I’m excited to welcome Stacy Miller on the podcast today. She is the founder of Bayview Financial Planning, a flat-fee RIA focused on serving women, widows, and military and veteran families. Stacy is a military spouse to a retired U.S. Army officer. Married for over 30-years to her husband, Jody, who served 28-years in the military, Stacy has experienced many positive and negative transitions. She has seen firsthand how those transitions can impact women, widows, and military/veteran families. Together, her military family moved 14 times during their service, and as a result, Stacy was often unemployed or underemployed. She therefore recognizes how important it is for women, especially, to feel confident in their own future financial security.

We chat about her exposure to personal finance as her family CFO holding down the fort during her husband’s long and varied military career. Like most military spouses, Stacy found a way to make it all work and built up an incredible skillset during those years across her varied experiences. 

Stacy shares how her initial experiences with financial advisors made her wary of going down that career path before a colleague finally convinced her to join an RIA. While it was a great training ground and opportunity to do lots of things, she felt the pull of real financial planning for families and individuals that was different than the institutional money management that prior firm did. 

So, Stacy took the leap into launching her own firm earlier this year and we catch her at the 6 month point where she is fresh in the trenches of marketing and working to get those first 10 clients. I love how she shares about the real reasons why she had to do this for herself and how work and identity plays such a key role for her in this decision. Lastly, she shares some really interesting advice she gives to fellow military spouses also exploring careers in this profession. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacymillercfp/

https://bayviewfp.com/

In this episode, I’m joined by David Evetts, who serves as the President of the USAA Educational Foundation. Since 1986, The USAA Educational Foundation has served the military community by helping service members and their families become informed financial decision-makers through every life stage. USAA, the founder and sponsor of The USAA Educational Foundation, is a San Antonio, Texas-based financial services company that provides auto, homeowners, and life insurance products and, banking and investment services. While USAA is the sponsor, The USAA Educational Foundation does not endorse or promote any commercial supplier, products, or services.

Before this current role, David served as the USAA CEO’s chief of staff/aide-de-camp with previous leadership roles in CEO Communications, Corporate Responsibility, External Affairs, and Enterprise Innovation. David joined USAA in 2011 through the Junior Military Officer Career Development Program after serving in the Army.

Over the course of our interview we chat about these roles and more including David’s perspectives on how to balance the dual goals of serving the military community with education or support along with finding ways to have a career. David also shares some particularly relevant advice related to looking for a company that aligns with your values instead of the particulars of the job or even role.

Lastly, we chat about the challenges of shedding the military identity when making a career transition and how to be known as a leader, not just a veteran. There are definitely some pearls of wisdom in there. Here’s my interview with David Evetts.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidevetts/

https://usaaef.org/ 

I’m excited to welcome a friend and colleague who has a little bit different career track today. Drew Stamp serves as the Chief Operations Office for the Donovan and Bank Foundation - a, nonprofit organization that focuses on helping special operators transition to a life of peace, balance, and contentment. 

We chat about Drew’s early personal finance experiences, how he learned he loved to teach and help other with financial literacy, what studying for the CFP exam was like even though he had never worked in a traditional job in financial planning before, and how he found his way to his current role. If you are interested in financial literacy and education, you might find some of his answers surprising.

With his wide range of experiences, Drew shares some incredibly practical advice born out of personal experience and the hundreds of briefings and thousands of hours of conversation. We could all benefit from his advice on how to better deliver financial education as well as advice!

Drew has the benefit of looking back over his many years of transition counseling and shares the common themes he sees including how important it is to have your own financial house in order and be prepared for the emotional, mental, and identity challenges that come with leaving the military experience. 

Lastly, we chat about the changes and perceptions of current military members, if BRS has changed things from where Drew sees it, and what it means to work with the military population as they approach their career transitions. So here’s my interview with Drew Stamp. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-stamp/ 

https://www.donovanbank.org/ 

Today on the podcast I’m joined by Matt Stephens from Willow Chute Financial. Matt has had a winding career path that has taken him to a variety of roles, firms, structures, and responsibilities. During his career in financial services, he has also served as an officer in the Army Reserves since 2008. In our discussion, we chat about the pros and cons of a variety of financial services compensation and service structures and how that factored into his career decisions.

Given the variety of structures as well as front and back office roles, I ask Matt about the traits he found for those that were successful in the variety of positions so you can better understand and find your best fit. Matt also shares about his special prospecting opportunities to network and receive referrals from CPAs as well as help clients solve very specific tax problems. 

Lastly, we chat about the lessons learned along the way for other people looking for their first position in this profession or looking to chart their best path. Matt’s grit and determination helped him persevere through lots of challenges before he ultimately found his way to his current broker dealer and the best fit for him and his clients. Be sure to listen for the pearls of wisdom about the things to watch out for when evaluating different job opportunities and structures. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattstephens730/

https://www.willowchutefinancial.com/ 

Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services Inc. (member FINRA/SIPC). Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services Inc.

I’m so grateful to have Heather Walrath joining us on the podcast today. She currently serves as financial education and accredited financial counselor at the Navy Mutual Aid Association.  As part of the Education Team, Heather speaks one-on-one with servicemembers and spouses and provides group presentations to servicemembers and families across the country to  increase their knowledge and understanding of financial matters. Her areas of expertise include military and survivor benefits, including VA benefits and Survivor Benefit Plan.

Heather talks about her early career interest in this profession after being an AFCPE FINRA Fellow. Her early volunteer experiences helped her build her skills and showed her how much she loved this work. Later on, she started out giving presentations on a part-time basis for Navy Mutual before that eventually grew into a full-time role.

Over her career, Heather has given hundreds of presentations to thousands of servicemembers and their families about military transition. But as you will hear, she shares just as many lessons learned from her own experience going through military transition earlier this year when her active duty spouse retired. We spend a good deal of time talking through her experience and wisdom of the transition and retirement process, how to find good source material, and the advice that can help you make an even more successful military transition yourself. I know this will be a big benefit to all our listeners both getting ready for their own transition or working with others who are! 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-walrath-afc%C2%AE-mqfp%C2%AE-6531b077/

https://www.navymutual.org/mission-educate/

https://www.navymutual.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/candid_conversations_flyer-2024-01.23.2024.pdf 

https://www.choosefi.com/military-fi-optimizing-your-financial-plan-before-military-retirement-daniel-kopp-cfp-ep-487/

I’m excited to have Paul Allen on the podcast today. In this wide-ranging conversation we discuss his first exposure to the financial services industry which rubbed him the wrong way and sparked an interest in doing his own financial planning work. Later on, Paul wanted to help educate fellow members of his military community so he got his CFP so he could teach financial literacy classes, all the while wondering if there was a way he could just get paid to give financial advice instead of selling financial products.

Paul shares how he stumbled into the world of fee-only RIAs and tax practice around the same time with his tax practice, PIM Tax, rapidly taking off. He later merged with Sean Gillespie to form Redeployment Wealth Strategies to help him better divide his time and expertise. We spend time chatting about his tax training and expertise including getting the Enrolled Agent designation, the common challenges he sees in military tax returns, training and experiences you can get to learn more about tax preparation, and who might be a good fit for the tax side of the profession as opposed to the planning.

We also talk about his experiences and passions to help advance the profession through his work as the Program Director of CFP Program in Regent University’s School of Law. Paul shares about their focus there the traits he sees teaching the capstone course that set people up for success on the CFP exam. 

Lastly, we round out the conversation around the Military Qualified Financial Planner (MQFP) designation including the goal of helping military and veteran families find great financial advice in a fee-only, fiduciary manner that is tailored to the military experience. I love Paul’s knowledge, passion, and depth of experiences and resources he shares in this episode. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pdallen64/

https://pimtax.com/

https://www.redeploymentwealth.com/ 

https://militarytaxexperts.org/

https://militaryfinancialadvisors.org/

https://explore.regent.edu/ma-financial-planning-law?

https://mqfp.org/

In this podcast episode, I sit down with Mike Hunsberger to learn more about his career journey across an Air Force career and launching his own RIA, Next Mission Financial Planning. He shares about his early experiences with being sold permanent life insurance and high fee mutual funds which led him to get more interested in personal finance. Thanks to many years of his own good financial decisions, including building lots of spreadsheets to analyze his own military career analysis, gave him options to consider financial planning as a second career.

As part of his exportary foray, Mike learned about XY Planning Network and came to their conference in 2019 where he met many other like-minded folks that ultimately started MFAA. It solidified his decision to make the leap and he finished his CFP coursework not long after from the American College thanks to their veteran scholarship program. When he passed the CFP exam and launched his firm, Mike shares how he felt like he had realistic expectations but even they were too lofty at first. I appreciate how he shared about the struggles to market to clients in those first few years.

We also dive deeper into the world of college planning as Mike has expertise in that planning area including integrating military benefits into paying for college. Mike talks about his process for clients and the tools and techniques he uses to help them make the best decisions for their families. This is one of the most emotionally charged topics in financial planning so you won’t want to miss his expertise! 

https://nextmissionfinancialplanning.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-hunsberger/

https://ronlieber.com/books/the-price-you-pay-for-college/

In this podcast episode, I’m joined by Stephanie Higgins to talk about her journey into the financial planning profession. As a military brat as well as military spouse, she has spent a great deal of time overseas so we talk about the challenges of employment and building a career while OCONUS. I love hearing about her personal journey of learning about finances as she took over her household money management and the blending of that with her prior career background and education in psychology. 

Stephanie shares how she pursued the AFC and MQFP as well as currently preparing for the CFP exam. Her persistence in networking and seeking opportunities has paid off throughout her career and I don’t want you to miss those parts of the story. We also chat about her current role as a paraplanner in a firm that specializes in expats with the parallels there from her own personal experiences. 

Lastly, she shares about her latest endeavors starting to do some financial coaching for expats and her career advice for other military spouses in similar positions of looking for work overseas. Her passion for this profession shines through and I know you will glean some helpful insights for your own career path! 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-higgins-afc-cfp/

https://www.connectedfinancialplanning.com/about

I’m excited to welcome Omen Quelvog to the podcast today. If his name sounds familiar to you, it’s because we have talked about him on this podcast before when Sean Gillespie and I chatted about the DoD Skillbridge program and how Omen was the first MFAA Skillbridge intern. We cover a lot of ground in this episode including Omen’s own financial experiences and love of spreadsheets and personal finance. 

I love the personal anecdotes and stories that Omen weaves in including how his own personal financial plan set him and his family up for options post-military life. As the first Skillbridge intern for MFAA, Omen was willing to be that guinea pig and his feedback, flexibility, and adaptability ultimately set him and the firm he worked for up for success.

We talk about the roles and responsibilities Omen had during those first few months working as an intern and how the challenges didn’t always line up with the expectations going in. Ultimately, Omen’s entire career trajectory changed as well with him staying on at Clear Insight Wealth Management in contrast to his initial plans. 

Be sure to listen towards the end for the self-examination and career advice that Omen shares about who is a likely good fit for an MFAA Skillbridge intern. Given the nature of most MFAA firms being small RIAs, it takes some adaptation and self-starting flexibility to succeed in these kinds of roles.

Omen also wants to extend an offer to connect if you were interested in learning more about his story or getting some perspective on your own career journey. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. If you are specifically interested in being a Skillbridge intern for MFAA, I encourage you to take a closer look at all the member firms to determine which of them you might be interested in working with and network from there. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/omenquelvog/

https://www.myciwm.com/about

We continue the recent theme of podcast listeners becoming podcast guests as I’m joined by Arcelia Wicker on the episode today. He is a financial planner at Bay Capital Advisors in the Virginia Beach area. 

We chat about his personal experiences of personal finances and how going through Financial Peace University helped him and his wife get their own financial house in order before going on to help host and teach the program for many years. When he realized that he would do that kind of work for free, it sparked an exploration of how to break into the world of financial advice and become the financial planner that he had always wanted.

Thanks to getting out of his comfort zone and networking with his local FPA and NAPFA groups, Arcelia built a support network that helped him find his own path. We talk about his educational experience through the American College CFP/ChFC program, how Hannah Moore’s externship gave practical and real-life examples of planning with clients, and how he balanced study time with active duty, family responsibilities, and prepping for the career transition.

I love Arcelia’s transparency across the lessons learned including how he ultimately passed the CFP exam, how he overcame a rescinded job offer, and his reframing of these setbacks. One of the things that struck me the most was how having his own financial house in order including being prepared to make their family lifestyle work post-military without a second income gave him the financial and mental capacity to wait for the right position. I know you can also find inspiration from his lessons learned and career advice.  

Arcelia also wants to extend an offer to connect if you are interested in learning more about his story or getting some perspective on your own career journey. You can connect with him on LinkedIn by checking the show notes for his profile.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arcelia-wicker-jr-chfc/

https://baycapitaladvice.com/

https://amplifiedplanning.com/externship/