By Brandon Koll | Last Updated 8/17/2025
You’re 18 years old and you are getting ready to go to college. Maybe you don’t know what you want to do. Maybe you will have to take out a student loan to go to school. If you qualify, serving your country may be just what you need at this time. I was once in that spot and that is exactly what I did, and it has been a great experience. Let’s look at some of the benefits of joining the military.
Getting out of your hometown bubble
A lot of kids spend their entire life in the same hometown. To me there is a huge benefit to seeing somewhere else. At least then you can make some comparisons to figure out where you want to live. Most times you will want to move back home to be close to family but seeing some more of America or possibly the world is a great thing for a kid just out of high school. When you join the military, there is no telling where they send you. You may get the chance to go to another country and pick up a new language and learn about another culture. No matter where they send you it will be a learning experience.
Learning a skill to fall back on
In addition to the experiences, when you join the military, you get to choose a job from a pretty large selection. When I joined the Army, I was able to sign up to be a helicopter mechanic. Then I got out after 6 years and ended up joining the Air Force over a year later. At that time I signed up to work in an IT position. Both times I was able to learn a valuable skill that I could use outside of the military. If at some point, you decide that college is not for you, having a skill to fall back on is very beneficial.
Free college while you are in
Now let’s look at college being the main plan, but you will need to take out a bunch of student loan debt to make it happen. How about slowing down for a little bit and joining the military. After you join, your first year might be spoken for, but after that you can start attending college. Usually, you will go in the evening or on-line to start knocking out courses. The good thing about this is the military has 100% tuition assistance for a lot of colleges. As you’re fulfilling your required time, you are also knocking out some college and moving towards your degree or goal. Maybe you will be able to knock out a year or two of college while you are serving your time and then you can get out and keep going.
GI Bill for when you are out
If you know exactly what degree you want to get, but don’t want to save up forever or go into a lot of debt to get it, that is where the GI Bill comes in. When you leave the military, you will have the GI Bill that you can use for up to 36 months of college. It will cover your tuition at a lot of schools and give you a housing allowance on top of it. This could be the key for you to finish up your degree without the typical student loans that everyone seems to be having trouble with nowadays.
GI Bill for your kids
If you don’t choose to use your GI Bill and are married or have kids, you can transfer the GI Bill to them. What a great deal! I have a daughter using my GI Bill right now and she loves it. There are some timelines and rules involved, but it is not super complicated and a great deal. In addition to the college support provided by the military there is a lot of other training that you will receive over the years.
Leadership training
Throughout my time in the military, they were always giving me opportunities to lead something or a group of people. In addition to that, there were lots of leadership classes and on-line courses that you could take or had to take in some situations. They really make sure you are prepared to lead at all levels. On top of the leadership training there were many other courses on various topics to attend. Basically, you were always learning something. One week you are learning how to drive a forklift, and the next you were learning how to rappel out of a helicopter.
Serve for 20 years and get a retirement
Some people join the military to take advantage of some of the benefits that we’ve discussed and realize they kind of like it. Then they end up staying in for the full 20 years to qualify for retirement. I was one of those individuals and I would highly recommend it. There were some tough times and some things that I hated about it, but looking back it was one of the best decisions of my life.
Finance Hack – Join the miliary to take care of college costs and learn a job skill.
If you qualify and are not ready for college, or can’t afford it, I highly recommend that you join the military and get some great life experience. It is not always easy, but the benefits outweigh the hardships by far. Either way, I wish you the best of luck!
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