<prompt> Human: I didnt understand why a lot of people were acting surprised by my income in some of my posts about budgeting, and I think I have sorted out why this is the case: When most people talk about how much they earn, they talk about their Taxable or Gross income, because that represents the larger number. But for military service members, our taxable income is often LESS than the actual amount of cash money we get after taxes housing allowance, subsistence allowance, travel reimbursements, and combat zone tax exclusion are not considered taxable income. The result of all this is that people in the military, particularly those who commissioned with nothing more than a 4-yr degree, can pull in what is equivalent to a 6-figure gross income in their twenties, with a fast promotion rate and accompanying raises, for what usually averages out to be the same job as a civilian. For example, here is my taxable income vs. my after tax income over the first 5 years of military service:As you can see, the IRS and everyone else treats me as if I make an average of 48kyr, but Im actually making about the same amount of cash as someone who makes about 78k a year. Thats a huge, 63 difference with a promotion raise rate of 6Kyear that most people dont fully appreciate. And that doesnt even factor in the host of other substantial financial benefits like VA loans on houses, free dental, healthcare, and legal representation for the service member and hisher family members, the ability to claim residency in a state with no income tax, and the civilian equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars of graduate education.My point is this:Commissioning in the military is a great freaking deal. Its not easy, but youll develop a lot of valuable personal skills and experience, travel a lot, and be paid better than you probably imagined. Obviously we dont want people volunteering to commission into the military simply because of the pay, but we also dont want potentially awesome and high performing people to avoid the military because it doesnt appear to be competitive with the civilian market.Edit 1: To be clear: Commissioned Military Officers lieutenants, captains, majors, colonels, admirals, generals, etcEdit 2: Removing the 40-hr part. The people have spoken and the consensus is its a misleading number. Also the disparity between perceived salary and actual salary is the same regardless of hours so its distracting from the message.Edit 3: For any young readers who arent getting their college degree simply because of a lack of willpower or motivation, pay careful attention to the comments on this thread from the enlisted members. If something else is preventing you from immediately going into college, make sure to look into prior-E commissioning programs like OCSOTS.  <response>: COMMISSIONED so, officersYeah. Im enlisted. I have zero problem with you guys not getting a yearly uniform allowance. 