I recently graduated with my PhD and have the opportunity to directly commission in the Navy Medical Service Corps. The career looks good -- I've talked to several active duty officers in my field, and each seemed happy with their jobs. The biggest concerns for me are related to how this will affect my life with my wife and our ability to start a family. Moving regularly and travel/deployment for extended periods will offer cool career opportunities for me but will obviously be very disruptive compared to a civilian job.
When I look at the O3 pay and benefits package, it seems really tough to beat. I would commission as an O3 with zero years of service and 1 dependent (wife who works, no kids yet but want them). This looks like a base pay of $58,188, plus the non-taxable perks and what looks like a sweet healthcare and retirement plan. What I am seeing is a non-taxable housing allowance that would hopefully offset just about all living costs, complete healthcare coverage, good retirement programs, and consistent raises based on time served that would be hard to beat elsewhere. Realistically, coming straight out with my PhD in the civilian world, I can probably earn between $60k-$85k depending on the cost of living in the area. When I factor everything that the military offers, including healthcare for both myself and my wife, it seems like nothing else I'm looking at comes even close.
One of the things I am worried about though is that there are limited duty stations for my career track in the Navy, and some are in high CoL areas -- e.g., San Diego, Honolulu. I've never lived anywhere very expensive, and my wife and I are used to being really low income, so we are kind of averse to big spending. When I consider the possibility of getting stationed somewhere like Hawaii, I'm wondering if that military pay actually holds up enough to make it reasonably livable for us. Our standards aren't super high, but we're hoping to move up a little from "shitty 1br apartment that we could afford on a grad student stipend". So I guess I am looking for some reassurance that the O3 package seems like a good option even if I end up living in high CoL areas.
For whatever it's worth, we are frugal people. We aren't going to be doing anything stupid like buying an expensive car, and we don't have very expensive hobbies or habits -- though it'd be nice to afford some indulgences one of these days. I really just want to make the decision that gives us the best shot of supporting a family as comfortably and responsibly as we can.
When I look at the O3 pay and benefits package, it seems really tough to beat. I would commission as an O3 with zero years of service and 1 dependent (wife who works, no kids yet but want them). This looks like a base pay of $58,188, plus the non-taxable perks and what looks like a sweet healthcare and retirement plan. What I am seeing is a non-taxable housing allowance that would hopefully offset just about all living costs, complete healthcare coverage, good retirement programs, and consistent raises based on time served that would be hard to beat elsewhere. Realistically, coming straight out with my PhD in the civilian world, I can probably earn between $60k-$85k depending on the cost of living in the area. When I factor everything that the military offers, including healthcare for both myself and my wife, it seems like nothing else I'm looking at comes even close.
One of the things I am worried about though is that there are limited duty stations for my career track in the Navy, and some are in high CoL areas -- e.g., San Diego, Honolulu. I've never lived anywhere very expensive, and my wife and I are used to being really low income, so we are kind of averse to big spending. When I consider the possibility of getting stationed somewhere like Hawaii, I'm wondering if that military pay actually holds up enough to make it reasonably livable for us. Our standards aren't super high, but we're hoping to move up a little from "shitty 1br apartment that we could afford on a grad student stipend". So I guess I am looking for some reassurance that the O3 package seems like a good option even if I end up living in high CoL areas.
For whatever it's worth, we are frugal people. We aren't going to be doing anything stupid like buying an expensive car, and we don't have very expensive hobbies or habits -- though it'd be nice to afford some indulgences one of these days. I really just want to make the decision that gives us the best shot of supporting a family as comfortably and responsibly as we can.