I’ve been very busy preparing to leave for Iraq. This involves a number of mundane tasks such as drafting power of attorney and estate planning documents in case I cease to exist during my sojourn into a place where many would love nothing more than to make me into a corpse. I hate paperwork.
It’s interesting to me that I have to struggle to find out a lot of stuff that seems like it should be pretty basic. I called the Army National Guard hotline to get an exact amount I would be getting paid, including tax expectations, combat pay amounts, etc. I might as well have consulted a magic eight ball.
There’s this thing called My Pay. It tells you how much you got paid. It would also be really easy to hack, but that’s a whole other story. What it doesn’t tell you is how much you will be paid in the future. So it’s basically useless to me as a planning tool. All I can tell right now is that I’m taking a major cut in pay. Depending on housing allowances and any combat pay that might be forthcoming, my wife and I will either barely manage or flounder.
It would be nice if someone could tell me ahead of time whether or not I’ll have to turn tricks on the side to make ends meet.
UPDATE: Thank you everyone for the well wishes and in particular for some of the advice re: My Pay. Between the comments I’ve received here and more personal research, it appears that the government will value my services at around $3,900 a month while I’m “over there.” That’s about a 30% pay cut in comparision to my civilian employment. It should be manageable but I won’t be buying a new car with cash when I get back.