Military Money Manual Podcast

Want to learn how to achieve financial independence rapidly in the military? Check out the new book, The Military Money Manual, at shop.militarymoneymanual.com

Calculators we talk about in this episode include:

• https://calculator.ficalc.app/
• https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement
• https://firecalc.com/
• https://engaging-data.com/fire-calculator/
• https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
• https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/
• https://www.madfientist.com/

Spencer and Jamie cover a lot of ground in this short, start of the year episode. Topics include:

• Spousal IRAs
• Contributing to last years IRA (during this year!)
• Roth TSP vs Roth IRA
• And much more

Did you know if you max out your Roth IRA every year while you work you could easily end up with $1.2 million by the time you retire?

It sounds crazy, but thanks to compounding interest, it's very possible.

Long term, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is definitely the superior card. But you may want to open the Chase Sapphire Preferred first because the Sapphire Preferred often offers a higher welcome bonus than the Sapphire Reserve After keeping the Preferred open for a year you can then upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Reserve. You must wait 1 year to upgrade due to a federal law called CARD Act.

Cards mentioned in this episode:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Amex Platinum for military

You can also compare the Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Optimal order to open credit cards in while you're in the military. You can maximize the benefits of military annual fee waivers rapidly by opening up credit cards in this order.

Learn more about military travel hacking in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at https://militarymoneymanual.com/umc3

Sign up for the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3 to learn how to accumulate millions of points and miles. Plus, you can pay no annual fees if you're in the military or a military spouse.

Once you've accumuluated a lot of points, it can be tough to decide if it's a good deal to use points for a purchase or not. Jamie and Spencer break down the math of valuing points.

Just take the cash value of the flight or hotel you are trying to book, divide by the number of points required, and multiply by 100 to get the cents per point valuation.

So if the hotel is $100 and costs 20,000 points to book, that's $100 / 20,000 = .005 x 100 = .5 cents per point. If this was a Hyatt booking, that would be a bad redemption because Hyatt points are usually valued at 2 cents each.

If this was a Hilton booking, it might be worth it, since Hilton points are usually valued around .5 cents each.

We also discuss when it makes sense to use a free night certificate.

• Best credit card bonus offers this month
• Credit card transfer partners
• Credit cards that waive annual fees for military in 2022
• Best hotel credit cards
• Best military credit cards

The new book is getting great reviews and is available right now at https://militarymoneymanual.com/book/ This is a short, practical guide to financial freedom. Most people are reporting reading it in an afternoon or on a short flight.

I very internationally kept it short and to the point so I don't waste your time.

Learn more about annual fee protected credit cards in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at https://militarymoneymanual.com/umc3.

In this episode you will learn how to get Military Lending Act (MLA) benefits applied to your Chase and Amex accounts. It's a very easy process as long as your Social Security Number is correctly loaded in the MLA database.

The best hotel credit cards for military families are:

• American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card military
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card military
• Chase World of Hyatt Card military
• Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier Card military

You can learn everything you need to get started with military annual fee waivers in the 5 day, 100% free Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course.

All of these cards are annual fee waived for military and come with annual free night certificates.

In this episode Jamie and Spencer talk about the 4 best hotel credit cards for active duty militay and their civilian spouses. We cover:

• How to get annual fee waivers and check the MLA database
• Value of hotel points
• Value of free night certificates
• Which cards to start with
• How to maximize your benefits
• Elite status with the hotel cards

Let me show you how to earn thousands of dollars of hotel free nights every year in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3

Relevant articles:

• Best credit card bonus offers this month
• Best credit cards for military
• Current cards in my wallet
• Credit cards that waive annual fees for military

Also check out my new book, The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom available right now at http://militarymoneymanual.com/book. This is the book I wish I had received as a gift on my first day in the military. I wrote it for you, the US military servicemember who has no idea what to do with your money. I achieved financial independence while I served and you can too.

Thanks for listening!

Make sure next year is your most successful year yet with the timeless financial freedom lessons in the Military Money Manual, available now at militarymoneymanual.com/book

The end of the calendar year is an excellent time to review your progress, success, and failures over the past year.

It's also a good time to look forward and set intentions for the new year.

In this episode Jamie and Spencer dissect how Jamie approaches his end of the year review and how he approaches the new year.

We discuss:

• How to use You Need a Budget (YNAB) to quickly generate end of year reports
• How to track whether you're on pace to FI or need to step up the savings rate
• Jamie's biggest spending categories and what he wants to do about it next year
• Various housekeeping tasks like checking your credit report and setting your contributions to your IRAs and TSP
• Making sure your spending and savings goals align with your values and priorities

Learn more at militarymoneymanual.com

Make sure next year is your most successful year yet with the timeless financial freedom lessons in the Military Money Manual, available now at militarymoneymanual.com/book The end of the calendar year is an excellent time to review your progress, success, and failures over the past year. In this episode Jamie and Spencer dissect Spencer's "State of the Money" address to his wife.

We also discuss:

• What's a "sinking fund" and how to use it to stay ahead of infrequent but predictable expenses
• How Spencer analyses his income, expenses, investing performance, and
• How to set financial and non-financial goals for the next year
• When Spencer rebalances his portfolio and why
• Focusing on actions that move the needle
• Using the Pareto Principle to focus on the 20% of efforts that produce 80% of the results

Learn more at militarymoneymanual.com

This is the book I wish someone had handed me on my first day in the military. Shipping now at https://militarymoneymanual.com/book

The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom lays out the road map to achieve financial independence (FI) while you serve in the military.

I walk you through how to build your financial foundation, my 9 principles to achieve FI, unique military investments, and the philosophy of military FI.

The book is available in a beautiful hard cover printed in the USA, an audiobook, or an e-book.

You can find it exclusively on my website at https://militarymoneymanual.com/book

Learn the behaviors and habits of financially independent military troops in my new book the Military Money Manual, available now at militarymoneymanual.com/book/

Paying off debt, especially when it's 5 or 6 figures, can seem insurmountable.

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. The same is true for financial independence. The journey to being a millionaire investor starts with paying off your high interest rate loans.

In this episode, 2 Air Force officers Spencer and Jamie walk you through the exact strategies and techniques they used to each pay off more than $100,000 of student, credit card, auto, and time share debt.