Episodes

Rob Shaye is a Coast Guard reservist, Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and military traveler. He's passionate about financial education and helping military servicemembers make the best decisions with their money. Learn more about Robert Shaye's company Fireside Finances on his website. In this wide ranging episode, co-hosts Jamie and Spencer talk with Rob about a variety of topics including: The mistakes Rob made investing his lawn mowing money at 15 How Rob got into travel rewards credit...

Jamie and Spencer attack how to budget your military paycheck. Ideas discussed on this episode include: Classic pen and paper budget Google Sheets and Excel spreadsheets Apps like Mint.com, You Need A Budget (YNAB), EveryDollar The Reverse Budget, or Anti-Budget (set a high savings rate and spend the rest) If you want to maximize your military paycheck, check out my 5 star rated book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom on Amazon at or at shop.militarymoneymanua...

Living paycheck to paycheck can be extremely stressful. It can negatively affect your mental, physical, spiritual, and financial health. Learn how to stop living paycheck to paycheck and to get out of the cycle of never having extra cash in your checking account. If you want to maximize your military paycheck, check out the 5 star rated book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom on Amazon at or at shop.militarymoneymanual.com. I also offer a 100% free course on mil...

Morgan Housel's book the Psychology of Money is an excellent refresher of the core concepts of financial independence and personal finance. In this episode, Jamie and Spencer apply Housel's concepts of personal finance and investing to military life. The 3 main takeaways for today are: Save money for no reason at all. Play your own game. Better to be reasonable with a good enough plan, than rational with a plan you can't stick to. For a military specific personal finance book, check out the...

Travelling in the military doesn't need to be painful! Know your Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) and benefits available to you. TSA PreCheck is free for military servicemembers. Military spouses can use the right credit card to get Global Entry and TSA PreCheck for free as well. With the right travel rewards cards, you can access airport lounges, upgrade your seat, upgrade your hotel room, and earn hotel perks like free breakfast, executive lounge access, and other free perks. Learn how to max...

Jamie and Spencer talk about a few of their favorite things in this episode. Learn how to maximize your military paycheck in my new book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom available directly from me on my website or on Amazon. The book has dozens of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. It's available as a: Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads so other military ser...

Learn how to maximize your military paycheck in my new book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom available directly from me on my website or on Amazon. The book has dozens of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. It's available as a: Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads so other military servicemembers and spouses can find it.

Don't have a good asset allocation or investment strategy for when the stock market crashes? Learn how to self-invest your military paycheck in my book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. available directly from me on my website or on Amazon. The book has dozens of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads: Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook Three main takeaways from today's episode: The stock market has normal cycles of ups and downs ...

To learn how to maximize your military paycheck, check out my book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. available directly from me on my website or on Amazon. Dozens of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads: Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook Buying a car is usually the largest purchase of a young servicemember. Take some time to think through the decision. Even saving 10% can add up in a big way. I cover buying your first car in the...

Active duty, guard, reserves, and military veterans are all eligible for VA loans if certain conditions are met. I built the VA Loan Ultimate Guide to explain the confusing VA loan process. What is a VA loan? How to determine if you are eligible for a VA loan? How to get a VA loan Certificate of Eligibility? What credit score do you need for a VA loan? What is the VA loan process, from start to finish? Who are the best VA loan lenders? What is a VA cash-out refinance loan? In this episo...

To learn more about my LADS investment strategy and how to apply it to the TSP, check out my book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. available directly from me on my website or on Amazon. Dozens of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads: Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook Changes are coming to the TSP! Learn all about the June 2022 changes to the TSP in this episode. New TSP app New TSP website Mutual fund window

To learn more about my LADS investment strategy and how to apply it to the TSP, check out my book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. available directly from me on my website or on Amazon. Dozens of 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads: Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook In this episode Jamie and Spencer discuss several TSP investing strategies and why you may want to go with a particular strategy. The most important thing is to a ...

To learn how to select TSP funds for early financial independence, read The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. The book is available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. With 20+ 5 star ratings, the book is available directly from me on my website or on Amazon Amazon Kindle Ebook Amazon Prime Hardcover Audible Audiobook Jamie and Spencer break down the 5 Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Funds: C Fund - the S&P 500 fund S Fund - The rest of the US stock market I Fund ...

Learn more about building a financial legacy for your family in my book The MIlitary Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. In this episode Jamie talks about his recent experience as the executor of the estate of an extended family member that passed away. We cover building a "legacy box," why you should buy term life insurance over whole life insurance, and things to think about if you're ever the executor or administrator of an estate.

The American Express® Gold Card military benefits include an annual fee waiver for active duty servicemembers and military spouses. The American Express® Green Card military benefit is the same, with an annual fee waived for anyone in the MLA database, which includes military dependents and active duty troops. Both the active duty servicemember and the spouse can be primary users on the card and do not need to be authorized users on each other's accounts. Both cards can add tens of thousands ...

The Air Force announced the Fiscal Year 2022 Air Force Pilot Bonus on 11 April, 2022. You can see the bonus chart and all the details in my article on my website, Military Money Manual. If you're eligible for a bonus, this can be an amazing opporuntiy to accelerate your journey to financial independence. Learn more about achieving financial freedom in the military in my book, The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom The book is available as a hardcover, ebook, and audi...

Learn more about the amazing military benefits in the Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide t Financial Freedom now available on Amazon, Kindle, Audible, and directly from the author on MilitaryMoneyManual.com in ebook, audiobook, and hardcover. Jamie and Spencer talk to their friend Luke about Space-A travel, also known as space available travel. Luke estimates he has saved over $40,000 in flights for his family over the years. This is a program opened to active duty servicemembers on leav...

Learn more about achieving financial independence in the military in The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. Now available on Kindle, Audible, and soon on Amazon. Always available on MilitaryMoneyManual.com Jamie and Spencer break down how to build a plan, how to overcome winner's guilt, how to be generous with your windfall, and how to avoid windfall errors.

Doug Nordman from The Military Guide joins us today on the Military Money Manual Podcast. While he would never say it, Doug is a bit of a legend in the personal finance, FIRE, and military finance community. He retired 20 years ago in 2002 after a 20 year career in the Navy. I stoppd by Doug's house in Hawaii to have a conversation with him about all kinds of great military FI topics. Doug was an early beta-reader of The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom available a...

If you want to learn how to set yourself up to purchase your first rental property, check out my book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom. Available now on Amazon, Kindle, Audible, and my website. On today's episode Spencer and Jamie welcome Rich Carey from Rich On Money Website YouTube TikTok Topics we address today: VA home loans for primary residences that you can turn into rental properties when you PCS The 1% rule for buying rental properties and then 50% r...

Learn more about military travel hacking and how to make thousands of dollars off of annual fee waived credit cards in my Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course. "Leave in conjuction with official travel" or LICWO is a great deal to get a free or reduced cost flight to take leave when you go TDY or TAD. Circuitous travel is a good way to make a PCS a little less stressful and to potentially take a little vacation while you move on government orders. Find out how to do both in this episode! Learn...

The Hilton Honors Military Program offers separating military servicemembers and their spouses up to 100,000 free Hilton points each to aid veterans and their spouses in searching for their next job or establishing their new life. These points can be used for a job hunt, interview, conference, or any other purpose to establish your foundation after the military. This is a separate and complementary program to the Amex Hilton Honors Aspire annual fee waiver program. If you've been travel hacking...

In this episode Spencer and Jamie breakdown How to stop paying state income tax Why you should do your own taxes How to stop being afraid of taxes We also cover military spouse taxes including the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act (MSRRA), which allows military spouses much more flexibility in which state they are taxed in. This is extremely helpful if you need to PCS in the middle of a year. You can avoid paying and filing taxes in multiple states! We also cover why you DON'T want a la...

Learn everything there is to know about travel hacking the military in my Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course. Besides welcome bonuses, credit card referral links are the easiest and fastest way to earn thousands or even millions of credit card points, miles, and cash. Spencer and Jamie break down the easiest way to earn lots of point and miles with your Chase and Amex cards.