Cars and a hooker: JOs don't handle money much better than enlisted do

By "Devil Dog," USMC

Best Defense department of Romanian military
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In his insightful post
the other day, Jim Gourley wrote, "the truth is that a great many enlisted
military members are very poor money managers."

Unfortunately, the truth is that many of the
junior officers in charge of them often aren't that much better. In addition to
the $30,000 loan that every Second Class Midshipman
is offered and most take (myself included), I personally know of several of my Naval Academy classmates (I graduated
a coupla years back) who have massive credit card debt and hefty car loans. If
you think the mustang parade at Ft. Campbell is impressive, you should see the
one in Annapolis after evening meal formation on a Friday night. And as for
putting bonuses to good use, I know of one former Midshipman who spent $3,000
of his $15,000 submarine officer bonus on a prostitute.

The Naval Academy tries to prevent this kind of
irresponsible behavior through required financial briefings at the beginning of
each semester (and ethics classes
for the prostitute aspect), and many young officers do make responsible and intelligent
financial decisions. Many of us have monthly budgets and used our $30,000 loans
to invest for our retirement or to buy the $2,000 in new uniforms that all the 2nd Lieutenants
had to purchase out of pocket. However, there were many who spent, and continue
to spend, their money unwisely. This begs the question: how can we improve the
financial habits our young enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines when
many of the junior officers responsible for them are financially irresponsible?