Enlistment and Re-Enlistment Provide Financial Benefits
Joining the Military and extending your Military Enlistment can be a huge decision. With the pay and benefits it is often very financially lucrative. But with the added incentive of bonuses, at times it can be even more financially rewarding.
There are three types of Bonuses available:
Enlistment Bonuses
Joining the military can yield a person up to forty thousand dollars in cash bonuses. The actual amount of any bonus depends on several factors, your specific job in the military (called your job specialty or Rating). Other factors include the length of enlistment, and the current service needs for the job you choose. Currently, world wide only the U.S. Military offers these type of bonuses to high school grads that choose to enlist.
Re-Enlistment Bonuses
If you are already a Service member in the Armed Forces, you can often be eligible for a re-enlistment bonus of some type. These bonuses are designed to encourage retention, and to promote Service Members staying in the service and making it a career.
Issues affecting the amount of any bonus you receive include:
-You have completed at least Seventeen months of Active Duty, without a break.
-You have not been the Armed Forces for longer than fourteen years.
-You have a military skill or training defined as critical by the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of Homeland Security.
-You are going to enlist in a regular Armed Forces component, or continue in a regular reserve arm of the service you are affiliated with.
You bonus has to be the lesser of one of the amounts listed here
-The sum of fifteen times your monthly basic pay the day you are discharged.
-The sum of the number of years or fraction thereof, of the re-enlistment, up to ninety thousand dollars.
Bonuses can be lucrative, but there are penalties if certain conditions are not met.
Refund of Bonuses
If you leave the service voluntarily after accepting a bonus, or if you are separated for cause (such as misconduct or criminal activity) or it is discovered that for some reason you are not qualified, there are penalties.
You must refund a portion, or the entire bonus under these conditions.
This does not apply if the Service Member is separated for reasons such as injury, of if the separation is due to other mitigating factors. In such cases, no refund is needed, and the Service Member can keep the bonus awarded.
