting. But, the military can offer a great deal to young people who find themselves in such difficult situations and should not be overlooked as an option. I enlisted in the military 2 years out of college and one of the primary reason was getting out of debt. They paid off my student loans, gave me an enlistment bonus, and paid for my masters degree. But they also taught me valuable skills that can be utilized in civilian life and helped me to become a responsible adult. Like any job, you need to weigh the negatives and positives and for me, serving my country, learning a skill that would have cost me thousands of dollars in college, getting out of debt, and having a steady income made it a worthwhile decision.