Why is selling back leave a sin??

[leekonghian]

I’m skillbridging rn and have been talking to my supervisors about my plans. I’m taking advantage of all my new experiences so to maximize I am opting to sell back my leave so I can do the full 180 days. Queue supervisor giving me crap for it coz it is smarter to use it because you get your money. But I explained you’d be getting it anyway and if you sell it you’d be getting atleast another month’s worth of free money you would’n of had had u just used it. Like we still get paid neither way but now you get extra if you sell it. So why is that bad??

 

[trevallion]

@leekonghian This thread makes me realize why no one in the military knows how to manage a budget.

 

[raymo]

@trevallion I wish I can up vote this 1000 times

 

[leekonghian]

@trevallion Dawg I’m sayinnn

 

[homeschool1]

@leekonghian The amount of wrong information here is ridiculous.

1) Your ETS date does not change no matter if you sell leave or not, so you’re getting all your entitlements up to your ETS date no matter if you sell leave or not.

2) if you take your leave and start another job while on terminal leave, you would get Mil pay + civilian pay so you’re “double dipping” in theory. That’s what started some people repeating the “you lose money if you sell leave” rhetoric

3) If you get out on your ETS date and sell leave, you don’t lose any money. You just get your base pay minus taxes, but you’re gonna get all your other entitlements up to your ETS date.

4) Again, your ETS date does not change if you sell or do not sell leave.

 

[davidolonge]

@homeschool1 (to expand upon a bit)

A lot of people say "you lose money" because they don't factor in the extra pay for selling leave. They look at "base pay only" and think that means less when in reality (as you explain in your other points) selling leave means you get base pay + BAH + BAS for the days you work and base pay for the days of leave sold - which is a greater total sum.

The only time this isn't true is in point #2, so long as your civilian job pays more than your base pay.

 

[job3315]

@davidolonge The other way you can make more by taking terminal is if you don’t rate BAH/BAS and your final duty station is very high BAH rate. Because you get BAH at your duty station’s rate when you’re on terminal, if you’re separating out of a high COLA place like Pendleton, you can make more taking terminal than if you were to sell your leave.

But that’s a pretty narrow use case.

 

[briantgill]

@homeschool1 Exactly!!!! I came here to say this. I used to be soo confused and shared the same " you're losing money" spill to folks. ETS doesn't change folks!!!! People keep assuming leave affects when you are released from service and how much your normal pay checks will be. Always look at it as you stop working sooner or you get an "extra" payment at the end!!!

 

[jrsinct]

@briantgill If you sell leave back then you lose entitlements

 

[job3315]

@jrsinct How so? If your ETS is Aug 1, and you work right up until that day and then sell 30 days of leave, when do your entitlements stop?

Now, if your ETS is Aug 1 and you work till July 1 and take the rest in terminal, when do your entitlements stop?

 

[jrsinct]

@job3315 You don’t get BAH, BAS, clothing…

 

[job3315]

@jrsinct When does that stop in each scenario?

 

[jrsinct]

@job3315 You ETS and you get your base pay for the leave you sell. Love the downvotes. Tell me I am wrong…