The GI Bill is one of the most valuable benefits that most veterans are able to take with them when they leave military service and transition into civilian life. The value of a college education vs. not having a college education can be well over a million dollars throughout the course of a lifetime. Using the GI Bill to pay for your education, or reduce the number of student loans you need to pay your tuition can make your investment a lot more valuable.

If you are eligible for the GI Bill, here are some things you need to know:

You have 10 years to use your GI Bill benefits

The day after you separate from the US Armed services, the clock starts. From that day, you have 10 years to use all of your GI Bill benefits – or you lose them forever. There are a few exceptions to this rule, most notably if you rejoin Active Duty status. If you rejoin AD service for more than 90 days at any time during the 10- year period, your 10-year clock is reset. This most often comes into play when Veterans transfer into the Guard or Reserves and are activated for more than 90 days. At that point, your GI Bill is reset to 10 years; even if you only had a few months remaining. Sweet deal! Remember – 10 years after your last discharge from AD and it’s gone. So use it or lose it!

The GI Bill is not considered Federal Student Aid

The GI Bill is intended to be used for tuition and college expenses, but it is paid directly to the student, not the school. Because of this, the GI Bill is not considered Federal Student Aid in the traditional sense. Many college and university financial aid departments may require you to sign an agreement to use your GI Bill funds for tuition costs, or require you to apply for student loans to pay tuition and fees in advance. What you do with your GI Bill payments is actually up to you. Hopefully you will use it to pay your tuition and fees.

There are benefits to the GI Bill not being considered Federal Student Aid. In addition to receiving the GI Bill, you may be eligible for student loans, scholarships, Pell Grants, employer tuition assistance, and other grants or student financial aid.

Search GI Bill Schools: You can use this GI Bill School search tool to help find available programs where you can use your GI Bill.

A “term” is a month, but that doesn’t always mean a month

The GI Bill provides 36 months of education benefits. This can be measured in two different manners. For veterans, this means receiving 36 months at the maximum payment rate (currently $1,101 per month). To calculate the number of months when receiving your entitlement, divide the total amount you receive by the monthly payment rate. For example, if you receive a check from the VA for $5,505 and divide it by the max rate of $1,101, you will be charged for 5 months time against your GI Bill benefits.

GI Bill terms are calculated slightly differently for those on Active Duty. If you use your MGIB while on AD and you go to school full-time, you will be charged the number of months you attended school, regardless of how much the tuition cost. In this example a “month” actually does mean a month. The best way to use your GI Bill on AD is to use your service’s tuition assistance program and use your GI Bill as tuition assistance “top-up” if your tuition costs exceed your tuition assistance level.

GI Bill rates are based on the number of credits you take

GI Bill payment rates are prorated based on the number of credits you take. Full time students receive up to $1101 a month (FY ’08 rates), and rates are prorated downward from there. Payments can be broken down into full-time, ¾ time, ½ time, etc. A full rate schedule can be found at the VA’s GI Bill rate page.

It is important to recognize that if you do not receive full time MGIB payments, you will not be charged a full month of credits against your MGIB eligibility. As noted above, your GI Bill credits will be charged based on the total payments received, divided by the full time rates. So if you only take half time courses, you will only be charged half a month from your GI Bill eligibility.

You do not have to use the GI Bill all at once

You have a 10 year window of opportunity to use the MGIB. The GI Bill has 36 months of eligibility, but that does not mean you are required to use it all at once. In fact, you can start and stop your MGIB benefits as often as you wish, provided you do not exceed the 36 months of eligibility, or the 10 year window.

For more information

Be sure to visit the VA’s Montgomery GI Bill page, or contact your local VA office. Whatever you do, don’t pay someone to help you get the GI Bill information you need. It is all out there and available free of charge!

Military veterans have a plethora of educational benefits available to them. Often times, you just need to know where to look to find the information (and money!) you need. Here are some of the options available to you:

Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB)

The 2008 GI Bill rates go into effect on October 1, 2007. The new rate is $1,101 per month, which makes veterans eligible to receive up to a total of $39,636. That’s not bad for buying into the GI Bill for only $1200!

The new rates are an increase from last year’s rate of $1,075. While the new rates do not reflect a substantial increase from last year’s rates, every raise is helpful to college students receiving the GI Bill.

Earn up to an additional $150/month on top of your GI Bill payment

There is another way to receive a larger GI Bill benefit. Eligible active-duty service members can pay into the GI Bill Buy-Up program (also known as the GI Bill Kicker Program), which will provide the service member up to an additional $150/month added to their standard MGIB pay rate. This can potentially increase the total GI Bill benefits by up to $5,400.

To receive this additional money, you must make additional payments into your GI Bill. To receive the maximum of an additional $150 per month, you must pay a total of an additional $600 into your GI Bill. However, you can add money in increments of anywhere from $20-600. Divide the additional amount you add to your GI Bill by 4 and this will be the extra amount you will receive in your MGIB payments every month. If you pay the maximum of $600, you will break even after only 4 months of receiving the full GI Bill benefits. For more information, contact your educational office.

MGIB Eligibility

If you are unsure whether or not you are eligible for the GI Bill, you can check your eligibility at the VA GI Bill eligibility website.

Additional Veterans Educational Benefits

You may be eligible for additional educational benefits. One of the best sources to find out what your state offers is through your state’s website or from Military.com’s State Veterans educational benefits guide.

Private Scholarships

There are many private scholarships available to veterans. There is no way for me to list them all, but you should be able to find out about many of them by contacting your school’s financial aid office. Many schools also offer their own scholarships for veterans. Again, check with your school’s financial aid office for more information. And remember, if a company requests a payment as part of a scholarship application, it’s most likely a scam! Stay away!

Good luck in finding the funds you need to pay for your school. You’ve earned it!

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) recently introduced the GI Bill For Life Act, which would eliminate the expiration date for veterans to use their Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) benefits. A similar piece of legislation is set to be proposed to the House by House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA). Currently, eligible veterans have 10 years from their separation date to use their MGIB benefits – or they expire.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, about 30% of all eligible veterans do not use any of their GI Bill benefits before the 10 year expiration date. A great portion of those who use some of their MGIB benefits are not able to use their entire benefits before they expire.

I think this piece of legislation would be heartily embraced by veterans everywhere. Military members pay $1200 to buy into the GI Bill, then they have a time limit in which to use the benefits they paid for.

The original intent of the GI Bill was to provide military veterans a means to obtain an education outside of their military training. While it is still possible to use your GI Bill benefits, it is much more difficult now for many people to go to school directly after separating from the military. Many people have bills to pay and families to feed and full-time school is just not feasible for many. Removing the expiration date from benefits will allow many people to provide for themselves and their families, then go to school when it is either better or easier for them to do so.

This could just be more political posturing, but I think it would be nice to see this go through.

Source: Military.com – Congress Seeks to Eliminate GI Bill Time Limit.