New officer's guide to personal finance! In this episode, Spencer and Jamie share all the financial advice they'd share with a new officer in their unit. You CAN become rich on active duty as a military officer!

If you're an enlisted servicemember, go check out episode #131 covering all the personal finance advice for an enlisted member.

Topics include:

• Career starter loans
• Tracking your expenses
• Balancing enjoying your new life with keeping expenses down
• Buy a car (use the lemon lot to look for a ~$10,000 used car)
• Focus on easy plans to focus on learning your job and being the best officer you can be. Learning to be an officer and do your job well is your #1 priority for now.
• Emergency funds
• Picking the right bank without fees
• Starting your credit history (pay off your card every month!)
• Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)
• Insurance
• Real estate investing
• Security and two-factor authentication

Total stock market index fund options Spencer mentioned:

• VTSAX at Vanguard or
• VTI (ETF version)
• FZROX at Fidelity
• SWTSX at Schwab or
• SCHB (ETF version)

Links mentioned:

• Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom by Spencer Reese
• Episode 9 on Career Starter Loans
• Monarch Money
• YNAB
• Wise

For a limited time, Spencer is offering one-on-one Military Money Coaching sessions! Get your personal military money and investing questions answered in a confidential coaching call.

Our new TSP course is live! Check out the Confident TSP Investing course at militarymoneymanual.com/tsp to learn all about the Thrift Savings Plan and strategies for growing your wealth while in the military. Use promo code "podcast24" for $50 off. Plus, for every course sold, we'll donate one course to an E-4 or below- for FREE!

If you have a question you would like us to answer on the podcast, please reach out on instagram.com/militarymoneymanual or email [email protected].

If you want to maximize your military paycheck, check out Spencer's 5-star rated book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom on Amazon or at shop.militarymoneymanual.com.

I also offer a 100% free course on military travel hacking and getting annual fee waived credit cards, like The Platinum Card® from American Express, the American Express® Gold Card, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card in my Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3.

Learn how to get your annual fees waived on premium credit cards from American Express in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3.

The Platinum Card® from American Express and the American Express® Gold Card waive the annual fee for active duty military servicemembers, including Guard and Reserve on active orders over 30 days. The annual fees on all personal Amex cards are also waived for military spouses married to active duty troops.