Click Paralysis - Start Your Financial Journey Now

While deployed, I tried to motivate people to reach their financial goals with their deployed entitlements. They left my office with motivation and excitement, but by the time they got to their office, they had lost all motivation. I gave them a lot of options and ideas to think about and, instead of empowering them to start, it created paralysis.  I think most people just want to be told exactly what to do. So against my own philosophy, I created this post with the most vanilla information to jump start your finances.

Disclaimer:  No matter what I write, please do your own research. There are a lot of variables you need to think about, but I know those variables are what causes the paralysis, so each recommendation will be followed up with more research to do if you choose to.  This post also assumes that you have little to no debt.  If you have too much debt, then get rid of it first.

1.  Start an emergency savings account.  Go to CapitalOne 360 and open an account using this link.  Start the account with more than $250, and this referral link, and we both get $20 for opening a new account.  You should put no less than $5K and no more than $10K in it.

• For more research, go to www.bankrate.com and look for the best savings account to get the highest yield for your cash.  I know for sure CapitalOne 360 is no longer the type yielding savings account.  You should have 6 months worth of expenses saved up, so the $5K-$10K is just super generic.

2.  Start a ROTH IRA.  Go to www.fidelity.com or to www.vanguard.com.  You can put $5,500 a year into an IRA ($11K a year if married, regardless of spouses employment).  Once the money is in the account, put all your money in FSKTX (VTSMX for Vanguard).  Once you have over $10K, you'll be automatically enrolled in FSTVX (VTSAX) for Vanguard.  Contribute to FSTVX (VTSAX for Vanguard) every year, reinvest all dividends, and don't sell out until retirement.

• Both companies offer Total Stock Market mutual funds with different performances and fees.  Also, depending on your age and personal tax situation, you'll need to decide if a ROTH or a Traditional IRA is the right thing for you.  Lastly, you'll need to determine your risk profile to see if a pure stock portfolio is the right risk allocation.  MOST people would benefit from just sticking to the Total Stock Market mutual funds listed above.

3.  Military members, start your TSP.  Go to Mypay (https://mypay.dfas.mil), figure out how much you can afford a month, and then start contributing.  Then go to www.tsp.gov, sign up, get your PIN [can take 30 days], log in, and put all your money into a Lifecycle fund that matches when you want to retire from work (not the date you plan on retiring from the military).

• Not many people have money left after starting an emergency fund and maxing out an IRA.  If you do, then that's great, so you'll definitely want to take advantage of the TSP.  You don't want to put 100% of your money into retirement accounts so you can save for short- and medium-term goals.

4.  Civilians, max out your 401(K) matching contributions.  Find out how much your employer matches for your 401(k) and then contribute enough to get the max matching contributions.  It's free money.  Just walk into your HR department and they'll give you instructions.

• Just like for military members, you'll definitely want to make sure you're not putting 100% of your savings into retirement accounts.

5.  Go to your emergency savings account bank and open up a new bank account for your short- and medium-term goals.  Regularly put money into these accounts.  An example of a short-term goal is a vacation.  Open an account called Vacation.  Decide how much and by when you want to save it and start putting money into the account.



Hopefully I helped take some of that click paralysis away.  Just do exactly what I wrote here and you'll be ahead of 90% of the population in your income bracket.   

Ready to Become a Military Millionaire

Most of my blog posts are written for people just starting out on their path to financial independence. I focus on that demographic because I feel most people in the military that may read my blog are probably just starting or have a surface-level knowledge base of personal finances. This blog post however, is for people already financially secure and who are ready to turn it up a notch. This post is for those aspiring to become military millionaires.

• Ditch the “all cash” emergency savings. This first step is in direct contradiction with what I tell 95% of the people I help. I always recommend people have easy access to cash for emergencies. An emergency savings account is extremely important for people just starting out because it will shield them from unexpected expenses that may derail their financial success. Having an “all cash” emergency savings account isn’t as important for those that are higher ranking, have almost no real debt and have excellent credit. For these people, they should invest their money in conservative to moderate-conservative investments. For me, it takes less than 3 days to sell mutual funds and transfer the cash. Right now, I have cash only in my short-term goal account and it only earns a .75% interest rate (that’s less than 1%). People looking to become wealthy need to maximize their returns at all times and having a significant cash withhold can hamper those returns.
• Debt is not a bad thing. Think big. For people with low financial knowledge and for the majority of America, debt is the new slavery. We are enslaved to consumerism and the banks own all of our debt. We have no assets to claim for that debt; i.e. college loans and credit cards. This is simply our slavery to banks and insurance companies. For people with high financial knowledge, debt is simply a tool. They have assets to claim for that debt and ensure they always have equity in that debt. Real estate, smart auto purchases, margin investment accounts and business loans are types of leverage where people earn more money than it costs to owe the money. For example, purchasing a home creates a large “debt” but is also a large “asset.” In the military, if we don’t invest our BAH, then we lose it. Going into “debt” with a home loan allows us to reap the BAH benefit. I spend most of my time helping people dig their way out of consumer debt and I wish I could spend more time helping people with their leverage.
• Promote, save, retire, work, save and retire. This is a model most people in the military talk about but rarely execute correctly. Whether you enlisted or commissioned right away, the goal is to promote quickly. For commissioned officers, you need to complete all the things you have control over; right positions, professional certifications, Master’s degree and PME. For enlisted, study for each rank and focus on making the next rank. I made E-4 early, E-5 first time but then took 4 times to make E-6 before crossing over to the dark side in becoming a commissioned officer. This represents a large loss of income as I tried to focus on my degree. While in the military you should save as much as you can in your IRAs, TSPs, real estate and taxable accounts. Then when you retire from the military, some people as early as 37/38, get another job, save all your money and retire from that job; again, some people as early as 45-55. It doesn’t matter if you transition to civil service or corporate life. A lot of people don’t calculate their military retirement correctly and then find out they don’t have sufficient money to actually retire. Remember, our military retirement is only 50-75% of our base pay and doesn’t include COLA, BAH or BAS. For my current location, my retirement would only be 35% of my current paycheck.
• Get another job. Even with excellent investment returns our pay doesn’t make it easy to become a millionaire in 20-30 years. After raising a family and normal expenses, we simply don’t make enough to put away a million dollars. Most people get another job or position their spouse to launch a successful company. I know friends who’ve opened their own business and after years of hard work have eclipsed their own military paychecks making retiring from the military an easy transition.

Unless you’re in an excellent financial position, I wouldn’t follow this advice. For most people, following “vanilla” advice will help secure a good financial position. This blog post is for people ready to invest and have the ability to position them to become military millionaires.