19 y/o college student in the military. Any advice?

nduta

New member
Hi, I'm a 19 y/o college freshmen looking for some advice. To start, I have a regular Checking account with chase with about $850 and a chase savings account with $7,500. I'm enlisted in the Army National Guard and currently doing part time service one weekend a month. I make just under $1,000 a month with my rank and time in service. Besides that, I'm going to a community college this spring and summer semester, taking 16 credits each semester for a total of 32 by the fall which at $116.50 per credit hour comes to about $3,728. In the fall, I plan on transferring to a 4-year university for psychology and going to graduate school to get my doctorate. The military will cover 100% of tuition once I start in the fall and I may be able to get some of it covered for this spring and summer semester. Right now I'm working part time for my local small town restaurant delivery driving and mainly living off tips. On a good day, I can expect to bring home around $100 a night in cash but it really depends on the day and how many deliveries there are. I make $8.80 an hour and work close to 20 hours a week on the high end. I don't consider myself bad with money, but me, and my long-term girlfriend do go out to eat quite a lot, and I tend to buy most of the time. But I'm starting to get better at just eating in. I feel like there's so much I don't know there's some really simple and effective tips I can learn, and that's really what looking for. I've never invested nor know how to and haven't always been the most comfortable at taking risks with my finances, but I'm willing to make an effort to grow my income. Any advice is heavily welcomed no matter how small / simpl. I'm just looking to learn from people who know what they're talking about. Thanks for all the help!

Goals: • Not looking to be a millionaire at 25 (although not opposed), but really, just looking to feel more stable with my income and start feeling more comfortable with making non-essential frivolous purchases. • Living on my own in the next year or so rather than with a roommate or my parents
 
@nduta Find out if there’s a way to get out, we have an enlisted member in our detachment in the process of cutting his commitment to continue in ROTC
 
@nduta If you can't do ROTC as mentioned above, you can go OCS following your graduation, see what interests you depending on what you study (branch, service community, etc)
 
@nduta Here is my recommendation.

Apply to West Point as a national guard member.

This is something I wish I knew about and a thing I recommened young, eager soldiers to do now.
West Point has slots for National Guard soldiers, and all you need is your company commander approval and recommendation.
The application process is a heck of a lot less competitive than applying out of high school.
 
@maruuqare Yeah, they didn’t even use all the spaces in recent years.
If you apply and have a clean background and complete all the steps, it’s a very very high chance of getting accepted.
 

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