POSSIBLE DEBT PROBLEMS OF UNITED STATES SOLDIERS 2
Possible Debt Problems of United States Soldiers
The military is one of the departments that pick qualified volunteers who are ready to
safeguard the country’s interest while at the same time maintaining law and order in the state.
This requires absolute commitment and sacrifice to the job as one may require travelling from
one state to another which is quite hectic. According to recent surveys by Veteransplus and
Military Debt Management Agency, the military is a debt rich institution with most of their
members in serious debt problems (Singletary, 2010). Some of the possible causes of debt in
the military are discussed below.
Steady but low amount of pay
Military is regarded as one of the best paying jobs in the United States. This is not the case,
military members are assured of pay at the end of the month but it is not enough for them.
They have to take care of their families and this place a huge financial burden that makes
them borrow to meet the expenses (Reeves, March 2nd, 2016).
Frequent moving from place to place expenses
Frequent travelling from place to place is quite expensive as prices of food and other things
used for survival differ from state to state. One cannot budget for anything and thus ends up
spending almost half of the salary on travelling. This is a possible source of debt in the
military (Reeves, March 2nd, 2016).
Lack of proper financial planning skills
Most military officers fall victim to this. They are unable to prioritize what is important and
what they can do without. This leads to cases of missed payments to things such as electricity
bills. To make up for this, one takes a loan to fix it thus plunging into debt (Singletary, 2010).