Military Pay & BAH Question?

I recieved this question via email and decided to answer on here, as I am sure many others could use this information:

Q. Does BAH always come on the first check or the second check of the month? and is there a partial bah if you live on base as well? and if you do live on base do you still get the cola? I am sorry my recruiter doesnt know much lol and this army financial stuff seems pretty difficult to understand...I am watching your videos on your website very very helpful!!:)

A. BAH is split amongst the 2 check that you receive on the 1st & 15th of each month.
Partial BAH depends on where you are stationed at. In some case partial BAH can be given as an incentive. For instance here at Schofield we have some extremely old housing that most people would not want to live in, so housing has decided to reimburse occupants of those houses up to 15% of their BAH back for living in those quarters.

The way it works 99% of the time is that if you live onpost the BAH will show up on your LES but will be taken right back out by housing. In essence you never see the money.

In regards to COLA yes if you live overseas or in a area where the cost of living is exceptionally high you will receive COLA no matter if you live onpost or off.
You can learn more about COLA here.

I hope my answers to your questions will be of assistance to you and feel free to email again if you need more information.