US combat troops in Iraq battle to defend savings

Aine,

Most junior military personnel don't actually have a retirement program. In fact, it's a program that's been pushed at the junior Marines now for about 5 years, but the TSP really only works well if you plan on staying in for 20 years +.  Otherwise, as a retirement plan, it's structured to be safe, mostly investing in low yield bonds.  You can choose to invest in stocks, or international stocks, but these are index funds. And a real negative is, unlike most 401k's there is no employer matching.  So combine the two, and there isn't a lot of potential for growth.  

But the problem isn't the poor retirement program. The problem is that single military members (and even married military members) have no fiscal responsibility and concept of saving.  They get yanked from High School, into a job where they make the equivelant of 60,000 with NO liabilities beyond that what they CHOOSE to incur. So all of that money goes to their head. Where else can you go to a place where people with a salary of 20,000 a year can own a $40,000 car? Add in the massive amounts of money the Military makes during a deployment (15-40k over 6 months tax free) and the obvious conclusion is that the reason they don't have a good investment plan in place, is because they choose not to. 

Also, the article is a bit off in its terminology. The TSP is enrolled at the time of enlistment or arrival at your duty station. What they're referring to when you get in theatre is called a J-Alottment.  It offers a guarenteed 10% return on your investment of up to 10,000 over the course of your deployment.  Great program, and I recommend to all my Marines to invest in it. But it' s not the thrift savings program. Just thought I'd share.