<prompt> Human: Im using a secondary account because I dont want this affiliated with my primary account. I am currently 18 years old and set out to leave for boot camp in July of next year on the 27th. Ive always been decent with handling my money but I only hold a part time position. When you join the military you start getting paid on your first day of boot camp. I had a friend who recently went through and made a total of 6,000 just for doing boot camp he only got to keep about 2,500 because the military makes you pay for your own equipment. Ive never dealt with an income of money that large yet, I am used to 200-300 bi-weekly not 400-500. I am wondering if anyone has any tips about managing money in the military and how I can make my service pay off in the long run after I retire.  <response>: Youve gotten a lot of good advice already so far so Ill just add this: As soon as you can login to MyPay and set your TSP to at least ten percent base pay. Pretend like its money you dont get. You can rearrange the money on TSP.GOV but you set up the deduction through MyPay. 