December 26, 2024 • 59 mins
In this heartfelt and insightful episode of Money in the Military, host Joey Laswell brings his brother, Kenny Laswell, retired Master Sergeant of the Air Force, onto the show for an in-depth discussion about life in the military, personal finances, and transitioning to civilian life.
Highlights:
Kenny’s Military Journey: Kenny shares his story of joining the Air Force in 2003, motivated by a desire to create a better life for his growing family. Over a 20-year career, he served as a structures troop in the Civil Engineer Squadron, with five deployments under his belt.
Financial Wisdom: Kenny emphasizes the importance of living within your means and offers tips for saving during deployments, such as avoiding lifestyle inflation and taking advantage of tax-free bonuses. He reflects on how contributing more to his Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) earlier could have made a significant impact.
Transition to Civilian Life: Kenny discusses the challenges of transitioning from active duty to civilian life, including navigating federal job opportunities and finding affordable housing. He shares how his family temporarily lived in a camper to manage costs and adjusted their lifestyle to fit their retirement pay and savings.
Early Retirement Goals: Kenny outlines his dream of retiring at 55, enjoying hobbies like golfing and fishing, and focusing on his family. He also contemplates creating a foundation to support veterans, highlighting his dedication to giving back to the community.
Key Takeaways:
Discipline in finances is critical during and after military service.
Start preparing for separation or retirement at least a year in advance to build a financial cushion.
Be cautious with credit options like the military Star Card to avoid financial pitfalls.
The episode concludes with Kenny’s reflections on the values of functionality and balance, both financially and in life, and an inspiring message about the importance of veteran support. #veteransresources #personalfinance #financialfreedom #podcast #financialliteracy #veteransaffairs #federaljobs #financialindependence #fire #firemovement
Please join me on my different platforms and follow along my journey towards FIRE.
https://laswell.veteran.cards/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Iran, russia, china, northKorea, isis, al-qaeda they may
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Speaker 3 (01:48):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Find us on the web at mbradious Military.
I'm a certified financialsocial worker.
I was in the Air Force for 14years and then I paid off
$20,000 of debt while I wasactive duty within three years
as an E3.
So that's kind of like I gotreally into personal finance and
so I've been really passionateabout that ever since.
(02:19):
And that was 10, 12 years agonow.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a 12 years
ago now.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a certified
financial social worker.
So we kind of get into, youknow, dealing with finances, but
then also kind of dealing withthe psychology behind finances,
like the you know, the mentalside of things.
Go, feed the budget, go feedthe budget.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy when it comes
to finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
All right, hello everybody, this is Money in the
Military Brother Edition.
This is my name is Joey Laswelland I have my esteemed brother,
kenny Laswell, and I justthought this would be a fun
little thing to try and do, andyou know, and bring my brother
into the mix.
But you know he's technically Imean he's basically financially
(03:16):
independent and I just wantedto highlight his story, you know
, maybe showcase what it's liketo be retired military after 20
some odd years, and just kind oftalk about finances a little
bit and share his story and whatsuccesses that he's had along
the way.
So, mr Kenny, or Kenny Wu asyou're affectionately known as,
(03:43):
how are you doing?
Doing well?
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, man, of course.
Of course Got to keep it in thefamily.
So, since the audience doesn'treally know much about you you
don't have really any socialmedia presence.
You're like a ghost out there.
Tell us a little bit about yourmilitary history or what
(04:05):
inspired you to join themilitary, and we can kind of
take it from there.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
All right, good evening.
I'm Master Sergeant KennethLaswell, retired Air Force.
I joined in 03, retired lastyear.
I was Structures Tro,structures, troop A3.
We were part of the civilengineer squadron, moved around
quite a bit, deployed five times.
(04:31):
I'm kind of nervous for somereason.
But really the reason I wantedto join was because I kind of
already had a militarybackground, because dad was in
the Marine Corps.
This is weird.
I just got nervous all of asudden.
But at the time my fiance waspregnant and really wasn't doing
(05:01):
much, so I saw an opportunityto kind of jump into something,
not really knowing what I wasgetting into, but it turned out
to be the best decision I'veever made.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Nice, yeah, I mean, I mean I've seen it firsthand,
you know the transformation andeverything that is done for you,
and I mean I've alreadymentioned it in previous
episodes but you, you were theinspiration for me to join the
Air Force, you know, because Isaw everything that it had done
for you and I was like, well,you know Kenny's doing really
well, I should do the same thing, you know.
(05:34):
So you, technically, yeah, youinspired me by you doing what
you did and serving the countryyourself.
So I just want to say thank youfor that.
Thanks.
So we got Amber Amber.
Amber, amber we have commentalready.
So amber from uh into the weedspodcast says hello with the fun
(05:54):
little uh alien emoji.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
So thanks homage to the drones in the northeast uh,
maybe, maybe.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Well, she, her, her podcast is very much about you
know, paranormal, she talksabout ufos and you know things
like that.
So she's got a really cool show.
Another mbr special.
So check out mbr if you have uh, if you have some time got some
very interesting and variouscontent out there for all your
um consumption needs.
(06:22):
So a little plug for m.
I wouldn't be here without youguys.
So, thank you, mbr.
All right, so, yeah, you joined2003,.
You know, wanted a better life.
How was that early period oftime for you in the Air Force?
Was it like E2, e3, or how didthat work out for you?
E2, e3, or how did that workout for you?
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Yeah, so I signed up for six so that was
automatically E3 once Igraduated tech school.
It was kind of weird becausesorry, because I wore the A1C, I
wore the two stripes allthrough tech school but I didn't
(07:04):
get paid that until I actuallygraduated.
I think that's how it worked.
I don't remember, but it wassomething like that, or maybe it
was upon graduation of basic, Ican't remember.
Um sounds about right, but yeah,I mean early, early on.
You know we had three youngkids living in base housing at
(07:25):
Luke Air Force Base.
You know we kind of look backat it now and kind of wonder how
we did it, because we did havecar payments.
You know we had two carpayments and we had the cable.
We had cable television, didn'thave much stuff, but but uh,
you know, we it wasn't astruggle, you know, and I think,
(07:48):
um, to really be successful,you know, in what you're getting
paid is, you know, livingwithin your means.
So and I I think we did a goodjob of that.
You know, if it was somethingthat we wanted, we didn't
necessarily have to get.
You know we waited or saved up.
(08:11):
But we also had credit cards,you know, to kind of help offset
some expenses, especially ifthey were bigger expenses,
especially if they were bigger.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
You just got to pay your bills and live within your
means.
So you said you had fivedeployments under your belt.
I wanted to talk a little bitabout deployment finances, since
you had so much experience withthem.
What are some tips or tricksthat you did that kind of helped
save some money?
Maybe you could talk to acurrent deployed member right
now.
What would you say?
You know, to kind of help themwith their finances while
(08:53):
they're deployed.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
Well, it's obviously it'd be a good opportunity to
save because, you know,depending on what zone you're at
, it could be combat or tax-free.
And then there's different kindof pay, like combat pay, you
know, depends on where you're at, obviously.
But if you're mostly at asupport location like the DEED
(09:16):
or Kuwait or something like that, you know that's just a great
opportunity to save becausereally you know you're still
going to have your bills thatyou're going to have to pay for.
You know, if you have a autoloan or something like that, or
mortgage, but it's definitely agood time to try to put back
(09:38):
what you can because you're notgoing shopping.
You know brick and and mortaryou can't really do that much.
Of course they're.
You know online has gotten realpopular online shopping, so
there's still that that way tospend money.
But you know it's just takeskind of willpower and discipline
(10:02):
internal to you know say, hey,I want to achieve some goals, I
want to save.
We just kind of like, personally, we just didn't change our
spending habits, you know eventhough there was, uh, extra pay
in there, whether you elected toreceive it during your
(10:22):
employment or lump sum wheneveryou're done.
Um, you know, it's just kind ofthe same thing live within your
means, don't splurge.
Only splurge when you can, butwe just kind of just live the
same, you know yeah, nolifestyle, no lifestyle,
(10:43):
inflation or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Right, right.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Exactly.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
Yeah, you got to stay the course, live within your
means.
That's something that we talkabout a lot on the show.
But obviously, yeah, you dosplurge sometimes.
It's okay, you earn the moneyand you deserve to enjoy
yourself, enjoy your time, butyeah, obviously, doing it
responsibly, just like anythingelse.
That's kind of the goldenmessage.
(11:05):
But so with your deploymentmoney, can you give us a little
bit of like?
I heard there you know, I thinkyou did this right where you,
if you reenlist while you'redeployed, then you can do that
like tax free if you get like abonus.
Is that right, yeah?
Speaker 7 (11:27):
um, I don't think they're giving them out much
anymore because we were soovermanned, you know, of course,
but, um, my, my career fieldand other career fields and ce,
um, they, what the Air Force didis they realized, hey, we have
too many people.
(11:47):
So you know, we're going to.
I don't know if there, I can'tremember if there was incentives
or anything, but essentially,you know they there weren't any
bonuses or anything.
So they were wanting people toseparate when their time was up
(12:14):
and you know if.
And once they did that, youknow they too many people got
out.
So, in order to try to recruitand retain people to stay in,
they started giving these SRBssselective re-enlistment bonuses
and, um, you know, if your timecame and you re-enlisted in that
zone where you know taxexclusion, combat, whatever it
(12:38):
was, then yeah, you would beable to get that tax Nice.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
And you were able to do that right, At least once.
I don't think so, oh you weretalking about it at one point I
thought you did it.
But yeah, it's just somethingthat I wanted to highlight, that
in the military you do havekind of unique situations like
that Financially.
You know, a lot of people don'tknow what they should do with
like a lump sum like that, andif it's tax-free that's just
(13:10):
more money in your pocket, uh.
So it kind of, you know youhave to thread the needle to do
that, but it is possible.
Um, so when you're you were asupervisor, e7 right, and you
had to counsel, you know, airmen, I'm assuming with uh, with
their their life, their lifestuff you Did you ever have to
counsel anyone with theirfinances?
Any young people?
Speaker 7 (13:30):
Not that I can remember off the top of my head,
of course, the military starcard.
It's a big one, because ifthere was a delinquent payment
or something, that goesautomatically to the first
sergeant or the commandercommander, first sergeant, one
of those.
So you know that was I guess acommon problem.
(13:54):
But you know, I wouldn'tnecessarily say that I had to
counsel somebody because theywere terrible finances you know,
mean stuff happens.
Maybe they just forgot to pay.
But, um, you know, in that, inthat field of finances, you know
it's like hey, make sure youpay your, your star card,
(14:17):
because it's automatic goes toyour leadership yeah, for those
that know what a star card is,it's a military star.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
It's like a basic, it's like a credit card.
That, um, that military members.
Is it just air force or is itall military?
I think it's all militarymembers, right yeah, I'm not
sure okay, uh, yeah.
Well, it's like a credit cardthat you can use on base uh at
different establishments and youcan kind of use it to build
your credit.
But it's also kind of trickybecause it's sometimes young
(14:48):
people's first instance ofcredit and they don't know how
to necessarily use it properly.
And they get you with that 10%discount on your first purchase.
So, a lot of people yeah, a lotof people, got sucked in by that
.
I think I did too, honestly ifI'm looking back on it, but,
(15:10):
yeah, like 10% off your firstpurchase, and then you know the,
you know, basically, you, theywould give you a decent, decent
amount like credit limitsometimes.
And next thing, you know youhave this, you know e3 living in
the dorms that has a fullyracked up star card and they
can't make the payments, youknow.
So that's this my, uh, my,public service announcement for
(15:36):
the military members right now,if you have a star card, use it
cautiously please, because, like, like kenny said, you know, if
you start messing up with yourstar card, then then your chain
of command is going to knowabout it and, uh, you will, you
will have to pay that back, so,and you'll probably get in
trouble too.
(15:57):
Um, all right, well, uh, Iwanted to, uh, to kind of talk
to you a little bit maybe.
Well, let's see, I think weactually have to do a little bit
of a commercial break.
So, uh, we'll play some musicand uh, and then kind of come
back and talk some more later.
But, uh, I wanted to highlight,uh, I usually, I almost always
(16:20):
play this guy, noel Peterson,but uh, I'm working with him to
try to get some of it.
He's got a new album out, um,so I just wanted to highlight
he's a Marine Corps veteranbased out of San Antonio.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
He plays really, really cool fun music and, um, I
always, I always play stuff, sono-transcript opinions
(19:37):
expressed in this program arethose of the speakers and do not
necessarily reflect the viewsor positions of any entities
they represent.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
All right, we are back.
This is Money in the MilitaryBrother Edition on Military
Broadcast Radio, where we'regiving veterans a voice.
And a veteran that we arechoosing to give our voice to
today, at least for me, is mybrother, retired Master Sergeant
21 years, 20 years, cestructures.
(20:14):
So I did want to um, you know,just thank you for your service
to the country and appreciate,you know, everything that you've
done.
Um, so yeah.
So I wanted to talk a littlebit about you know, some some
lessons learned, maybe duringactive duty, but then eventually
I would like to talk about yourtransition to the civilian
world after retirement.
(20:35):
How did you make the financialtransition?
So anything that you learnwhile you're active duty
financially that you would liketo impart upon, maybe someone
who's in the active duty rightnow Maybe they want to retire.
If you had to do it over again,is there anything differently
(20:55):
that you would do financially?
Speaker 7 (20:57):
yeah, I would have, um, I think I would have
contributed more to my tsp.
Okay, I did five percent forabout, I'd say, 18 years, 19
years.
I didn't do it immediately, Ikind of just ignorantly.
You know, I didn't knowanything about it, I just knew,
(21:18):
you know, like a kind of like a401k right.
But you know I was like, well,it sounds pretty decent, I'll
just kind of contribute what Ican and I think the first couple
of years, you know, it may havejust only been one or two
percent and then I just did fivepercent.
(21:43):
You know, whenever probably E4,e5, and just kept it at five
percent.
You know, with promotions andthings like that, you know
whenever you hit every two yearsyou get a pay increase because
your years of service.
You know it had been, I think,looking back, that's probably
the one thing I wish I wouldhave done was just contribute
more, because I could have.
(22:03):
I could have done more than 5%and you know, not everybody can
Right Right.
But, um, you know, in in mysituation I could have done a
little more, and I wish I wouldhave done that.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
Well, what percentage ?
Speaker 6 (22:16):
would you?
Would you recommend?
Speaker 7 (22:16):
You know, not five, but it's hard to say.
Or if you had to do it overagain.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
What percentage would you put it at?
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Somewhere between five and ten, okay, and maybe
during those deployments orwhatever, maybe jump it up, jump
it up a little bit yeah, or 12or something, because that extra
money, you know, could havebeen going toward the TSP or
something, right, but yeah,that's the only thing.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Okay, I mean that's good.
Hopefully that resonates withsomebody out there who's active
duty right now.
You know, like, take it fromsomebody who's active duty right
now, you know, like, take it,take it from somebody who's, you
know, retired.
Uh, you know, and basicallythey wish, they wish they had
done a little bit more.
It's a lot of people feel thatway, you know, when they get a
little bit older, they start tolook back on all the time that
(23:10):
they could have been compoundingand growing and you know, you
kind of realize that a littlelate in the game sometimes.
So yeah, that's good advice.
We actually got a comment fromJose Flores, the Motivated
Mindset.
Hello, joey.
So another MBR host there,motivated Mindset.
(23:30):
Really great energy from Jose.
He's awesome.
I had him on my show once and,oh man, he's just, he's just a
bundle of energy.
So, yeah, definitely check outhis, his show.
Great stuff there.
All right, so we were talkingabout active duty.
Um, let's talk a little bitabout your transition to the
civilian world.
Um, what would you say?
(23:52):
Like I, I guess, financiallyspeaking, you know, you're
probably to the point where youguys could.
You wouldn't have to worknecessarily, but you choose to
work.
Is that accurate?
Speaker 7 (24:04):
Yeah, that's accurate .
But you know I didn't know whatmy disability rating was going
to be.
So whenever you know, I didretire, see, I retired on.
Well, 1 October 23 is my actualretirement day.
So my last duty day was 30September.
But I had enough leave saved upand you know you get permissive
(24:28):
house hunting days and I thinkthere's like a separation type
leave or something I can'tremember exactly.
But so I had about's like aseparation type leave or
something.
I can't remember exactly.
But so I had about three and ahalf months of leave and all
that where I took before Iretired.
So my last day in uniform wasMay the 12th.
(24:51):
I'm pretty sure that's when Ifinal out, when I final outed of
the Air Force, may the 12th, 23.
And we, you know, moved, got outof the house.
I was stationed at MountainHome Air Force Base.
I loved it there.
I'd go back there.
The family kind of got old,they grew old on them.
(25:12):
But anyways, you know we, wemoved from Idaho to Mississippi.
That's my home of record.
I graduated, you know, 40minutes north of here.
My in-laws live close.
So we decided on Mississippi,which, you know cost of living
is pretty low in the state, sokind of factoring everything in
(25:39):
retirement E7 with 20 years, youknow, I think it's like $2,500,
$2,600, something like that,and projecting jobs and salary
without knowing disabilityrating Cause you know I was
(26:01):
going through all that.
Uh, once we moved back, uh, youknow, it.
it actually started when I wasin Idaho, but you don't get the
actual rating for after youretire, right?
So for those three and a halfmonths, you know I was receiving
active duty pay from the AirForce.
(26:22):
But yeah, during that timewe're trying to figure out.
You know what we're going to do.
We basically essentially wekind of set the blueprint of
finances on retirement and asoft projection annual salary
(26:45):
based on what was availablearound here.
Speaker 6 (26:48):
Right.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
You know, I have my CCAF but I'm still working on a
bachelor's degree.
But I'm still working on abachelor's degree.
So kind of job searching, doingsome figuring, you know we were
kind of looking at 30 to 40,000a year, you know, and based off
(27:11):
those numbers plus retirement,we kind of made a decision.
We bought a house we actuallylived in.
We bought a camper, financed acamper and lived in that camper
for a couple months on myin-laws' property while we were
trying to figure out where wewere going to live.
(27:32):
So we didn't incorporate anykind of disability, you know it
was all up in the air at thatpoint.
So we bought a house based offthe retirement, which was 100
you know we knew that was goingto come in and a projected
(27:53):
annual salary with both of usworking yeah that's where you
know we found the house that welive in now.
Of course, interest rates werepretty high at that time but, um
, you know it was just withinour means.
I'm probably going to say thata lot, but you know we purchased
(28:16):
a house that was going to bewithin our means, which was
retirement pay and projectedannual salary, but then whenever
I got the disability rating Igot 100%.
So it's just kind of extra.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
So it's, yeah, we could afford more, but you know,
just functionality, I guess, ifyou will, yeah, a modest house
that fits your needs, but it'snot anything more than you need,
which is a really smartdecision, and you know you had
mentioned living in a camper fora couple of months.
(28:56):
I wanted to highlight thepost-retirement or
post-separation transitionperiod and how delicate of a
dance that can be sometimesfinancially.
Was there anything that youguys did during the transition
period or any advice that youwould give to somebody who's
maybe soon to retire?
Speaker 7 (29:22):
soon to transition out.
You know any kind of goodadvice you got.
So I mean, just try to try tofind stuff you know that you can
afford.
Yeah, the camper, we we didthink we were expecting to live
in the camper a little longerthan we did, but the winter came
(29:42):
.
The winter was coming and ouryoungest daughter, naomi, you
know she was staying at thein-laws house, which I mean
we're staying on there in theirbackyard essentially, but there
was that, um, separation that wedidn't like.
So, you know, we kind of Iwouldn't say rushed sometimes I
(30:05):
feel like we rushed into thehouse, but, um, yeah, I mean the
only advice would just be youknow, really look at your
finances, know what you couldafford and live that way.
And it might be rough at firstyou know, but you know, maybe
you get a good paying job andyou can get something that you
(30:29):
desire.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Yeah, we actually got a comment from Jose.
He says I recall when I wasretiring it was terrifying.
I had stayed a year out gettingready to retire.
It was for me where I was goingto retire was the DMV area.
I figured out what GS level Ineeded as an admin to maintain
(30:50):
my same pay.
I was in quality of life forhim.
It worked out and retired on afriday on terminal leave,
started to work on monday.
I did have six months emergencypay just in case.
So that's a pretty, it's apretty good transition right
there.
You know, um, not everyone getsto to go right into federal job
.
Um, which is something thatyou've actually looked into as
(31:12):
well.
Right, trying to get intofederal position yeah, yeah,
that's what I suppose.
Speaker 7 (31:16):
They got.
Lucky there ain't there, ain'tcrap around here oh man, yeah
it's tough.
Speaker 6 (31:22):
It's tough like uh it .
And then there's like a hiringfreeze now and there's all kinds
of stuff.
But yeah, um, yeah, that's uh.
I mean he did have a six-monthemergency, um, just in case.
So that's, that's a huge oneright there.
And I would definitely advocatefor people who are separating
to have a cushion, like anactual legit cushion, because
(31:45):
you never know, there's so manyunknowns when you separate from
the military.
So just yeah, jose does comment, he says I was lucky.
So Jose does comment he says Iwas lucky.
So Jose admits it.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
You know, whenever you're separating or retiring,
you have to do tap and all thatso and I think it's very harped
upon in there as well.
I think six months is actuallyyou know the term used six
months of savings, and I thinkthat's really good advice.
I don't think I I don't thinkwe had that much.
(32:17):
I think we probably had likethree and a half four months,
you know.
but we knew that the retirementcheck was gonna was gonna come
in, so, and plus, livingessentially rent free, you know,
in the camper, with campers,you know you can do a long,
longer loan and your paymentsaren't that bad.
(32:38):
Uh, but you know we got, wewere lucky on that because we
were just on the in-lawsproperty.
If you have to go to acampground, you know, I think
it's depends on where you're at,but maybe five to $700 a month,
you know.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
so yeah, that adds up and I look, I, we, we looked
into that at one point too, wasgetting an RV or like a tiny
home or something, and just tokind of, you know, a little
alternative living and maybe tryto save some money.
It didn't work out but, uh,yeah, rv living for some people
is is where it's at, they reallylike that.
(33:12):
So, um, well, that's good stuff.
Um, I really appreciate you.
Uh, you know, um sharing yourstory.
We're going to take, uh,another quick musical break and,
uh, we'll be back and we'lltalk.
Um, you know, we'll just kindof we'll talk about the, the
civilian life, and maybe you cangive some advice on on the
(33:34):
transition and, um, you know,help out some fellow soldiers
and airmen and and whatnot, so,uh, so, yeah, we'll come back.
Uh, this is going to be anotherNoah Peterson song, Um, and
(35:49):
we'll be back right after that,thank you.
Speaker 8 (35:51):
Thank you, military broadcast radio, the station
that's giving veterans a voicefind us on the web at mbradious
opinions expressed in thisprogram are those of the
speakers and do not necessarilyreflect the All right, hello
(36:21):
everyone, we are back.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
This is Money.
In the Military Brother Editionwe got Kenny Wu Laswell.
I'm sure there's a story behindthe Kenny Wu nickname.
A lot of people know you asKenny Wu and they only know you
as Kenny Wu.
Well, can you give us a littlebrief recap on where the Kenny
Wu came from?
Just a nickname in school.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
You know, there's obvious some Asian-ness in my
face.
And you know Corinth HighSchool, there weren't too many
Asians Fair enough.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
yeah, but you were also a big Wu-Tang fan at the
time too, right?
Wasn't that an influence?
Speaker 7 (37:02):
No, not really really , it was just.
It was just a name, kenny woo,I guess it flowed well off the
tongue and, um, yeah, just kindof stuck.
I used it.
I used it, uh, probably likethe first year of of operational
air force.
You know, at luke I I used itand then I, I guess I kind of
(37:24):
just grew up and was like yeah,I'm not kenny woo anymore right.
Speaker 6 (37:29):
Well, yeah, I mean that my, my nickname from high
school was joe cat, um, andthere are still some people that
might think of me as joe cat,which is fine, but you know, um,
not not really my first choiceof nicknames, but, uh, it was a,
it was a, an endearing nickname, I guess, but, um, I do love
cats.
(37:49):
So there is that, um, that wasunintended, but I wasn't why I
was joe cat anyways.
So, yeah, just a little uh,backstory about the laswell
brothers.
Um, I did want to talk or ask alittle bit about your.
You talk or ask a little bitabout your.
You know, we talked a littlebit about your transition.
Now you're a civilian, you'rejust a full on civilian, you
(38:12):
know, is there any lessons oranything that you've learned
going from active duty tocivilian life as far as finances
go?
Was there any good lessons thatyou learned in that process or
what you would, you know, help?
How would you help someone elsethat's going through a similar
situation?
Speaker 7 (38:33):
um, I, I would just say, yeah, make sure you have
money saved up, because younever know what can happen.
Um, you know, you, I kind oflucked up and got a job.
It's not the job that I, I kindof jumped on the job for one
because they were the only onethat could contact me back so uh
(38:54):
, you know I work at a statehospital, kind of three, three
small facilities doingmaintenance, um, which was kind
of what I did facilitymaintenance in the Air Force.
But you know, if I was trying to, if I was really wanting to be
(39:15):
picky about where I wanted towork, then you know we would
have had to live off thoseemergency funds.
As Jose said, pretty muchsavings until either A I had to
just chew on whatever I had toget or have the spouse work and
(39:38):
live off her income.
But then that probably dictateswell, we can't purchase a home
yet, we're gonna have to live inthe camper travel trailer, you
know, things like that.
Um, but yeah, I don't know.
I just have have money saved up.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
You don't know if you're gonna have steady income
yeah, absolutely, and that'swhere I'm hoping that
transitioning service memberswill take heed of this.
Like, if you're going toseparate, like a year out, at
least you know, start gettingyour finances in order.
You know cause it's.
It's a, it's a tall order.
You know you're losing yourhealthcare, you're losing
(40:18):
housing, you're losing foodallowance here.
You know there's so much thatthat goes into what you're
losing and a lot of times youdon't even realize you're losing
it until you have to actuallypay for it.
And you, you're lucky enoughyou don't have to pay for health
insurance.
But I do and that's I've talkedabout it in previous episodes
that health insurance on thecivilian side it's not cheap and
(40:39):
it's definitely not free.
So you got to factor that intoyour financial picture, you know
.
Speaker 7 (40:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:45):
So yeah, that's just a lesson, lesson that I've
learned.
The hard way is you know those,those costs add up very quickly
.
But yeah, you got to.
You got a nice state job, rightState of Mississippi, which is
kind of it's really nice, good,you know, good, solid foundation
.
So you're going to try to workthere for a few years, get
(41:06):
vested and then retire fromthere?
Speaker 7 (41:12):
probably, yeah, you know I wouldn't call it a goal,
but the wish would be to retireat 55, which is another 12 years
, yeah, 11.
How old am I?
Yeah, 43.
43.
Yeah, so I've been there for,like I said, they were the only
(41:37):
ones that called me back, and soI've been working there since
August of 2023.
There's Allison there sinceaugust of 2023, there's allison
and um, so I've been there for ayear and four months roughly uh
so you know, I told mysupervisor I said I'll give you
six months, I'll promise you sixmonths of employment.
I'll stay here for six monthsand but I am going to be looking
(41:59):
because I really wanted to gofederal.
But you know, the federal jobmarket around here is very, very
thin.
In Tupelo, I think there's someSocial Security, you know
offices or something.
Department of Treasury, I thinkthere was a few.
You know positions there.
(42:22):
But Columbus Air Force Base,small training, pilot training
base, it's about an hour awayfrom me.
I was looking hard at Columbus.
The Natchez Trace is a federalhighway that runs through
(42:45):
Mississippi and the federal land.
It's, you know, it's Departmentof Interior and there were some
job openings there.
Where I applied, you know Iused veterans preference things
like that.
But the problem and this is justan assumption, but um, you know
(43:10):
, it was doing maintenance and Iwas like, essentially I'm in my
mind, I'm like I'm a for thisjob right I did this for 20
years active duty air force.
I'm a shoo-in so I never, Inever got selected the same job
open again and I applied, didn'tget selected.
(43:33):
So I think, uh, I think what itis.
You know it's a good old boy,it's an assumption, right?
but you know, whenever you're insmall town, yeah you know
that's the only thing I could umchalk it up to.
So you know I went, I wentafter that.
Then I went after somepositions in columbus.
Didn't get hired on, you know,maybe it was the resume.
(43:56):
I don't know, it could have beenbut, um, just being retired
master sergeant, I kind ofexpected to be able to get a
federal job pretty easy.
Not because I was a retiredmaster sergeant, but you know,
usually a master sergeant youhave some years of experience,
you know you have the tacticallevel, then you have some
(44:17):
supervisory experience, then youhave some management experience
.
So you know, I just I thought Iwould get a federal job pretty
quick.
And when that didn't happen,you know six months goes by my
current job.
I told Matt, hey, six months.
But you know, here's monthseven, month eight.
It didn't look promising.
So at some point I just saidyou know what I'm done, I'm not
(44:42):
going to try to go federal.
You know I've got about a yearhere.
If I just said you know whatI'm done, I'm not going to try
to go federal, you know I've gotabout a year here.
If I just do seven more yearsI'll be a vested employee.
And that's where I could receivebenefits monetary benefits.
Speaker 6 (45:00):
So yeah, that was kind of I think that's what I'm
going to do.
Yeah, so and so, retired at 55,that's, that's early retirement
, you know, uh, you're stillgoing to be gainfully employed
for the next few years.
Um, what, what does retirementlook like for you?
Like early retirement?
What are you going to do withyour time?
I'm just curious.
Speaker 7 (45:18):
Uh, I like to golf Fish.
Speaker 6 (45:25):
You're talking about when I retire?
Speaker 7 (45:27):
Yeah, when you early retire at 55, what's your game
plan?
Just hang out, drink some coldbeers.
Speaker 6 (45:37):
All right, that's living the life.
We actually got a few commentscoming in.
Jose followed up.
For me, the hardest part ofgetting a government job is
being selected Understand howUSA Jobs works and how to make
sure your application stands out.
In my case I had top secretclearance and that's got me in
the door.
The rest was up to me.
(45:58):
And how to interview this isthe key to get the job.
And know how to sell yourselfand why you are a best person
for that job.
And you know that's somethingthey cover in TAP a little bit
or TAPs.
You know, like the transitiondrop, interview prep and things
like that.
But you know the federal hiringis a beast, you know it's just
(46:18):
there's no way around it.
So, yeah, jose also commentsthat there are some remote
government jobs that you canlook into to get your foot in
the door.
Yeah, that would be nice.
And Kenny says Kenny,organizations like Wounded
Warrior Project can help youwith your resume.
So hey, there you go.
Wounded Warrior Project cantweak that resume if you really
(46:39):
wanted to.
You know, push for the federaldown the road.
You still could.
Um.
And then we got um tanya grantfrom linkedin.
Hey, guys, came across this byaccident.
Let me know how I can stay inthe loop.
Cool show, all right.
Well, thanks for the shout out,tanya.
You know it's a.
You know good brother chemistrywe've got going on here.
(47:02):
Wow, early retirement, that'skind of the whole goal of this
show is to try to get people tothink about early retirement.
It's not for everybodymathematically, it's not
necessarily for everybody.
It is a math problem.
It's a math equation,essentially in reverse, where
(47:24):
you need a certain amount ofmoney to live off of every month
, every year, and if you canmathematically have a nest egg
that pays you that money, thenyou can mathematically retire.
Now, one thing that is in theearly retirement community is
what does retirement look like?
Because we have this idea ofdoes retirement look like?
You know, because we have this,this idea of what retirement
(47:45):
looks like, but for every personthat's different.
You know you retire at 55.
You know you get 10 years to doum, you know where other people
are still working.
You basically have theflexibility to do whatever you
want.
You know, um, some people liketo do, they like to volunteer.
Some people like to just relaxand hang like to volunteer.
Some people like to just relaxand hang out and and, uh, do all
(48:06):
you know, just just be, justnot have to work.
You know that's kind of thewhole point of the retirement.
But uh, some people actuallylike to work, you know, so
they'll, they'll do a variationor you know they'll get a summer
job type of thing or seasonaljob, just for socialization and
bringing a little extra money.
(48:27):
But that's where you kind ofhave to define what retirement
is going to look like for you.
So that's why I was curiouswhat you had lined up or
envisioned in your mind's eyeabout what is early retirement
going to look like for you well,I think it was just gonna be.
Speaker 7 (48:47):
55 was just a wish, because you know what, just like
a number that you picked, kindof thing yeah, you know, um, to
still kind of enjoy, you know,because you start getting older
you know, with the, with my hips, you know I got bad hips, my
rotator cuffs torn, um.
(49:10):
So you know, like these arethings that you know when a
retirement like when I say golfand fish, things that I hope I
can still do at 55 you knowthere's no problem now, yeah,
their pain flares up and stufflike that.
But you know, if I wait anyolder, any older than that, then
you know there might not be theopportunity to do those things.
(49:30):
So 55, I think is just the agewhere you can still go out and
be active and enjoy things.
And I think by 55, you knowjust financially, you know it'd
be doable.
You know we still have naomi athome.
(49:50):
Um, she's third, she'll be 13in march.
Uh, you know, just just kind ofgoing off historical patterns
from the other kids, you knowshe'll probably be gone at eight
, between 18 and 20 or something.
Um, you know they'll.
They'll put me at 50, 51, 52,um, and I think nester what's
(50:17):
that?
you'll be an empty nester yeah,be an empty nester and, uh, you
by 55, maybe we'll be able toput more away because maybe
she'll be financially on her own, which the kids are pretty much
there we help.
(50:39):
Callie out with the car.
But you know they still receivehelp but for the most part
they're financially straight,you know.
Speaker 6 (50:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7 (50:51):
Or financially doing it I'll say, I wouldn't say
straight Financially doing it.
Speaker 6 (51:07):
Well, you know, like that's, the tricky part of, you
know, raising kids is that youwant them to be self-sufficient,
but you don't want you don'twant to just cut them off
completely.
So it sounds like you'refinding that balance, uh,
yourself.
So that's awesome.
I really, um, you know, thishas been a great conversation.
I really hope, uh, somebodytook some things from this.
Um got some great comments fromJose and um, I was going to ask
you something, um, oh, you know.
(51:28):
So, so, going off of the earlyretirement conversation, kind of
thing, but like, uh, let's sayyou win, win the lottery and you
literally don't need any money,like, what do you?
What do you, uh, what are yougoing to put your money into?
What are you going to do withyour time?
Speaker 7 (51:47):
Well, you know, I've never really done.
Well, I haven't, I haven't doneum, what is that investing
investments?
I haven't.
You know, the tsp kind of doesthat, depending on which index
fund you put it in, or whatever,um, but as far as like actually
playing investment, personmarket yeah, I have.
(52:08):
I've never done that.
Um, that's probably something Imight look into, obviously
through probably, you know, likeedward jones or something like
that, because I don't, I don'tthink I have the interesting
being interested in the factorto do that you know, and it
(52:30):
would probably be more like ahobby.
I wouldn't really try to basefuture finances off that, but
it's probably something I woulddabble in a little.
What was your?
Speaker 6 (52:46):
question what would you do like if you didn't have
to work at completely?
You had all this money in theworld.
Like what would you?
Speaker 7 (52:52):
do.
Oh yeah, you know, the, therational, smart me would say
keep working you.
It's a good job, it's decentpay for around here.
You know there's perks.
I work with cool people.
It's a pretty easy job.
Let's just say that it's apretty easy job.
(53:13):
So I think it would be dumb toleave.
But I mean, if you don't haveto work for the rest of your
life, you know why.
So that's a tough question.
It's a good hypotheticalquestion.
Speaker 6 (53:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (53:30):
I think the rational thinking me would say you know,
still work.
But then, like, the other partof me is like why?
You know why do you want towake up early and go into?
Speaker 6 (53:43):
work right.
But it's like if you had, uhlike, if you were to create like
um on or um like a foundationlet's say you had the money to
create a foundation that youwould give, give back to the
community what kind offoundation would you?
Would you start?
Speaker 7 (54:01):
well, it would probably be for veterans.
Um, you know, just throughgenerations, you know we've
we've known or we've been a partof that.
Um, you know, uncle tim servedtoo.
So there's just, uh, it wouldbe toward veterans.
You know something that maybeimprove toward veterans?
(54:27):
You know something that maybeimprove the community some way?
Speaker 6 (54:30):
yeah, but you know veterans, because there's a lot
of veterans around here.
Speaker 7 (54:32):
Yeah, um so yeah, it would be definitely something to
do.
Speaker 6 (54:34):
Veterans nice, okay.
Well, maybe that'll be ourjoint effort.
Together we create anorganization for veterans.
That'll be our legacy, sure.
So we got a couple morecomments from Jose.
He says I have Edward Jones,they're very good, very good.
(54:55):
There you go, something to lookinto.
And Jose also says Kenny, thankyou for sharing Great meeting
you.
Speaker 7 (55:01):
Yeah, same to you, Jose.
Speaker 6 (55:03):
Yeah, jose's good people and I think he's just a
bundle of energy, even on thechats he's all over the place,
but I love it.
Thanks, jose, I reallyappreciate it.
It looks like the clock isticking.
We've got just a few moreminutes left.
We covered a lot of ticking.
(55:25):
We've got just a few moreminutes left.
You know just, we covered a lotof ground we covered.
You know your Air Force history.
You know some of your financialnuggets that you've kind of
accumulated over the years.
Yeah, and then we talked aboutyour transition to the civilian
world and you know some of yourfuture hopes and aspirations of
(55:46):
what your rich life is going tolook like.
So you know, I reallyappreciate you taking the time
to.
You know, to humor me, I kindof threw this on you last minute
and you agreed and I appreciatethat and you know, just want to
say thanks.
Speaker 7 (56:04):
It's been an experience.
Speaker 6 (56:05):
Yeah, yeah, but you got any last-minute nuggets,
anything that came to your mindafter the fact that you wanted
to share or impart.
Speaker 7 (56:18):
No, I would just say, like I said at the beginning,
if you want to be at a fairlygood spot financially, you have
to live within your means.
You know you just have to.
You can't, you know it's.
Can we afford better thingsthan we have?
Yes, but that doesn'tnecessarily mean that we need to
(56:40):
buy them.
Functionality I like sayingfunctionality Save what you can
Really be disciplined with yourspending and with your saving.
I think in the future, ifsomething happened where you
(57:00):
needed to lean on savings orwhatever the case may be, and
you'll be able to do it.
Speaker 6 (57:08):
Yeah, awesome.
Well, we actually got one lastcomment from Tanya.
Call me before you go to EdwardJones, kenny, I would love to
hear more about the differentsectors of government benefits.
It seems that it varies.
The government employees thatI've serviced have different
variations depending on thelocation.
Thanks, joey and Kenny, for agreat talking point.
(57:30):
So, yeah, so I guess you know.
Maybe she wants to.
You know she would like for youto, instead of going to Edward
Jones sounds like she would likefor you to work with her.
So if you're interested inconnecting with Tanya, uh, we'll
, we'll, we'll get that set up.
And, um, yeah, just get aninteresting comment, uh, from
(57:52):
Tanya.
She says thanks, guys, goodnight, all right, well, thank
you, tanya, for joining in,thanks everybody else for
joining in as well.
You guys made a great show, andI just want to say thanks to
MBR, thanks to all the veteransthat were out there, all the
social workers out there, andthank you once again to Kenny Wu
(58:16):
and Team Laswell.
We're just two brothers tryingto make it in this world All
right.
Well, that's going to make it inthis world All right.
Well, that's going to be it forthe stream.
I really appreciate it onceagain and we'll catch you guys,
I guess, around next year.
So, happy 2025.
(58:36):
Happy New Year's.
Hope you guys had a happyholidays and we'll talk to you
guys later.
Speaker 3 (58:45):
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to
Military Broadcast Radio as wewrap up today's show, we want to
remind you that the podcast oftoday's episode will be
available right after we go offthe air, so if you missed any
part of the show or want tolisten again, be sure to check
(59:07):
it out.
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter and we are committed to
giving you a platform to sharethem.
That's right.
We're here to give you aplatform to share them.
That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice.
So don't forget to catch thepodcast and stay connected with
(59:30):
us Giving our veterans a voice.
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
This entire military is one cohesive, dedicated force
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And the threats to our nations?
They don't sleep.
They're watching our every move.
Iran, russia, china, northKorea, isis, al-qaeda they may
be watching this right now.
Our military should not bemistaken for our cable news gab
(01:01):
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We don't care what you looklike.
We don't care who you voted for, who you worship, what you
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It doesn't matter if your dadleft you millions when he died
or if you knew who your fatherwas.
We have been honed into amachine of lethal moving parts
that you would be wise to avoid.
(01:23):
If you know what's good for you, we will not be intimidated.
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We don't want war, but if youwant war with the United States
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raise your sons and daughters.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
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Speaker 5 (01:58):
Find us on the web at mbradious Military.
I'm a certified financialsocial worker.
I was in the Air Force for 14years and then I paid off
$20,000 of debt while I wasactive duty within three years
as an E3.
So that's kind of like I gotreally into personal finance and
so I've been really passionateabout that ever since.
(02:19):
And that was 10, 12 years agonow.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a 12 years
ago now.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a certified
financial social worker.
So we kind of get into, youknow, dealing with finances, but
then also kind of dealing withthe psychology behind finances,
like the you know, the mentalside of things.
Go, feed the budget, go feedthe budget.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy when it comes
to finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
All right, hello everybody, this is Money in the
Military Brother Edition.
This is my name is Joey Laswelland I have my esteemed brother,
kenny Laswell, and I justthought this would be a fun
little thing to try and do, andyou know, and bring my brother
into the mix.
But you know he's technically Imean he's basically financially
(03:16):
independent and I just wantedto highlight his story, you know
, maybe showcase what it's liketo be retired military after 20
some odd years, and just kind oftalk about finances a little
bit and share his story and whatsuccesses that he's had along
the way.
So, mr Kenny, or Kenny Wu asyou're affectionately known as,
(03:43):
how are you doing?
Doing well?
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, man, of course.
Of course Got to keep it in thefamily.
So, since the audience doesn'treally know much about you you
don't have really any socialmedia presence.
You're like a ghost out there.
Tell us a little bit about yourmilitary history or what
(04:05):
inspired you to join themilitary, and we can kind of
take it from there.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
All right, good evening.
I'm Master Sergeant KennethLaswell, retired Air Force.
I joined in 03, retired lastyear.
I was Structures Tro,structures, troop A3.
We were part of the civilengineer squadron, moved around
quite a bit, deployed five times.
(04:31):
I'm kind of nervous for somereason.
But really the reason I wantedto join was because I kind of
already had a militarybackground, because dad was in
the Marine Corps.
This is weird.
I just got nervous all of asudden.
But at the time my fiance waspregnant and really wasn't doing
(05:01):
much, so I saw an opportunityto kind of jump into something,
not really knowing what I wasgetting into, but it turned out
to be the best decision I'veever made.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Nice, yeah, I mean, I mean I've seen it firsthand,
you know the transformation andeverything that is done for you,
and I mean I've alreadymentioned it in previous
episodes but you, you were theinspiration for me to join the
Air Force, you know, because Isaw everything that it had done
for you and I was like, well,you know Kenny's doing really
well, I should do the same thing, you know.
(05:34):
So you, technically, yeah, youinspired me by you doing what
you did and serving the countryyourself.
So I just want to say thank youfor that.
Thanks.
So we got Amber Amber.
Amber, amber we have commentalready.
So amber from uh into the weedspodcast says hello with the fun
(05:54):
little uh alien emoji.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
So thanks homage to the drones in the northeast uh,
maybe, maybe.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Well, she, her, her podcast is very much about you
know, paranormal, she talksabout ufos and you know things
like that.
So she's got a really cool show.
Another mbr special.
So check out mbr if you have uh, if you have some time got some
very interesting and variouscontent out there for all your
um consumption needs.
(06:22):
So a little plug for m.
I wouldn't be here without youguys.
So, thank you, mbr.
All right, so, yeah, you joined2003,.
You know, wanted a better life.
How was that early period oftime for you in the Air Force?
Was it like E2, e3, or how didthat work out for you?
E2, e3, or how did that workout for you?
Speaker 7 (06:43):
Yeah, so I signed up for six so that was
automatically E3 once Igraduated tech school.
It was kind of weird becausesorry, because I wore the A1C, I
wore the two stripes allthrough tech school but I didn't
(07:04):
get paid that until I actuallygraduated.
I think that's how it worked.
I don't remember, but it wassomething like that, or maybe it
was upon graduation of basic, Ican't remember.
Um sounds about right, but yeah,I mean early, early on.
You know we had three youngkids living in base housing at
(07:25):
Luke Air Force Base.
You know we kind of look backat it now and kind of wonder how
we did it, because we did havecar payments.
You know we had two carpayments and we had the cable.
We had cable television, didn'thave much stuff, but but uh,
you know, we it wasn't astruggle, you know, and I think,
(07:48):
um, to really be successful,you know, in what you're getting
paid is, you know, livingwithin your means.
So and I I think we did a goodjob of that.
You know, if it was somethingthat we wanted, we didn't
necessarily have to get.
You know we waited or saved up.
(08:11):
But we also had credit cards,you know, to kind of help offset
some expenses, especially ifthey were bigger expenses,
especially if they were bigger.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
You just got to pay your bills and live within your
means.
So you said you had fivedeployments under your belt.
I wanted to talk a little bitabout deployment finances, since
you had so much experience withthem.
What are some tips or tricksthat you did that kind of helped
save some money?
Maybe you could talk to acurrent deployed member right
now.
What would you say?
You know, to kind of help themwith their finances while
(08:53):
they're deployed.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
Well, it's obviously it'd be a good opportunity to
save because, you know,depending on what zone you're at
, it could be combat or tax-free.
And then there's different kindof pay, like combat pay, you
know, depends on where you're at, obviously.
But if you're mostly at asupport location like the DEED
(09:16):
or Kuwait or something like that, you know that's just a great
opportunity to save becausereally you know you're still
going to have your bills thatyou're going to have to pay for.
You know, if you have a autoloan or something like that, or
mortgage, but it's definitely agood time to try to put back
(09:38):
what you can because you're notgoing shopping.
You know brick and and mortaryou can't really do that much.
Of course they're.
You know online has gotten realpopular online shopping, so
there's still that that way tospend money.
But you know it's just takeskind of willpower and discipline
(10:02):
internal to you know say, hey,I want to achieve some goals, I
want to save.
We just kind of like, personally, we just didn't change our
spending habits, you know eventhough there was, uh, extra pay
in there, whether you elected toreceive it during your
(10:22):
employment or lump sum wheneveryou're done.
Um, you know, it's just kind ofthe same thing live within your
means, don't splurge.
Only splurge when you can, butwe just kind of just live the
same, you know yeah, nolifestyle, no lifestyle,
(10:43):
inflation or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Right, right.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Exactly.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
Yeah, you got to stay the course, live within your
means.
That's something that we talkabout a lot on the show.
But obviously, yeah, you dosplurge sometimes.
It's okay, you earn the moneyand you deserve to enjoy
yourself, enjoy your time, butyeah, obviously, doing it
responsibly, just like anythingelse.
That's kind of the goldenmessage.
(11:05):
But so with your deploymentmoney, can you give us a little
bit of like?
I heard there you know, I thinkyou did this right where you,
if you reenlist while you'redeployed, then you can do that
like tax free if you get like abonus.
Is that right, yeah?
Speaker 7 (11:27):
um, I don't think they're giving them out much
anymore because we were soovermanned, you know, of course,
but, um, my, my career fieldand other career fields and ce,
um, they, what the Air Force didis they realized, hey, we have
too many people.
(11:47):
So you know, we're going to.
I don't know if there, I can'tremember if there was incentives
or anything, but essentially,you know they there weren't any
bonuses or anything.
So they were wanting people toseparate when their time was up
(12:14):
and you know if.
And once they did that, youknow they too many people got
out.
So, in order to try to recruitand retain people to stay in,
they started giving these SRBssselective re-enlistment bonuses
and, um, you know, if your timecame and you re-enlisted in that
zone where you know taxexclusion, combat, whatever it
(12:38):
was, then yeah, you would beable to get that tax Nice.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
And you were able to do that right, At least once.
I don't think so, oh you weretalking about it at one point I
thought you did it.
But yeah, it's just somethingthat I wanted to highlight, that
in the military you do havekind of unique situations like
that Financially.
You know, a lot of people don'tknow what they should do with
like a lump sum like that, andif it's tax-free that's just
(13:10):
more money in your pocket, uh.
So it kind of, you know youhave to thread the needle to do
that, but it is possible.
Um, so when you're you were asupervisor, e7 right, and you
had to counsel, you know, airmen, I'm assuming with uh, with
their their life, their lifestuff you Did you ever have to
counsel anyone with theirfinances?
Any young people?
Speaker 7 (13:30):
Not that I can remember off the top of my head,
of course, the military starcard.
It's a big one, because ifthere was a delinquent payment
or something, that goesautomatically to the first
sergeant or the commandercommander, first sergeant, one
of those.
So you know that was I guess acommon problem.
(13:54):
But you know, I wouldn'tnecessarily say that I had to
counsel somebody because theywere terrible finances you know,
mean stuff happens.
Maybe they just forgot to pay.
But, um, you know, in that, inthat field of finances, you know
it's like hey, make sure youpay your, your star card,
(14:17):
because it's automatic goes toyour leadership yeah, for those
that know what a star card is,it's a military star.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
It's like a basic, it's like a credit card.
That, um, that military members.
Is it just air force or is itall military?
I think it's all militarymembers, right yeah, I'm not
sure okay, uh, yeah.
Well, it's like a credit cardthat you can use on base uh at
different establishments and youcan kind of use it to build
your credit.
But it's also kind of trickybecause it's sometimes young
(14:48):
people's first instance ofcredit and they don't know how
to necessarily use it properly.
And they get you with that 10%discount on your first purchase.
So, a lot of people yeah, a lotof people, got sucked in by that
.
I think I did too, honestly ifI'm looking back on it, but,
(15:10):
yeah, like 10% off your firstpurchase, and then you know the,
you know, basically, you, theywould give you a decent, decent
amount like credit limitsometimes.
And next thing, you know youhave this, you know e3 living in
the dorms that has a fullyracked up star card and they
can't make the payments, youknow.
So that's this my, uh, my,public service announcement for
(15:36):
the military members right now,if you have a star card, use it
cautiously please, because, like, like kenny said, you know, if
you start messing up with yourstar card, then then your chain
of command is going to knowabout it and, uh, you will, you
will have to pay that back, so,and you'll probably get in
trouble too.
(15:57):
Um, all right, well, uh, Iwanted to, uh, to kind of talk
to you a little bit maybe.
Well, let's see, I think weactually have to do a little bit
of a commercial break.
So, uh, we'll play some musicand uh, and then kind of come
back and talk some more later.
But, uh, I wanted to highlight,uh, I usually, I almost always
(16:20):
play this guy, noel Peterson,but uh, I'm working with him to
try to get some of it.
He's got a new album out, um,so I just wanted to highlight
he's a Marine Corps veteranbased out of San Antonio.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
He plays really, really cool fun music and, um, I
always, I always play stuff, sono-transcript opinions
(19:37):
expressed in this program arethose of the speakers and do not
necessarily reflect the viewsor positions of any entities
they represent.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
All right, we are back.
This is Money in the MilitaryBrother Edition on Military
Broadcast Radio, where we'regiving veterans a voice.
And a veteran that we arechoosing to give our voice to
today, at least for me, is mybrother, retired Master Sergeant
21 years, 20 years, cestructures.
(20:14):
So I did want to um, you know,just thank you for your service
to the country and appreciate,you know, everything that you've
done.
Um, so yeah.
So I wanted to talk a littlebit about you know, some some
lessons learned, maybe duringactive duty, but then eventually
I would like to talk about yourtransition to the civilian
world after retirement.
(20:35):
How did you make the financialtransition?
So anything that you learnwhile you're active duty
financially that you would liketo impart upon, maybe someone
who's in the active duty rightnow Maybe they want to retire.
If you had to do it over again,is there anything differently
(20:55):
that you would do financially?
Speaker 7 (20:57):
yeah, I would have, um, I think I would have
contributed more to my tsp.
Okay, I did five percent forabout, I'd say, 18 years, 19
years.
I didn't do it immediately, Ikind of just ignorantly.
You know, I didn't knowanything about it, I just knew,
(21:18):
you know, like a kind of like a401k right.
But you know I was like, well,it sounds pretty decent, I'll
just kind of contribute what Ican and I think the first couple
of years, you know, it may havejust only been one or two
percent and then I just did fivepercent.
(21:43):
You know, whenever probably E4,e5, and just kept it at five
percent.
You know, with promotions andthings like that, you know
whenever you hit every two yearsyou get a pay increase because
your years of service.
You know it had been, I think,looking back, that's probably
the one thing I wish I wouldhave done was just contribute
more, because I could have.
(22:03):
I could have done more than 5%and you know, not everybody can
Right Right.
But, um, you know, in in mysituation I could have done a
little more, and I wish I wouldhave done that.
Speaker 6 (22:11):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
Well, what percentage ?
Speaker 6 (22:16):
would you?
Would you recommend?
Speaker 7 (22:16):
You know, not five, but it's hard to say.
Or if you had to do it overagain.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
What percentage would you put it at?
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Somewhere between five and ten, okay, and maybe
during those deployments orwhatever, maybe jump it up, jump
it up a little bit yeah, or 12or something, because that extra
money, you know, could havebeen going toward the TSP or
something, right, but yeah,that's the only thing.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Okay, I mean that's good.
Hopefully that resonates withsomebody out there who's active
duty right now.
You know, like, take it fromsomebody who's active duty right
now, you know, like, take it,take it from somebody who's, you
know, retired.
Uh, you know, and basicallythey wish, they wish they had
done a little bit more.
It's a lot of people feel thatway, you know, when they get a
little bit older, they start tolook back on all the time that
(23:10):
they could have been compoundingand growing and you know, you
kind of realize that a littlelate in the game sometimes.
So yeah, that's good advice.
We actually got a comment fromJose Flores, the Motivated
Mindset.
Hello, joey.
So another MBR host there,motivated Mindset.
(23:30):
Really great energy from Jose.
He's awesome.
I had him on my show once and,oh man, he's just, he's just a
bundle of energy.
So, yeah, definitely check outhis, his show.
Great stuff there.
All right, so we were talkingabout active duty.
Um, let's talk a little bitabout your transition to the
civilian world.
Um, what would you say?
(23:52):
Like I, I guess, financiallyspeaking, you know, you're
probably to the point where youguys could.
You wouldn't have to worknecessarily, but you choose to
work.
Is that accurate?
Speaker 7 (24:04):
Yeah, that's accurate .
But you know I didn't know whatmy disability rating was going
to be.
So whenever you know, I didretire, see, I retired on.
Well, 1 October 23 is my actualretirement day.
So my last duty day was 30September.
But I had enough leave saved upand you know you get permissive
(24:28):
house hunting days and I thinkthere's like a separation type
leave or something I can'tremember exactly.
But so I had about's like aseparation type leave or
something.
I can't remember exactly.
But so I had about three and ahalf months of leave and all
that where I took before Iretired.
So my last day in uniform wasMay the 12th.
(24:51):
I'm pretty sure that's when Ifinal out, when I final outed of
the Air Force, may the 12th, 23.
And we, you know, moved, got outof the house.
I was stationed at MountainHome Air Force Base.
I loved it there.
I'd go back there.
The family kind of got old,they grew old on them.
(25:12):
But anyways, you know we, wemoved from Idaho to Mississippi.
That's my home of record.
I graduated, you know, 40minutes north of here.
My in-laws live close.
So we decided on Mississippi,which, you know cost of living
is pretty low in the state, sokind of factoring everything in
(25:39):
retirement E7 with 20 years, youknow, I think it's like $2,500,
$2,600, something like that,and projecting jobs and salary
without knowing disabilityrating Cause you know I was
(26:01):
going through all that.
Uh, once we moved back, uh, youknow, it.
it actually started when I wasin Idaho, but you don't get the
actual rating for after youretire, right?
So for those three and a halfmonths, you know I was receiving
active duty pay from the AirForce.
(26:22):
But yeah, during that timewe're trying to figure out.
You know what we're going to do.
We basically essentially wekind of set the blueprint of
finances on retirement and asoft projection annual salary
(26:45):
based on what was availablearound here.
Speaker 6 (26:48):
Right.
Speaker 7 (26:49):
You know, I have my CCAF but I'm still working on a
bachelor's degree.
But I'm still working on abachelor's degree.
So kind of job searching, doingsome figuring, you know we were
kind of looking at 30 to 40,000a year, you know, and based off
(27:11):
those numbers plus retirement,we kind of made a decision.
We bought a house we actuallylived in.
We bought a camper, financed acamper and lived in that camper
for a couple months on myin-laws' property while we were
trying to figure out where wewere going to live.
(27:32):
So we didn't incorporate anykind of disability, you know it
was all up in the air at thatpoint.
So we bought a house based offthe retirement, which was 100
you know we knew that was goingto come in and a projected
(27:53):
annual salary with both of usworking yeah that's where you
know we found the house that welive in now.
Of course, interest rates werepretty high at that time but, um
, you know it was just withinour means.
I'm probably going to say thata lot, but you know we purchased
(28:16):
a house that was going to bewithin our means, which was
retirement pay and projectedannual salary, but then whenever
I got the disability rating Igot 100%.
So it's just kind of extra.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
So it's, yeah, we could afford more, but you know,
just functionality, I guess, ifyou will, yeah, a modest house
that fits your needs, but it'snot anything more than you need,
which is a really smartdecision, and you know you had
mentioned living in a camper fora couple of months.
(28:56):
I wanted to highlight thepost-retirement or
post-separation transitionperiod and how delicate of a
dance that can be sometimesfinancially.
Was there anything that youguys did during the transition
period or any advice that youwould give to somebody who's
maybe soon to retire?
Speaker 7 (29:22):
soon to transition out.
You know any kind of goodadvice you got.
So I mean, just try to try tofind stuff you know that you can
afford.
Yeah, the camper, we we didthink we were expecting to live
in the camper a little longerthan we did, but the winter came
(29:42):
.
The winter was coming and ouryoungest daughter, naomi, you
know she was staying at thein-laws house, which I mean
we're staying on there in theirbackyard essentially, but there
was that, um, separation that wedidn't like.
So, you know, we kind of Iwouldn't say rushed sometimes I
(30:05):
feel like we rushed into thehouse, but, um, yeah, I mean the
only advice would just be youknow, really look at your
finances, know what you couldafford and live that way.
And it might be rough at firstyou know, but you know, maybe
you get a good paying job andyou can get something that you
(30:29):
desire.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
Yeah, we actually got a comment from Jose.
He says I recall when I wasretiring it was terrifying.
I had stayed a year out gettingready to retire.
It was for me where I was goingto retire was the DMV area.
I figured out what GS level Ineeded as an admin to maintain
(30:50):
my same pay.
I was in quality of life forhim.
It worked out and retired on afriday on terminal leave,
started to work on monday.
I did have six months emergencypay just in case.
So that's a pretty, it's apretty good transition right
there.
You know, um, not everyone getsto to go right into federal job
.
Um, which is something thatyou've actually looked into as
(31:12):
well.
Right, trying to get intofederal position yeah, yeah,
that's what I suppose.
Speaker 7 (31:16):
They got.
Lucky there ain't there, ain'tcrap around here oh man, yeah
it's tough.
Speaker 6 (31:22):
It's tough like uh it .
And then there's like a hiringfreeze now and there's all kinds
of stuff.
But yeah, um, yeah, that's uh.
I mean he did have a six-monthemergency, um, just in case.
So that's, that's a huge oneright there.
And I would definitely advocatefor people who are separating
to have a cushion, like anactual legit cushion, because
(31:45):
you never know, there's so manyunknowns when you separate from
the military.
So just yeah, jose does comment, he says I was lucky.
So Jose does comment he says Iwas lucky.
So Jose admits it.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
You know, whenever you're separating or retiring,
you have to do tap and all thatso and I think it's very harped
upon in there as well.
I think six months is actuallyyou know the term used six
months of savings, and I thinkthat's really good advice.
I don't think I I don't thinkwe had that much.
(32:17):
I think we probably had likethree and a half four months,
you know.
but we knew that the retirementcheck was gonna was gonna come
in, so, and plus, livingessentially rent free, you know,
in the camper, with campers,you know you can do a long,
longer loan and your paymentsaren't that bad.
(32:38):
Uh, but you know we got, wewere lucky on that because we
were just on the in-lawsproperty.
If you have to go to acampground, you know, I think
it's depends on where you're at,but maybe five to $700 a month,
you know.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
so yeah, that adds up and I look, I, we, we looked
into that at one point too, wasgetting an RV or like a tiny
home or something, and just tokind of, you know, a little
alternative living and maybe tryto save some money.
It didn't work out but, uh,yeah, rv living for some people
is is where it's at, they reallylike that.
(33:12):
So, um, well, that's good stuff.
Um, I really appreciate you.
Uh, you know, um sharing yourstory.
We're going to take, uh,another quick musical break and,
uh, we'll be back and we'lltalk.
Um, you know, we'll just kindof we'll talk about the, the
civilian life, and maybe you cangive some advice on on the
(33:34):
transition and, um, you know,help out some fellow soldiers
and airmen and and whatnot, so,uh, so, yeah, we'll come back.
Uh, this is going to be anotherNoah Peterson song, Um, and
(35:49):
we'll be back right after that,thank you.
Speaker 8 (35:51):
Thank you, military broadcast radio, the station
that's giving veterans a voicefind us on the web at mbradious
opinions expressed in thisprogram are those of the
speakers and do not necessarilyreflect the All right, hello
(36:21):
everyone, we are back.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
This is Money.
In the Military Brother Editionwe got Kenny Wu Laswell.
I'm sure there's a story behindthe Kenny Wu nickname.
A lot of people know you asKenny Wu and they only know you
as Kenny Wu.
Well, can you give us a littlebrief recap on where the Kenny
Wu came from?
Just a nickname in school.
Speaker 7 (36:43):
You know, there's obvious some Asian-ness in my
face.
And you know Corinth HighSchool, there weren't too many
Asians Fair enough.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
yeah, but you were also a big Wu-Tang fan at the
time too, right?
Wasn't that an influence?
Speaker 7 (37:02):
No, not really really , it was just.
It was just a name, kenny woo,I guess it flowed well off the
tongue and, um, yeah, just kindof stuck.
I used it.
I used it, uh, probably likethe first year of of operational
air force.
You know, at luke I I used itand then I, I guess I kind of
(37:24):
just grew up and was like yeah,I'm not kenny woo anymore right.
Speaker 6 (37:29):
Well, yeah, I mean that my, my nickname from high
school was joe cat, um, andthere are still some people that
might think of me as joe cat,which is fine, but you know, um,
not not really my first choiceof nicknames, but, uh, it was a,
it was a, an endearing nickname, I guess, but, um, I do love
cats.
(37:49):
So there is that, um, that wasunintended, but I wasn't why I
was joe cat anyways.
So, yeah, just a little uh,backstory about the laswell
brothers.
Um, I did want to talk or ask alittle bit about your.
You talk or ask a little bitabout your.
You know, we talked a littlebit about your transition.
Now you're a civilian, you'rejust a full on civilian, you
(38:12):
know, is there any lessons oranything that you've learned
going from active duty tocivilian life as far as finances
go?
Was there any good lessons thatyou learned in that process or
what you would, you know, help?
How would you help someone elsethat's going through a similar
situation?
Speaker 7 (38:33):
um, I, I would just say, yeah, make sure you have
money saved up, because younever know what can happen.
Um, you know, you, I kind oflucked up and got a job.
It's not the job that I, I kindof jumped on the job for one
because they were the only onethat could contact me back so uh
(38:54):
, you know I work at a statehospital, kind of three, three
small facilities doingmaintenance, um, which was kind
of what I did facilitymaintenance in the Air Force.
But you know, if I was trying to, if I was really wanting to be
(39:15):
picky about where I wanted towork, then you know we would
have had to live off thoseemergency funds.
As Jose said, pretty muchsavings until either A I had to
just chew on whatever I had toget or have the spouse work and
(39:38):
live off her income.
But then that probably dictateswell, we can't purchase a home
yet, we're gonna have to live inthe camper travel trailer, you
know, things like that.
Um, but yeah, I don't know.
I just have have money saved up.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
You don't know if you're gonna have steady income
yeah, absolutely, and that'swhere I'm hoping that
transitioning service memberswill take heed of this.
Like, if you're going toseparate, like a year out, at
least you know, start gettingyour finances in order.
You know cause it's.
It's a, it's a tall order.
You know you're losing yourhealthcare, you're losing
(40:18):
housing, you're losing foodallowance here.
You know there's so much thatthat goes into what you're
losing and a lot of times youdon't even realize you're losing
it until you have to actuallypay for it.
And you, you're lucky enoughyou don't have to pay for health
insurance.
But I do and that's I've talkedabout it in previous episodes
that health insurance on thecivilian side it's not cheap and
(40:39):
it's definitely not free.
So you got to factor that intoyour financial picture, you know
.
Speaker 7 (40:43):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:45):
So yeah, that's just a lesson, lesson that I've
learned.
The hard way is you know those,those costs add up very quickly
.
But yeah, you got to.
You got a nice state job, rightState of Mississippi, which is
kind of it's really nice, good,you know, good, solid foundation
.
So you're going to try to workthere for a few years, get
(41:06):
vested and then retire fromthere?
Speaker 7 (41:12):
probably, yeah, you know I wouldn't call it a goal,
but the wish would be to retireat 55, which is another 12 years
, yeah, 11.
How old am I?
Yeah, 43.
43.
Yeah, so I've been there for,like I said, they were the only
(41:37):
ones that called me back, and soI've been working there since
August of 2023.
There's Allison there sinceaugust of 2023, there's allison
and um, so I've been there for ayear and four months roughly uh
so you know, I told mysupervisor I said I'll give you
six months, I'll promise you sixmonths of employment.
I'll stay here for six monthsand but I am going to be looking
(41:59):
because I really wanted to gofederal.
But you know, the federal jobmarket around here is very, very
thin.
In Tupelo, I think there's someSocial Security, you know
offices or something.
Department of Treasury, I thinkthere was a few.
You know positions there.
(42:22):
But Columbus Air Force Base,small training, pilot training
base, it's about an hour awayfrom me.
I was looking hard at Columbus.
The Natchez Trace is a federalhighway that runs through
(42:45):
Mississippi and the federal land.
It's, you know, it's Departmentof Interior and there were some
job openings there.
Where I applied, you know Iused veterans preference things
like that.
But the problem and this is justan assumption, but um, you know
(43:10):
, it was doing maintenance and Iwas like, essentially I'm in my
mind, I'm like I'm a for thisjob right I did this for 20
years active duty air force.
I'm a shoo-in so I never, Inever got selected the same job
open again and I applied, didn'tget selected.
(43:33):
So I think, uh, I think what itis.
You know it's a good old boy,it's an assumption, right?
but you know, whenever you're insmall town, yeah you know
that's the only thing I could umchalk it up to.
So you know I went, I wentafter that.
Then I went after somepositions in columbus.
Didn't get hired on, you know,maybe it was the resume.
(43:56):
I don't know, it could have beenbut, um, just being retired
master sergeant, I kind ofexpected to be able to get a
federal job pretty easy.
Not because I was a retiredmaster sergeant, but you know,
usually a master sergeant youhave some years of experience,
you know you have the tacticallevel, then you have some
(44:17):
supervisory experience, then youhave some management experience
.
So you know, I just I thought Iwould get a federal job pretty
quick.
And when that didn't happen,you know six months goes by my
current job.
I told Matt, hey, six months.
But you know, here's monthseven, month eight.
It didn't look promising.
So at some point I just saidyou know what I'm done, I'm not
(44:42):
going to try to go federal.
You know I've got about a yearhere.
If I just said you know whatI'm done, I'm not going to try
to go federal, you know I've gotabout a year here.
If I just do seven more yearsI'll be a vested employee.
And that's where I could receivebenefits monetary benefits.
Speaker 6 (45:00):
So yeah, that was kind of I think that's what I'm
going to do.
Yeah, so and so, retired at 55,that's, that's early retirement
, you know, uh, you're stillgoing to be gainfully employed
for the next few years.
Um, what, what does retirementlook like for you?
Like early retirement?
What are you going to do withyour time?
I'm just curious.
Speaker 7 (45:18):
Uh, I like to golf Fish.
Speaker 6 (45:25):
You're talking about when I retire?
Speaker 7 (45:27):
Yeah, when you early retire at 55, what's your game
plan?
Just hang out, drink some coldbeers.
Speaker 6 (45:37):
All right, that's living the life.
We actually got a few commentscoming in.
Jose followed up.
For me, the hardest part ofgetting a government job is
being selected Understand howUSA Jobs works and how to make
sure your application stands out.
In my case I had top secretclearance and that's got me in
the door.
The rest was up to me.
(45:58):
And how to interview this isthe key to get the job.
And know how to sell yourselfand why you are a best person
for that job.
And you know that's somethingthey cover in TAP a little bit
or TAPs.
You know, like the transitiondrop, interview prep and things
like that.
But you know the federal hiringis a beast, you know it's just
(46:18):
there's no way around it.
So, yeah, jose also commentsthat there are some remote
government jobs that you canlook into to get your foot in
the door.
Yeah, that would be nice.
And Kenny says Kenny,organizations like Wounded
Warrior Project can help youwith your resume.
So hey, there you go.
Wounded Warrior Project cantweak that resume if you really
(46:39):
wanted to.
You know, push for the federaldown the road.
You still could.
Um.
And then we got um tanya grantfrom linkedin.
Hey, guys, came across this byaccident.
Let me know how I can stay inthe loop.
Cool show, all right.
Well, thanks for the shout out,tanya.
You know it's a.
You know good brother chemistrywe've got going on here.
(47:02):
Wow, early retirement, that'skind of the whole goal of this
show is to try to get people tothink about early retirement.
It's not for everybodymathematically, it's not
necessarily for everybody.
It is a math problem.
It's a math equation,essentially in reverse, where
(47:24):
you need a certain amount ofmoney to live off of every month
, every year, and if you canmathematically have a nest egg
that pays you that money, thenyou can mathematically retire.
Now, one thing that is in theearly retirement community is
what does retirement look like?
Because we have this idea ofdoes retirement look like?
You know, because we have this,this idea of what retirement
(47:45):
looks like, but for every personthat's different.
You know you retire at 55.
You know you get 10 years to doum, you know where other people
are still working.
You basically have theflexibility to do whatever you
want.
You know, um, some people liketo do, they like to volunteer.
Some people like to just relaxand hang like to volunteer.
Some people like to just relaxand hang out and and, uh, do all
(48:06):
you know, just just be, justnot have to work.
You know that's kind of thewhole point of the retirement.
But uh, some people actuallylike to work, you know, so
they'll, they'll do a variationor you know they'll get a summer
job type of thing or seasonaljob, just for socialization and
bringing a little extra money.
(48:27):
But that's where you kind ofhave to define what retirement
is going to look like for you.
So that's why I was curiouswhat you had lined up or
envisioned in your mind's eyeabout what is early retirement
going to look like for you well,I think it was just gonna be.
Speaker 7 (48:47):
55 was just a wish, because you know what, just like
a number that you picked, kindof thing yeah, you know, um, to
still kind of enjoy, you know,because you start getting older
you know, with the, with my hips, you know I got bad hips, my
rotator cuffs torn, um.
(49:10):
So you know, like these arethings that you know when a
retirement like when I say golfand fish, things that I hope I
can still do at 55 you knowthere's no problem now, yeah,
their pain flares up and stufflike that.
But you know, if I wait anyolder, any older than that, then
you know there might not be theopportunity to do those things.
(49:30):
So 55, I think is just the agewhere you can still go out and
be active and enjoy things.
And I think by 55, you knowjust financially, you know it'd
be doable.
You know we still have naomi athome.
(49:50):
Um, she's third, she'll be 13in march.
Uh, you know, just just kind ofgoing off historical patterns
from the other kids, you knowshe'll probably be gone at eight
, between 18 and 20 or something.
Um, you know they'll.
They'll put me at 50, 51, 52,um, and I think nester what's
(50:17):
that?
you'll be an empty nester yeah,be an empty nester and, uh, you
by 55, maybe we'll be able toput more away because maybe
she'll be financially on her own, which the kids are pretty much
there we help.
(50:39):
Callie out with the car.
But you know they still receivehelp but for the most part
they're financially straight,you know.
Speaker 6 (50:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7 (50:51):
Or financially doing it I'll say, I wouldn't say
straight Financially doing it.
Speaker 6 (51:07):
Well, you know, like that's, the tricky part of, you
know, raising kids is that youwant them to be self-sufficient,
but you don't want you don'twant to just cut them off
completely.
So it sounds like you'refinding that balance, uh,
yourself.
So that's awesome.
I really, um, you know, thishas been a great conversation.
I really hope, uh, somebodytook some things from this.
Um got some great comments fromJose and um, I was going to ask
you something, um, oh, you know.
(51:28):
So, so, going off of the earlyretirement conversation, kind of
thing, but like, uh, let's sayyou win, win the lottery and you
literally don't need any money,like, what do you?
What do you, uh, what are yougoing to put your money into?
What are you going to do withyour time?
Speaker 7 (51:47):
Well, you know, I've never really done.
Well, I haven't, I haven't doneum, what is that investing
investments?
I haven't.
You know, the tsp kind of doesthat, depending on which index
fund you put it in, or whatever,um, but as far as like actually
playing investment, personmarket yeah, I have.
(52:08):
I've never done that.
Um, that's probably something Imight look into, obviously
through probably, you know, likeedward jones or something like
that, because I don't, I don'tthink I have the interesting
being interested in the factorto do that you know, and it
(52:30):
would probably be more like ahobby.
I wouldn't really try to basefuture finances off that, but
it's probably something I woulddabble in a little.
What was your?
Speaker 6 (52:46):
question what would you do like if you didn't have
to work at completely?
You had all this money in theworld.
Like what would you?
Speaker 7 (52:52):
do.
Oh yeah, you know, the, therational, smart me would say
keep working you.
It's a good job, it's decentpay for around here.
You know there's perks.
I work with cool people.
It's a pretty easy job.
Let's just say that it's apretty easy job.
(53:13):
So I think it would be dumb toleave.
But I mean, if you don't haveto work for the rest of your
life, you know why.
So that's a tough question.
It's a good hypotheticalquestion.
Speaker 6 (53:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (53:30):
I think the rational thinking me would say you know,
still work.
But then, like, the other partof me is like why?
You know why do you want towake up early and go into?
Speaker 6 (53:43):
work right.
But it's like if you had, uhlike, if you were to create like
um on or um like a foundationlet's say you had the money to
create a foundation that youwould give, give back to the
community what kind offoundation would you?
Would you start?
Speaker 7 (54:01):
well, it would probably be for veterans.
Um, you know, just throughgenerations, you know we've
we've known or we've been a partof that.
Um, you know, uncle tim servedtoo.
So there's just, uh, it wouldbe toward veterans.
You know something that maybeimprove toward veterans?
(54:27):
You know something that maybeimprove the community some way?
Speaker 6 (54:30):
yeah, but you know veterans, because there's a lot
of veterans around here.
Speaker 7 (54:32):
Yeah, um so yeah, it would be definitely something to
do.
Speaker 6 (54:34):
Veterans nice, okay.
Well, maybe that'll be ourjoint effort.
Together we create anorganization for veterans.
That'll be our legacy, sure.
So we got a couple morecomments from Jose.
He says I have Edward Jones,they're very good, very good.
(54:55):
There you go, something to lookinto.
And Jose also says Kenny, thankyou for sharing Great meeting
you.
Speaker 7 (55:01):
Yeah, same to you, Jose.
Speaker 6 (55:03):
Yeah, jose's good people and I think he's just a
bundle of energy, even on thechats he's all over the place,
but I love it.
Thanks, jose, I reallyappreciate it.
It looks like the clock isticking.
We've got just a few moreminutes left.
We covered a lot of ticking.
(55:25):
We've got just a few moreminutes left.
You know just, we covered a lotof ground we covered.
You know your Air Force history.
You know some of your financialnuggets that you've kind of
accumulated over the years.
Yeah, and then we talked aboutyour transition to the civilian
world and you know some of yourfuture hopes and aspirations of
(55:46):
what your rich life is going tolook like.
So you know, I reallyappreciate you taking the time
to.
You know, to humor me, I kindof threw this on you last minute
and you agreed and I appreciatethat and you know, just want to
say thanks.
Speaker 7 (56:04):
It's been an experience.
Speaker 6 (56:05):
Yeah, yeah, but you got any last-minute nuggets,
anything that came to your mindafter the fact that you wanted
to share or impart.
Speaker 7 (56:18):
No, I would just say, like I said at the beginning,
if you want to be at a fairlygood spot financially, you have
to live within your means.
You know you just have to.
You can't, you know it's.
Can we afford better thingsthan we have?
Yes, but that doesn'tnecessarily mean that we need to
(56:40):
buy them.
Functionality I like sayingfunctionality Save what you can
Really be disciplined with yourspending and with your saving.
I think in the future, ifsomething happened where you
(57:00):
needed to lean on savings orwhatever the case may be, and
you'll be able to do it.
Speaker 6 (57:08):
Yeah, awesome.
Well, we actually got one lastcomment from Tanya.
Call me before you go to EdwardJones, kenny, I would love to
hear more about the differentsectors of government benefits.
It seems that it varies.
The government employees thatI've serviced have different
variations depending on thelocation.
Thanks, joey and Kenny, for agreat talking point.
(57:30):
So, yeah, so I guess you know.
Maybe she wants to.
You know she would like for youto, instead of going to Edward
Jones sounds like she would likefor you to work with her.
So if you're interested inconnecting with Tanya, uh, we'll
, we'll, we'll get that set up.
And, um, yeah, just get aninteresting comment, uh, from
(57:52):
Tanya.
She says thanks, guys, goodnight, all right, well, thank
you, tanya, for joining in,thanks everybody else for
joining in as well.
You guys made a great show, andI just want to say thanks to
MBR, thanks to all the veteransthat were out there, all the
social workers out there, andthank you once again to Kenny Wu
(58:16):
and Team Laswell.
We're just two brothers tryingto make it in this world All
right.
Well, that's going to make it inthis world All right.
Well, that's going to be it forthe stream.
I really appreciate it onceagain and we'll catch you guys,
I guess, around next year.
So, happy 2025.
(58:36):
Happy New Year's.
Hope you guys had a happyholidays and we'll talk to you
guys later.
Speaker 3 (58:45):
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to
Military Broadcast Radio as wewrap up today's show, we want to
remind you that the podcast oftoday's episode will be
available right after we go offthe air, so if you missed any
part of the show or want tolisten again, be sure to check
(59:07):
it out.
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter and we are committed to
giving you a platform to sharethem.
That's right.
We're here to give you aplatform to share them.
That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice.
So don't forget to catch thepodcast and stay connected with
(59:30):
us Giving our veterans a voice.
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