Compare military pay and LES deductions with recurring housing, transportation, and household expenses.
Reviewed September 8, 2026
Gross cash pay combines basic pay and enabled allowances. The amount available for bills is lower after taxes, FICA, insurance, TSP, other deductions, and allotments.
Starting from net-after-LES avoids promising the same dollars to both payroll deductions and household expenses.
Annual insurance, registration, maintenance, travel, and subscription costs should be divided into monthly amounts when they are predictable. The calculator accepts recurring monthly values, so timing assumptions should be documented outside the money overview when necessary.
Use recent statements instead of ideal targets for the first pass. A second scenario can then show the effect of planned reductions.
BAH is income when received; rent, utilities, internet, and renters insurance are expenses. The BAH pocket metric compares housing allowance with entered housing costs without hiding either side.
Turning BAH off leaves housing costs intact. Turning BAS off leaves food costs intact. This prevents an entitlement switch from erasing real obligations.
The money overview combines gross pay, net-after-LES cash, deductions, expenses, BAH position, TSP, warnings, and leftover cash in one monthly view.
A negative result means the entered monthly outflows exceed the calculated cash available. Reconcile the inputs against a current LES and recurring bills before relying on the result.
The readiness score summarizes several conditions but cannot explain monthly cash flow by itself. Focus on surplus, shortfalls, duplicated entries, missing deductions, and the assumptions that changed between scenarios.
Recalculate the overview after promotion, permanent change of station, allowance change, tax election, vehicle purchase, lease renewal, or any new recurring allotment.
This example uses invented monthly totals to explain the arithmetic. The numbers are not a pay table, entitlement determination, or suggested budget. Replace every amount with your own current records.
Suppose gross cash pay is $5,200, payroll deductions total $1,000, and allotments total $300. Net cash before household bills is $5,200 minus $1,000 minus $300, or $3,900. With $3,200 of household expenses not already deducted from pay, the monthly surplus is $700.
If the $1,000 of payroll deductions already includes a $200 member TSP contribution, do not also enter that contribution as a household expense. Likewise, if the $300 allotment pays a car loan, entering that same $300 again under car payment would understate available cash by $300. Identify where each payment leaves your money and include it once.
Keep the first example as a baseline. A $150 monthly rent increase reduces its $700 surplus to $550, assuming every other income and expense stays the same. A separate $1,200 annual bill adds a $100 monthly planning amount, reducing that result to $450.
The $100 planning amount smooths the annual cost for comparison; it does not move the actual due date or prove that cash will be available when the bill arrives. Keep the due date and accumulated balance with your own records. The calculator models monthly totals, not daily bank balances.
Use the report download to retain each scenario and identify exactly what changed. A positive monthly result can still omit a bill, contain a stale allowance, or conceal an expense already paid through an allotment.
First compare basic pay and each enabled allowance separately with the LES; do not start by trying to force the final total to match. Next replace estimated withholding with the applicable monthly LES lines. Then account for insurance, member TSP, other deductions, and allotments once.
If housing income looks low, confirm that the BAH lookup finished and that duty ZIP, grade, dependent status, and the allowance switch match the scenario. If cash outflow looks high, look for a bill entered both as an allotment and a household expense. If a tax line differs, check the estimate-versus-override setting before changing unrelated inputs.
Resolve warnings and label any remaining estimates. For a possible site error, use Contact and Corrections with a made-up example and a public source link. Do not send an LES, Social Security number, account number, or other identifying record.