Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas -- Editor's note: The Heroes at Home Financial event is coming to Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, Jan. 26. Contact the Airman & Family Readiness Center at 298-5620 for more information.
Do you feel like you’re drowning in credit card debt, or trying to stretch a paycheck further and further each month? Have you accidentally overlooked a couple of payments and a debt collector is calling, threatening to ruin your credit?
It would be no surprise if that stress spilled over to your job, making you feel on edge, anxious or even cause you to lose sleep. This distraction could put yourself and your coworkers in danger.
For some military members, this is exactly what they face when their finances are not in good shape.
This past year, I had the honor of traveling to Air Force bases around the country for the inaugural tour of a unique financial education program. The event was initially brought to six bases by the non-profit Heroes at Home and USAA Educational Foundation, following the non-profit pathway to financial education. I educated Airmen and their families at bases in Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana, North and South Dakota on credit.
The program was designed by Ellie Kay, who was also the principal speaker, as the wife of a career pilot and mother of seven (including three sons currently serving in three different branches of the military). Kay learned firsthand about the challenges of raising a family while traveling for the military. Ingrid Bruns, also the spouse of a career Airman and Military Life at USAA Advice Generation director, spoke about strategies for saving for the future.
When it comes to financial challenges, several themes emerged in our conversations with Airmen, financial counselors in the Airman and Family Readiness Centers and leadership.
Doing More With Less
At each base, leadership briefed us on the “ops tempo” of the base. “Operations tempo refers to the operation that a military base has to accomplish and the rate at which it has to be accomplished, versus the manning that is available,” explains Kay. “Now more than ever [the] American military is being asked to do more with less. That translates to longer hours, increased and more frequent deployments and increased pressure to do more,” she said.
At one base, we spoke with Airmen who were working consecutive 14-hour shifts. “That is not unusual,” says Kay.
There are many ways this can impact a military member. It could mean they simply don’t have enough time to take care of basic financial chores and accidentally miss payments on credit cards or other essential bills. For example, “if a problem comes up with a bill, the military member doesn’t always have time to straighten out that small problem and it becomes a big problem,” says Kay.
Another way ops tempo can impact finances is the pressure it puts on family members. “If they are often away from their families, they may end up trying to make up for it by splurging on their family,” said Kay. Servicemembers and their families may also find themselves spending more dining out because they have no time or energy to cook.
Spouse Employment
At some bases, such as Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, spouses have little trouble finding jobs that pay well. But at others, such as Whiteman AFB, Missouri, competition for jobs was high and pay was generally low. Considering that many families today rely on income from two parents, a gap in employment for a military spouse can easily trigger a cycle of debt from which it can be hard to recover.
“In some [overseas] bases, spouses cannot work on the ‘economy,’ which means they have to find a job on base, and there can be a lot of military spouses vying for the same job,” Kay said. “Another problem for military spouses is that they are kind of low on the totem pole when it comes to getting hired on base. A lot of times priority hiring will go to veterans.”
Bruns encouraged servicemembers and their families to prepare for fluctuations in spousal income.
Security Clearances
Many members of the military must get security clearances that include, among other things, a review of their credit and finances. And those in particularly sensitive positions with access to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons may be screened through the Personal Reliability Program. Financial or credit problems can jeopardize either, and in turn jeopardize their ability to continue to serve.
Military members who separate from service must be prepared for the fact that civilian employers may review their credit reports when they apply for a job.
The obstacles our military members and their families face are challenging. We were able to share strategies and advice including:
Put it on autopilot. We talked a lot about making good financial habits automatic, including taking advantage of automatic payments and automatic savings. Auto bill pay is especially helpful when Airmen leave one base for another or deploy and need to ensure bills are getting paid on time.
I explained how to build a good credit score and how important it is to check credit reports annually and monitor credit scores for unusual activity. Save everywhere. Kay shared how she saved over $160,000 on her grocery budget during the years she raised her large family. Our master of ceremonies, Bethany Grace, shared her favorite money-saving and time-saving apps, including travel apps--important for families who often travel to wait out deployments.
Airmen and their families are supported by counselors in Airmen and Family Readiness Centers on base, who are trained to help review credit reports, create budgets and help Airmen find solutions to financial challenges. Our job was to help educate and motivate them to take those next steps.
“The success factor was amazing in our pilot program.” says Kay. “Where most financial programs held on base will have 15 to 20 people attending, for these we had 125 to 580 [attendees] at each base.” More importantly, she said, “we were able to provide financial education that helped to save secret security clearances in the long run.”
“Our work is helping with military readiness, especially through financial readiness. We make sure the program is high energy, fast-paced and engaging so that our Airmen can learn,” says Kay.