Financial question

[F350]

I'm thinking about joining the marines, 23 years old. I'm just wondering how it goes when I would go to boot camp how things go financially, I am the main source of income in my household, and without my income from my job our bills wouldn't be able to be paid. We aren't married yet and have a young child, we have money in savings but I'm not sure how long that would last. Also I am color blind, and I am a mechanic so working on vehicles is what I would want to do, but from what I've read I probably can't due to being color blind? Thanks in advance!

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[Hammer]

two(2) things. I do not believe that the Corps will allow you to enlist if you are color blind. There is a recruiter that is active on the forum. He can tell you. He'll see this thread, and will probably post the answer to your question.

Secondly; unless it's changed and you have graduated from boot camp and become a Marine, you will not be paid except for a minimal amount. You can ask the recruiter to whom you are presently talking to, as well as the recruiter on the forum.

[josephd]

better have some money saved up to get her through while you're away at boot camp/SOI/MOS school...then once you hit the fleet you can send checks/money to her to keep food on the table

You can join the Marines being color blind but you will not be able to be a mechanic of any sort

[Tennessee Top]

As a private or private first class just out of bootcamp with two dependents, all your bills aren't going to get paid. It is common for junior Marines with multiple dependents to be on foodstamps (believe the last figure I saw was 28% on foodstamps but you can research and find out the current number). You cannot count on base housing as there is normally a waiting list (we waited 13 months for base housing at Camp Pendleton, CA).

When you talk to a recruiter, you need to have a serious discussion about pay allowances and dependents. Single parents cannot enlist so you would have to get married or give child custody to someone else first. Talk to them about a pay allotment that would automatically send money to your wife while in bootcamp.

If you do manage to enlist, you cannot afford to have financial difficulties and creditors harassing your commanding officer for relief. Your CO WILL come down hard on you and, depending on the situation, could forfeit your pay making a bad situation even worse (saw it happen more than once).

Normally, recruits are given a debit card at bootcamp loaded with like $250.00 dollars so they can shop at the recruit exchange for the things they need like stamps, writing supplies, toothpaste, soap, etc. They visit the recruit exchange once each phase (so, 3 times). At the end of bootcamp, they have to settle their final account which includes paying for their initial uniform allowance, haircuts, plane fare home, etc. Anything left over is still in their account. Your situation would be different if your pay allotment was sending money back home to your wife (talk to the recruiter about this to see if this is even possible - I am not sure if it is but recruits are still responsible to support their dependents so I would think it is). I know out in the fleet, most married Marines have dependent allotments so that if they get deployed suddenly, their wife will still get paid regularly just like if they were still home.

[MunkyVsRobot]

you arent married have a kid all bad things. think of it this way the Marine Corps doesnt care about girlfriends they only "care" about wives so you get no BAH while in boot you will have to sign away parental rights while you are in recruit training incase you get maimed or killed. so as a private PFC going to boot you will get maybe 600 a paycheck if you are lucky but you dont even get to touch especially not to send home money to a girlfriend.

Now ive seen it happen a few times to a guy i went to boot with but it was still few and far between and they wont even let you send that much home because you are paying for everything you get at boot camp uniforms, haircuts, hell you are even paying for the meals you receive in boot camp sure you are receiving BAS but you are still paying for them.

you might want to start saving now and start living without if this is something that you are seriously considering. I would also not try to cheat the system and get married a week or a month before you go because that will change everything about your contract and you will probably lose your ship date, possibly lose your mos and if you have been in the dep too long you will have to re apply to the dep.