If an account is in your name only, consider adding your spouse, a trusted friend or other family member so he or she can have access to the money to take care of financial issues that may arise during your absence.

"They should make sure that their military pay is on direct deposit, so that the family has access to the dollars," says Joe Morrin, director of financial planning at First Command Financial Planning in Fort Worth, which does financial planning for military families.

• Update beneficiaries on insurance policies and retirement plans.
• Review your life insurance policy and make sure your coverage matches your family's needs.

The Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program provides policies of up to $250,000 to those on active duty, reservists and others.

For more information, call the Department of Veterans Affairs' Insurance Center at 1-800-669-8477 or check out http://www.insurance.va.gov.

• If no one will be driving your car while you're gone, tell your auto insurance company. You may be able to drop some coverage and save money.

"You're trying to find those changes that could occur as a result of deploying and becoming mobilized, and trying to find ways to reduce the stress financially," Mr. Moon says.

• Keep as much savings as you can. Mr. Moon recommends saving at least six months' worth of salary.

"Six months is about the time you may be deployed if you're a reservist," he says.

When you have to leave your civilian job to report for armed services duty, you may experience a dramatic drop in pay.

"There's a financial change that people need to be aware of if they're in the reserves," Mr. Moon says. "And they need to prepare for that."

The law doesn't require your employer to keep paying you while you're on active duty.

But it does require employers to offer you the same or equivalent employment when you return, Mr. Morrin says.

Many companies will pay a salary differential to someone called to active duty, says Jeanne Glorioso, a certified financial planner at Frost National Bank.

"This would be the difference between their regular salary and military pay, if military pay is less than their normal salary," she says.

• Pay off as much debt as you can before leaving.

However, if you have lingering debt, you may qualify for protection under the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940.

The act was passed by Congress to provide protection for individuals entering or called to active duty in the military. It's intended to postpone or suspend certain civil obligations to enable service members to devote their full attention to duty.

The protection begins on the date you enter active duty and generally ends within 30 to 90 days after the date of discharge.

The act also provides relief from high interest rates.

For example, if prior to entering service, you take out a loan with an interest rate of more than 6 percent, you won't be obligated to pay the interest in excess of 6 percent during any part of military service.

But you're not entirely home free.

You get the protection only if your ability to pay the loan has been "materially affected" by your service in the military.

"If you're a doctor, and you're a sergeant in the reserves and you have to give up your doctor's pay to go to active duty, you're materially affected," Mr. Morrin says.

However, if you're earning $3,000 a month at your civilian job and your military pay and allowances also total $3,000 a month, "you probably have not been materially affected, so you're not granted relief under the act," he says.

The act protects military members from "unfair or adverse credit actions, foreclosures, excessive interest rates," Mr. Morrin says.

Relief under the act "has to be requested and they have to honor it," he says.

For more information on the act, go to http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView?file=Active_Benefits_Relief.htm.

Consumer debt shouldn't be more than 15 percent of your gross monthly income, Mr. Moon says.

"They need to forecast an income which may be lower than their civilian job and salary and think about how to handle the debt with a reduced income," says Lee Montgomery, a First Command agent and representative in Dallas.