Who Is Responsible For This Problem
I think these resources are all great options to help manage the cost of a PCS. These conversations are important to have. As couples managing military life together, we need to be on the same page. But time and time again, as I researched ways to help with these expenses, I came across the same variations of advice: save up for it.
We all know we should be saving. This isn’t rocket science, and it’s not brand-new advice to hear that a percentage of our income should be set aside for goals and emergencies. I think we are all on board with saving, and I know most of us would feel more secure in our finances with a hefty savings account to fall back on. Here’s the problem with this advice, though. Our savings should be for goals and emergencies rather than just trying to stay afloat in military life.
It’s a good idea to have a couple of months’ worth of expenses saved up in case of a job loss. There’s less of a risk of random job loss in the military, but anyone who gets medically discharged can still go a few months without a paycheck. Anyone retiring will be doing so on a percentage of their prior income, and disability benefits can take a bit to start arriving. These programs are notoriously slow, and even if they back pay for the months missed, many families don’t have the income or credit to float through that time. Not to mention the fact that many spouses already lose their income every few years due to a PCS. Saving up enough money to cover a month or two worth of expenses is a goal in itself for many families.
We need savings for emergencies. As phenomenal as Tricare is, those last-minute trips to the emergency rooms still cost money, especially to those of us on standard. Murphy’s law will always come in when a deployment or TDY hits, which can flood our basement, break our dryer, or cut the power, destroying $100s worth of food. We have homeowners insurance, car insurance, and warranties for this very reason, but utilizing those things usually means paying a hefty deductible.
I know bad things will happen, and our savings are often eaten up by dealing with life, but our savings should be there for our dreams. We have dreams of vacations, housing upgrades, and concert tickets. Living paycheck to paycheck puts all of those things out of reach. No matter how cheap or expensive a dream is to achieve, we can’t get anywhere close if every cent goes towards staying afloat.
Between inflation and the increased cost of living, many families are finding themselves barely getting by, especially if they are single-income, which is often due to the very issue of PCSing. Any money that can be saved goes directly towards creating an emergency fund. And so many of us are surviving on steadily climbing credit card debt. And the military’s answer to this is to save more.
That’s not the solution. It may not be their responsibility to solve this problem, but the blame certainly should not be placed on families who are trying their best. We all know the young servicemembers who get their first paycheck and do something stupid like buying a truck they have no business looking at. But most of us have grown up past that point. We are responsible adults, trying our best. We are delaying gratification on luxury items because we know we need a backup plan. We are doing our best to get by, and then a PCS hits us and knocks our finances an extra $5,000 out of pocket (although I genuinely believe this number is higher for most families).
We are fortunate that we won’t PCS in my husband’s career all that often. I would estimate seven moves across his career (two of which have already been done), including one OCONUS. However, depending on our stage of life and circumstances, that may be an unaccompanied assignment. That’s still a lot of moving for someone on the low end of military assignments. We will average 3-4 years at a duty station and, sometimes, can stretch that even longer. Compare that to my friends in the army who sometimes had less than a year at their assignments.
I understand the value of a PCS. Our service members get to practice new missions, expand their skill sets, and do some amazing things. From our perspective as spouses, we get to visit new places, get the chance to do the things that wouldn’t happen unless they were in our backyard, and meet some incredible people. On the flip side of all those good qualities, though, we all know that at least one PCS will take us to the middle of nowhere in a place we have no interest or business being. Our spouses will arrive to discover a mission that isn’t clear while working under leadership that is killing morale. Often, we are lucky to only encounter one assignment like that.
No wonder the military is struggling with its retention, and we are struggling to dream. This stuff matters and cannot be ignored or brushed under the rug with advice like “You should have saved more.” Putting families in a financial hole, especially when sending them to an assignment they had no interest in, is a recipe for jumping ship at the end of the contract. Although we really wanted our current assignment, there were multiple people sent here who didn’t even know it was an option and had zero interest in coming to this place to do this mission. The biggest thing I hear from those people is how they cannot wait for their contracts to be up.
Living paycheck to paycheck and then losing money like crazy on a PCS is also a recipe for killing a dream. Nine times out of ten, there is a financial piece to achieving a dream. That’s not a reflection of the materialism of a person; it’s just a reflection of the world we live in. Struggling to pay the electric bill doesn’t leave much room for people to expand their vision, think about, and start planning for the foreign vacations they would like to take.
There is value in dreaming. There is hope in seeing something great beyond what we are living in and then giving everything we’ve got to go after it. I genuinely believe that’s what makes the world a better place. I also believe that the military way of life is easily prone to beating that hope out of service members and spouses alike. I can only do my part to help us find our dreams beyond the confines of what life is throwing at us. The military needs to step up and do the same if they hope to maintain the all-volunteer force that they have prided themselves on for so many decades.