frooglepoodle - book just ordered for them and on its way. Love Nord's posts, but missed that there is a book - greatly appreciate your suggestion.
Thanks for buying the book-- all royalties go to military-friendly charities!
I have a couple of additional bits of advice. First, when he's in the combat zone, he's eligible to donate not just $18K to the Roth TSP but also another $35K to the traditional TSP for a grand total of $53K in 2016. If he gets really competitive then when 1 January 2017 rolls around he can contribute yet another $18K to the Roth TSP and yet another $35K to the traditional TSP.
I realize that not everyone can donate $106K to their retirement accounts within a nine-month period, but I'd borrow money to pay my living expenses if I could make all of my compensation tax-free and put it into the TSP.
However the day after he leaves the combat zone then the TSP limits revert to the strict $18K. If he's already contributed more than that in 2016 or 2017 then the pay people (DFAS) and the TSP will cut him off.
Second, if I understand you correctly, he's mobilizing for active duty. In that case the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act provisions kick in for any debts incurred prior to mobilization. This means he can have the interest on all of those debts reduced to 6%. (Especially private student loans and credit-card debt.) If he's renting an apartment then he can break the lease with no penalty (but he has to follow the provisions of the SCRA's federal law in order to override the state/local laws). He can cancel a cell phone contract if he wants, and again no penalty.
Some credit-card companies have jumped on the patriotism bandwagon and started implementing the SCRA provisions even when SCRA does not technically apply. It's not that the companies don't understand the SCRA, and he wouldn't be misleading them. It's just their way of thanking him for his service while getting some great publicity. Here's more details on the card companies and their rebates:
http://the-military-guide.com/credit-card-companies-support-scra/Other unsolicited advice: care packages may have different contents depending on his service and his location. A Navy deployment on a submarine is much different than a Marine's special ops tasking, and the Air Force is generally a whole 'nother habitability world. Letters are always good but let him tell you what he wants in the care package.
If mail and bandwidth are a concern, check out Sandboxx. (
https://www.sandboxx.us/-- note that's .us, not the usual domain.) You pay a couple bucks for a smartphone app that turns your electronic text/photos into a paper letter sent through the U.S. mail to an FPO/APO address. It saves you a lot of stamp/address hassle while making it painless for him to reply (on paper) when he doesn't have his own bandwidth. I know the founder (a Marine veteran) and he's a good guy with a great startup.