New to the Marines! Confused About Paperwork and Specifics

[ams.201220]

Hi LFAD Community!

I'm new to the site, so I thought this would be a great first topic. My boyfriend is going into the Marines, in the Summer of 2013. We're engaged, but he's going to Boot Camp in California. The good news is that he's entering the Marines for repair, rather than for the actual fighting. And when he talked to his recruiter, his recruiter told him that because he's going in for repair, he's probably going to get his first choice base. So he's trying to get based near me, in Virginia, but he would still be a few states away from Pennsylvania. That's not the problem, however.

I've been doing research because I want to know exactly what I'm getting myself into. I'm not going to live on base, for one, because I'm in college at West Chester University and if he does get stationed in Virginia, I can just do my Masters at WCU. But there's a lot of things that have to do with spouses in the Marines, and everything just confuses me.

All I know, for sure, is that we're going to have a joint bank account, in which we both put some funds in every month. Both we're both going to have separate accounts and one joint account. Apart from that tid bit of information, I'm confused on the following subjects:
1. LES
2. BAH
3. W-2

Also, we were talking about whether it's better to get married in February, or wait until after he's been in the marines for a few years. So if anyone has any thoughts on that, it would be much appreciated!

[Jgui]

One think i'll have to say is NEVER TAKE WHAT A RECRUITER SAY AS WRITTEN IN STONE! They will say anything and everything to get people to sign on the dotted lines. If the recruiter is telling him something make sure it's written in the contract also. Yes, all recruits write down bases and/or locations they wish to be station in, but at the end of the day YOU GO WHERE THE MARINE NEEDS YOU.

From what i've heard, being married being he PCS means the military will move your stuff on military's dime because you're his dependent. But you might want to look more into that because i am not 100% sure. I don't believe it's required to have a joint account, but it's recommended he puts you as Power of Attorney (POA) on his accounts in case he gets deployed or goes away for training and bills needs to be pay.

1) LES = Leave and Earning Statement, I think this means civilian's PTO. Military personnel gets 30 days of leave per year.

2)BAH = Basic Housing Allowance, this is a monthly pay to Marines who lives off base to spend on rent. Keep in mind newly enlisted (ranks E1-E4) don't qualify to live off base unless they're married. So if you're planning on living with him after basic you guys have to be married in order for him to do so.

3)W-2 = unless the military categorizes this as something else, but this is the form people get at the end of the year to file for taxes. It basically shows how much a person earned throughout the year, how much state and federal income tax was withheld.

Hope this is helpful and I'd double check on certain things. I'm a AF wife to be and still learning

[ams.201220]

Thank you so much! This was really helpful! Sorry, it took so long to reply back!