Before You Deploy: The Money Checklist I Wish I'd Had

In 2012 I deployed to Afghanistan with the Guard. I was 23, and counting pre-mobilization I was gone for about a year.

I got some of the money side right. I handled my own bills from over there, and my mom was my backup if something happened to me. I paused my phone plan and my car insurance before I left. I sent money home to help my mom with her bills, since I was still living with her, and to support my son's mom, who's now my wife.

What I didn't do was make that year's pay work for me. I wish I'd opened a high-yield savings account, an investment account, and a Roth IRA before I left. Deployment is one of the best money windows you'll ever get, and I spent it just getting by.

Here's the checklist I'd hand my 23-year-old self. It covers the basics, the legal protections most people half-know about, and the part I missed.

1. Pick your backup person, and give them the power to act

Someone at home needs to be able to handle your money if a bill goes wrong or something happens to you. For me that was my mom.

Being the backup and being able to act are different things, though. A bank or a landlord won't talk to your mom just because you trust her. That's what a power of attorney is for. Your installation's Legal Assistance Office can draft one for free, along with a will. Ask them which kind fits: a specific power of attorney for a single task, or a general one that covers everything.

While you're there, check your beneficiaries. Your SGLI and your TSP go to whoever is named on the forms, not whoever is named in your will. Money and Kids on a Military Paycheck walks through both forms.

2. Cut the bills you won't use

I paused my phone and my car insurance. Some of this you can do by law, and some of it you have to ask for.

What the law covers. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) lets you cancel certain contracts with no early-termination fee when you get orders:

• A car lease, under certain conditions, including deployment orders
• An apartment lease
• A cell phone contract, if your orders move you for 90 days or more to a place your plan can't serve

You send the company a written notice and a copy of your orders.

What you have to ask for. No law pauses your car insurance. Many insurers will lower or pause your coverage while the car sits in storage, but that's their policy, so call and ask. The same goes for gym memberships, streaming, and anything else you won't use for a year.

3. Put the SCRA rate cap to work

This is the one people get half right. I knew about it, but it's easy to think your interest rates just drop when you deploy. They don't.

The SCRA caps interest at 6% on debt you took on before active duty: credit cards, car loans, some student loans, and mortgages. Guard and Reserve are covered when you're on federal active-duty orders. It isn't automatic. You send each creditor a written request and a copy of your orders, and you can do it any time up to 180 days after you're released. Debt you take on after you're on orders isn't covered.

If you're carrying a 22% credit card into a deployment, that one letter is worth real money.

4. Lock down your credit

Nobody should be opening accounts in your name while you're gone. Place a free active duty fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion), and it tells the other two. It lasts a year, and you can renew it for the rest of your deployment. Active duty and Guard members also get free electronic credit monitoring from all three bureaus.

5. Protect your job and your school

My job at the hospital held a spot for me, and that wasn't a favor. It's the law, and it still is.

Your job. USERRA covers every employer, public or private, no matter how small. When you come back, you get the job you would have had if you'd never left, or the closest thing to it. After a deployment of more than 180 days, you have 90 days to apply to go back. Tell your employer before you go.

Your pay. No law makes a private employer pay you while you're gone. Federal employees get a "reservist differential" that makes up the gap between their civilian pay and their military pay. Some states and private companies do the same voluntarily, so ask HR.

Your school. I just didn't sign up for classes that year. What I didn't know is that schools that take federal student aid have to readmit you after 30 or more days of service, with the same academic standing. For your first year back, tuition stays what it was when you left. Tell the school before you go, and let them know you're coming back within 3 years of finishing your service.

6. Guard and Reserve: sort out health care for your family

When you're on orders for more than 30 days, you and your family are covered by TRICARE as an active-duty family. Your spouse and kids have to be registered in DEERS, so check that before you go. When you get home, TAMP keeps you covered for another 180 days.

7. Make the deployment pay work for you

This is the part I'd do over.

Combat pay is tax-free. If you're enlisted, all your military pay for any month you're in a combat zone is excluded from federal income tax, and even one day in the zone counts for the whole month. I knew that part. I didn't use it well.

The Savings Deposit Program. I didn't know about this one, and it's the one that stings. If you're deployed to a combat zone and drawing hostile fire or imminent danger pay, the SDP pays 10% interest on up to $10,000. It keeps paying for 90 days after you get home. You set it up through your finance office, by allotment or a deposit.

A Roth IRA, funded with tax-free pay. Here's the move I missed completely. Combat pay counts as income for a Roth IRA even though it isn't taxed. That means you can put tax-free pay into an account that grows tax-free. It's about as good as a deal gets in retirement saving. If you're weighing the Roth side of your TSP too, start with Roth TSP vs. Traditional TSP.

A high-yield savings account for when you land. Coming home with a year of pay and nothing planned for it is how deployment money disappears. Park it somewhere it earns interest, give it a job before you land, and automate the rest. Automate the Money You Don't Trust Yourself to Move shows how.

The checklist

• Pick a backup person and get a power of attorney (free at Legal Assistance)
• Get a will and check your SGLI and TSP beneficiaries
• Cancel or pause what you won't use: leases and phone under the SCRA, insurance and memberships by asking
• Send SCRA 6% letters, with orders, for every pre-service debt
• Place an active duty fraud alert
• Tell your employer (USERRA) and your school (readmission)
• Guard/Reserve: confirm your family is in DEERS
• Set up the SDP allotment once you're in theater
• Open a Roth IRA and fund it from combat pay
• Open a high-yield savings account for the money you'll come home with

I got the bills paid and took care of my family, and I'm proud of that. If you're about to deploy, do that and make the money grow too.

This checklist builds on the work of others worth reading in full: Military.com's five-step pre-deployment checklist, the Army's Financial Frontline resources, and Schwab MoneyWise's pre-deployment checklist.

Sources: Military OneSource, SCRA; CFPB, SCRA and MLA protections; U.S. Department of Labor, USERRA; OPM, reservist differential; 34 CFR 668.18, readmission for service members; Military OneSource, active duty fraud alert; TRICARE, when activated and TAMP; IRS combat zone tax exclusion and Publication 590-A; Military OneSource, Savings Deposit Program; checked September 2026.

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Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. The information provided here is for educational purposes only and should be verified independently. See the full Disclaimer.