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Veterans Day 2013 Meals, Deals & Support
Veterans Day 2013 is less then a month away and it is time to acknowledge the companies that will take the time to appreciate our deserving US Veterans. National Meals, Deals and Support: Many of these Restaurants and Businesses are Franchises and Participation may vary. Be sure to call ahead to insure they are participating. Applebees (meal) on Monday, November 11th during business hours will give Veterans and Active Duty service members a signature entrée. (Participating locations only, identification required – see their website for list of supporting documents) Bar Louie (meal) is offering a lunch or dinner on Louie for all Veterans & Active Duty on Monday, November 11th. (Up…
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“Save Automatically” and “Take the Saver Pledge Today”! DoD Blogger Roundtable
It was a crazy busy day for all of us and the DoD Blogger Roundtable with Sgt Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, his wife Lisa Battaglia, and Barbara Thompson, Director of Office of Family Policy/Children & Youth* had a rough and tumble start. It was all about and like military life and what great people the Battaglias are! During the Roundtable this couple did a fantastic job representing our enlisted force and they are on top of the issues. This week’s issue: Military Saves Week. They spoke about “Lifestyle Fitness”, “Financial Fitness” and Tools to reach them before they ran to their…
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Another PCS? Or Your First? Some great Moving Tools to Assist You!
It is PCS Time AgainAre you excited about this next move? Or is it the wrong move, at the wrong time? Ready to jump into research, house hunting, finding the best schools, how to get those utilities hooked up, a new local bank maybe, etc. Or maybe you have put it off and now the time crunch is upon you and you need to get started in a hurry? We faced all of those situations during a career that spanned 18 PCS type moves and some college students being hauled across the continent as well. The internet has opened some great new avenues to help and MilitaryAvenue’s Moving Tools is…
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Is Working from Home Your Cup of Tea in 2013?
Considering a work from home job? Could It Help You Find Military Financial Success? Want to be a military family entrepreneur? Or is a military transition staring at you and you are considering the work from home idea? It sounds good but is it good for your “Military Wallet”? Reduced commute time, savings on gas, flexible hours and more family time are some of the benefits listed by Ryan Guina, creator of Cash Money Life and The Military Wallet blogs. I met Ryan at the USAA Blogger Conference in November and shared lunch and a wait in the San Antonio airport with him too. Discussion turned to times of Air…
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Protecting Your Hard Earned Tuition Assistance – DoD Blogger Roundtable
Fairy tales often start like this: Once upon a time… But our military benefits are not the things of fairy tales, they are earned and deserved! Some colleges have been less than honest with our service members while taking their benefits. It only takes a few to leave a bad taste. I can personally relate as: Once upon a time, a Lieutenant signed up for an advanced degree program, drove 100 miles roundtrip for classes, spent hours studying and preparing for assignments while working a more than full time job and then received orders overseas. Two courses completed, in the bank for when the next opportunity arose several years later.…
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Cutting Military Benefits – How Far Can We Go to Protect Them
Being part of the military community is like being a piece of meat in a sandwich! The President is Commander in Chief and proposes the defense budget but Congress must approve it. In the meantime the military community is caught in the middle of these “discussions”. We can be part of this political discourse but are extremely limited by law while on active duty. How far can a military family member or retiree go during discussions about military “stuff”. Budgets, strategies, deployments, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), etc come to mind. We try to be as politically neutral as possible with MilitaryAvenue’s articles, blogs, tweets and pins. But this one…
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The President’s Budget Reduction Plan Will Have a Large Impact on You – The Active and Retiree Military Community
MilitaryAvenue is here to support our men and women in uniform and their families! Period! We do not desire to be political but must occasionally operate in that world as decisions are made in DC every day that affect you – The Military Community! Usually we simply post the articles to our Reading Room for you to digest and make a decision on how you feel things are going. Sometimes we highlight articles/information in the form of a blog or posting a link to a critical piece of data. We also participate in Department of Defense Blogger Roundtables to provide the newest and most current information. We also use our…
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Week in Review: July 10 – 16, 2011 (Military News) #MilitaryMon
Popular Military Family Articles for the week of July 10 – 16 on MilitaryAvenue.comPCS Allowances and Entitlements: Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH): is an allowance to offset the cost of housing when you do not receive government-provided housing. Your BAH depends upon your location, pay grade and whether you have dependents. BAH rates are set by surveying the cost of rental properties in each geographic location. The rates are established such that members in each pay grade, independent of location, pay approximately the same out-of-pocket expenses. … MSEP Jobs! Connecting Military Spouses to Employers: It’s finally here! An online portal that connects military spouses directly to employers who want to…
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USAA’s Inaugural Military Blogger of the Month
I have a few responsibilities while holding the title of Director of Research and Development at MilitaryAvenue.com, but I admit my favorite is writing or “blogging”. I blog about personal experiences to give a sense of “you aren’t alone”; being a mother and how I’m learning new things every day; being the wife of a soldier and how it has made me stronger; even being an Air Force Brat and how it shapes me still today. But there are other things like I like to write about, things that I take from personal experience, throw in some research and it may not feel as personal but it is most definitely just as…
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The VA Budget – Another Critical Budget for Our Military Community
The Department of Veteran Affairs just announced its fiscal 2012 budget proposal (part of the President’s budget proposal to Congress). The Secretary of Veteran Affairs, Eric Shinseki promised to ensure that they are “making every dollar”count in the budget of $132 Billion. A retired four star Army general, the secretary, has the heart of a soldier for those who served and funding is critical to turning a few things around at the VA. Caring for 6.2 million patients is a large undertaking and the “system” can be lethargic and not responsive to the veterans but Shinseki is trying to make the VA more responsive and up to the task of…
