Baghdad 2005, Just North of Green Zone
In January 2005, I left the comfort of my family, friends and home to begin a 15 month deployment to Baghdad, Iraq. Although I knew the difficulty and hardships that I would face, I also believed it would be an excellent opportunity for my wife and I to get a jump start financially. You would think that being overseas and unable to spend as freely as you can in the States would give every soldier an opportunity to save some serious bucks. Especially, since the military really promoted all the extra money we would make with combat pay, hardship pay, imminent danger pay, hazardous duty pay and family separation allowance. All of which was federally tax free while we were on ground. I guess that was there way of trying to take your mind off the fact that you were heading into a combat zone. But hey, I guess it never hurts to focus on something positive.
Nonetheless, many of the soldiers I deployed with were equally excited to sock away some cash while we were gone. Unfortunately, what I saw was a different picture. Despite the excellent pay that we received, I saw many come away with nothing saved. In fact, I witnessed many coming home in more debt after deployment than before we left. It made me contemplate what I did differently that allowed us to save and what future soldiers could do to maximize the money earned while in combat. […]
