How was he Broke?

I mean, Time Bomb is far from a perfect movie, and I think the idea had more potential than what it was shown, but during the points from his past it showed he was part of being an Independent Contractor. Now, typically Contractors are Veterans, so therefore he would've received money for his service time, and then afterwards with the daily pay for a contractor ranging from 500-600 a day, how did he manage to come home and be broke. The entire movie the most expensive thing I saw in his life was Alcohol, his sidearm, and his ex wife. She lives pretty decent for her means it seems, he works on the side, so I cant understand how he goes through being a broke ass in a horrible apartment that probably runs him four hundred a month which he used to make in a day.