Active Duty
Military financial success is built through smart deployment planning, intentional TSP decisions, and clear thinking around career transitions, airline opportunities, and survivor benefit elections.
Topics
This topic explains how service members can build long-term wealth by starting early, using the TSP effectively, and avoiding common lifestyle traps. It shows how discipline and compounding, not rank or pay, are the key drivers of financial independence in the military.
This topic breaks down the Thrift Savings Plan by clearly explaining what each TSP fund is, including the G, F, C, S, I, and Lifecycle Funds, and how they actually behave. It helps service members and federal employees understand their options so they can choose funds intentionally instead of guessing or defaulting.
This topic walks through the key financial moves that can turn a deployment into a long-term advantage, including tax-free pay rules, special pays, and the Savings Deposit Program. It also explains how to optimize TSP contributions, Roth strategies, capital gains, and charitable giving while income and tax brackets are temporarily lower.
This topic compares the financial tradeoffs of separating for the airlines versus staying in for a military retirement, using a real-world pilot scenario modeled side by side. It walks through bonuses, investing, pension value, and long-term outcomes to show how each path impacts income and retirement security over time.
This topic breaks down the financial and lifestyle tradeoffs of retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel at 20 years versus staying longer to retire as a Colonel. It uses a data-driven comparison of pay, pension value, and long-term outcomes to help senior officers make an informed, intentional retirement decision.
This topic explains how the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) works, what it costs, and how it compares to life insurance and other survivor options. It helps military retirees and spouses understand the tradeoffs and avoid common mistakes when making an irreversible SBP election.