Tag: military families

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How do allotments work through Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS)?

Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) is the agency that handles military pay. An allotment is a way to withhold or distribute money from a service member’s military paycheck. There are two types of allotments, discretionary and non-discretionary:

  • Discretionary allotments can be used for expenses such as rent, car payments, loan payments, and voluntary payments to dependents.
  • Non-discretionary allotments are expenses such as child and spousal support, court-ordered payments, government indebtedness (which includes indebtedness to any department or agency of
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When do End of Month (EOM) Leave and Earning Statements (LES) come out?

End of Month (EOM) Leave and Earning Statements (LES) are available on the Defense Finance and Accounting Service’s (DFAS) website. Dates for EOM LESs in bold font indicate when LESs are available in myPay. This DFAS chart also provides dates for the Advice of Payment (AOP) for mid-month paydays; dates are bolded to indicate when the LES will be available in myPay. For more information, refer to www.dfas.mil/dfas/militarymembers/payentitlements/militarypaydays.html.

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What is an allotment on a service member’s military pay stub?

An allotment is a designated amount of money that is automatically withdrawn from a service member’s paycheck (this process can be voluntarily or involuntarily). All allotments require the use of Form DD2558, found with the command on base. Reasons for allotments include:

  • court-ordered payments,
  • payment of delinquent federal/state taxes,
  • payment of military loans,
  • payment of rent,
  • deposits in the Savings Deposit Program, and
  • deposits to a financial institution.

Service members are allowed to allocate up to six discretionary (voluntary) allotments …

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A service member cannot afford to pay the minimum payment on a Military Star Card. Can the interest rate be lowered?

It should be noted at the outset that the “real” problem is probably not the interest rate. It is more likely the service member’s spending habits and debt accumulation. Lowering the interest rate may not be enough to help a service member pay the minimum payment.

The only time the Military Star Card will lower interest rates is if a service member is deployed. The Military Star Card will reduce interest to 6% for all current balances plus new purchases …

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How to Obtain Continuing Education Units for Military Families Personal Finance Webinars

The Military Families Learning Network Personal Finance team offers 1.5 continuing education units to AFC-credentialed participants for live and recorded personal finance webinars.

Procedures for obtaining CEUs via live webinars

  • AFC-credentialed participants can earn 1.5 CEUs by attending 90-minute online Personal Finance webinars that are presented online with a live speaker.
  • A link to an online evaluation is shown at the end of the webinar. Visit this link and complete the evaluation.
  • At the conclusion of the evaluation, a second
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Measuring Financial Risk Tolerance

Gilliam, J. Chatterjee, S. & Grable, J. (2010). Measuring the perception of financial risk tolerance: A tale of two measures. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 21 (2), pp. 30-43.

Brief Description:  Estimating a person’s risk tolerance is important for guiding him or her into a satisfactory investment portfolio. The Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) simple measure for assessing risk tolerance was compared to a 13-item scale (GL-RTS) in assessing risky and non-risky asset holdings by university faculty and staff. …

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Merit-based college scholarships status and financial behaviors among college students

 

Goetz, J. W., Mimura, Y., Desai, M. P., & Cude, B. J. (2008). HOPE or no-HOPE: Merit-based college scholarship status and financial behaviors among college students.Financial Counseling and Planning, 19(1), 12-19.

Brief Description: This study explored differences in financial behavior between college undergraduates who retained the merit-based HOPE Scholarship and those who lost it. Students who initially had scholarships but lost them were less likely to use recommended financial practices and had higher credit card debt and student …

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How much should I budget for home maintenance expenses?

Housing experts recommend budgeting about 1% of the purchase price of your home per year for home maintenance and repairs. Of course, the actual amount spent will vary from month to month and year to year.

For example, if someone owns a $240,000 home, they should plan to spend around $2,400 per year or about $200 a month on home maintenance.

Ideally, this money should be set aside in an earmarked account so that it is available as needed.

We’re …

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Impact of Financial Literacy Education

Mandell, L. & Klein, L.S. (2009). The impact of financial literacy education on subsequent financial behavior. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning Education, 20(1), 15-24. http://6aa7f5c4a9901a3e1a1682793cd11f5a6b732d29.gripelements.com/pdf/lewis_mandell_linda_schmid_klein.pdf

Brief Description: This study examined the impact of a personal finance course on a sample of high school graduates who were followed for five years after graduation. Students who took the course were compared to those who had not and were not found to be any more financially literate. In addition, students who …

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Convenience Use of Credit Cards

Link Title: Convenience Use of Credit Cards

Rutherford, L. G. & DeVaney, S.A. (2009). Utilizing the theory of planned behavior to understand convenience use of credit cards. Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning Education, 20(2), 48-63.

Brief Description: This research investigated factors influencing the convenience use of credit cards (i.e., regularly paying the balance in full instead of paying only a portion of the balance). It was framed by the Theory of Planned Behavior, which states that behavior can …

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