- My name is Kevin Lomibao
I'm from Palmdale, California.
I was a forestry technician,
And I'm also in The National Guard.
In the forest service,
I'm a Wildland firefighter.
It was one of the best jobs I ever had.
The military helped me prioritize myself
in what I really wanted.
And what I had set up to do.
The military did support me for a career in paramedicine
by taking my EMT license
but they did not put me through paramedic school.
The paramedic school itself is pretty pricey.
This particular good school that I went to is UCLA.
I ultimately decided to utilize the GI Bill.
And I think GI Bill is a great resource to use
even for individuals that are in the national park.
My ultimate goal is to get a degree, a bachelor's degree
in Homeland Security and Emergency Management,
but my issue is paying for it.
I have the option of using my GI Bill,
taking out a student loan
or using my own personal finances to pay for college.
And I was wondering provided by these
what option I should choose.
(coin flip)
- Hey Kevin.
I'm Jean Chatzky.
I am the CEO of hermoney.com
and I'm a financial expert.
And what I want to say to you first off
is thank you for your service.
You've got this wonderful GI Bill.
The question is when do you use it?
Do you use it to pay for this paramedic school
or do you use it to pay for the other programs
that you have coming down the pike?
It's hard to answer that question without knowing the cost
of all of those programs.
With the GI Bill, you have up to 36 months of benefits
worth up to about $2,000 a month
plus a little housing support,
plus a little support for books and other materials,
and you can split those up.
So if it only takes you six months or so
to earn the degree in your first program,
then you've got many months that you can use down the road
to apply for another degree.
The only thing that they won't pay for
is for you to take the same course twice.
Figure out not only what are you looking at right now,
but what are you looking at in educational costs
for college, for graduate school,
and then weigh how likely it is
that you're going to go through with those programs.
If you think that you may be very happy as a paramedic,
and this may be the career move for you,
then use part of your GI Bill now
and save some for later, if, and when you need it.
If you think that you are absolutely,
only doing this for the short-term,
it may be wiser to save more of that benefit for later
and pay for this out-of-pocket.
What I want you to do to double-check all of this
is to go back to your military base.
Talk to one of the education counselors there
about how to make the best use of this GI Bill.
This is something that they deal with every single day,
and I know that they will help set you
on perfect path for your future.
You are looking at a lot of exciting things in your life,
and we want to make sure that you do it
in the most financially responsible
and financially valuable way to you.
(coin flip)