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

Don’t be afraid, just because automation is a big word doesn’t mean it’s complicated. Actually, the opposite. Once you get your good habits set up for automation, it’s very simple to keep doing the right thing. If you want to get ahead without doing a lot of work, automation is the best way to do

There’s so much I wish I could go back and tell myself when I first joined the Army. I actually decided to just write a letter to myself as if I were joining today. I hope these words find a young service member somewhere and spark some action in them. I say Army throughout, but

When you decide it’s time to get your finances under control, it can be really tough at first. All this money stuff seems complicated. It might feel like you’ll never get caught up on your finances. You’re not alone. Many of us who’ve enlisted in the military didn’t start off with a bunch of extra