Hello all. Been doing a lot of thinking about joining the military to subsidize residency. As background I'm a non-trad with a wife and kid with another on the way. I put wife through college, she put me through college + medschool. However, wife is a teacher and, while she's been a trooper, has been burnt out teaching for a long time now. Being as we have a kid on the way, she'd like to take at least a year off to spend with the new one. I absolutely support her in this, but the prospects of supporting a family of 4 on 50k a year don't sound particularly appealing.
The money isn't the only reason I'm considering service, dad/grandads all served. But money is a factor especially in some of the higher cost of living areas applying for residency. I'd like some input, especially from members in similar situations with dependents, on these programs. I'll summarize my understanding and thoughts below, correct me where I'm wrong. I'm applying to EM, so will be comparing incomes to ~EM attending salary.
FAP: Straight forward 70k a year x 3= $210,000 net during residency for a 1:1 +1 pay back. Of course, the problem comes with the 4 years of payback and the salary differential between civilian and mil pay. Conservatively an EM attending can make $250/yr vs. (what I can gather from various calculators) the ~$100/yr in the military. So over the 4 years of payback 1mil - (400k +210k)= ~$400k net loss in income.
STRAP: Here I'm a bit fuzzy, as I'm not 100% about if STRAP, HPLR, and Special pay (75k sign on bonus over 3 years) overlap. Knowing what I know, I'm almost certain the sign on won't overlap unless I re-up after my commitment was over. Hoping that HPLR does overlap, but not sure.
Anywho, STRAP ends up 24k X 3= ~$72k for 2:1 payback. Add in HPLR during payback, 40k x 6 = ~240k in loan repayment.
STRAP seems to be the clear winner, offering sig less money during of residency, but loan repayment + being a reservist (instead of regular active duty)+ attending Salary for the 4 years of payback you'd have to do in FAP.
Here are my questions:
1) During residency, as you are a commissioned Lt, do you get family benefits? W/o wife working, all the insurance we'd get would have to come through me and that's going to be ~$1300/mo give or take. So a potential additional income for FAP side of things to the tune of 50k. Not game changing money wise, but health insurance with a newborn is kind of a big deal
2) Are there other calculations I'm missing on FAP that make it financially more viable? I know that part of the pay calculation is tax exempt (housing if I remember), but not sure how many other variables I'm missing in terms of benefits. Trying to round up all the potential bonuses and make a decent estimate is a nightmare.
And maybe most importantly, as I'm not sure there is enough hidden money in FAP to make it financially competitive to STRAP
3) How major is the disruption to your civilian life serving in the guard? As EM I may have the most flexible scheduling of any specialty, but I've heard some horror stories about deployments disrupting civilian jobs to the point of being forced into Locums work throughout service. I'm not sure how much stock I put in those stories, but its not hard to see how an EM group might look unfavorably in having to fill a schedule for 90+ days every couple years. The one advantage FAP seems to have over STRAP is that you don't have to worry with the disruption of being called up during your payback period.
Thanks in advance for the help clarifying this. While I'd like to serve as on officer in reg Airforce/Army, I just see know way of doing so where you don't end up losing your shirt on the back end. I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong.
The money isn't the only reason I'm considering service, dad/grandads all served. But money is a factor especially in some of the higher cost of living areas applying for residency. I'd like some input, especially from members in similar situations with dependents, on these programs. I'll summarize my understanding and thoughts below, correct me where I'm wrong. I'm applying to EM, so will be comparing incomes to ~EM attending salary.
FAP: Straight forward 70k a year x 3= $210,000 net during residency for a 1:1 +1 pay back. Of course, the problem comes with the 4 years of payback and the salary differential between civilian and mil pay. Conservatively an EM attending can make $250/yr vs. (what I can gather from various calculators) the ~$100/yr in the military. So over the 4 years of payback 1mil - (400k +210k)= ~$400k net loss in income.
STRAP: Here I'm a bit fuzzy, as I'm not 100% about if STRAP, HPLR, and Special pay (75k sign on bonus over 3 years) overlap. Knowing what I know, I'm almost certain the sign on won't overlap unless I re-up after my commitment was over. Hoping that HPLR does overlap, but not sure.
Anywho, STRAP ends up 24k X 3= ~$72k for 2:1 payback. Add in HPLR during payback, 40k x 6 = ~240k in loan repayment.
STRAP seems to be the clear winner, offering sig less money during of residency, but loan repayment + being a reservist (instead of regular active duty)+ attending Salary for the 4 years of payback you'd have to do in FAP.
Here are my questions:
1) During residency, as you are a commissioned Lt, do you get family benefits? W/o wife working, all the insurance we'd get would have to come through me and that's going to be ~$1300/mo give or take. So a potential additional income for FAP side of things to the tune of 50k. Not game changing money wise, but health insurance with a newborn is kind of a big deal
2) Are there other calculations I'm missing on FAP that make it financially more viable? I know that part of the pay calculation is tax exempt (housing if I remember), but not sure how many other variables I'm missing in terms of benefits. Trying to round up all the potential bonuses and make a decent estimate is a nightmare.
And maybe most importantly, as I'm not sure there is enough hidden money in FAP to make it financially competitive to STRAP
3) How major is the disruption to your civilian life serving in the guard? As EM I may have the most flexible scheduling of any specialty, but I've heard some horror stories about deployments disrupting civilian jobs to the point of being forced into Locums work throughout service. I'm not sure how much stock I put in those stories, but its not hard to see how an EM group might look unfavorably in having to fill a schedule for 90+ days every couple years. The one advantage FAP seems to have over STRAP is that you don't have to worry with the disruption of being called up during your payback period.
Thanks in advance for the help clarifying this. While I'd like to serve as on officer in reg Airforce/Army, I just see know way of doing so where you don't end up losing your shirt on the back end. I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong.
