GI Bill

[Jeepnik]

My post in another thread got me to thinking. Has anyone else used up the lion's share of their GI Bill benefits. As I mentioned there, it saved a lot in closing costs and interest payments. It also paid a nice chunk of what it cost to get my BS. I figure in a few years my family will get that last little bit from the death benefit.

 

[s4s4u]

They quit that right before I enlisted, soooooo nope.

My Dad did take advantage of it as far as education, got him through college so he could teach kids how to build houses.

 

[Neon Vernon]

I'm from the (next to useless) VEAP era also, we got hosed compared to the GI Bills that came before and after.

 

[Watertender]

The best teachers I had were educated on the GI Bill. They were real teachers who I respected very much. My one industrial arts teacher was a demolition man in the Army Engineers, another stayed in the Army Reserve and ended up retiring as a Lt. Colonel. The drafting teacher was a 1st Lieutenant in the Marine Corps and spent 2 years in Korea.
They are all gone now and I use what I learned from them almost daily.

 

[Busterswoodshop]

They paid when I went to college.
At the time , they paid all expenses related to college , and gave me $450 a month.

 

[contender]

I used the "Tuition Assistance" program while I was in. Later on, I used my GI Bill education benefits almost to the max.
I never used any other parts of it.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

The "GI Bill" was over by the time I enlisted. But I was covered by the "Montgomery GI Bill" of 1984. It didn't do squat for me due to the profession I stumbled into.

SGLI is the only thing I need to sort out for my will. I never transferred it to VGLI.....not even sure if it's worth looking into anymore.

 

[s4s4u]

I'm from the (next to useless) VEAP era also, we got hosed compared to the GI Bills that came before and after.

Yep. When I was discharged I found out I had a total of $2k-something in college benefits....woohoo

 

[Jeepnik]

The follow on programs to the GI Bill, was you participation based on the date you started your service or it ended.

 

[WAYNO]

I was drafted out of college, while married. By the time I ETS'd, I needed a real job and could not go back to school.
I used no part of the GI Bill, but I did use my states veterans assistance to buy a house. That got me 3.2% interest with a very minimal down payment.

 

[Paul B]

I held off on using mine until I got my job with the National Weather Service. My thought was get the schooling I needed to benefit me in my job. It took me 6 years to even get my foot in the door and when I applied for the schooling I was told they'd expired. The only other thing I ever applied for was health care but when they found out I had insurance so that my wife was covered the shut me out again. I haven't had a damn thing to do with them ever snce. They're dead to me.
PJ

 

[5screwmonty]

I bought my 1st house with VA loan at 10.2 % interest. That was a bargain at the time.
I also got my BS and MS in engineering with them.since I was married with a child they paid me quite a bit more monthly. I think it was $700 a month. That was a very long time ago.

 

[Jeepnik]

I was drafted out of college, while married. By the time I ETS'd, I needed a real job and could not go back to school.
I used no part of the GI Bill, but I did use my states veterans assistance to buy a house. That got me 3.2% interest with a very minimal down payment.

I used the state system to buy a second home up north. But other than that, this state isn't really interested in vets.

 

[375hh1973]

Used it to get a bachelor's degree which I have never used.

Wish I could sell the degree.

Needs to be a market place where people with degrees who dont use them or no longer using them could sell them to people who want or need them.

 

[jg123]

Nope, and VA said i was too successful for medical care, of course I was not going to depend on either of them anyways....LOL.

 

[Deer Hunter]

^^^Isn't there a market for that in the Ann Arbor area?^^^

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

After my discharge (1969-1973 USAF) I got a summer job as a construction gopher for the owner who was building an apartment complex in Austin, TX. When school started (UT-Austin) that fall, the owner hired me to be asst. manager/Mr. Fixit for that complex. I showed/rented apartments, chased down deadbeat tenants for their past-due rent, unclogged stopped up plumbing systems (ladies' sanitary napkins were the most frequent culprits), repaired minor electrical circuitry problems, drywall repairs, re-painting units to prepare them for new tenants, etc. The only thing I wouldn't do was deep steam clean carpets. Very time consuming and the outcome wasn't predictable.

So until I graduated 2 years later, I worked 40-50 hour weeks AND took full 15-hours-per-sememter course loads. Work money and GI bill paid for all of my college costs (including room and board) and paid off a car loan. When I graduated, I was debt-free. [The National Bank of Dad had closed the day I enlisted in the military and never re-opened.] My degree in accounting got me a job with a big accounting firm, and the rest is history.

Only other GI Bill benefit was obtaining a VA loan to finance the purchase our first home. Nominal down-payment ($500) required and decent interest rate.

Given my financial picture, I'll not be eligible for GI burial benefits. So, I guess I'm done. Still, you'll hear no argument from me about the sufficiency of the GI Bill's benefits - they were good.

 

[Rich/KY]

Used it to pay for my Masters and also using it for my current home.

 

[fiasconva]

I used for the purchase of my first home but still wish I had used it to get my master's degree when I had the chance.

 

[warren5421]

It payed me to get my education and payed for my education. Let me buy a house with low interest charges. Indiana VA paid for two kids education also.

 

[Jeepnik]

After my discharge (1969-1973 USAF) I got a summer job as a construction gopher for the owner who was building an apartment complex in Austin, TX. When school started (UT-Austin) that fall, the owner hired me to be asst. manager/Mr. Fixit for that complex. I showed/rented apartments, chased down deadbeat tenants for their past-due rent, unclogged stopped up plumbing systems (ladies' sanitary napkins were the most frequent culprits), repaired minor electrical circuitry problems, drywall repairs, re-painting units to prepare them for new tenants, etc. The only thing I wouldn't do was deep steam clean carpets. Very time consuming and the outcome wasn't predictable.

So until I graduated 2 years later, I worked 40-50 hour weeks AND took full 15-hours-per-sememter course loads. Work money and GI bill paid for all of my college costs (including room and board) and paid off a car loan. When I graduated, I was debt-free. [The National Bank of Dad had closed the day I enlisted in the military and never re-opened.] My degree in accounting got me a job with a big accounting firm, and the rest is history.

Only other GI Bill benefit was obtaining a VA loan to finance the purchase our first home. Nominal down-payment ($500) required and decent interest rate.

Given my financial picture, I'll not be eligible for GI burial benefits. So, I guess I'm done. Still, you'll hear no argument from me about the sufficiency of the GI Bill's benefits - they were good.

I didn't think there was any sort of financial eligibility for burial benefit.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

I didn't think there was any sort of financial eligibility for burial benefit.

My Father's was a full military burial with honors w/motorcade escort provided by local PD, a line of LEOs/Firefighters/FT Campbell Active Duty/Vets at attention saluting as we entered the cemetery, Army Ceremonial Guard (Bearers/Flag Presenter/Chaplain/Taps Bugler), Firing Party (VFW), the whole works. It was free and organized by the local VFW and coordinated with Ft Campbell personnel. I believe the only cost was the urn and engraved plate cover with his name/rank/years of service/Korean War. I've been to a few military funerals. This was pretty impressive.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

My FIL (WW II veteran and combat engineer serving under Patton in Europe) was only eligible for nominal (less than $5,000 as I recall) veteran's burial benefits. The VA would pay for a basic coffin (pine box) but nothing else. Same thing with my own father (WW II USN on a destroyer in the Pacific from 1942-1945) - the VA arranged for two USN CPOs to attend the graveside service, but my dad's estate was "too wealthy" to qualify for other benefits. [At the time of his death, Dad's estate was about $250,000. Several months before his death, dad had gifted about $100,000 to his will's beneficiaries: 1/2 to my sister, and the other 1/2 in equal shares to me and each of my three children.]

If I hadn't been very careful, the total funeral cost (excluding the gravesite) for my dad's burial (in 2017) would have run more than $15,000. The funeral home tried to shame me into a $8-to-10 thousand fancy coffin, $3,500 in grave-side flowers, an expensive embalming process, etc. - things dad had specifically instructed me to avoid. Decades earlier, dad had purchased grave plots decades for himself and my mom. Otherwise, we'd have had to pay another $15-to-25 thousand or more for a grave site.

My kids are OK with the wishes of my bride and me - we prefer cremations, with our ashes dumped into the least expensive container. [I drink drip-grind Maxwell House coffee - hint, hint.] And we don't care where those ashes are ultimately disposed of. We don't want to be buried - so there will be no grave sites to buy, or funeral-home memorial services to pay for.

My best advice to others - pre-plan the funeral. Do this several months in advance, at a time when emotions are less likely to drive decisions. And review those plans with the loved one - let him/her drive the process.

Remember - As my dad often reminded me, funerals are for the living. The dead don't really care.

 

[rmc25]

I got out in 68. Between the GI bill and the state and federal grants my most expensive college semester cost me $127.