 Hey guys and welcome back to AirmanVision. If you're new consider subscribing. Today we talked to Andre Acosta who is a tech sergeant in the Air National Guard as a recruiter and we asked him a bunch of questions about benefits and pay. All right we have tech sergeant Acosta here. I want to just have you kind of introduce yourself as to what you do with the Air National Guard, how people can contact you and then a quick overview of your Air Force career so people can understand a little bit more about you. Yes I'm Andre Acosta. I'm a recruiter for the California Air National Guard. My contact information feel free to text or call 805-415-7269. Again 805-415-7269. A little bit about my career. I've been in the Air Force 18 years now 13 years are active and five years have been in the Air Guard. I've loved the experience. I've gotten assigned in a lot of different locations. My first duty station was in Beale Air Force Base in Northern California. Then I went to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea, then Langley Virginia and Hickam Hawaii and then I transitioned into the Hawaii Air National Guard, then the Wyoming Air National Guard and now the California Air National Guard. I'm originally from Southern California born and raised and this will be my last tour with the Air Force. I got to end it where I started here in California so I'm super happy about that. I just get to give back. Give back to all the people who are in my same position when I was getting started, give information and I really want to thank Amron Vision for allowing us to shed some light and talk about the different opportunities in the Air National Guard. I just want to answer your questions casually, not to be so constricted in a uniform and stuff and just give some gems out and help people out. How long have you been a recruiter for the Air National Guard? Three years. Three? Okay. You said you've been in the Guard for five years total. You did two years in your job and then you ended up getting picked up to become a recruiter. Yes. I did 18 months in contracting. That's a government purchasing job for the Air National Guard and then I started applying throughout the country for a recruiter job. It's like, man, I've always wanted to be a recruiter. Where do they have these full-time AGR, which are active Guard Reserve spots? It's actually a little bit competitive and for good reason because you want to make sure you have the right person. Wyoming was graciously took me on and that's where I started my recruiting experience and my recruiting career. I was a recruiter there for about 18 months. Then the opportunity came for me to come back home and I had to jump on that. Now I've been here the last 18 months. I love recruiting. It's the best job I've had in the Air Force. I've had three jobs. I was an analyst and then contracting and then recruiting. I love them most because it's just so gratifying to help somebody change their life and have a positive impact. That's the best thing for me. That's awesome. All right. Today's video, we're going to be talking about a lot of the benefits that go into being in the Air National Guard and what those opportunities are to possibly better your life or take care of your family where. The first question, probably one of the most asked questions is what is the pay in the Air National Guard? How does pay work? We do have a pay chart that you can reference. It's on the you just look at military pay and then there's a reserve chart and you would look at like E1, E2 or E3 are usually the starting ranks. It's anywhere going to be between those three ranks. The differences between E1, E2 and E3 is going to be based on what job you're selecting or how much college you have under your belt. Pay is going to be based on those ranks. To give an average for a drill weekend, which is that one week in a month, it's about $200 a weekend. $100 a day or $200 a weekend. Okay and that's when you're first starting out. Yep and that's part-time. Now as a full-time member starting out, so like when you go to basic training for example or you're in technical school, which is your job school, those are considered full-time. So you're going to get your base pay, which is your rank driven pay that's taxable income that's approximately $2,000. And then you're if you provide a lease, like you have a credible lease while you're away in that basic training textual, you'll get basic allowance for housing or BAH and that's going to be based on your zip code. So here in Southern California, it's pretty pricey, right? So a lot of our brand new members, once they provide a lease, they're making an additional $2,000 in BAH and that's tax-free. So the cumulative of that $2,000 base pay plus that $2,000 BAH is $4,000. So I know that's a long-winded answer. So if you're only doing drill weekend one weekend a month, it's about $200 a weekend, but when you do go full-time and you're a member of the California Air Guard here in Southern California, you could be making $4,000 a month full-time. Right off the bat. Okay and then as you stay longer, you obviously get paid more based on your rank. So as you promote more, you get paid more. And then does it work the same way? Act of duty, even if you stay the same rank the longer that you stay in, like every two years you would get a raise, even if your rank didn't go up. So it would work the same way with with the guard where it does. So you would get a little bit of a pay bump every two years, even if you stay the same rank. A nice thing too is government work. We do get cost of living allowances. So like last year, we had a 3% increase in pay just because inflation, things like that. So that's really cool being a government employee and getting some of those benefits. Okay. So this next question is on top of how much you do get paid, when do you get paid? So you had mentioned two different things, the active component and then just the one weekend a month, so the part-time. So how often would you get paid in those two scenarios? Yeah. So when you say active, I usually say full-time, just not to confuse people with active duty. But just like, and I'm going to say active duty, but the full-time, first and 15th would be just like active duty, like you and I, when we were both active, you get paid on full-time status first in the 15th. But the unique factor is that drill weekend, right? So when you're working one weekend a month, right? So it usually be about a week or two after that drill weekend. So of course, that drill weekend could be any one of the four weekends in that month. We try not to work Super Bowl weekend of course, but so about a week or two after you'll get that check. And it's nice additional income. Does the Air National Guard offer healthcare? Because healthcare is one reason why a lot of people get specific jobs or stay in jobs is because healthcare is expensive. It's definitely not cheap in the United States. So what are the benefits like with that? If you go just the one weekend a month, right? We're not talking about the active component because it occurred the full-time component. If you go full-time, I'm assuming there's definitely healthcare benefits just like there would be with active duty. But what about that one week in a month? If you're just part-time, do you still get a benefit from healthcare? Yeah. So as a part-time member of the Air National Guard, you get access to TriCare Reserve Select. That's the healthcare plan that we offer. And it's fairly affordable. As an individual member, it's approximately $50 a month. And that's going to change a little bit year to year, but that's why I'm giving you that round number. And then as a family plan, it's $250 a month to cover your whole family. And that's super affordable. We do have a lot of members who stay in just for that. Because that $250 a month for a family, your spouse plus two or three kids, right? On the civilian side, that can easily be like $500, $600, $700 a month depending on your company. Here for my wife right now, just by herself, because I'm covered through the VA, but my wife, right? It's like $480 or $450 a month just for her alone. See that? And so like you said, $250 for a family. So if you got a spouse and two kids, I was like, that's cheaper than it is just for one adult right now in our family. And so yeah, that's definitely a huge benefit. So what would it be like with the active or what would it be like with the full-time status? So if you're full-time, it's going to revert to like active duty, which you and I both know you're paying like an automatic like allotment or excuse me, deduction about $50, but it's so minor. So they'd be fully covered just like they would on active duty when you're on full-time status. Okay. So pretty much you offer the same healthcare as active duty. It's not anything crazily different or unique in that aspect. That's the same thing, but yeah, with the guard aspect of the part-time is you get a benefit and that's honestly like that's a better or cheaper plan than it is working full-time at some other places. So you might even have some people that join the guard just for the healthcare aspect, but then they go and they do contracting where they don't get healthcare through their work or something, where they can make a lot of money, but they don't offer a healthcare plan with that job. If you join the guard, then you just kind of tack on that healthcare benefit right there. That's exactly it. It's nice having that that air guard access to that air guard benefits that's going to complement whatever they're doing in the civilian side, especially times like right now with everything that's going on and instability in the economy in 2021. A lot of people are out of work. So having access to healthcare, super important, especially for your family. This is not a good time to get sick. So the worst case scenario would be if you didn't have healthcare. So having access to affordable healthcare is important. And then the nice thing too, and I'm going on a segue here, but this year has been a great year for the guard, for the National Guard overall in every state. We've been able to have access to a lot of activations to essentially keep our income going and support our state. So whether that's vaccination sites, working at vaccination sites, food distribution sites, or supporting law enforcement and civil unrest. So you got to think about it. We're helping our local community, our states, right? But then also that that air guard member who might have lost their full-time job, right? Now they're because they've been able to ramp up on the air guard side. They keep food on the table. They keep their income going. So it's supplemented as a as a full-time position during those those crises. Yeah, so it keeps you afloat during a recession. Heck, yeah, that's that's really good to know because yeah, definitely just in this last year, 2020 was a crazy year. You know, if your job becomes unstable, you know, you can always look into those opportunities to help with potential either like you've mentioned in another video, TDYs or deployments or like this, you said activations during certain like health crisis that's happened or natural disasters, anything where, you know, they need the military there to help. You can take on that full-time position and and bring in income. Exactly. And you know, being, you know, because you and I were both active duty previously and the the air guard, because we're primarily state first, we're state air force, you get access to state missions that active duty does not. So like doing these things like that I mentioned the vaccination sites, food distribution, supporting the state and their governors, that's going to be state specific. So the National Guard is the ones who are going to have access to those missions. It's almost like, you know, it's like a double bonus where you get to be fulfilled with, you know, almost like a volunteer thing, but you're actually getting paid to do that because like you swore an oath to be able to, you know, have to go and protect these people and protect your community. And so you can volunteer for that spot, but even volunteering, you're going to be getting paid. And so it's like, almost like you're, you're getting to help your community and take care of them. But then like, that's your job is to like help people and take care of them. So it's like, for most people, that'd be super fulfilling to know like, I think most people would probably take jobs if there were more jobs out there that paid to help people in that manner, you know, but like that's a lot of stuff is volunteer basis where, you know, you have to volunteer your time and your energy and resources, but you don't get paid for it versus this is an aspect where you kind of get that reward, but then you also get a paycheck for it too. So it's like, it's a huge reward. Yeah, and you're being, of course, rewarded on the financial side, but also it's very gratifying and just be able to help your local community. I mean, these are the people that are, you know, your neighbors. So that's, that's huge and super rewarding. Another question that our subscribers ask is, do you qualify for a VA loan? They just changed it. So traditionally, let's say prior 2021, right, you need to serve at least 90 days of active duty to get a VA loan or finish your six-year term in the National Guard. Those were the criteria. Fast forward to 2021. They made it that if you get 90 days of activated orders, you don't have to support a deployment. You don't have to support active duty, but just 90 days cumulative to include a lot of the activation that I mentioned before, vaccination sites, you know, food distribution, civil unrest, you get the VA home loan. So you see that those 90 days of just full-time on the guard or complete your six-year term. So basically like within the last three months, like it probably like tens of thousands, people just got their VA loan eligibility. So it's incredible. That's a great opportunity because we, we ended up getting our first home in Las Vegas with the VA home loan and it definitely helps with more of like a streamlined process. And then also you don't have to, well, for one, like you have like a guaranteed income, especially as active duty, but you know, like your finances are a little more stable. So like banks love that, right? They want you to be stable, but then also the fees that it waive is very, very helpful. And then you don't have to pay the extra mortgage insurance that most people pay if you don't have 20% down on your home loan. It waives all of that. So you don't need to have anything down. So it makes getting a home more affordable because some people always worry about, I don't know, I can't afford 20% down on a house. You know, it's like a $200,000 house. That's $40,000 that you need. Yeah. And $200,000 in Southern California is not even a house. That's a garage. Yeah. So out here to save, like the average house is about 500K, like half a million because it's just so expensive out here. So you would need $100,000 down to not pay mortgage insurance, but it's like, yeah, it's not really feasible for a lot of people. So and I got my house. Waves some fees. Yeah, I got my house out here, but without the VA loan, I wouldn't have been able to do it. In fact, all my friends from out here that aren't military, none of them have a house, you know, just because of how expensive it is, but all my military friends do, you know, because of that VA home loan. So that's huge. I always tell people, uh, whenever you have your first housewarming and all your friends see the house and your family, they're like, they're doing all right. You know, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. Yeah, they're doing good things. So one of the benefits of active duty at least, I don't know how this works with the international guard is when you get out of serving or when you finally decide to cut ties with serving, you can qualify for VA disability. How does that even work with the international guard? If you just have served part time, do they have the same requirements to be able to apply for VA disability? Yes, same requirements. You know, you can absolutely still apply for VA disability that whatever you're claiming does has to have happened when you were on orders. As a guard member, you just have to be mindful of, you know, the time you were on orders and then getting whatever issue documented and having that documentation. So we do encourage our members, if they have an issue, you know, and they're on orders, make sure they get that documented and their medical records so they can apply. If you get injured, don't try to just throw some dirt on it and toughen it up or toughen up over it, you know, actually go to the doctor and get it checked out because if you start to have long-term issues from that injury, but you never, you just tried to tough it out, if you never went to the doctor, then there's really no history there or there's no documentation that this even happened to you. So then it might have been happened, you might have had an injury happen because of your service, but if you just tried to be the tough guy, you know, then you get out and you're having issues with it and you're trying to get assistance through the VA and they're like, they can't prove that any of this is even legitimate from when you were in. So that's exactly how active duty works in the same realm of making sure that you actually go and you document, you know, your injuries and stuff like that because you'd have people that would like get a cut or something. And it like sometimes if you get a little nick or something, it's like a band-aid fix it, but some people get cuts and it's like, yeah, you might need stitches. So like, ah, no, I'm fine. I'll just super glue it, right? But then it's like, if that gets infected or if there's any issues or like, you know, or like say there was actually like nerve damage, like you get a cut and they're like, I'll just super glue it, right? But there's nerve damage. And then like, you know, a year later, they start having issues with their nerves. Well, like then if you get out at that point and you try to go to the doctor, like, oh, you have nerve damage, like from this cut, you know, and you're like, oh, but then you try to go back and tell them, you know, the VA, no, no, this happened when I was in. And they're like, we have no documentation of that. Like, we don't, if there's no proof that it happened when you were in, they can't just go, okay, because you said so, I believe you. So guard works the same way on that. Then it's like document. Exactly what I was thinking, man, document, document. That's exactly it. Yeah, because a lot of people, you know, they try to be the tough guy. I'm in the military, you know, I'm, you know, I'm stronger than that. And it's like, yeah, but our bodies deteriorate over time. They're not as strong, you know, over time, our bodies get less and less strong. So at some point you do need assistance because of some issue that happened. But when you were young, you were like, I'm strong enough, I'm tough enough. But it's like, maybe you're not always going to be strong and tough enough. So what happens when those issues start to, you know, affect your life and you didn't want to document when you were there. And those are one of those benefits that we have in the military. Not all professions have those benefits. So I always encourage people, don't be that tough guy, just, you know, think of your future self. You'll probably think, thank yourself in the future and take advantage of it. 40, 50 year old you is going to hate 20 year old you didn't take your ailments seriously. Yeah, just, you know, take advantage of it. The fact that we even have a VA and can claim things. So there you go. So active duty allows you to retire after 20 years of service. How does that work with the guard? If you're working part time, can you just do part time for 20 years and then be like, all right, cool. I'm going to get my pension now. How does that work? So it's good, good question and a popular one. So with the guard or reserve, you don't get your retirement check after 20 years, let's say you do 20 years, you get your check at approximately age 60. I want to say it's like age 57. They change it from, from every couple of years. But so it'd be close to, you know, your retirement age, the designated retirement age is how that works. Now there have been some changes since 2018 with the blended retirement system, where they've enhanced our TSP, our thrift savings plan, which is like a, like a 401K benefit, right? It's like a matching. So I was trying to explain to people because I, you start to confuse who you're like, oh, this TSP thrift savings plan, people are like, what is that? And you're like, it's a 401k for the military. And they're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. There you go. Yeah, exactly. Thank you for, for clarifying that. So we do have 4% matching now. So that's pretty awesome. That wasn't around when I first joined in 2002. So that's, that's a benefit the younger generation will get. And, you know, something to think about, man, when you, when I know you like stats and stuff like that, I do get retirement questions, but most, most people only, you know, don't make it to retirement just because life changes is only 10% of airmen retire, whether that's active duty, guard or reserve. So 90% are going to get out before their retirement eligible from the Air Force overall. We always do after getting out. I was like, 90% of the people that you're at basic with say they're doing 20 years. And when you actually do the 20 years, it's like the 10% that said they weren't going to do 20 years that actually did the 20 and the 90 that said they were are the 90 that get out. Yeah, it's crazy because life changes. You can't, we don't know the future, right? You know, like we all think we're going to live forever and everything, but like just life changes. But with that TSP, that 401k matching, they keep that regardless, like whatever you contribute, you keep that forever. So that I think is phenomenal. That's a more realistic retirement benefit that new enlistees get nowadays. So that's how that goes. I mean, you can also get an active duty style retirement, you just need to do a cumulative of 20 years of full time. Okay. So with you, for instance, you said you're 13 years active, and you've done five in the guard so far. So technically, you have two more years until you hit your 20. But because you didn't, or how many of those years are you going to have as active? Right now, my cumulative active time is 17 years. Are you going to stick it out till 20 of active? Yeah, yeah, I might as well. And I'm having fun. But yeah, what you're leading to is I would get the same style retirement as active duty does now. What happens if the five years that you have as the guard were all just part time in the guard? How would that work when you hit? Yeah, so if I didn't have, let's just say I retired at 20, but five years of it was guard time, you don't get your check until age 57, I want to say, or over 60. And how that breaks down, it's a point spread. So without getting lost in the math here, but you know, because I'm, you know, I can barely do math in public, but essentially, if you were to think of every day as one point, right? So 20 years would be about 7200 points because each year would be 365 points, 3600 every decade, right? So 7200 points over 20 years. So they just do a formula based on how many days you wore the uniform in the guard. And then they break down like a percentage of your base pay, and that's what it will pay out when you're close to age 60. Okay. So in order to get that retirement check right after you retire, like for the rest of your life, that's only offered if it's 20 years of active duty or a full time. So because that was something I've always wondered is, you know, what if you do, you know, 29 years of part time in the guard, like, do you get a paycheck once you like hang up your uniform and retire? But in this case, it doesn't matter how many years of part time you have, you're not going to get that paycheck immediately until that certain age mark. It matters how much full time you had, and you have to hit that 20 year full time threshold. And what I see most people do in the guard because, you know, they might majority of the time is going to be like guardsmen or, you know, part time one weekend a month kind of thing, right? They'll usually, the people who stay in for the long haul, they'll be retiring at age 50, 55. So they're getting close to getting that check anyway, because it's so easy to sustain, you know, and they want to keep those benefits like tri-care reserve select and just why not, you know, they're having fun, they're having a good time. Especially when you're getting older and you start having all those, you know, your joints start squeaking and you need a hip replacement, you know, that having tri-care for the cheap is kind of nice. And of course, like we alluded to prior, building up your VA claim too, right? So a lot of times they'll write it out till they're rarely close to retirement. So the guys who do stick around, they're usually going closer to 30 plus years. So that'll be common. So you'll see some of the older guys still wearing the uniform, which is common in the guard side. But I know in active duty, you turn a lot of heads, you know. Yeah. In the guard, you'll see a lot of guys with like gray, gray hair. We're in a uniform. You're like, what is going on? Grandpa, I get promoted to Sergeant. So a big question is healthcare while you're in, but to roll that into, we just talked about retirement and how the pay works. What about healthcare if you retire? Because active duty, if you do this 20 years, you'll be covered with your healthcare after you retire. But what about if you do guard for 20 years? Is there any healthcare benefit once you retire? Or is that one of the reasons like you said people just kind of stay in because they get that benefit because there's not much of a benefit if you do decide to retire healthcare wise. Yeah. So in that sense, from what I've seen, it's going to be the same. You're going to have the health insurance benefit. And that's why people push to 20, even though they're not getting that check immediately. Yeah. So at the very least, they're pushing to 20, even if they're not getting that check the day after, right? But it'll be for that, the healthcare benefits, you know, access to dental, things like that. And of course, there's the VA benefit, which you and I are both familiar with. But yeah, there's a lot of healthcare benefits that make staying till 20 worthwhile, even if you're not getting that check till you're close to 60. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That was a big question. As people want to know like, you know, is there that benefit of I get out like am I going to be taking care of with my healthcare versus, you know, like some companies you can work for your whole life for. And as soon as you leave, they're like, Oh, no more benefits for you. So that's a benefit of working that part time is if you have one of those jobs that may not offer healthcare after, after you retire with them. But, but if you do the guard that whole time you're in that career and you just work out one weekend a month part time. If you retire from the guard and your career at the same time, you can kind of pull some of those health benefits from that 20 years in the guard. Yeah, you still get you still get that same blue ID card. If you're familiar with it, but the retirement ID card, and of course, you'll have access to the facilities on base and everything like that. So that's a good retirement aspect of it. I think for you, Kyle, man, you got to get McKenna to get you, you get one of those cards too, once she retires. That's what we always talk about. I was like, Oh, it wasn't for me. But if she likes it, which I think like our personalities are totally different, I think she's going to have a great time in the military. We discussed like her going guard possibly after she's always wanting to do active duty. So it's like, all right, let's just do it. And then she's like, I think she's going to benefit a lot from it and like it. So, you know, going guard and then her pulling that 20 might be the, you know, like one of our possibilities. And then like you said, multiple times, it's really flexible in our other interview that we did with you, you know, with like how you pick and choose, how you serve your time or if you got like events going on, you know, the guards a little more flexible with you. And so that's definitely like what we're kind of considering, because we want to start a family at some point, or like man, starting a family and healthcare, like starting a family and paying for healthcare, those things don't really mix too well, you know, it's like the more, yeah, the more kids you have, the more expensive you got to pay for all the health stuff. So we're like, how do we set ourselves up with healthcare? Because that's a major cost in life. And you know, the military is a good way to kind of compensate for that. So I especially, you know, she wanted to do 20 years. She could still, because she's growing at 27, when she'll go to basic. So she could technically retire at 47. And it's like, that's still in she even feels like, oh, I'm getting started late. And you're like, getting started late, you do 20 years. If she likes it, she just sticks out with the guard one weekend a month for, for, you know, she does her six years or four years active duty and 16 in the guard, 16 years of one weekend a month, like really isn't that much of a commitment. And so like compared to like 20 years of active duty, right, right, you know, and so it's like, and they're still getting the benefits. So it's, it's always an option for us to keep in mind. But yeah, it's definitely, it's like a good backup plan almost like the guard is, it's always there for you. Yeah, exactly. It's like, I'm still in. Yeah. I'm still in it, I'm still in it, you know. Are there any other questions you being a recruiter that people bring to you about benefits? We're going to talk about the education benefits in another video, because we have so many questions about college and tuition and going to school while you're serving. So I want to hit all of those in one video, because that's a major topic for people. But other than that, like pretty much for vacation, we didn't really talk about vacation time. But if you're part time, that's not really a big factor. But pay wise and healthcare, retirement, are there any other benefits that you get asked being a recruiter that you can think about top your head that you would want to share or elaborate on? Well, not so much a question, but I think just, you know, this year and 2020, 2021, like has really, I think, emphasized why it's a good idea to go guard or stay guard, because when crisis hits in the economy and recessions happen every decade, so this is going to repeat itself in summer form 10 years from now, you know, having the guard as a backup is huge. Like it's such a great safety net, like, you know, whether that's keeping your income going, you know, which means if you're having a family food on the table, right? Or, you know, having healthcare benefits, you know, it's just keeping everything going. And I used to mention this a lot when I was recruiting, but now I think this year has really proved it, right? Because, you know, 10% of our economy, you know, a lot has been unemployed, right? Because of what's happening and a lot of our guardsmen were able to, you know, even if they lost their full-time job, were able to go on full-time status with the air guard, you know, maybe even make more. And so they were able to sustain their lifestyle, you know, and not be hurt by crisis. So I think that's the biggest thing. It's like protecting, you know, your financial status, your family, right? All of that. Yeah, you said it well, livelihood right there. So that, I think, is profound. And that's, I'm really proud to be a member of the guard because of that, and to see that at this time. It's taking care of its own people, making sure that they're not abandoned or stranded. Yeah, while taking care of others, right? Which is like, we're trying to help our communities at the same time. We also have our own safety net. So that's huge in time of instability. One last thing, if people are interested in this video, maybe convince them to be like, man, I got to join the Air National Guard, especially in California. How can they contact you? Or contact maybe their local recruiter to get more information about the Air National Guard. You can go ahead and drop all that info. Yeah. So if you're interested in joining the California Air Guard, I'll give my work cell 805-415-7269 again, 805-415-7269. Feel free to start with a text or you can call me directly. But if you're not in California, feel free to just look up your state, whatever state that might be, so Florida Air National Guard, you can Google it and meet your, you know, get contact information for your local recruiter or check out goang.com. That's G-O-A-N-G.com for more information.