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Army Marriage Benefits (Pros vs Cons)

Speaker 1 (00:00)
You’re joining the United States Army and you’re currently married and you’re going to be a married soldier in the United States Army, or maybe even potentially you might have the potential that you meet the right person and get married while in the army, let me give you some of the pros and cons to being married in the United States Army because there are some pros and there are definitely some cons that we’re going to talk about. You’re probably going to hear from people probably in the comments section down below or something like that, Don’t get married. Don’t do it, a thing. Don’t be married in the army. You’ll probably end up getting divorced. It could be a possibility, but that’s a possibility on a civilian world too. I don’t think I’ve actually seen any statistics that say that soldiers have a higher chance of getting divorced compared to civilians. Not that I’ve seen actually, but I mean, sure, it could possibly happen. But the main takeaway here that I want to be able to express to you is what are some of the pros and cons if you are going into the army as a married soldier, or if you think that there could be a possibility that your time in the army could end up meeting the right person and you could end up getting married?

Speaker 1 (00:57)
And what would be the pros and cons to being a married soldier? So let’s first start for the pro. A pro is that you do get paid extra. You get paid BAH, BAS, so that allows you to be able to use that money to pay rent. And I guess combined into the same pro is that you don’t have to live in the barracks. You’re not having to live in these small barracks that are constantly being inspected, constantly having people watching over you, telling you what you can and can’t do. You can go live off post or if you choose to live on post, you have some similar restrictions. But nonetheless, it’s not living in the barracks. But that is the advantage. You get paid the extra so that way you can live off post and use that money to pay for rent off base and have your privacy with you and your spouse. A con to being a married soldier in the United States Army is there might be times where on active duty you’re having to work really hard inside a motor pool. Working in the motor pool, we got a lot of things we have to get done because there’s a field problem coming up, there’s something going on, and we need to work through lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:55)
Well, they can’t really make the single soldiers work through lunch because they have to provide them an opportunity to get meals, whether that’s an MRE or going to the chow hall to get chow, because technically, if a single soldier misses meal, misses going to the chow hall, they can put in a missed meal paperwork type of thing, and the army has to repay them because they didn’t have an opportunity to use that chow hall since that’s their main primary way of receiving food is through that chow hall because that’s just how it works as a single soldier. Whereas married soldiers, they get paid extra to be able to buy their own food. They don’t necessarily have to make you go to the chow hall and give you that opportunity. So sometimes they will send the single soldiers to go get lunch, come back, or go get a to go plate and come back. Married soldiers suck it up. You can eat later. Sometimes that does happen. I wouldn’t say that’s maybe an all the time thing, but there might be some situations where that can happen where you’re just really busy doing whatever it is you guys are doing, preparing for something or whatever, and they send the single soldiers to go eat and you married soldiers have to stick around, continue working and just be hungry.

Speaker 1 (03:04)
Go get some vending machine or something like that. Continue working because they don’t have to let you go eat. Now, I’m not talking about for days. They’re not going to be sitting here like, You’re not going to eat for days and you’re going to star ve. No, I’m talking about maybe there might be an instance where that particular day they’re really busy in their motor pool and they’re like, You can go eat later. You don’t have to worry about the Chow hall hours because the Chow Halls are only open between certain hours. So we’re going to continue working, continue busting our butt to get this work done. And maybe if we get done, maybe at two in the afternoon or whatever, then if you want to go grab something to eat, you can. But they have to let the single soldiers go because the Chow Hall does have specific hours and they need to make sure those soldiers don’t miss those hours and avoid or miss the opportunity to be able to get something from the Chowh all. A pro to being a married soldier in the United States Army is that if you are on, let’s say, a field exercise, a deployment of some sort that is going to take you away from your family for more than 30 days, they’re required to pay you family separation pay.

Speaker 1 (03:59)
Then you receive a little bit of extra money. I think it’s like $100, $200. I figure what it is off the top of my head. Maybe I’ll put it up on screen what it is after I check it, what the current rate is for family separation pay. But they’re required to pay those soldiers family separation pay if they’re going to be away from their families for more than 30 days. That’s where it comes key, where if you’re in the field and for example, the National Training Center, that’s normally a 30 day type of field problem, but sometimes they’ll try to get some of those married soldiers on some of the earlier flights to get them back home, maybe just short of 30 days, so that way you don’t have to put in the paperwork for family separation pay. And then single soldiers, it doesn’t really matter, they can be gone for 30 days, 60 days, whatever. They don’t have to pay them extra for being gone. That also applies for deployments. If you’re going on a field, a training deployment, a combat deployment, whatever, you’re going to be away from your family for more than 30 days.

Speaker 1 (04:49)
They have to pay you family separation pay. So in those situations, you do get paid a little bit extra for being away from your family. A con to be married in the army? Well, there’s this thing called FRG, that’s the Family readiness group. Now, as what this is designed for, it’s for a good purpose, but sometimes it’s annoying, but nonetheless, the group is designed to be able to help out your spouse when you’re in those situations where you’d be gone on a deployment in the field, whatever. These FRG groups are there as support groups to help out your spouse, to be able to help out with different things that may be needed in your situation when you are gone to the field or gone on deployment, whether it’s a training deployment or common deployment. But with this FRG program, it commonly sometimes means that there might be an FRG meeting, something that’s going on prior to this deployment, prior to this training that’s coming up where you’re going to be gone for a while. They want to have an FRG meeting to be able to talk to you and talk to your spouse about some of the things that they’re doing within that program, some of the things they’ll be able to offer.

Speaker 1 (05:50)
Those meetings are required, and those meetings sometimes take place after work. If you’re getting done working the motor pool, working the office, whatever your job is in the army, on active duty, and you go and get off at 435, whatever the case is, they might have this FRG meeting at 7 o’clock that night. If you’re a married soldier, you’re usually required to have to go attend that. I have heard of some cases where they make single soldiers attend it. Why? I don’t really know. But for the most part, this is mainly a program for married soldiers. Usually with married soldiers, it’s required you have to go attend it. Whether or not you are an active participant in the FRG group, in the FRG community, and you and your spouse are or are not active in that group, it’s usually still required to go to it. That way you can be informed of what’s going on and what resources available to you. That way you can’t say that, Oh, I didn’t know you could do that, or I didn’t know that people could help me with this. You can end up going to these meetings to find out about that.

Speaker 1 (06:45)
Sometimes they’re boring. It’s on your off time. You’d rather probably be spending time with having fun with your spouse or watching a movie or whatever at home, and you get stuck having to go to this damn FRG meeting that maybe last half hour, hour, maybe something along those lines. For the married individuals, those things are usually required. Here is a pro if you are a married soldier and your spouse is also a soldier in the United States Army or even in the military itself on active duty. Let’s say both of you are on active duty. The pro to that is that you both actually receive BAH. You actually make really good money if both of you are actually on active duty because you get BAH at the nondependent rate for your rank and your location and your spouse is also getting paid the nondependent base or BAH rate for that location as well. Now, if you do have kids, though, only the individual that is the higher ranking individual receives the rate with dependents. So if, let’s say, you’re an E5 and that other dependent of yours is an E6, well, the E6 is going to get the higher rate.

Speaker 1 (07:48)
With dependent, you will just simply get the one without dependent rate. So they get paid a little bit extra because they’re the higher ranking individual. Or if you’re the higher ranking individual, then you get paid at the higher rate. But nonetheless, you do make actually pretty good money if both of you are actually on active duty in the United States military. This would apply, I guess, on reserves, but it’s a temporary thing. So it’s not quite as much money you’re making because you’re only getting paid while you’re doing drill. A lot of these tips and these pros and cons are really for active duty in the first place. Not really quite working the same for those individuals that are on reserves and national guard, though. So I’ve known a lot of situations where soldiers are married to another soldier in the army, and they’re making pretty darn good money because they’re both receiving that BAH. Those are a handful of things, like some pros and some cons that if you are going into the army, you’re married, what are some of those pros and cons? Or you think you might end up in a situation where you end up getting married, then cool.

Speaker 1 (08:41)
These are some pros and cons to that situation. I probably have some individuals that are watching this video that maybe have a little bit of experience with that. Maybe you have some experience with being married in the army, in the military, and you can think of some other pros and cons that are also related to that. If you can think of some, I want to know about it down in the comments section down below. Probably some of you may be against getting married while in the military. It can be rough, especially when you’re deploying, you’re going to the field. And if you have a spouse that maybe doesn’t really deal very well with you being gone, then yeah, sometimes it can throw some issues in there. You have Jody moving in on the block to take your girl, right? And I have a video that you can check out if you really want to learn about what Jody means if you don’t know. But nonetheless, there are some horror stories of people out there that do have some experience with that that probably will tell you don’t get married while in the military. But there are also some people that do just fine.

Speaker 1 (09:31)
They stayed married with their entire army careerand still live a great, happy life and got out of the military, retired or just got out and are still with their spouse. I want to hear some pros and cons, though, from those of you individuals that have had that experience. Let me know down in the comments section down below. I do also have a video on my channel that teaches you and tells you about what would happen, let’s say, if you do get married while you’re in the army, or if it happens that you do get divorced while you’re in the army, what would happen in that situation? If you want to learn about that, check that video out right here. Check out my links down in the description box down below for social media, for my affiliate links to save some money and get some great deals and some great products. Thanks for hanging out. I’m Christopher Kross. I’ll see you next time. See you.

George N.
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