Lost Your Job? Do What Bill Murray Did—Join The Army - Millennial Money with Cliff Mason

BIO

Cliff Mason is the author of Millennial Money. He is the Senior Writer of CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, and has been that program's primary writer, in cooperation with and under the supervision of Jim Cramer, since he began at CNBC as an intern during the summer of 2005. Mason was the author of a column at TheStreet.com during 2007, which he describes as "hilarious, if short-lived." He graduated from Harvard College in 2007. It was at Harvard that Mason learned to multi-task, mastering the art of seeming to pay attention to professors while writing scripts for Mad Money. Mason has co-written two books with Jim Cramer: Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich and Stay Mad For Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). He is 100% responsible for any parts of either book that you did not like. Mason has also had a fruitful relationship with Jim Cramer as his nephew for the last 23 years and will hopefully continue to hold that position for many more as long as he doesn't do anything to get himself kicked out of the family.

MILLENNIAL MONEY RELATED LINKS

LATEST FROM OUR BLOGS

» More

RSS FEED

» Help

Subscribe to this RSS feed
Stay up to date with the Millennial Money blog.

CNBC ON DIGG

Text Size

Dec.05

3:04 PM ET

Friday, 5 Dec 2008

Lost Your Job? Do What Bill Murray Did—Join The Army

Posted By:Cliff Mason

Topics:Defense | Employment

U.S. Army
Photo By: IMCOM Korea Region
Coming off the worst month of job losses in 34 years, it's time to consider your options. The job market is awful. Higher education is pricey. So what should you do if you can't get job or if you get laid off? Ask yourself, what would Bill Murray do? My friends, it's time to join the army.

If you haven't seen the movie "Stripes", you're missing out. The premise is pretty simple: Bill Murray, having lost his job, decides to enlist along with his buddy Harold Ramis, hilarity ensues. It's actually not entirely dissimilar from "Ghostbusters."

But in all seriousness, joining the armed forces now makes a lot more sense than it did a year ago. In this economy, you won't just be serving your country, you'll be serving yourself. With the passage of the 2008 GI Bill, you could get close to $30,000 a year worth of tuition payments, book money, and monthly and yearly living allowances if you're willing to serve three years. That's a great way to pay for college. And if you've already graduated, your student loan payments are deferred while you serve. Check out the potential benefits here.

And if you're trying to get into grad school, think about what an edge having spent some time in the army would give you over other applicants, especially if you've spent some time in Mesopotamia or on Afghanistan's plains. And of course, the fact that Barack Obama wants to pull out of Iraq makes the prospect of signing up a lot less dangerous.

Job Losses Hit 533,000 Last Month, Worst in 34 Years

If that's not enough, you'll also get a solid healthcare plan with dental, thirty days of paid vacation a year (wow!) and the couple friends I have who've joined the army say that boot camp is a wonderful way to get in shape. I'm not trying to be glib about our men and women in uniform, I want to look at something incredibly selfless from a purely selfish perspective. And when you look at it that way, I honestly think that in this tough jobs environment, joining the army is the smart play.

Questions? Comments? Send them to

Tools:

Print Email