SPOUSE'S PERSPECTIVE Financial fitness and your military career By Beth Wilson Special Contributor T ow to be a Millionaire on a Military Salary" SThis sign, on the Fleet and Family Support JL Center (FFSC) marquee caught my eye and I had to chuckle; become a millionaire on a military sal- ary? Someone is dreaming . or are they? I called a friend who works at the FFSC to talk about this 'million- aire' class. She was so enthusiastic about this class that I enrolled! Why do I bring this up? Because my inbox is full of spouses struggling to make ends meet or shocked to find that their credit standing hap impacted their service mem- ber's career and many other finance related challenges. So we are going to embark upon a series to put us on the road to not just financial fitness but to, indeed, become a mil- lionaire on a military budget. Katie, a Navy wife, wrote a heartbreaking email. "Jake is on hold because of his credit. His clearance is held up because of our debt load? How can they deny a clearance just because we're in debt and struggling?" Unfortunately this email is not an isolated one. Jake and Katie have been apart for over a year as Jake was attending school, only to find out that they are on an indefinite hold until decisions are reached on Jake's security clearance; a clearance that is required for his job. Are you aware that your financial indebtedness can affect your service member's ,, .' u 'J,;i career? If your service mem- ber's rate requires a clear- Sance your finances must be Beth Wilson in order to maintain that clearance. If your finances are not, and your service member looses their clearance they can potentially be involuntarily separated from the Navy. Even if your service member does not have a clear- ance, non-payment of debts can potentially impact your service member's advancement. But before you think this series is about setting up a budget and giving up gourmet coffee and other creature comforts I assure you it is not. This series is to offer you valuable information about your finances and resources to bring your finances under control and to establish and achieve long-term financial goals for you and your family. The starting point is to know where you stand. Assemble the following information to help you formulate your financial picture: Income How much do you make, assemble all income information. Debt credit cards, mortgage, car loans, college loans, etc. Expenses food, gasoline/transportation, rent, utilities, etc. Once you have assembled all this information you will be able to develop a spending plan (I love that word - spending) as well as a plan to eradicate your debt (yes, you can live debt-free). This initial step can be overwhelm- ing but it is important don't give up! There are resources to'turn to for assistance with devel- oping that initial financial plan. Each command has an individual called a command financial specialist (CFS) who is trained to help you develop a spending plan/debt- elimination plan. Your local FFSC as well as the Navy- Marine Corps Relief Society both offer classes and person- al assistance to develop a financial plan. Armed Services Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union and USAA and other financial institutions also provide free confidential finan- cial planning assistance. Let me bust a myth it is not a career killer to access the services provided through your local installation or command. Not getting assistance to get your finances in shape can be a real career killer. Over the next three weeks we'll look at developing a spending plan, getting out of debt, saving, investing as well as understanding insurance and other financial vehicles. Maintaining helos JAX AIR NEWS, NAS JACKSONVILLE, Thursday, March 20, 2008 17 Shipmates don't let shipmates abuse alcohol By FORCM Gerald Haueter COMNAVSURFLANT Force Master Chief Know most of you know the Navy's policy on alcohol. Therefore, I am not going to write about policies and instructions. If you don't know, you can go look it up or you can learn more about it dur- ing a GMT topic. What I am going to write about is our personal respon- sibility to our selves, to our families, to our shipmates and to our Navy. Shipmates don't let shipmates abuse alcohol! This is a very touchy subject because sometimes when we are friends with people we work with, we may be in the best position in the world to give them advice. Often we don't advise them because we don't want them to think we are getting in their business. Being a good shipmate means some- times we have to make some hard decisions and say some hard things that our shipmates might dislike. For example, if you have a buddy who is showing up five days a week to quar- ters smelling like alcohol, there could be no telling what he is doing on the weekends such as drinking and driv- ing. A good shipmate, when he sees the signs such as the smell, blood- shot eyes, and fatigue, would corral his buddy and tell the Sailor he may have a problem and he needs to talk somebody to get help. That's what a true shipmate does: makes hard deci- sions and says hard things that often don't want to be heard but they do it anyway. In our Navy, alcohol abuse not only affects the abuser, it affects their shipmates, their command and their families as well. If a Sailor gets a DUI, not only do we lose them to jail time, but someone has to pick up their slack in the shop. But more impor- tantly what this Sailor is doing is not helping himself or his family. Alcohol abuse can snowball like drug abuse. When you first start drinking it can start with a few drinks to "feel good" and over time it will take more and more alcohol to achieve the same feel- ing until it becomes a problem. Then the family suffers, the Sailor suffers and the Navy suffers. When you have a good Sailor that is doing great things for the Navy, we all should have the same mind set, "Not only do I owe .it to him and the Navy, I owe it to myself to get this Sailor some help and get them into treatment." We have to realize that our ship may suffer as a result, but taking the FROM THE FLEET time to get the Sailor some help will pay dividends later in most cases. We also have to realize we can't save everyone and that we are going to lose some ship- , mates. We have to take a s~ hard stance and get them some help. One of my success stories of shipmates looking out for one another was also FO one of the biggest challeng- Gerald es I'ever had to face as a chief petty officer. I had a command master chief (CMC) who obviously had a drinking problem and the other master chiefs, senior chiefs and chiefs in the mess were afraid to approach him. He was a great CMC. On one occasion I actually followed him home one night and said to him, "Master chief, I think you are kill- ing yourself. I've seen several of my uncles drink themselves to death and I think you are headed in the same direction. I honestly feel you should see somebody for help." The end result was the CMC ended up getting help. I saw him several years later and he told me I had given him some of the best advice that someone has ever given him. It was a tough thing to do to one of my heroes who was a mentor to me. But he had "ALittle INt of life" NO ALAi. F77 I Get Vou RCM 4 1.--*-- r a chink in his armor and he needed someone to tell him about it. One of my failure stories took place at one of my pre- vious commands. One of the most intelligent, artic- ulate and best petty offi- cers that I ever had come in contact with was abus- ing alcohol. Initially we picked up on it because we laueter could smell the alcohol on him. We acted on it and got him help. However, he would eventu- ally fall on his own sword. We were so busy operationally that we forgot about him and during that time he relapsed. Instead of treating him as an alcohol treatment failure and getting him out of the Navy along with additional help, we let him slip through the cracks, and as a result, he had two DUIs within six months of one another. We lost a good Sailor, a family was destroyed and he no longer has a retirement. That is why it is so impor- tant that we don't let our shipmates slip through the cracks it is a sin! I certainly take some personal respon- sibility for that failure and we all should take personal responsibility and not let our shipmates abuse alco- hol. F 7.11A. ,It U K.9 ft.rrr VA Ai. :' U ,,,I P r~"r~mamr~u lla ku Th8wi~.~L - i1fl.,Sacwl&1Ui .flUl~ C ~ xirNews OFF LOCATION ABC LIQUORS AMERICAN LEGION BONOS BBQ BONUS DOLLAR BP CECIL PINES ADULT COMMUNITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CHEVRON GAS STATION CITGO COMFORT INN ECKERD DRUGS FAMILY DOLLAR FCE BP FCE SHELL FCE SHELL FCE SHELL FCE SHELL(DAILY'S) FIDDLERS GREEN GOLF COURSE FLEET RESERVE FOOD LION FOOD LION FOOD LION GATE GATE GATE GATE GATE GATE GATE GATE VYSTAR CREDIT UNION VYSTAR CREDIT UNION VYSTAR CREDIT UNION VYSTAR CREDIT UNION VYSTAR CREDIT UNION JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE -BASE PICKUP LOCATIONS ADDRESS CITY 5541 ROOSEVELT BLVD. JAX 5443 SAN JUAN AVE. JAX 1179 PARKAVE. OP 7628103RDST. JAX 6842 WILSON BLVD JAX 6008 LAKE COVE AVE. JAX 1734 KINGSLEYAVE. OP 206 PARKAVE. OP 1313 BLANDING/KNIGHT BOXX OP 341 PARK AVE. OP 1952 PARK AVE. OP 4603 LANDING BLVD. JAX 6510 NORMANDY BLVD. JAX 6409 SAN JUAN AVE JAX 6970 103rd ST JAX 11 LANDING BLVD OP 620 CHAFFEE RD JAX CECIL FIELD JAX 5391 COLLINS RD. JAX 6260 103RD ST. JAX 7900 103RDST. JAX 1670 WELLS RD. OP 5480 COLLINS RD JAX 511 BULLS BAY HWY JAX 10980 NEW KINGS RD(US 1) JAX 4511 SAN JUANAVE JAX 7023103rd ST JAX 640 STOCKTON ST JAX 277 LANDING BLVD OP 500-60 HWY 17 & CR 220 OP 4420 WABASH AVE. JAX 4441 WESCONNETT BLVD. JAX 7254103RDST. JAX CECIL FIELD JAX 182 LANDING BLVD. OP 1441 DUNN AVE JAX 821 LANDING BLVD JAX 7313 LEM TURNER RD JAX 132 LANDING BLVD OP 1548 PARK AVE OP 634 LANDING BLVD OP 1585-B ISLAND LANE OP I WnATInM AnncDE~ JIFFY LUBE JIFFY LUBE JOHNSON FAMILY FLEA MARKET KANGAROO KANGAROO KANGAROO KANGAROO KANGAROO KANGAROO KANGAROO KRYSTALS LIBRARY LIL CHAMP LIL CHAMP LIL CHAMP LIL CHAMP LIL CHAMP LIL CHAMP LIL CHAMP MOVIE STOP MURRAYS TAVERN POST OFFICE RAE'S DINER ROWE'S SAFECO SAMS ST. JOHNS SEAFOOD SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT STAR FOOD VFW WESCONNETT LIBRARY WINN DIXIE WOODY'S BBQ YELLOW WATER HOUSING Updated: FEBRUARY 1,2007 rITV 2692 BLENDING BLVD MDG 1445 S 6thST MACCL 5800 RAMONA BLVD JAX 2688 OLD MIDDLEBURG JAX 7603103rdSTJRICKER JAX 3137 SR 220/RUSSELL MDG 2584 SR220 & COLLEGE MDG 5105 SR218W/MALLARD MDG 2816 BLANDING/PEPPERGRASS MDG 4305 HWY 17 & RAGGEDY PT OP 208 BLENDING BLVD. OP KINGSLEY AVE. OP 9763103rd STJCONNIE JEAN JAX 636 McDUFF AVE. S. NEAR 1-10 JAX 770 N McDUFF NEAR BEAVER JAX 102 SUZANNE OP 2468 BLENDING & SCENIC MDG 338 COLLEGE & OLD JENNINGS OP 1312 BLANDING/OAK OP 8635 BLENDING BLVD JAX 4527120TH ST. JAX 1335 KINGSLEY AVE. OP CECIL FIELD JAX 5435 BLENDING BLVD JAX 6407103RD ST. JAX 1464 PARK AVE. OP 10401 NORMANDY BLVD. JAX 4152 OLD MIDDLEBURG JAX 8181 103rd ST. JAX 4856 PARK STJCASSAT JAX 3895 OLD JENNINGS/LONGBAY MDG 2682 BLANDING/218 MDG 4486 MIMOSA/218 MDG 804 BLANDING/CAMP JOHNSON OP 2816 HENLEY RD LKASBURY GCS 3075 HWY 17/MAHAMA GCS 6935 HWY 17/HIBERNIA GCS 756 PARK AVE. OP 187 ARORA BLVD. OP 103RD ST./ HARLOW JAX 5647 ROOSEVELT BLVD. JAX 4291 ROOSEVELT BLVD. JAX CECIL FIELD JAX I IKUPYU AX A'IR ESA N O HS OAT9IONS Photo by MC3 Ricardo Reyes AD2 Patrick Forester, assigned to the "Dusty Dogs" of HS-7, plays a pivotal role in the aircraft maintenance effort, keeping aircraft mission ready day in and day out by performing minor inspections and repairs with one goal, mission readiness. Truman and embarked Carrier Air Wing Three are deployed supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and maritime secu- rity operations. LUIAI IUN AUU~ntbb WIT