With the impending government shutdown, how should you prepare? I’ll spare you the lecture on having an emergency fund. If you don’t already have cash saved away, you won’t be able to do anything about it now. I’d definitely keep an eye out on the Department of Defense News page for the latest news. However, […]

Having an emergency fund is vital to your long-term financial success. It’s really important to leave some amount of money completely separate just in case everything turns for the worse. You just never know what might happen and having cash on hand for an emergency is always a good idea. We’ve had an emergency fund

I was 24 years old and in charge of getting 52 souls safely to Afghanistan. There’s really no equivalent experience outside the military. I had no clue what I was doing, but I figured it out. That’s really the most succinct way of summing up what we do in the military – Figure It the

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

Investing in yourself is one of the most overlooked, yet critically important areas to invest your time and money. As enlisted service members, we’re given a lot of opportunities to improve ourselves both inside and outside the military. There’s so much to cover here, so I’m splitting this topic into three parts: Education, Military Training

There’s so many different things we could focus on when it comes to investing, but time matters. It’s often overlooked too. In financial planning, we talk a lot about “time-horizon” and the time value of money (TVM) calculations we do. Bottom line: when you choose to invest your money in one place, you’re saying no

Your “why” for investing is one of the most overlooked, yet so important, pieces of your investing journey. Why? Great question! There’s a lot of technical aspects to investing, but we can get hung up on those and forget about what’s going to keep us pushing toward our goals. Striking a Balance Between Technical and

This is the second Enlisted Money Confession and I think more than one of us can relate to this story! Remember, we’re a community who shares our successes and struggles so we can all learn together. At the end we’ll discuss the “Credit Card Swiping Sailor’s” story and teachable moments we can apply to our

The “traditional” arguments on Roth versus traditional miss so much. I’m hoping to go beyond the typical “taxes now versus taxes later” argument to help you decide what’s best for you. (Hint: Probably Roth.) Enlisted service members in particular have some unique advantages making the Roth Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) or Roth IRA the best

You’ll never have it easier as an enlisted investor than when you’re an E-1. Why? Time. Time is on your side my friend! If I could go back in time, I’d tell my 18-year-old self to invest more into my TSP from day one. I’d also told myself, “You’ll be a millionaire if you put