Finances when Military are deployed

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I was wondering if the military actively counsels or even requires its people to leave their finances in the hands of someone at home --to pay mortgages, car payments etc.

The origin of my question goes all the way back to Desert Storm I. My brother returned home to find that the guy in whose hands he'd left his checking account had spent all his money to apply to his own mortgage. Brother had no ongoing expenses at home, so the money had been accumulating in his account. Recently, I heard of a similar story of a young man returning from Iraq to find his helper at home had robbed him dry--even though now many communications can be kept current via internet.

My brother --and perhaps this other fellow I heard about-- would have been better off to just have ignored things till he returned.

[momof1in150]

Nowadays with online banking getting someone to pay your bills is not as much of an issue when you are deployed. The military person can set up an allotment to anyone or business and it will get paid no matter what happens to your pay. If you have set bills that need to get paid you can either set up an allotment or military banks have a similar system.

There is a lot of counseling available but like everything else it is only as good as the person seeking it or using the advice. You don't have to take the counseling (unless you do something to bring your finances to the attention to your command).

[AmbitiousSaver]

We set up a lot of things to automate... but before we were married and DH was just 20. He cancelled a lot of his bills. He lived in the barracks and didn't have a car (but many people sell their cars or just automate the payments with the bank), so he cancelled his cell phone. But to actually handle his finances when he was away... nobody made him do it... and he didn't put it in anyone's hands. He just made sure he had a clean slate so he would not owe anybody anything while he was gone.

There are lots of people who experience the situation you describe. They tell them to have their Powers of Attorney in place and Wills. Sometimes they'll do them in masses like in a workshop before deployment.

[creditcardfree]

Unfortunately, there are so many stories about problems with finances when deployed. It even happens among married people. I would say that if you don't know what you are doing with money prior to deployment you may be more at risk for problems during deployment. That's just an opinion.

It's very important to put the finances in the hands of someone you trust and talk over various scenarios prior.

[sounderella]

If it was me, I would be doing everything online. I'm married so it wouldn't really be an issue of someone running off with my money. It's still sad to hear those stories though.

A girl I work who was in the reserves was shipped off to Iraq. She'd left her boyfriend in charge of her finances and she was sending him money to put in there. When she got back a year later her boyfriend had moved in with another girl and had spent up all the money she had in the account and all the money she'd been sending. She told me she was just heart broken but it was a lesson well learned. Me on the other hand, that'd be grounds for a butt kicking at the least.

[LuxLiving]

If you are older and/or on foodstamps your eligibility for certain things could be cut based on your access to those monies. Tread carefully before you become someone else's money manager. (I don't know this from personal experience, but was just reading about it over on the govt. website for foodstamps while discussing it in another thread.)