Author name: The Enlisted Money Guy™ - Brandon Lovingier, ChFC®, MQFP®

I’ve had an on again, off again relationship with debt my whole life. It created a way for me to have some independence as a teenager with a truck loan, but that same “opportunity” debt provided me led to some significant stress. I always fundamentally knew I had to pay back everything I borrowed. However, […]

Buying a brand new 2010 Chevrolet Silverado was the best and worst financial decision my wife and I ever made. I’d just received orders for Germany at the time, and we were preparing for the move. The Army would pay to ship one vehicle, but we had two. I had an F-150 (her name was

We’re all working hard to get ahead (of who exactly?) with our finances while also balancing all the normal parts of our life. This is a constant ebb and flow for me. I’m super driven to help people, but I often have to force myself to take a step back and reset. I’m balancing serving

My wife and I just recently celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary! It’s kind of hard to believe how quickly time flies. Everything hasn’t been a walk in the park, but we’ve overcome many challenges together over the years of being married. Interestingly enough, I ran into a young Navy Corpsman at a brewery who’s getting

Financial independence, independently wealthy, retired, financial freedom, call it whatever you want, but the point is that you no longer need to work or create additional income to support your life. I hesitate to call it “coasting” because there’s still a lot to keep track of. I feel like the saying from my time in

We’ve always been concerned about how our decisions affect our son. We also have to balance personal wants with what we can actually afford. Here’s how we made the decision for my wife to be a stay-at-home mom, then how we chose daycare, and how we’re back to having a stay-at-home parent as part of

I grew up in a place where dreams were just that – dreams. We all subconsciously knew that what we saw around us was probably where we’d end up – in a blue-collar job, never having much, and working until we physically couldn’t anymore. For me, the Army was a chance to try to break

I know the person who asked me, “Isn’t Enlisted Money an Oxymoron?” was [mostly] joking, but my reaction internally was a big F@%K YOU. People seem to think enlisted folks are supposed to be poor and act poor. It’s true many of us do – at least at one point. However, it’s not about how

I run across young Soldiers and senior NCOs all the time with the same things in common: they feel behind and nobody taught them about money. I totally get feeling “behind” because I was there too. I didn’t have much guidance with money growing up either, but that’s okay. I’m still playing “catch-up” myself and

Updated 29 March, 2024 It may seem a little extreme, but a simple phone conversation started what would eventually grow to $40,000 plus. All for $50/month. The Phone Call that Started My Roth IRA I can’t remember exactly why, but I called USAA while I was deployed to Iraq sometime in early 2007. I’m guessing; there was a