According to a recent survey, moving is the third most stressful event in a person’s life, after divorce and death. If you’re a member of the military, you get to experience the stress and hassle of relocating even more often than normal families – an average of once every three years, according to studies. The good news is that our government knows the difficulties posed by military moves, and strives to make them as easy as possible on the service members and families that must undertake them.
If a service member receives a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) order, they have two options for their move: either the government can hire the moving company, in which case everything is financially taken care of and the family need only pack their belongings and wait for the truck to arrive. Or the family can opt for what is known as a DITY move (“Do It Yourself”), wherein the family takes care of all the arrangements and is then reimbursed 95% of what the government would have spent.
For example, if a particular move would have cost the government $3,000, but a family elects for a DITY move, the government will pay the family $2,850 in moving reimbursement, regardless of what the move actually costs the family.
A DITY move can be much less stressful than a government-organized move. The schedule is not as rigid, the family can hire movers with whom they already have a relationship, and their possessions are always with them, rather then carted off in the government trucks. And with the DITY move reimbursement, the cost is defrayed, so if the above move costs them $3,500, they’ll only end up paying $650 out of pocket.
But there is another advantage to a DITY move. If a service member and their family are thrifty, careful in who they hire, and willing to put in a little more effort during the move, they can actually make money from a DITY move. If in the above example the family ends up only spending $2,000 for the move, they can keep the $850 difference from the full DITY move reimbursement. And that makes a DITY move an even more attractive option. Visit here for more information: militaryditymove.com