10 Best Benefits for Military Members and Their Families

Service members face a range of threats – from the lethal to the financial. An array of military benefits and programs are meant to offset some of the risk for them, their spouses and their families.

service member with child
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Members of the military have a lot of special financial challenges that most people don’t encounter. However, they have access to many benefits, tax breaks and legal protections.

Here are 10 of the best military benefits available to service members and how to make the most of them to improve your family’s financial future. The co-authors of this piece, Lisa Gerstner and Kim Lankford, have direct experience: Lisa’s husband is an Air National Guard instructor pilot who has flown more than 200 combat missions and Kim’s husband was an Army doctor for decades who deployed three times. Many of these resources and benefits have helped their families significantly over the years.

Lisa Gerstner
Editor, Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine

Lisa has been the editor of Kiplinger Personal Finance since June 2023. Previously, she spent more than a decade reporting and writing for the magazine on a variety of topics, including credit, banking and retirement. She has shared her expertise as a guest on the Today Show, CNN, Fox, NPR, Cheddar and many other media outlets around the nation. Lisa graduated from Ball State University and received the school’s “Graduate of the Last Decade” award in 2014. A military spouse, she has moved around the U.S. and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two sons.