I have changed my state of legal residence to Florida according to my LES, though I went active duty from Pennsylvania. My son will be attending college at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Which state will he be able to receive my benefits in?

-- James Colyer

I touched on this briefly in this post but after more questions rolled in about residency I wanted to revisit it.

The new legislation does nothing to change troops’ residency; Unless you filed paperwork to change it while you were in the service, your home state is the same as the day you enlisted. Once you’re out of the service, it’s wherever you settle down to live. If you’re looking at school immediately after your tour, most states would consider pre-service home state as your permanent residence.

All of that is important, because the new GI bill benefits guarantee a free four years of tuition at the most expensive state school in your home state. If you’re a Texas resident and you’re looking at a state school in California, you’ll only be guaranteed the tuition rate for the most expensive in-state Texas school, and charged an out-of-state rate in California.

We posted a list of state benefits estimates here over the weekend, but the living expenses portion of that is flat throughout the country for simplicity’s sake. It will vary widely from expensive areas like northern Virginia to less costly regions like Kansas, but it’s designed to provide a monthly stipend sufficient to cover housing in that region.

One more important note, from my sources – Just because a state has a higher rate of payout does not mean that some veterans will be able to pocket extra cash. The tuition payments are set to go straight to the school, and individuals trying to game the system by switching their state residency (which often takes a year of living and paying taxes in state) won’t actually get any more money for personal spending than they had planned. It could cover more of the state tuition bill, but often that one-year of out-of-state tuition costs more than the following three years of savings combined.

As for James, you're a Florida resident. The Penn State fans may never forgive you.