Hello everybody! I’m writing to you from the Time of Corona, Scary Stock Market, and Fears of a Recession. Some of you are in isolation and may have a lot more free time lately. Others are taking care of your children much more than normal and probably feeling pretty appreciative of teachers right now. Some of you may be like me, continuing to work full time at my squadron while also dealing with All Of This. What a year the last few weeks have been, eh? I know that people are worried and unsure about what the future holds. I know that worry can lead people to make bad decisions. I’m not here ..read more

This week, I mentioned on a Facebook post that Traditional retirements accounts are often a great choice even though most people recommend Roth. The person I was speaking to asked me to follow up with why Traditional could be better. Today’s Social Media Saturday is my answer to that question. With Social Media Saturday posts, I basically copy everything exactly as I originally wrote it other than formatting. Because of that, you may be left wondering about something not covered in the post that may have been covered in the original discussion. If that’s the case, leave a comment or ask me for ..read more

Another year nearly done. Time to plan for 2020! Today I’m providing you a 2020 Financial Plan downloadable, printable PDF. This will help you set financial goals and intent for 2020. Writing out those goals can help you stay on track through whatever 2020 brings your way, financially.   The 2020 Financial Plan PDF Budgeting is obviously important, but it isn’t the only thing you need to do to have your finances on track. Budgets usually have a short timeframe – typically a month. You also should be looking longer term. This 2020 Financial Plan worksheet will help you plan out your finan ..read more

It’s the day before Thanksgiving in the US, so I thought it’d be a good idea to show some thanks. Here are some of the financial things I’m thankful for. Retirement Plans Every dollar I put into the Traditional side of the Thrift Savings Plan is currently saving me 24 cents in taxes. Every dollar I put into my Roth IRA and Roth TSP turns into more dollars that will be tax free when I take withdrawals in retirement. That is awesome. But there’s more! Because of the way those accounts are set up, I can’t just take the money out whenever I want to spend a little extra on Chipotle burritos. Retir ..read more

Well well well. The Air Force has finally debuted the long-awaited (by me and not many others) financial readiness training. And who do you think was one of the first to sign up? You guessed it. Yours truly. I’ve been waiting for 15 November to arrive so I could see just how good this financial readiness training was. Was it going to be broadly applicable? Too basic, or too advanced? Something more useful than “open TSP and USAA accounts, and make sure you don’t take out a car loan at 32% interest”? Well, I intended to find out. Last Friday I signed up for the new financial readiness training ..read more

Today I’m bringing you a guest post from my friend Stephanie who is going to talk about flying Space-A after retirement. Stephanie Montague is the founder of Poppin’ Smoke, a website designed to encourage members of the military community to use their military benefits to travel. Stephanie and her husband have been traveling and living abroad since he retired from the Army in 2015. How Military Space-A Flights Help You Travel on FIRE Many people on the path to FIRE have travel on their agenda when they reach financial independence. Whether they plan to be fully retired or start their own (lo ..read more

Today I’m bringing you a guest post from a fellow military member who is building his real estate empire. David is an active-duty Marine who devotes his free time to teaching service members and veterans how to build wealth through real estate investing, entrepreneurship, and personal finance. He blogs at https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/military-millionaire/. David is here to talk about how he builds a real estate team and system to simplify real estate investing. I’ve talked a little bit before about being a landlord, but this is by no means my area of expertise. So let’s hear from ..read more

Hey folks, I’m backkkkkkkk! I know it’s been quite some time since I posted on the blog. Between work, leave, and life it has just been difficult to knock out posts. But those of you who follow me on social media know I’m around a lot! I just haven’t created blog posts I have still been talking to readers, though. And today I decided I’m going to take one of the reader questions I received, and my answer to it, and turn it into a post. Why? Because it’s a very important topic for a lot of people in the military. Notably, it’s important for everybody who was eligible for the Blended Retir ..read more

Today I’ve got a guest post for you on a topic you don’t see discussed much online – dual military couples. Matthew, a fellow blogger and one half of a dual-mil USMC enlisted couple, is going to talk about the financial benefits of their situation. I gotta say – I knew it could be beneficial, but when you see these numbers…WOW! They are really taking advantage of their situation and using it to propel their way to financial freedom! Take it away, Matthew! Hi! I’m Matthew, the owner and author of FourWallsofFIRE.com. Four Walls is a blog with a focus on financial independence and early retire ..read more

  Today I’m going to talk about the Veteran’s Administration’s Tuition Assistance Top-Up program. This program can help you cover the cost of tuition if Tuition Assistance alone doesn’t fully cover costs. That means the Top-Up program can help you save money while earning your degree, when you may need it most. As with unfortunately too many things related to military personal finance, finding information online is surprisingly difficult. If I had to write this post based entirely on what I found online, it wouldn’t be very useful. Luckily several people volunteered to share their own ex ..read more