Continuation Pay is probably the least understood benefit within the Blended Retirement System (BRS). Many service members don’t know what Continuation Pay is, miss the cutoff to request the bonus, or are downright confused about how Continuation Pay works. It’s not surprising because it’s really difficult to find any single place to understand the program and there are all kinds of guesses and rumors out there. I hope to help alleviate some confusion, debunk some myths, and give you a great baseline understanding of what Continuation Pay is, how it works, and how to create a strategy to take ..read more

One of the most common questions I get asked is how much you should be saving for retirement. Once people start thinking about their finances and understand they should be saving for retirement, the next logical question is how much. It’s actually really hard to predict exactly how much you’ll need in 20, 30, or possibly even 50 years from now. However, we can use our spending now to estimate spending later. Don’t worry, I’m going to try to keep the math as simple as possible. Actually, I made a calculator, but first, I want you to understand the process behind it. Also, the numbers you’ll ge ..read more

It’s been years, actually over a decade since we changed banks for our high-yield savings account (HYSA). But this year we’re making a switch. I’m actually kind of embarrassed about it. Long story short, we were not valued as loyal customers and I refuse to stay with a bank that treats me unfairly. A Quick Backstory and What Happened Originally, we’d started our first high-yield savings account with a company called ING Direct. I’d spent quite a bit of time researching different banks and settled on ING Direct because they had great rates, I could easily open several accounts, nickname my acc ..read more

Just for fun, I decided to copy and paste our expenses into ChatGPT and have it write a story about our holiday spending. I was pleasantly surprised at the comic relief I got from this! I felt weirdly better about it too. My wife and I tracked our Christmas and holiday spending with a Google Form this year. Nevertheless, this is normal and we discuss and adjust our savings for next year. We use this data during our annual Money Day. Download Your Free Get Started Checklist Here’s the story ChatGPT about our holiday spending: A Season of Generosity and Joy In a chilly November, Brandon and Bec ..read more

Life can be really stressful for enlisted service members. We can often get distracted with the mission, helping others, and just grinding it out. However, when we’re in the thick of things, we tend to overlook taking care of ourselves. Investing in your personal growth is critical. I’ll share my thoughts on how self-care can lead to a more fulfilling and successful life. I use this term broadly, but in general I look at personal growth and self-care as anything which enhances your ability to be the best version of you possible. The Neglected Art of Self-Care For those of us who are natural d ..read more

If you’re a money nerd like me, you’ll love creating your own little “holiday” for it – Money Day! I originally got this concept from J.D. Roth’s blog, Get Rich Slowly. Our annual Money Day has evolved over the years, but it’s a great forcing function to keep us on track financially. This also serves as an excuse for me to nerd out and annoy my lovely wife with money talk for a day. To be clear, she plays a huge role in Money Day and our financial success – she just doesn’t like talking about money like I do. Pick a Date for Money Day The first thing you need to do is pick a date to have Mone ..read more

I commend this service member for following their heart (eventually) and prioritizing their enjoyment in life. We can often feel stuck trying to “gut it out” to retirement. Ever wonder why there’s so many angry, senior leaders running around? This service member understood exactly why. I really wish I’d had the forethought and courage (and cash) to do what this enlisted service member did. I’ll let you read their story though. Here it is! Download Your Free Get Started Checklist Moving Away from Stress to Success This might not be a typical success story. It doesn’t document some amazing fina ..read more

The new Department of Defense Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCFSA) for uniformed service members could be a great benefit for you to pay for childcare. However, there are several pieces of your financial life that you need to consider carefully. I’ve labored over trying to reduce this program to useful rules of thumb, but there really isn’t any such thing. There are many individual variables that you need to walk through to make this decision for your family. The best analogy I can come up with for how the DCFSA works is to think of it as your very own “off-shore” bank account. Yo ..read more

Do you have questions about emergency savings? Here are my answers to the top 13 questions an enlisted service member might have about emergency funds. Keep in mind, this is just my opinion and your personal situation may be different. The biggest thing to me is that you actually have some type of emergency savings. If you don’t have an emergency fund established yet, please start today. Download Your Free Get Started Checklist Top 13 Questions About Emergency Funds 1.     How much should I ideally have in my emergency savings fund as a service member? We started with the ..read more

The time to think through a financial emergency is not during the emergency. When you’re in a stressful situation, if you don’t already have a game plan, you’re going to make mistakes – sometimes “financially fatal” mistakes. You really do want to know what to do in crisis, but that’s not always possible. Instead, I want to help you think through a simple framework we use to plan for, think through, and make financial decisions when you’re in crisis mode – the “Emergency Three in Three” framework. I have definitely made poor financial decisions in an emergency many times before. However, I’ve ..read more