WWYD: Would you risk your life to get out of debt?
“Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.” — Albert Camus
Can you name a serendipitous moment that changed your life? I can trace my life’s path to several and maybe I’ll cover the complete list in a future post. For now, I think one of those happenchance moments occurred yesterday when a soldier, named Nick Sloan left a comment on the Professional Wandering post on my personal blog.
Let me first explain something about the war. I don’t care about it. I was against it from the start, I’m frustrated with the current administration and think it’s a shame that so many Americans have lost their lives or become permanently disabled while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whenever Anderson Cooper is doing a segment about the war, I change the channel. When I read The New York Times, I skip over the Iraq war coverage. Quite frankly, it depresses me. So I take the “out of sight out of mind” approach and just ignore it.
In the two years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve only mentioned the Iraq war twice. Once about the time I sat next to the soldier-for-hire on a flight home from a London work trip and another when discussing the financial burden on families left behind while soldiers serve. Even then, read between the lines and you’ll sense my guilt about not helping or caring.
I’m wondering if Nick will finally be the one to make it personal for me and in turn, I start to care. We have to care to make a difference, don’t we? Nick and I are from very different worlds. I’m a forty-year-old gay woman, liberal, and living what I consider to be a nice life in sunny Newport Beach. Nick is twenty-six, last lived in conservative Colorado Springs, engaged to be married and is an Air Force officer currently deployed to Baghdad.
So what’s the connection? Money. Or more precisely, writing about money. When I clicked over to Nick’s Journey to Financial Freedom blog, he immediately got bookmarked and added to my favorites. Why did Nick go to Iraq? The short answer is money but I’ll let Nick elaborate below.
He writes, “I volunteered to come to Iraq because of the extra money I earn while here. I’m using that money to get out of debt and get a new start on my financial future.”
“I was in so much debt at home that I could barely keep my head above water. My answer: volunteer for Iraq. Obviously, that is not a course of action that would appeal to most people. I would like to leave aside any and all considerations of political views or other commentary on the war there. That is not what this blog is about. This blog is about money and investments. Before I came to Iraq, I had neither. You may be wondering, ‘What is so good about coming to Iraq?’ Well, I can list the advantages here.” Nick’s a smart guy now when it comes to finances!
He continues in another post about how he went from nearly $70,000 in debt and whittled it down to under $12,000… in less than a year. His tour lasts another 11 months and I intend to be rooting for his debt elimination throughout the rest of his journey. That’s his money story. What about his safety? Let’s talk about the risk.
After an insurgent lobbed a mortar into the Green Zone and it shook him out of bed, he said, “It makes you think about what is really important in life.” Then writes, “It got me to thinking about what would happen if I died. Since I am very financially minded at the moment, I was thinking mostly about finances after my death. Technically speaking, I am worth a lot more dead that alive.” He continues on and discusses his life insurance policies and how his fiancà ©e and mother would benefit upon his death.
Nick is risking his life to get out of debt. Today’s What Would You Do post begs the question: would you? Please comment below.
In the meantime, I’ll be reading about his journey. And finally, as most of us enjoy a day off, I want to publicly thank Nick Sloan for serving our country. Whatever his reason… financial or otherwise… he is a hero!
Nick, I wish you financial freedom, safe keeping and Godspeed! Happy Fourth of July!
Nina, this is a beautiful post. Thank You.
I have tears in my eyes. I understand why Nick is doing what he’s doing, but it just breaks my heart that this is what he felt he had to do. Shouldn’t there be better economic possibilities for a smart, well-spoken, healthy young man?
He’s not just risking his own life to put himself in a better financial position, he’s also part of a group of people who are actively seeking to kill other human beings. Hero or not, I can’t forget that.
I have a similar approach to the war that you do — I was against it from day one and it’s too depressing to read about it every day.
One of the most depressing aspects to me is how the only way we can even be fighting this war is that there are so many men and women like Nick who feel so stuck at home that they’re willing to go to Iraq to get unstuck.
This reminds me of the scene in Michael Moore’s movie about 9/11 where the army is recruting. That was one of the most memorable and horrible things in the movie to me. Our wars are fought by people who are economically desperate.
Your post is a great reminder of this.
Penelope
Thanks for the interesting post. I think it is also important to remember that whether Nick goes to Iraq or not ultimately may not be his decision. So drawing him into a huge political discussion is something of a moot point. He can choose to follow orders or not.
Perhaps he is “part of a group of people who are actively seeking to kill other human beings,” but I think there needs to be some perspective in that he stands between those that teach their children to hate and seek to kill Iraqis of ethnicities different than their own and oftentimes anyone who just happens to be American. Regardless of whether you agree with why we went to war, I don’t think anyone could reasonably condone “their” opinion toward us (ever seen the photos of three-year-olds dressed as jihadi warriors?) any more than the random killing of them as “human beings.”
My husband and I did back to back tours in Iraq, and yes, it was great for us financially. We have differing outlooks on this war, although both of us agree that it has to be seen through.
Before deploying, I had no hope of buying a home, paying of my debts, or any other sign of achieving the American Dream.
After 27 months time in country, my husband and I paid for a wedding, put a down payment on seven-plus acres of land in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, and have a wonderful emergency fund.
Was it worth it? Most of the time, I would say yes. After waking up from a nightmare or remembering friends lost, I’ll still say yes, but it’s heavily qualified. The military is, and will be, a ladder to better things for many many young people.
As for other opportunities…there is no where I’d rather be than standing beside my brothers and sisters and I think that’s something that may never be understood.
Everyone… thank you for the wonderful, warm and insightful comments to this post. I appreciate your thoughts.
Both my friends who are in the military are in very good financial positions, but they have both been divorced. After deployment after deployment, it became too much of a stress on their families – they were apart for more of their marriage than they were together. My one friend has missed most of his two young kids lives… and now will miss out on more since they are divorcing. Yes the military has been good financially, but I worry about the “bigger picture” for their lives in terms of personal heartbreak and post traumatic stress disorder. Surely there are financial costs to those as well as emotional costs.
I found Nick’s blog last week and felt heavy-hearted upon reading it. Nick is clearly bright and driven to take care of his debts, but it simultaneously angers and depresses me that he’s going to war to pay down his debts. Is this the best option we can give a young man?
Also, I agree with tiredbuthappy’s comment. Talking about “heroes” in war is an easy cliche that allows people to sidestep the unpretty truth of a soldier’s purpose. Whether you support or oppose this war, let’s at least be honest about what the job entails.
My first deployment allowed for me to pay off my car and college loans; this deployment will allow me to start my path to retirement and savings.
I have yet to read Nick’s blog, but I think it is shameful that in a wealthy country like the US, a lot kids use the GI Bill to go to college as their only route to pay tuition. Two of the kids who work for my parents left to go to boot camp and eventually, Iraq, all because they couldn’t pay for college otherwise. (There may have been a hint of an academic problem there as well. I didn’t pry.)
I applaud Nick’s bravery, but surely, there has to be another way. He may be worth more dead, but I would very much like him and his colleagues to be alive and come home.
Paradoxically, I have considered joining the military several times because of the pay and training. (It runs through your mind when you live in the nation’s capital.) As a college educated individual, I’d likely be able stay in IT/Telecom work and never see anything directly dangerous.
No offense, Nina, but let me encourage you to pay attention. There are forces at work in the US whose agenda would keep us in Iraq. I am not sure that political agenda is a good economic decision. Ultimately, the swelling ranks of the Veterans Administration will have to be funded by our tax dollars and though we have done it in the past, we ought not to forget our veterans. So even if you don’t care directly what happens there, I think indirectly, you should.
Ok, I admit skimming to read his line about being worth more dead. That’s a horrid thought.
I think I saw Nick via thesimpledollar.com – I went to his blog, and I was inspired by what people can do for their goals. I have my own opinions about the war, and I won’t get into them. I decided that Nick’s goals are noble, and he is brave. So I decided to read his blog every day as a way of making sure he is safe. 🙂
I write about Chess, and I used his story to ask the question, “what are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your (chess) goals?” I think his situation is applicable to anything that is overwhelming you and you want to get out of? Can you get out of an abusive marriage, even though you may live on the street? Just a thought.
In this week’s Carnival of the Insanities.
I wasn’t against it, for various reasons, but I do believe it has been badly handled, as has the “war on terror.” That said, interesting angle to the post. It made me think of a couple of other outsized pay things I’ve seen in my life.
One was the Alaska pipeline construction, where people would go work on it and earn outsized money for the isolation and lousy conditions involved. Same thing is happening right now for oil sand workers in northern Alberta.
Another was nuclear plant migrant workers. At a time when 25k a year was decent enough money, these guys, without special skills, would get 1k or more per week to travel to different nuclear plants for maintenance work, basically getting paid for the risk, the overall limit on how long they could do it before they’d hit radiation limits, and the traveling and being away from wherever they called home. I met some of them when I worked at a convenience store relatively near the power plant in Plymouth, MA.
People probably used those in similar ways.
Heck, my grandfather once took a shoe factory supervisor job in upstate New York for two years for outsized pay, enough to room there, support the family in eastern MA, and travel back and forth periodically. It just wasn’t outsized the way these other examples are, and he told me it was not worth it.
People here seem to think that there won’t be a counterattack if Iraq were to be “released”.
Iraq is attrackting virtually *all* muslim violence for several years now.
So which is better :
1) fighting a war that *will* be fought (as the islamists won’t compromise, they will need to be put down by violence) (and yes, maybe that means all muslims will have to be, in fact every day I seem to drift more in that direction unfortunately), and giving lots of people extra options. Every job has a probability of injury and a reward. I’ve always heard that truck driver is a *lot* more risk than going to Iraq, and truck driving doesn’t strike me as particularly risky. I mean compared to mining or some such … brrr. And if you’re good, maybe you’ll be a radio technician or a fighter technician, with little, if any risk involved.
2) retreating, and getting regularly blown up for no reason. Think 9/11, say, twice per month. Random buildings, no particular reason (or better: read the quran if you want to know the reason, apparently it has something to do with everybody else being “lower than animals” (8:55) ), causing a never before seen cost on the economy
So which is the better option, exactly ?
(btw I tried out for military, I was refused for medical reasons, if you have to ask, so today I work as a technician in a department that shall remain anonymous, I hope one day to be an engineer)
Heh what the heck, I’m going to look up the actual probabilities of problems when you go to Iraq. Should be easy to find :
3606 casualties since 2003, that gives, say 950 casualties per year, for 2,369,239 soldiers in the united states military (so I’m overestimating U.S. casualties, as about 30 are non-us, and 950 is rounded upwards also). So about 1 soldier in 2369 soldiers dies (actual chance is smaller due to consistently rounding downwards)
As a truck driver you run the risk of 4,932/8,171,363 (dept. of transportation) to die (again, losing an arm or leg “doesn’t count”). That means about 1 truck driver in 1650 dies. So you’re better of as a soldier than as a truck driver, and quite a bit it seems.
Anyone care to look up construction workers ?
You can’t avoid risk. Some people have the illusion that you can, but really you can’t. And the military is, compared to quite a few other professions, a very safe place to be.
Another advantage of the military is that you pick up useful skills. It’s always amazed me how about 90% of the population of Israel can drive a light truck, including parking it backwards and knows how to fix basic car problems, and knows first aid. I thought what the fuck ? In my country that’s MAYBE 1%. But it’s just something they pick up in the military. If you refuse to serve in the military, you have to do “charity” work, which mostly involves working as a nurse, which also gives you a few skills.
Actually it’s safer to work as a soldier in the U.S. military than it is to *live* in Detroit, counting *only* the murder rate. We’re not talking just any death, ONLY the murder rate.
(and may I say about the detroit rate : WOW)
Cities less safe to live in than getting shot at in Iraq
-> detroit
-> baltimore
-> washington
-> new orleans
And atlanta is *really* close but not over the rate. (detroit is quite a bit less safe than getting blasted in Iraq)
There isn’t a single large city in the U.S. that has a lower death rate than the U.S. military, counting murder + accidental deaths. And there are only a few where the total number of maimed people per year is lower than in the military.
Still think the risk is that great ?
Man, I really should move to Iraq according to these statistics.
So this is just again a case of collective stupidity in action : “oh dear god poor soldiers are dying”, when in fact we’re in worse shape than they are. You’re safer in the military, getting shot at, than you are at an office job in New York.
I guess it’s true what they say … “common sense is very uncommon”
And what’s more strange … since the war began the casualty rate in the military has gone … well I said it’s strange, right ? It’s gone *down*. Clinton got a hell of a lot more soldiers killed than Bush (and yes I took into account how many will die before his term is over, it’s still over 60% more).
So you really, really should enlist during wartime. It’s safer than staying at home, and it pays a hell of a lot more.
Nina,
Thanks for sharing this story with us.
The money dimensions of the war on both institutional and individual levels is extremely important to foreground, I think. Of course, one feels a lot for someone like Nick who feels like he has to choose to risk his life in this way to get out of debt.
What immediately comes to mind: 1. In a more just society, would money have this coercive force? (a force unequally distributed along axes of race, ethnicity, gender and, obviously, class); 2. What’s the connection between this soldier’s choices and the choices of big business contractors and of the energy and military production industries that hawked it up leading up to the war in Iraq for self-interested reasons?
I appreciate the food for thought!
Here’s another article about a woman in Houston who went to Iraq for similar financial reasons. Unfortunately, her story doesn’t have a happy ending.
i would risk everything to get out of debt just because i made some bad decisions as a child now i am stuck with a debt that never ends with this u.s. government,everyday i see more and more hope in an after life. It really hurts that they would put someones life after money. All i wish is to go to college rather than have to look at my mom everyday as a disappointment.