CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
A few days ago I came upon one of my first leave and earning statements. It was just under $300 and was for the month of January. With my LES, was a copy of my income tax refund check, just under $600. I remembered why I had those items together; that is what I used to buy my wife an engagement ring more than fifteen years ago. I started adding up in my head about how much money in refunds I have gotten in the past 15 years and a conservative estimate would be of about $15,000. Then I started asking myself where did it go and what did I do with all that money?
In my early years in the Air Force those checks went to things that are long gone and forgotten about. When I gained a little more rank and my family started growing, I was blessed to have some influential supervisors who knew what to do with money. They painstakingly took the time to teach me what to do with the money I earned or got back as a refund. Back in those days the Airman and Family Readiness Flight (then it was called Family Support) didn't have a personal financial manager or not many people knew about that program. Supervisors were heavily relied upon to get involved with their Airmen and teach them. If you are one of those supervisors, I applaud you, keep up the great work and continue to stay involved with your Airmen; you are making a difference.
With all these resources around, I still see some of our younger Airmen making the same mistakes I did with money, prioritizing on the here and now and not on the future. I was in a conversation with a couple of Airmen when the issue of what to do with income tax refunds came up, so I asked if they had plans for theirs. Surprisingly one said "No," so I smiled and said we need to talk. Not surprisingly, the other Airman started rattling off about eight or nine things he was going buy with his income tax refund and I smiled at him and said we need to talk. I think it took about 30 minutes total and lunch at the golf course to drop a little knowledge in their life. If they use it, great, if not, that's their choice. One thing I will do is follow up to see what they decided to do.
So what did I tell these Airmen? Don't start any new debt with their refund like buying a car or thinking they can purchase with their credit card and pay it off later. Then I gave them a Web site to look at, www.saveandinvest.org, the same one that is at the Airman and Family Resource Flight. Then the last thing I told them was that we will have lunch again on a certain date, so I could follow up and see if they met their goals.