We are mid 20’s living in San Diego. He’s been stationed here for 7 years, and since 2016 has been on shore duty until August 2020 when he gets out. He started taking night classes in Grossmont since last fall (takes 2/semester) in preparation to transfer to SDSU or UCSD. But he still needs a lot more units to take before he can transfer, probably a good year and a half worth. I’m currently a full-time student at SDSU and have two years left. No kids. Only have about 15k savings (wish we could have saved more, but we put at least ~500-1k a month in savings now). He has only vaguely told me his financial standing when he gets out, but all I know is that his salary will be cut in half while he goes to school full-time after he gets out. I’m not too sure how GI Bill works, but will look up the information for that also.

He gets 2,500 BAH as an E5 and we’ve been living off base in a 1bedroom for 1,400. I have 1k in debt from dental work (had to get an implant from a failed root canal), but that’s about it. I pay my tuition with our savings, but it’s only less than 8k/year and I saved a lot by going to community college for the first two years.

I guess I’m just worried about his huge pay cut, especially coming from poverty. We’re frugal and don’t buy expensive things, so that helps a lot. I don’t work right now because of my class load and schedule, and he tells me I should just focus on school, but if I really need to then I will.

I guess all I’m asking for is if anyone has had a similar experience getting out of the military and any tips on how I can support/help my husband? Any information we should take advantage of? Anything we definitely shouldn’t and should do? We were never really involved with military related events except for the holiday parties and don’t live on base so we don’t have many people who have any advice for us. Thank you.