Military Financial Woes—Part One

July 29, 2008

I was asked recently about the economic issues related to deployed service members.  “Well,” I said, “the first one that comes to mind is the Reservist and the National Guards who are deployed who are self employed.  Most Reserves and National Guards have jobs that are protected by federal law.  The law provides that they not lose seniority or their job while they are deployed.  But if you are self-employed and you are deployed for 18 months, you may well come back to all your clients having moved on and your company down the tubes.”

I remember one of the first Guardsmen I counseled after the war started.  He sold Real Estate in a fairly rural area.  He was terrified because he knew his wife couldn’t support his car and their house payments on the money from the military and that the business would, in effect, fold.  While there are laws that prohibit his house being foreclosed while he was deployed, nothing kept the bills from mounting.  When he returned he would be facing not only financial disaster kept at bay merely while he was away, but he would be faced with starting over from the ground up with his business.

This is true for lots of self-employed Reservists and Guards.  Sometimes it is a store.  Sometimes it is consulting.  But the self-employed pay and extra price to belong to the military.