Episodes

Holding too much cash can be a drag on your gains. You shouldn't have too much of it sitting in your account without a specific purpose. Today you'll learn answers to questions such as: How much is too much? Where should I ke...

Which is better, lump sum investing or Dollar Cost Averaging? Bottom line, neither is significantly better, although lump sum investing statistically wins slightly. The more important factor in you building wealth is that you...

Better every day. That's the goal. Not perfection. What skill have you ever learned that you were perfect at right from the start? Then why are you so hard on yourself when your financial journey isn't perfectly smooth and ea...

"Reading changed my life!" Today's key topics include: VA House Hacking as a young officer, military influencer and off duty employment in the Air Force, personal finance for military women, and self improvement for new offic...

30%-40% international funds in your portfolio!? What is home-country bias and why you may want exposure to markets other than just the US stock market. Links: https://www.baskinfp.com/ Military Tax Experts Alliance Vanguard a...

Entreprenuership, Guard benefits, TSP while deployed, and more! Topics from today: Starting TheMilitaryWallet.com Joining the Guard after 8 years Why he joined the Guard VA disability Guard pay, healthcare, and retirement dif...

64% of veterans will leave initial first post-military job in the first two years! Repeat guest Kate Horrell joins us again to discuss her thought-provoking post on this topic . Of course there are always outliers and unique ...

As an optimzer, Jamie was concerned about how to perfect his family's GI Bill strategy. In the middle of a discussion (after we wrapped up last week's podcast recording with Daniel), we hit record for this non-standard format...

How to teach your military kids about healthy and positive money habits, set expectations for college, use the GI Bill, and leverage 529s and other investment accounts for your military family. With today's guest, Daniel Kopp...

Making your money more focused on your future expenses, goals, and desires. We were inspired by the updates to the YNAB method to share these powerful questions and help your family become more intentional and proactive. Main...

"What's the mission for this money?" "Wealth is what you DON'T see." "Go find something you're really excited about." "Contributions, Conversion, Characterization." "It's OK to follow your curiosity!" This episode is full of ...

Military servicemembers and their spouse can get annual fees waived on personal cards from top banks such as American Express and Chase! Today's episode covers: What's the big deal about these cards? Why are they good? How do...

The 2025 Air Force pilot bonus is out! This episode is specifically for USAF pilots (or anyone else oddly interested in the numbers). There are also bonuses for CSOs/Navs, RPA pilots, and ABMs, although we focus specifically ...

Money doesn't have to cause stress. It doesn't have to be complex. It doesn't have to require a lot of time to build wealth. Learn how to simply your: Budget Bills Investment Tracking Links: Money for Couples podcast w/ Ramit...

Low-cost, Automatic, Diversified, Simple (LADS). Consistent, automatic savings poured into my simple and diversified index funds at low costs have been the cornerstone of my successful investment portfolio. Low-cost: Select l...

Protect your credit, protect your identity, and keep your money safe online. You can easily freeze your credit with each of the 3 credit bureaus to ensure no one can open accounts in your name. You don't need to pay for credi...

Roth is the way to go for almost all military families. Because of the unusually low taxable income military families have (since allowances like BAH and BAS aren't taxable income), we're going to take a hard stance on this ...

Dissect your money stories, the traditions you've adapted from culture and your family of orgin to understand WHY you make the money decisions you make each month? What are money stories you tell yourself? Money is _____. Why...

Merry Christmas from the entire Military Money Manual team! What a year... We hit 250,000+ total downloads this year. Not bad for two pilots who didn't know how to podcast when we started. We're looking forward to helping eve...

Spencer and Jamie explain how to maximize TSP contributions under the Blended Retirement System (BRS), including calculating monthly contribution percentages and avoiding common mistakes that could result in missing matching ...

Biggest financial lessons from The Alamanc of Naval Ravikant 3 biggest decisions: where you live, who you're with, and what you do Does money make you happy? How to get rich Outsourcing 3 way to retire Cultivating wisdom Thin...

Tax advantages, confusing tax brackets, marginal vs effective tax rates, and more! Spencer and Jamie discuss how military service members benefit from unique tax advantages, including untaxed allowances and combat zone tax ex...

Spencer and Jamie address a listener question about where to save money for a house down payment, which leads to a broader discussion about short-term savings strategies based on different time horizons. Main Topics & Questio...

2025 contribution limits are out! In this episode, Spencer and Jamie discuss the newly announced IRS contribution limits for retirement accounts in 2025. They break down the changes for 401(k), TSP, and IRA accounts, explaini...