Ensignhood, debt, cars, and family help therewith

[Elegant Emily]

It wouldn't hurt, aside from gas mileage, but all things being equal I would rather keep what I've got since if I get rid of it I won't be getting any thing back and I've put in a considerable amount of cash into it in recent years.

And yes, I probably will be buying my sister a car. My parents do not really have the means to do so.

Well then keep what you have! A truck or SUV isn't a necessity and if you feel the need to switch later you have that option.

That's really generous of you to buy her a car. No one bought me one (other than myself, with cash I had saved).

 

[CommodoreMid]

I got a Honda CRV with my USAA loan since the car I drove in high school and college was about to fall apart, and it was awesome since I did a full DITY to Pcola from my ROTC unit since I didn't really own much and made 1900 bucks in the process. Highly recommend a small SUV.

 

[Pags]

Meh, buy whatever car you want. Don't buy a car for the once every three year DITY.

 

[keeper28]

I agree, pack what you can in your car. We always partial DITY. Worst case scenerio you spend a couple hours lugging stuff to your truck and you only profit a couple grand. I know when we moved to Pensacola, our movers were about worthless and it took us 2 weeks to get our stuff- we were in AR, and it only took us 2 lazy days to get there. We were thankful for all the stuff I had packed with us.

And I definiatly agree about taking with you things you don't want the movers messing with. I swear this last move, they stole every cent from my daughter's piggy bank and took about 10 of our Xbox games (left the cases, stole the games- :icon_rage)

But more importantly, can you ever really go wrong with a truck?

 

[MasterBates]

Once every 3 years in the fleet maybe, but as a TRACOM stud, you MAY move a lot.

Me:
Boston-API (funded move)
API-Corpus
Corpus-Whiting
Whiting-Jax

That was 4 DITY's in a 2 year span. I made close to 30K after expenses all told.

Since I left Jax, I have done
Jax-Corpus $3500ish made after taxes
Corpus Krock $3000ish
Krock Corpus $3000ish
Corpus Krock $3000ish
Krock Norfolk $9000ish

FYI, DITY Moves in the last 2 years have entirely paid off the PUMA and then some.

I wouldn't buy a truck for DITY, but if you are hemmin and hawin about getting a truck vs a Mustang/Firebird/Other it may tilt the balance in the trucks favor.

Then there is the whole owning a home thing. It's a lot easier to do projects owning a truck. Or at least Jeep/Suv that can tow a small trailer.

Or if you REALLY want to save mad $$$$ buy a used diesel truck, and a PUMA and live CHEAP.
(Warning- May have adverse effects on your love life and cause hairy palms )

 

[Elegant Emily]

Yeah, once ever 3 years my butt... we moved 3 times in the first year (SC to Pensacola, Pensacola to Whiting, Whiting to Meridian) and are about to move again in September. Having a truck and a Jeep has been great.

But yeah, get whatever car you want... it's not really a life-changing decision unless you go into serious debt for your car or something.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Just jumpin in the circus here, but anyway....

Have owned my car (purchased while in NROTC with the USAA loan) for a number of years, have made the trip from OR to Pcola, then Pcola to Corpus, and finally Corpus to Meridian, partial DITY each time and have had no problems. I've made a decent amount of money, and this was all with a compact car with an equally small trunk. For me it pays to not have very much stuff that I pack around with me. I took an HHG shipment once I got to Corpus, but honestly aside from my bed, dresser, bookshelf, and a small desk, everything else I own fits in my car. That being said, I plan on amassing a few more personal items now that I have most of the "flight school" moves under my belt, but I still like to keep the load pretty light. Just the counterpoint to the folks who want a big truck for moving's sake. Either philosophy works, I just prefer to keep things cheap up front and not worry about waiting to get paid off.

Edit: MB, why did you move from krock to corpus and then back again? Did you double back to CQ under the old E2/C2 syllabus or something?

 

[MasterBates]

They goofed up my orders.

T-34s
Krock for the TH syllabus (not ready for 6 more months so they sent me back)
Back to Corpus for T-44s
Back to Krock for T-45s and CQ

 

[Tom]

I bought a SUV in primary to move my important stuff later (electronics, uniforms and other random stuff) because when you move you could have up to 2 weeks without your stuff. I did this because at the time I knew I would maybe 3 more moves in the coming years.

 

[squorch2]

I bought a SUV in primary to move my important stuff later (electronics, uniforms and other random stuff) because when you move you could have up to 2 weeks without your stuff.

Holy crap, up to two weeks! Whatever could you do in that span of time without a tv and stereo?!

 

[MIDNJAC]

Haha...agreed....didn't you have roomattes with stuff? I had like 3 boxes of stuff and slept in a sleeping bag on the floor for most of A-pool/API. Luckily my SNFO roomattes had the huge TV, Xbox, homemade tiki bar in the backyard by our pool.......life was tough living out of my trunk

 

[Tom]

Holy crap, up to two weeks! Whatever could you do in that span of time without a tv and stereo?!

Whiting to Kingsville took my goods two weeks to arrive. Thanks to my trusty SUV I was able to fit in my TV, computer, XBox, a chair, a blowup mattress and plenty of clothes. Two weeks without all your stuff sucks.

 

[FlyBoyd]

Whiting to Kingsville took my goods two weeks to arrive. Thanks to my trusty SUV I was able to fit in my TV, computer, XBox, a chair, a blowup doll and plenty of clothes. Two weeks without all your stuff sucks.

fixed it for you

 

[FlyBoyd]

In my inbox today at work...

I know we have at least one Dave Ramsey fan in the group, but for those who aren't familiar with him, he is an incredibly entertaining financial author, radio host, and TV host now too on Fox Business. He joined forces with the Military Saves campaign to provide part of his popular Financial Peace series for free...check it out at http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/military_saves/?ictid=fpums1. His main thrust is to get folks out of debt and into savings...kind of basic but easily digestible and very important info.

 

[D_Rob]

Haha...agreed....didn't you have roomattes with stuff? I had like 3 boxes of stuff and slept in a sleeping bag on the floor for most of A-pool/API. Luckily my SNFO roomattes had the huge TV, Xbox, homemade tiki bar in the backyard by our pool.......life was tough living out of my trunk

I'm not gonna let you use my table, tv and Kegorator now, just cause I can.

Are you still starting Monday?