Let's talk about money again: I am making 75k this year?

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distressstudent

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Seems like these parts of town hasn't been very active lately. Maybe SDN in general has been declining, or maybe future SDNers just aren't worry about their student loans anymore. Oh well.

Well what's a better way to get people going than to talk about money?
I am bringing this up because I was a pre-dent on these parts of town some time ago. SDN just notified me that I have been a member for 7 years. I have said a few things here and there, and posted a few threads here and there. Some of it must have been wrong, so I am here to rectify it.

I remember when I was applying for this scholarship back in 2015, I knew I was taking a pay cut coming out of dental school in exchange for lowering my student loan burden. Look, I was on SDN a lot and thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Perhaps it was a case of blind leading the blind, but throughout my years on the HPSP scholarship and especially as an AD dentist I keep finding out new information. I **** you not, I thought I was going to make an O3 salary of 4,400 a month + BAS + BAH and that's it. Well, my taxable income this year will be 75k (BEFORE deduction) but I checked my LES statement and my pre-tax income is actually 110k. And in a few months, I will get another $600 raise on my base pay. Granted, I am OCONUS and earning a little more than extra money. That's not even including the fat check of dislocation allowance I got.

I also thought that a career AD dentist really wouldn't make much money. Well imagine my shock when our 14 year o5 general dentist tells me he is taking home 230k a year. (Ok I say general dentist, but this is with the comprehensive dentist retention bonus)

It's been a minute since I took the DAT, so I havent done math in awhile so just spare me the trouble and watch this video for those who arent initiated. The math is all done differently now, but good enough I guess :




Anyways, for my other active duty folks, can you relate? Since everyone kept talking about how much less money military dentist made, were you surprised?

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I will be graduating this spring with a little less than 10 years prior service in the army guard and reserves. Hopefully I’ll be be around 100k coming onto active duty. I’m hoping with my marriage tax credit that will keep me in the 12% federal tax bracket.
 
Starting pay for O-3 with 1 year of experience when you take into account BAH, BAS, base pay, special pay is ~91K even in an area with low BAH. That's if you're single. If you're married, have kids, or prior service, you'll definitely be making more than that. You also get pay increases at year 2, 3, 4, 6, and every 2 years after, generally a few thousand dollars each year. So a single O-3 at 4 years service with no dependents living in an area with low BAH will be making about 102k/year. If you specialize, say, do 63B comp dent residency, get your retention bonus, and increased specialty pay, you'll be making an extra 50k/year for a 4 year contract. But that doesn't come until after your ADSO is paid off. So if you paid off your ADSO and signed a retention bonus (say at the 6-7 year mark), as a single soldier, you could be making about 160k/year as an O4. If you lived somewhere like Hawaii, you'd be getting way more than that (but also paying more in housing).

As someone else said, after 10 years of service and a good retention bonus, you'll be pushing $200k+.
 
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Starting pay for O-3 with 1 year of experience when you take into account BAH, BAS, base pay, special pay is ~91K even in an area with low BAH. That's if you're single. If you're married, have kids, or prior service, you'll definitely be making more than that. You also get pay increases at year 2, 3, 4, 6, and every 2 years after, generally a few thousand dollars each year. So a single O-3 at 4 years service with no dependents living in an area with low BAH will be making about 102k/year. If you specialize, say, do 63B comp dent residency, get your retention bonus, and increased specialty pay, you'll be making an extra 50k/year for a 4 year contract. But that doesn't come until after your ADSO is paid off. So if you paid off your ADSO and signed a retention bonus (say at the 6-7 year mark), as a single soldier, you could be making about 160k/year as an O4. If you lived somewhere like Hawaii, you'd be getting way more than that (but also paying more in housing).

As someone else said, after 10 years of service and a good retention bonus, you'll be pushing $200k+.
Didn’t they just trim back the retention bonuses for general dentists and some specialists? At least in the Navy this happened.

Big Hoss
 
Starting pay for O-3 with 1 year of experience when you take into account BAH, BAS, base pay, special pay is ~91K even in an area with low BAH. That's if you're single. If you're married, have kids, or prior service, you'll definitely be making more than that. You also get pay increases at year 2, 3, 4, 6, and every 2 years after, generally a few thousand dollars each year. So a single O-3 at 4 years service with no dependents living in an area with low BAH will be making about 102k/year. If you specialize, say, do 63B comp dent residency, get your retention bonus, and increased specialty pay, you'll be making an extra 50k/year for a 4 year contract. But that doesn't come until after your ADSO is paid off. So if you paid off your ADSO and signed a retention bonus (say at the 6-7 year mark), as a single soldier, you could be making about 160k/year as an O4. If you lived somewhere like Hawaii, you'd be getting way more than that (but also paying more in housing).

As someone else said, after 10 years of service and a good retention bonus, you'll be pushing $200k+.
91k is more than some people would make EOY after loan repayments so technically still come out ahead.

I am happy I didn't do military so far
 
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