Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Looking back, I joined the Army under two successful marketing campaigns: “It’s a great place to start”, and “Be all that you can be.” Ironically, after 8 years of service to my country, I was deeply in debt and 8 years behind my peers that had graduated from high school and started working for large corporations—not to mention I had no marketable skills. Well, the marketing campaigns were successful for the Army. I was awarded separation pay, due to my involuntary separation, that was equal to 10% of my base pay times the number of years in service. Essentially, I was given 80% of one year’s base salary, but it was taxed at the rate of 20% first. 20% of Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2) pay at the time was just at $20,000. Taxes took $4,000, and I was left with $16,000. I was given an opportunity to buy into the GI Bill at a total cost of $2,000. I did so.

I was under-employed for the better part of a year until I quit looking for work altogether and began goi...

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