March 26, 2024 • 36 mins
Today is an important discussion around mindset for any stage of your financial journey. Listen as we discuss finding balance between saving and living, and defining success on your own terms. Enjoy!
My guest, Brandon Lovingier, ChFC®, MQFP® aka The Enlisted Money Guy™, has served over 18 years in the Army – including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He established Enlisted Money to help enlisted service members avoid the same mistakes he made and achieve financial freedom. He’s spoken at MilMoneyCon and loves mentoring other service members.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
No matter where you start, no matter what you have now, you can chart a path
forward and you can start taking action to make your life incrementally better over time.
And if you just keep doing that, you will look back one day and be amazed at
how much progress you've made.
I played college football in a very small school and something that our offensive
(00:22):
coordinator used to say was take the crumbs. If the defense gives you a three-yard
cushion, take the three yards.
Don't look for it. Just keep taking the crumbs, taking the crumbs.
And before you know it, you're on the goal line.
You're listening to Advise with Rick Lucchini.
I'm excited for this one. We've got a guest that I believe is going to add a
(00:45):
lot of value to all age groups and honestly, different stages in your financial journey.
We're going to talk a lot about some of the things that I've been pounding the
table about recently, mindset and how that can actually make a big impact on
(01:06):
your finances now and in the future.
And, you know, some tips and strategies on how to start actively affecting that today.
So I'm going to toss it over to our guest, Brandon.
But before we do that, I just want to, on behalf of myself, my family,
and the listeners, thank you for your service.
(01:27):
And if you just want to give us a quick rundown on who you are,
what you do, and we'll dig right in.
Yeah. Well, yeah, I appreciate that. It's definitely an interesting career choice.
Not everybody does it, but I really do appreciate that. It does mean a lot.
But yeah, I mean, the kind of the quick down and dirty for me kind of grew up without a lot of money.
We weren't necessarily poor per se, but bread and gravy was not an uncommon meal at our house.
(01:53):
So yeah, so it's definitely, there wasn't an abundance of things,
so to speak. But, you know, I joined, joined the military, you know,
joined the army right out of high school.
Basically, you know, there, there wasn't a lot of jobs out there and I didn't
want to go to college because it seemed like, you know, high school,
but you had to pay for it and I didn't like high school. So it didn't make a lot of sense to me.
(02:14):
Fast forward, I've gotten, you know, my degree and all that kind of stuff.
And then voluntarily went back to college to learn about all this personal finance
stuff. And so, yeah, so I'm kind of working on putting a bow on my military
career and going into retirement.
But along the way, I've kind of gotten into personal finance stuff.
I went through and got my chartered financial consultant designation,
(02:35):
and I'll eventually take the CFP exam and all that as well.
But, you know, I just really got into all this because I wanted to help people
like me understand that, you know, you don't have to, you don't have to make
a ton of money to make a big difference in your own life and take control of your finances.
And that's kind of where I kind of got started. I really just started kind of
(02:57):
just trying to create something for people like me, really. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's important. And you have a blog,
right? That's how it kind of got started.
Yeah. Yeah. So my, as far as content creation stuff, I kind of started with
a YouTube channel, which was
me just scribbling on paper and talking about it. It wasn't good at all.
(03:17):
And then that morphed into a podcast, which was, you know, okay,
but then I just couldn't keep up with the editing. and then I kind of,
you know, found out that really writing is kind of my natural thing.
And so I attended Mill Money Con, the first Mill Money Con in 2022 and,
you know, just found out there's a ton of people like doing stuff with military folks.
(03:39):
And so that was really the catalyst for me, you know, choosing the niche of enlisted military.
And that's basically, where enlisted money was born.
And so really just trying to create the content that I wish I would have consumed
and applied when I was 18, not 28.
(03:59):
I think there's a couple of things to take away from that.
That one is you don't have to have a ton of money to enjoy your life and to
still build prototypical retirement, if that's what you're after.
And you touched on that because, listen, I don't think that in most cases,
(04:24):
you go into the military for the money, right?
So that's what you're kind of talking about is you can have,
but it doesn't have to be in the military.
You can have a regular nine to
five job and still live a fulfilled life financially and otherwise. wise.
But the other thing that I heard was, I tried this, I tried that,
(04:44):
I tried that, and then I found my thing.
And that is super important and it should be applied across the board to everybody
is start a YouTube channel.
And I tried a podcast and I did this and I found my thing. You might not have
found your thing had you not done the others.
And I'm always Yeah.
(05:09):
Yeah.
What you're good at will eventually rise to the surface and the other stuff
doesn't matter because nobody's listening anyways, right? Yeah.
(05:31):
Yeah. No, I mean, and that's, I mean, I love that, you know,
the, the just get started.
I mean, that, that was literally my tagline for my, my podcast at the end was,
you know, now go get started because that was the whole, the whole concept behind
that was, you know, it's like, Hey, if I can get, if I can get people to,
to their first $100,000 of, of net worth,
then, you know, they, they've got a good start and, And, you know,
(05:51):
they can kind of take it from there.
And, you know, really, it's just getting that that momentum because,
yeah, that first, you know, getting to ground zero is tough because we started in debt and all that.
And it took a while. I mean, you know, and it is kind of frustrating,
especially whenever, you know, a lot of the stuff you see is like,
oh, well, I had this, you know, big six figure, you know, you know,
(06:14):
salary working in tech and, you know, just wasn't fulfilling.
So I decided to live on half my income for five years and now I'm retired.
You know, it's like, well, okay, well, that's, that's a neat story,
but that's not really applicable to, you know, I don't know,
like probably most of, you know, most of America, you know, not everybody can
just choose, you know, to be financially independent as a hobby.
And so it takes a little bit of work.
(06:36):
Yeah. And it takes a little bit of time, but you can get there.
I mean, I started my Roth IRA with just 50 bucks a month, but you know,
it's continued to grow. A lot of the influence out there is for bigger and better.
And it makes oftentimes the regular person, it makes it seem so insurmountable that why even try?
(07:02):
Why even try? There's no way I'm going to be retired at 42 on a beach like that
guy who's talking on YouTube all the time.
Or there's no way I'm going to have a private jet like this guy that's in my
Instagram feed all all the time.
So why even try? I don't have a chance.
And there's a huge life between not trying and having a private jet that a lot
(07:28):
of people can be financially stable, eventually independent,
and be happy along the way, not chasing something that.
Is insurmountable. Yeah, no, absolutely.
And, you know, that's the thing too. And I'm not, you know, I'm not saying that
those people don't have, you know, good advice to give because that's how,
(07:49):
you know, that's, that's where I started learning about personal finance.
So there's a lot of goodness in them sharing their stories because,
you know, but it's just, I think it's important for people to know that,
you know, your, your, your arc,
you know, your trajectory is not going to be the same as, as a lot of the people
that are doing some of these more extreme things With, you know,
retiring at 35 and, you know, all these kinds of things.
(08:10):
And, and really, I think, I, I do think that the, you know, kind of,
you know, fire or now they've kind of, you know, people are trying to drop that,
that, that retire early piece because I think, you know, I think people are
starting to kind of realize that people want purpose.
They want, they want to live life now and not everybody wants to,
you know, just push everything into the future.
(08:30):
And so, yeah, I mean, it's, it's been a, it's been a tough mental shift for
me because, yeah, I mean, I grew up in a place where you just knew you were
going to work until you died.
Like, you know, you, the only retirement plan you had was social security and
then you would eventually go to the local nursing home and fade. Yeah.
And so I wanted more than that.
(08:53):
And that was part of why, you know, I kind of took a different path and tried,
you know, tried something different and it's worked out well for me,
but you know, it's been a, it's been a wild ride,
you know, that's a, you know, that's a good point because you,
you know, you don't have to your version and not, not you specifically,
(09:14):
but whoever's listening, your version of what makes you feel good.
You happy, what your life now looks like, what it looks like in 10 years,
and what your retirement looks like can be equally successful and completely
different than mine, yours,
your neighbor's, or somebody else's.
Your version of success isn't measured by the zeros in your bank account.
(09:40):
And oftentimes, that can be very misleading because you mentioned FIRE.
For those that don't know, don't look it up, but it's financial independence, retire early.
And it's this movement that is to push all of your energy and resources towards.
Retiring as soon as possible.
(10:00):
And I think that the people that are attracted to that aren't happy.
They're retiring away from something instead of towards something. thing.
Whether it's high paying or not, if you can find something that you actually
have a passion for or a purpose around, all of a sudden retiring early isn't that attractive.
(10:25):
I'm happy every day doing what I'm doing.
I don't need to retire all of a sudden. And it's just a mindset shift.
You're the same person the next day.
I don't know. I don't really even like the word retire because I don't,
I don't think that it fits me.
I don't, I just don't imagine in a world where I'm just sitting around not doing
something productive, you know, I just, you know, and not say that,
(10:48):
you know, retiring is bad or anything like that.
You know, if that's your, that's your jam, then hey, go for it.
But, you know, I, you know, I'm crafting my entire life around,
you know, what memories do I want to leave with my son?
You know, what do I want my friends and family to remember me by?
What impact am I leaving on the world?
And, you know, how can I balance, you know, having, you know,
(11:10):
because you want to balance, you know, tomorrow with, you know, with the day today.
And so kind of like I think about it of, you know, take actions and move in
a direction that, you know, are not going to harm the future,
but, you know, but are also going to serve you today.
And so like, if you can find that overlap, I mean, that's the,
you know, of course, there's, you know, there's always, you know,
there's always some give and take there. But, you know, for the most part,
(11:33):
you know, finding that balance between, you know, today and the future is really important.
But I think it's really damaging to just, you know, you know,
hey, you know, there's kind of the YOLO like, hey, you know,
tomorrow's a long ways away, you know, but then there's also,
you know, the other end of that, which is, you know, like you were talking about.
Maximize wealth, which really, to me, oftentimes means maximize your 80s and 90s, right?
(12:00):
And so that's what you're pulling from is that balance between don't just throw
your hands up and say, I don't give a shit about tomorrow. It's so far away. Who cares?
But also, let's not make every financial decision based on the amount of money
I'm going to to have when I'm 87.
(12:20):
Because a lot of times, that's what I'm seeing in here.
And I will say something on LinkedIn, for example, hey, this is how I do it.
Oh, but Rick, you would have so much more tax-free money if you did it this way when you're 80.
I'm like, yeah, but I'll be 80. Like, you know, I don't care.
(12:44):
I'm not going to be destitute when I'm 80, but I'm also not trying to maximize
the last 10 years of my life.
And so having that permission to be happy today while still...
Planning for and having an eye on the future. We don't want to just do nothing,
but I'm trying to, and you're doing the same thing, get that message out that
(13:09):
you can't actually have it both ways.
You can be happy today if you know that you're checking some of the boxes for the future.
Maximizing the future doesn't necessarily have to be the goal because your kids
are going to to remember today.
(13:29):
They're not going to care how many more extra zeros are in your account when you're 88.
Yeah. Well, and that's, I mean, that's just the thing. I mean,
I think, you know, unfortunately my, you know, my mom passed away fairly young,
you know, she, she died at 55, but you know, that, you know,
that, that really gave me a lot of perspective and just being in the military,
you know, we're, we're constantly, you know, faced with our own mortality,
(13:52):
you know, or at least the, you know, the, you know, the idea that,
you know, Hey, hey, tomorrow it could all be gone.
Now, that's true for everybody, not just the military. It just so happens that
every single time that a military member dies in combat, it's put all over national news.
Now, that doesn't happen to an electrician or somebody that dies on the job.
We're one of the only professions that maybe police and firefighters.
(14:15):
Other first responder types that it's broadcast everywhere.
So your mortality is brought straight into your face on a regular basis.
And so it's a kind of a gift, you know, but it can also be, you know,
it can be stressful too, but it's, it's a gift in, in the fact that,
you know, you're aware of the fact that.
This could be your, your last good day, good week, good month, good year, good decade.
(14:41):
And so, you know, it really makes, or at least for me, it makes me think about,
well, how, you know, if this was my last decade, what do I want that to look
like? What do I want to leave behind now?
I hope that, you know, I have several decades ahead, but I'm not going to regret,
you know, you know, focusing on things that I think are going to be important in both places.
(15:02):
And so So that's really helped me kind of shape, you know, the direction that
I, that I go and, and, and, uh, you know, another big reason why I'm not staying,
you know, even longer in the military.
A lot of people, you know, I'm pretty successful and in my own right,
you know, a lot of people are surprised that I'm getting out at,
you know, at 20, you know, they're like, well, you're not going to stay.
You could be, you, you could do X, Y, and Z. Like, it's just not my path.
(15:24):
And I think I can, you know, I've, I've done a really great job,
but, but I, there's a lot of other things that I find fulfilling that I want to pursue.
And so I think I would regret not pursuing those. Well, what do you tell somebody
that is listening to this and says,
yeah, maybe I was focusing on the future too much,
(15:45):
or maybe the advice I'm getting is through the lens of maximizing my 80s,
and I feel like I'm doing the right thing.
I'm trying to be responsible, but I'm listening to you and I'm agreeing saying,
yeah, you know what? I do want to enjoy...
(16:06):
The next 40 years in the meantime, what do you say to somebody like that to
kind of get started on that shift?
And what should they be focusing on financially to try to balance those two things?
Well, I mean, one, I like, so like kind of how I like to do it is,
you know, I like to say, you know, that we lay all the emotions out on the table,
(16:29):
we lay all the money out on the table, and then, and then you kind of reconcile the two.
And that was really helpful for me, like going through the training for,
you know, all the financial planning and all that.
And so, you know, also learning like the value that financial planning can bring
is like, okay, well I can sit down and see like, okay, you're saving this amount,
you know, assuming things go the way we think they will, which they won't,
(16:52):
but you know, we're, you know, we're, you know, we're, we're going to change
that target, you know, and it's something you should revisit every year,
but But, you know, assuming things go somewhat,
you know, like what, you know, what they've gone in the past,
you need to save about this much.
But then, you know, the rest of that, you know, you know, you can you can do what you want with.
And then also, too, you you're able to kind of do the calculations.
(17:14):
Like for me, like I was feeling stressed out about, you know,
transition out, you know, transitioning out of the military.
It's like, well, we're saving a little bit more than we have to.
So, you know, in theory, that's extra money.
Right. Right. And so, well, let's instead of pushing that extra money to the
future, let's take that extra money and bring it to the president to use it
now, because that's the best use right now.
(17:36):
Now, if we end up, you know, when that changes or if that changes,
then we can we can make that adjustment.
But, you know, but on the other hand, too, I don't think anybody there's very
few people that really, truly regret not having extra money later on.
Now, there's some, but, you know, studies have shown there's a small percentage
(17:57):
that do regret saving too much early on.
But most people, their regrets around money later on is going to be around not
saving enough or not, you know, being financially responsible earlier. Right.
But there's other places that we can find efficiencies. Like, you know, for instance,
you know, you look, look across the parking lot at the Walmart or wherever,
(18:18):
you know, like there's, you know, there's a, there's a ton of money in cars
sitting all over the place that probably,
you know, probably not necessary, you know, and there's a lot of things that,
you know, we think that we have to have.
But how could I, but how else am I supposed to impress my neighbors?
Right. Yeah. I mean, it's tough. Tough. I will admit, I don't think any of my
neighbors are impressed by my Chevy Malibu.
(18:40):
But they are impressed with my skills that I've learned over the years.
I know how to brew beer, I can weld, I do carpentry, all these different things.
So I guess that's a byproduct of growing up having to do everything yourself.
Yeah, I think that's important, though, because what ends up happening is not
saying live poor so you can have a big future,
(19:02):
but buying things for the wrong reason that then does either put you in a bad
situation in the future or what actually is happening is the person still trying
to be responsible and saving for the future.
And they're starving themselves today by having the big car lease and having
(19:26):
the fancy house that they don't need and all this stuff to not always,
but oftentimes impress people that they don't even care about in the first place.
When the happiness could
come by living within your means saving for
the future but now actually having experiences
today and spending money on
(19:48):
things that actually do matter to you and the cars you know the easy just example
but there's a lot of things that we don't need to be saving or we don't need
to be spending on and they don't actually make us happy.
Yep. The other things would, but we don't have any money left over to buy them
(20:11):
or to go on that vacation or do the things that maybe other people might think
are irresponsible, but they're not.
Yeah. Well, and I mean, that's the thing too, is, is there's,
you know, kind of like I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of things that we
think we need that we don't, you know, that aren't necessarily needs.
And, you know, and sometimes it's nice to just try to live life without them.
(20:32):
And that was a, actually, I mean, this is a, it was a pretty great exercise,
you know, whenever we lived in Korea for two years.
And part of the rules of, you know, whenever we moved over is you can only ship
half of your allotted household goods.
So, which is kind of tough, you know, it's like, well, what do you,
you know, what do you not want to see for two years? So, yeah.
(20:54):
Unfortunately that was, you
know, the, the heavier stuff, like all my tools, all that kind of stuff.
So pretty much all my stuff that I found, you know, like that I,
I thought I couldn't live without,
you know, if you would have asked me before we went there, but,
but it was really interesting because we, some of our best memories were just
hanging out, not, you know, we had none of our stuff, you know,
(21:14):
but we just went out and, you know, just saw things,
you know, we didn't, we didn't really need as much as we thought we needed.
And so that was kind of a good limiter on that kind of stuff.
And so I think sometimes it's good to really look at that.
And I also have gotten more fond of trying to borrow stuff from neighbors and things like that.
(21:35):
There's a lot of things that I think, you know, we all want to have our own
everything, but I think there's a lot of value in, you know,
asking for help, you know, from neighbors and stuff like that because you get to know people better.
And I think, yeah, I mean, just point of case, my neighbor needed,
you know, I needed to borrow a trailer. Well, actually, and his truck too, to go.
Yeah, you're that kind of neighbor. Right. Yeah.
(21:57):
So, but you know, but we, you know, we, we became friends because,
you know, because I saw he had a truck and a trailer and I just knocked on the
door and asked like, Hey, you know, and so we've become really good friends
and I've been able to help him work on his motorcycle and stuff like that.
So it's been a pretty good relationship that I wouldn't have had if I just said,
Oh, well, I need to go buy a trailer or whatever.
(22:18):
Well, I think the other thing that I notice a lot too,
I have three young kids and when you do something simple that you don't even
think about with a young kid,
you can quickly realize that money...
(22:40):
Is not going to be the cause or a direct correlation with happiness.
I mean, we've done some, and they love it.
Like we've done some expensive things for them, taking them to places and all
that stuff, and they love it.
But also I get almost just the same level of excitement by taking a walk in the woods with the dog.
(23:01):
You know, they just want to be doing something with you, with your attention,
not on the phone, not worrying about work, all that other stuff, a fire in the backyard.
The simple things that you do is that close to the expensive things that you do.
(23:22):
And so you can have those experiences, those memories.
You're not starving your kids of happiness by not blowing a ton of money on experiential things.
If that's important to you, great, budget it out and do that.
But the simple things often are going to be just as memorable for them and you
(23:45):
don't need to spend thousands of dollars to do it.
Yep. Yeah. Well, and it's, it's funny too, what, you know, what kids,
you know, pick up, you know, like we went, like we, you know,
we, you know, we wanted to make sure we never got to go to Disney as kids,
neither my wife nor I. And so we wanted to make sure that, you know, our son got to do that.
Well, afterward, like one of the things he was talking about was just staying
in the hotel on the way down there and not even like, how cool is that?
(24:08):
I know you're thinking, oh my God, wasted all this money. Yeah.
But that is the point is that you start to pick up on those things and those,
those things. And again, it doesn't mean don't do stuff. It means do stuff. Absolutely.
Yeah. But find that balance between being happy today, not being poor when you're
(24:31):
80, right? There's a balance there.
And something that I've seen you say and write before is to not be a victim
of your current circumstances.
Why don't you explain that a little bit and dig into that? Because I think you
can add a lot of value there.
(24:52):
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a, there's a big,
you know, it's easy to fall into kind of the, the victim mentality of,
well, I can't, you know, just kind of like what I mentioned earlier,
you look at, you know, oh, well, I don't make six figures, so I can't do that.
I don't, you know, have, you know, any inherited money, so I can't, you know, I can't. Yeah.
You can can't yourself into the grave. But, you know, if you kind of flip that
(25:16):
switch and go, hey, well, all right, yes, this is where I'm at,
you know, except where you're at. Well, what can I do?
And, you know, like maybe, like I said, it's, I started investing with $50 a month.
Actually, at the time, I didn't even actually know what a Roth IRA was.
I just, I just knew that it was supposed to be something to save money for later.
(25:38):
So I did, it automatically, You know, came out of my bank account every month.
And, you know, before I knew it, I had $20,000 in there.
So, and, and that has doubled by not doing anything to it.
So, you know, it's, yeah, so it can start small,
but, you know, if you let yourself kind of get stuck in, you know,
I see all the memes and stuff all the time, you know, well, a house,
(26:00):
a house in 1950 cost X, an average house costs, you know, like, well, for one,
you would not want to live in a, in an average house in 1950.
50 because it may or may not have air conditioning.
Probably doesn't. It may or may not have indoor plumbing.
It may or may not have a garage. It may or may not have, you know,
any, any lights or like, so people, you know, like people try and draw these
(26:24):
comparisons to try and make our situation look so terrible.
Your average salary was $7,000 a year. Right. Yeah. So, yeah.
And so, yeah, they, they try and draw these comparisons just looking at the numbers and like,
it's, it's so different you know it's not it's not
the same and and whether you know the the poorest person
in the united states right now their their lifestyle is
(26:45):
inflated you know even you know even you know compared to the poorest people
in the united states you know 50 years ago and so you know you can you can sit
there and try and make these comparisons and make it look like it's terrible
and all that or whine about taxes or whatever but the fact remains you know
at least least in my opinion.
You're living in one of the best places in the world. You have an abundance
(27:10):
of opportunity everywhere.
It's just your choice on whether or not you take advantage of that.
Yeah. No, I totally agree. And somebody, no matter how bad you got it,
somebody's got it worse and did more with it.
There's a million documented stories and a million more undocumented.
(27:32):
Somebody has it worse. somebody had it tougher than you and got off their ass
and did something about it.
So I think that to the opportunity point is the same thing.
I hear a lot of must be nice.
And well, if I had that, then I would... Listen, maybe that person you're talking
(27:54):
about did have an advantage or didn't, but they did something with it.
And especially in today's day and age where we have access to all this technology.
Anybody can pick up their phone for free and start a YouTube channel,
an Instagram account, whatever it is, and have the same opportunity for exposure as everybody else.
(28:21):
You've got opportunity at your fingertips that you do not need a wealthy family to get started.
Just do something. Get started. Whether that's saving 50 bucks a month or whether
that's starting a passion side project or whatever the get started is for you,
just get started and do something and quit making excuses.
(28:46):
Must be nice. Woe is me. All that other stuff.
Other people are doing it, right? And it's just because they got started it
and started doing something.
Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, that's, you know, that's, that's a,
I just can't, you know, say that enough as, yeah, just, you know,
doing something, get, getting started and, you know, and, and don't let the,
you know, don't let all the super sexy stuff get you, you know,
(29:10):
get you distracted either.
Like you don't have to, you know, optimize every single account to get every
single, you know, 0.01 extra, or, you know, like you don't have to to get the best stock returns,
you know, in, you know, in order to have a, a good retirement.
I mean, really, if, if you work hard enough, you could, you could make a retirement
(29:31):
portfolio of, I don't know, like roof shingles or something like that and sell
them, you know, sell them to, to live off of later.
I mean, you know, I'm making jest, but. No, but there's more than one way to get there.
And sometimes the simpler ways are better, but I think just.
Doing nothing isn't going to get you there. And then the other side of that
(29:56):
coin, what you're saying is you don't really have to be super fancy about it either.
Just do something, get started and stop making excuses.
A lot of the stuff you're talking about, a lot of the mindset is applicable
to everybody across the board, but you also have unique perspective and something that a lot of
(30:19):
people like myself don't, which is having a military background.
What's some of the stuff that's different or some of the value adds that you
can bring up that would apply to military or ex-military people that maybe doesn't
(30:41):
cross over as much and is more unique to that.
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest places where military members and veterans
leave money on the table is just knowing about their benefits that they have earned.
There's a lot of veterans that aren't applying for a lot of benefits that they have access to.
(31:04):
Same with military people that are in the military. A lot of,
you know, I just point in case like, like college, free college and things like that.
There's a lot of people that I know that, you know, went several years without
taking any college classes.
I mean, I, I didn't take very many, you know, but I, I always took one or two here and there.
And so, you know, there's a lot of advantages that, you know,
we, we get, you know, from, you know, different, different programs and things that are out there.
(31:28):
And so I think that's, that's kind of one of the, one of the big things, but then also too. Yeah.
Not leveraging their veteran and military community to look for mentorship and
stuff outside of the military too.
So we talk a lot about counseling, coaching, mentorship, and stuff like that
while you're in service, but I think it's equally important and way more valuable
(31:52):
on the outside, at least way more valuable in terms of dollars.
I would say my number one asset that I have as far as if I found myself on the
street tomorrow with nothing, the most valuable thing that nobody can take away
from me is my network. I know a lot of great people.
And I know that if I found myself, you know, with nothing tomorrow,
(32:13):
I can reach out to some folks, I can shake some things out of the bushes and
I can, you know, I can get back on my feet in short order.
And so I think that's, um, you know, something that, that often gets overlooked.
Yeah. I know you had mentioned to me before that a lot of veterans as they transition
position out, tend to lean towards entrepreneurship?
(32:37):
Is that something that you're seeing often?
Yeah, I think, I mean, for me, I mean, that's a path that I'm going to take.
And I think that it's a, it's a pretty common path.
And I'm, I'm even in, you know, some veteran entrepreneurs groups,
you know, there's like veteran, vetrepreneur tribe on Facebook,
and then I'm part of their warrior council as well.
And, you know, that's been really good to connect with, you know,
(32:58):
other people doing some really creative things.
And I think military in general, you know, we're, I think we have a lot of experiences
within the military that really help out with entrepreneurship.
You know, we're kind of, you know, your whole life in the military is basically
just being handed something.
It may or may not really be possible, but you have to figure it out.
(33:19):
And so, I think that's a lot of what entrepreneurship is in general.
It's like, Like, here's a problem in the world.
How are we going to solve it? And how are we going to make it profitable?
You know, they just kind of add that last little piece on how are you going to make it profitable.
And then you've got a winning combination. If you...
Wanted somebody to listen to this, just take away one thing, say, I made an impact.
(33:45):
What's the biggest takeaway here that you can leave us with?
I think the biggest thing that I would leave people with is that no matter where
you start, no matter what you have now,
you can chart a path forward and you can start taking action to make your life
incrementally better over time.
And if you just keep doing that, you will look back one day and be amazed at
(34:09):
how much progress you've made just by, just by doing that, just taking some
action and just keeping after it and just,
you know, just keep working at it and you will, you will find more success than,
than you could ever imagine. Yeah, well said.
I think we'll leave it with that. It's something that just made me think about,
this is why I'm grinning.
(34:29):
I played college football in a very small school, and something that our offensive
coordinator used to say was, take the crumbs.
And it's the same exact thing. He would, if the defense gives you a three yard
cushion, take the three yards.
Don't look for it. Just keep taking the crumbs, taking the crumbs.
(34:50):
And before you know it, you're on the goal line.
And that's the same thing with what you're talking about is get started.
Take what's available to you little by little. And all of a sudden you look
back and there's 90 yards behind you.
You actually did something. thing. But if you keep swinging for the fences or
throw your hands up and say, somebody else has it easier than me,
(35:13):
I'm not even going to get started. You're not going to get moving.
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that's great. All right, buddy.
Tell everybody how they can learn more about what you're talking about,
what you're writing about and how to follow you.
Yeah. The best place to find me is just at enlistedbunny.com.
(35:34):
I've got a newsletter that I send out twice a month. And then on socials,
I'm most active on Instagram.
I put up a bunch of, you know, goofy reels and stuff like that.
But I also put, put out a lot of really important information.
Like I'm on a campaign now talking about continuation pay because I just don't
think enough service members know about it.
So I'm at enlisted money guy there on Instagram, but yeah, I mean,
(35:57):
really, I try and put out, you know, fun content, but you know,
I do some deep dives on stuff.
And I just really, I just really want to make sure that the information is available.
So for the ones that do take that challenge to take a little bit of action,
they can kind of shortcut that process and not have to start from scratch.
All right, buddy. I love it. Thanks for coming on. That's Enlisted Money.
(36:20):
And we'll talk to you later. Thanks. Yeah.
Music.
No matter where you start, no matter what you have now, you can chart a path
forward and you can start taking action to make your life incrementally better over time.
And if you just keep doing that, you will look back one day and be amazed at
how much progress you've made.
I played college football in a very small school and something that our offensive
(00:22):
coordinator used to say was take the crumbs. If the defense gives you a three-yard
cushion, take the three yards.
Don't look for it. Just keep taking the crumbs, taking the crumbs.
And before you know it, you're on the goal line.
You're listening to Advise with Rick Lucchini.
I'm excited for this one. We've got a guest that I believe is going to add a
(00:45):
lot of value to all age groups and honestly, different stages in your financial journey.
We're going to talk a lot about some of the things that I've been pounding the
table about recently, mindset and how that can actually make a big impact on
(01:06):
your finances now and in the future.
And, you know, some tips and strategies on how to start actively affecting that today.
So I'm going to toss it over to our guest, Brandon.
But before we do that, I just want to, on behalf of myself, my family,
and the listeners, thank you for your service.
(01:27):
And if you just want to give us a quick rundown on who you are,
what you do, and we'll dig right in.
Yeah. Well, yeah, I appreciate that. It's definitely an interesting career choice.
Not everybody does it, but I really do appreciate that. It does mean a lot.
But yeah, I mean, the kind of the quick down and dirty for me kind of grew up without a lot of money.
We weren't necessarily poor per se, but bread and gravy was not an uncommon meal at our house.
(01:53):
So yeah, so it's definitely, there wasn't an abundance of things,
so to speak. But, you know, I joined, joined the military, you know,
joined the army right out of high school.
Basically, you know, there, there wasn't a lot of jobs out there and I didn't
want to go to college because it seemed like, you know, high school,
but you had to pay for it and I didn't like high school. So it didn't make a lot of sense to me.
(02:14):
Fast forward, I've gotten, you know, my degree and all that kind of stuff.
And then voluntarily went back to college to learn about all this personal finance
stuff. And so, yeah, so I'm kind of working on putting a bow on my military
career and going into retirement.
But along the way, I've kind of gotten into personal finance stuff.
I went through and got my chartered financial consultant designation,
(02:35):
and I'll eventually take the CFP exam and all that as well.
But, you know, I just really got into all this because I wanted to help people
like me understand that, you know, you don't have to, you don't have to make
a ton of money to make a big difference in your own life and take control of your finances.
And that's kind of where I kind of got started. I really just started kind of
(02:57):
just trying to create something for people like me, really. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's important. And you have a blog,
right? That's how it kind of got started.
Yeah. Yeah. So my, as far as content creation stuff, I kind of started with
a YouTube channel, which was
me just scribbling on paper and talking about it. It wasn't good at all.
(03:17):
And then that morphed into a podcast, which was, you know, okay,
but then I just couldn't keep up with the editing. and then I kind of,
you know, found out that really writing is kind of my natural thing.
And so I attended Mill Money Con, the first Mill Money Con in 2022 and,
you know, just found out there's a ton of people like doing stuff with military folks.
(03:39):
And so that was really the catalyst for me, you know, choosing the niche of enlisted military.
And that's basically, where enlisted money was born.
And so really just trying to create the content that I wish I would have consumed
and applied when I was 18, not 28.
(03:59):
I think there's a couple of things to take away from that.
That one is you don't have to have a ton of money to enjoy your life and to
still build prototypical retirement, if that's what you're after.
And you touched on that because, listen, I don't think that in most cases,
(04:24):
you go into the military for the money, right?
So that's what you're kind of talking about is you can have,
but it doesn't have to be in the military.
You can have a regular nine to
five job and still live a fulfilled life financially and otherwise. wise.
But the other thing that I heard was, I tried this, I tried that,
(04:44):
I tried that, and then I found my thing.
And that is super important and it should be applied across the board to everybody
is start a YouTube channel.
And I tried a podcast and I did this and I found my thing. You might not have
found your thing had you not done the others.
And I'm always Yeah.
(05:09):
Yeah.
What you're good at will eventually rise to the surface and the other stuff
doesn't matter because nobody's listening anyways, right? Yeah.
(05:31):
Yeah. No, I mean, and that's, I mean, I love that, you know,
the, the just get started.
I mean, that, that was literally my tagline for my, my podcast at the end was,
you know, now go get started because that was the whole, the whole concept behind
that was, you know, it's like, Hey, if I can get, if I can get people to,
to their first $100,000 of, of net worth,
then, you know, they, they've got a good start and, And, you know,
(05:51):
they can kind of take it from there.
And, you know, really, it's just getting that that momentum because,
yeah, that first, you know, getting to ground zero is tough because we started in debt and all that.
And it took a while. I mean, you know, and it is kind of frustrating,
especially whenever, you know, a lot of the stuff you see is like,
oh, well, I had this, you know, big six figure, you know, you know,
(06:14):
salary working in tech and, you know, just wasn't fulfilling.
So I decided to live on half my income for five years and now I'm retired.
You know, it's like, well, okay, well, that's, that's a neat story,
but that's not really applicable to, you know, I don't know,
like probably most of, you know, most of America, you know, not everybody can
just choose, you know, to be financially independent as a hobby.
And so it takes a little bit of work.
(06:36):
Yeah. And it takes a little bit of time, but you can get there.
I mean, I started my Roth IRA with just 50 bucks a month, but you know,
it's continued to grow. A lot of the influence out there is for bigger and better.
And it makes oftentimes the regular person, it makes it seem so insurmountable that why even try?
(07:02):
Why even try? There's no way I'm going to be retired at 42 on a beach like that
guy who's talking on YouTube all the time.
Or there's no way I'm going to have a private jet like this guy that's in my
Instagram feed all all the time.
So why even try? I don't have a chance.
And there's a huge life between not trying and having a private jet that a lot
(07:28):
of people can be financially stable, eventually independent,
and be happy along the way, not chasing something that.
Is insurmountable. Yeah, no, absolutely.
And, you know, that's the thing too. And I'm not, you know, I'm not saying that
those people don't have, you know, good advice to give because that's how,
(07:49):
you know, that's, that's where I started learning about personal finance.
So there's a lot of goodness in them sharing their stories because,
you know, but it's just, I think it's important for people to know that,
you know, your, your, your arc,
you know, your trajectory is not going to be the same as, as a lot of the people
that are doing some of these more extreme things With, you know,
retiring at 35 and, you know, all these kinds of things.
(08:10):
And, and really, I think, I, I do think that the, you know, kind of,
you know, fire or now they've kind of, you know, people are trying to drop that,
that, that retire early piece because I think, you know, I think people are
starting to kind of realize that people want purpose.
They want, they want to live life now and not everybody wants to,
you know, just push everything into the future.
(08:30):
And so, yeah, I mean, it's, it's been a, it's been a tough mental shift for
me because, yeah, I mean, I grew up in a place where you just knew you were
going to work until you died.
Like, you know, you, the only retirement plan you had was social security and
then you would eventually go to the local nursing home and fade. Yeah.
And so I wanted more than that.
(08:53):
And that was part of why, you know, I kind of took a different path and tried,
you know, tried something different and it's worked out well for me,
but you know, it's been a, it's been a wild ride,
you know, that's a, you know, that's a good point because you,
you know, you don't have to your version and not, not you specifically,
(09:14):
but whoever's listening, your version of what makes you feel good.
You happy, what your life now looks like, what it looks like in 10 years,
and what your retirement looks like can be equally successful and completely
different than mine, yours,
your neighbor's, or somebody else's.
Your version of success isn't measured by the zeros in your bank account.
(09:40):
And oftentimes, that can be very misleading because you mentioned FIRE.
For those that don't know, don't look it up, but it's financial independence, retire early.
And it's this movement that is to push all of your energy and resources towards.
Retiring as soon as possible.
(10:00):
And I think that the people that are attracted to that aren't happy.
They're retiring away from something instead of towards something. thing.
Whether it's high paying or not, if you can find something that you actually
have a passion for or a purpose around, all of a sudden retiring early isn't that attractive.
(10:25):
I'm happy every day doing what I'm doing.
I don't need to retire all of a sudden. And it's just a mindset shift.
You're the same person the next day.
I don't know. I don't really even like the word retire because I don't,
I don't think that it fits me.
I don't, I just don't imagine in a world where I'm just sitting around not doing
something productive, you know, I just, you know, and not say that,
(10:48):
you know, retiring is bad or anything like that.
You know, if that's your, that's your jam, then hey, go for it.
But, you know, I, you know, I'm crafting my entire life around,
you know, what memories do I want to leave with my son?
You know, what do I want my friends and family to remember me by?
What impact am I leaving on the world?
And, you know, how can I balance, you know, having, you know,
(11:10):
because you want to balance, you know, tomorrow with, you know, with the day today.
And so kind of like I think about it of, you know, take actions and move in
a direction that, you know, are not going to harm the future,
but, you know, but are also going to serve you today.
And so like, if you can find that overlap, I mean, that's the,
you know, of course, there's, you know, there's always, you know,
there's always some give and take there. But, you know, for the most part,
(11:33):
you know, finding that balance between, you know, today and the future is really important.
But I think it's really damaging to just, you know, you know,
hey, you know, there's kind of the YOLO like, hey, you know,
tomorrow's a long ways away, you know, but then there's also,
you know, the other end of that, which is, you know, like you were talking about.
Maximize wealth, which really, to me, oftentimes means maximize your 80s and 90s, right?
(12:00):
And so that's what you're pulling from is that balance between don't just throw
your hands up and say, I don't give a shit about tomorrow. It's so far away. Who cares?
But also, let's not make every financial decision based on the amount of money
I'm going to to have when I'm 87.
(12:20):
Because a lot of times, that's what I'm seeing in here.
And I will say something on LinkedIn, for example, hey, this is how I do it.
Oh, but Rick, you would have so much more tax-free money if you did it this way when you're 80.
I'm like, yeah, but I'll be 80. Like, you know, I don't care.
(12:44):
I'm not going to be destitute when I'm 80, but I'm also not trying to maximize
the last 10 years of my life.
And so having that permission to be happy today while still...
Planning for and having an eye on the future. We don't want to just do nothing,
but I'm trying to, and you're doing the same thing, get that message out that
(13:09):
you can't actually have it both ways.
You can be happy today if you know that you're checking some of the boxes for the future.
Maximizing the future doesn't necessarily have to be the goal because your kids
are going to to remember today.
(13:29):
They're not going to care how many more extra zeros are in your account when you're 88.
Yeah. Well, and that's, I mean, that's just the thing. I mean,
I think, you know, unfortunately my, you know, my mom passed away fairly young,
you know, she, she died at 55, but you know, that, you know,
that, that really gave me a lot of perspective and just being in the military,
you know, we're, we're constantly, you know, faced with our own mortality,
(13:52):
you know, or at least the, you know, the, you know, the idea that,
you know, Hey, hey, tomorrow it could all be gone.
Now, that's true for everybody, not just the military. It just so happens that
every single time that a military member dies in combat, it's put all over national news.
Now, that doesn't happen to an electrician or somebody that dies on the job.
We're one of the only professions that maybe police and firefighters.
(14:15):
Other first responder types that it's broadcast everywhere.
So your mortality is brought straight into your face on a regular basis.
And so it's a kind of a gift, you know, but it can also be, you know,
it can be stressful too, but it's, it's a gift in, in the fact that,
you know, you're aware of the fact that.
This could be your, your last good day, good week, good month, good year, good decade.
(14:41):
And so, you know, it really makes, or at least for me, it makes me think about,
well, how, you know, if this was my last decade, what do I want that to look
like? What do I want to leave behind now?
I hope that, you know, I have several decades ahead, but I'm not going to regret,
you know, you know, focusing on things that I think are going to be important in both places.
(15:02):
And so So that's really helped me kind of shape, you know, the direction that
I, that I go and, and, and, uh, you know, another big reason why I'm not staying,
you know, even longer in the military.
A lot of people, you know, I'm pretty successful and in my own right,
you know, a lot of people are surprised that I'm getting out at,
you know, at 20, you know, they're like, well, you're not going to stay.
You could be, you, you could do X, Y, and Z. Like, it's just not my path.
(15:24):
And I think I can, you know, I've, I've done a really great job,
but, but I, there's a lot of other things that I find fulfilling that I want to pursue.
And so I think I would regret not pursuing those. Well, what do you tell somebody
that is listening to this and says,
yeah, maybe I was focusing on the future too much,
(15:45):
or maybe the advice I'm getting is through the lens of maximizing my 80s,
and I feel like I'm doing the right thing.
I'm trying to be responsible, but I'm listening to you and I'm agreeing saying,
yeah, you know what? I do want to enjoy...
(16:06):
The next 40 years in the meantime, what do you say to somebody like that to
kind of get started on that shift?
And what should they be focusing on financially to try to balance those two things?
Well, I mean, one, I like, so like kind of how I like to do it is,
you know, I like to say, you know, that we lay all the emotions out on the table,
(16:29):
we lay all the money out on the table, and then, and then you kind of reconcile the two.
And that was really helpful for me, like going through the training for,
you know, all the financial planning and all that.
And so, you know, also learning like the value that financial planning can bring
is like, okay, well I can sit down and see like, okay, you're saving this amount,
you know, assuming things go the way we think they will, which they won't,
(16:52):
but you know, we're, you know, we're, you know, we're, we're going to change
that target, you know, and it's something you should revisit every year,
but But, you know, assuming things go somewhat,
you know, like what, you know, what they've gone in the past,
you need to save about this much.
But then, you know, the rest of that, you know, you know, you can you can do what you want with.
And then also, too, you you're able to kind of do the calculations.
(17:14):
Like for me, like I was feeling stressed out about, you know,
transition out, you know, transitioning out of the military.
It's like, well, we're saving a little bit more than we have to.
So, you know, in theory, that's extra money.
Right. Right. And so, well, let's instead of pushing that extra money to the
future, let's take that extra money and bring it to the president to use it
now, because that's the best use right now.
(17:36):
Now, if we end up, you know, when that changes or if that changes,
then we can we can make that adjustment.
But, you know, but on the other hand, too, I don't think anybody there's very
few people that really, truly regret not having extra money later on.
Now, there's some, but, you know, studies have shown there's a small percentage
(17:57):
that do regret saving too much early on.
But most people, their regrets around money later on is going to be around not
saving enough or not, you know, being financially responsible earlier. Right.
But there's other places that we can find efficiencies. Like, you know, for instance,
you know, you look, look across the parking lot at the Walmart or wherever,
(18:18):
you know, like there's, you know, there's a, there's a ton of money in cars
sitting all over the place that probably,
you know, probably not necessary, you know, and there's a lot of things that,
you know, we think that we have to have.
But how could I, but how else am I supposed to impress my neighbors?
Right. Yeah. I mean, it's tough. Tough. I will admit, I don't think any of my
neighbors are impressed by my Chevy Malibu.
(18:40):
But they are impressed with my skills that I've learned over the years.
I know how to brew beer, I can weld, I do carpentry, all these different things.
So I guess that's a byproduct of growing up having to do everything yourself.
Yeah, I think that's important, though, because what ends up happening is not
saying live poor so you can have a big future,
(19:02):
but buying things for the wrong reason that then does either put you in a bad
situation in the future or what actually is happening is the person still trying
to be responsible and saving for the future.
And they're starving themselves today by having the big car lease and having
(19:26):
the fancy house that they don't need and all this stuff to not always,
but oftentimes impress people that they don't even care about in the first place.
When the happiness could
come by living within your means saving for
the future but now actually having experiences
today and spending money on
(19:48):
things that actually do matter to you and the cars you know the easy just example
but there's a lot of things that we don't need to be saving or we don't need
to be spending on and they don't actually make us happy.
Yep. The other things would, but we don't have any money left over to buy them
(20:11):
or to go on that vacation or do the things that maybe other people might think
are irresponsible, but they're not.
Yeah. Well, and I mean, that's the thing too, is, is there's,
you know, kind of like I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of things that we
think we need that we don't, you know, that aren't necessarily needs.
And, you know, and sometimes it's nice to just try to live life without them.
(20:32):
And that was a, actually, I mean, this is a, it was a pretty great exercise,
you know, whenever we lived in Korea for two years.
And part of the rules of, you know, whenever we moved over is you can only ship
half of your allotted household goods.
So, which is kind of tough, you know, it's like, well, what do you,
you know, what do you not want to see for two years? So, yeah.
(20:54):
Unfortunately that was, you
know, the, the heavier stuff, like all my tools, all that kind of stuff.
So pretty much all my stuff that I found, you know, like that I,
I thought I couldn't live without,
you know, if you would have asked me before we went there, but,
but it was really interesting because we, some of our best memories were just
hanging out, not, you know, we had none of our stuff, you know,
(21:14):
but we just went out and, you know, just saw things,
you know, we didn't, we didn't really need as much as we thought we needed.
And so that was kind of a good limiter on that kind of stuff.
And so I think sometimes it's good to really look at that.
And I also have gotten more fond of trying to borrow stuff from neighbors and things like that.
(21:35):
There's a lot of things that I think, you know, we all want to have our own
everything, but I think there's a lot of value in, you know,
asking for help, you know, from neighbors and stuff like that because you get to know people better.
And I think, yeah, I mean, just point of case, my neighbor needed,
you know, I needed to borrow a trailer. Well, actually, and his truck too, to go.
Yeah, you're that kind of neighbor. Right. Yeah.
(21:57):
So, but you know, but we, you know, we, we became friends because,
you know, because I saw he had a truck and a trailer and I just knocked on the
door and asked like, Hey, you know, and so we've become really good friends
and I've been able to help him work on his motorcycle and stuff like that.
So it's been a pretty good relationship that I wouldn't have had if I just said,
Oh, well, I need to go buy a trailer or whatever.
(22:18):
Well, I think the other thing that I notice a lot too,
I have three young kids and when you do something simple that you don't even
think about with a young kid,
you can quickly realize that money...
(22:40):
Is not going to be the cause or a direct correlation with happiness.
I mean, we've done some, and they love it.
Like we've done some expensive things for them, taking them to places and all
that stuff, and they love it.
But also I get almost just the same level of excitement by taking a walk in the woods with the dog.
(23:01):
You know, they just want to be doing something with you, with your attention,
not on the phone, not worrying about work, all that other stuff, a fire in the backyard.
The simple things that you do is that close to the expensive things that you do.
(23:22):
And so you can have those experiences, those memories.
You're not starving your kids of happiness by not blowing a ton of money on experiential things.
If that's important to you, great, budget it out and do that.
But the simple things often are going to be just as memorable for them and you
(23:45):
don't need to spend thousands of dollars to do it.
Yep. Yeah. Well, and it's, it's funny too, what, you know, what kids,
you know, pick up, you know, like we went, like we, you know,
we, you know, we wanted to make sure we never got to go to Disney as kids,
neither my wife nor I. And so we wanted to make sure that, you know, our son got to do that.
Well, afterward, like one of the things he was talking about was just staying
in the hotel on the way down there and not even like, how cool is that?
(24:08):
I know you're thinking, oh my God, wasted all this money. Yeah.
But that is the point is that you start to pick up on those things and those,
those things. And again, it doesn't mean don't do stuff. It means do stuff. Absolutely.
Yeah. But find that balance between being happy today, not being poor when you're
(24:31):
80, right? There's a balance there.
And something that I've seen you say and write before is to not be a victim
of your current circumstances.
Why don't you explain that a little bit and dig into that? Because I think you
can add a lot of value there.
(24:52):
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a, there's a big,
you know, it's easy to fall into kind of the, the victim mentality of,
well, I can't, you know, just kind of like what I mentioned earlier,
you look at, you know, oh, well, I don't make six figures, so I can't do that.
I don't, you know, have, you know, any inherited money, so I can't, you know, I can't. Yeah.
You can can't yourself into the grave. But, you know, if you kind of flip that
(25:16):
switch and go, hey, well, all right, yes, this is where I'm at,
you know, except where you're at. Well, what can I do?
And, you know, like maybe, like I said, it's, I started investing with $50 a month.
Actually, at the time, I didn't even actually know what a Roth IRA was.
I just, I just knew that it was supposed to be something to save money for later.
(25:38):
So I did, it automatically, You know, came out of my bank account every month.
And, you know, before I knew it, I had $20,000 in there.
So, and, and that has doubled by not doing anything to it.
So, you know, it's, yeah, so it can start small,
but, you know, if you let yourself kind of get stuck in, you know,
I see all the memes and stuff all the time, you know, well, a house,
(26:00):
a house in 1950 cost X, an average house costs, you know, like, well, for one,
you would not want to live in a, in an average house in 1950.
50 because it may or may not have air conditioning.
Probably doesn't. It may or may not have indoor plumbing.
It may or may not have a garage. It may or may not have, you know,
any, any lights or like, so people, you know, like people try and draw these
(26:24):
comparisons to try and make our situation look so terrible.
Your average salary was $7,000 a year. Right. Yeah. So, yeah.
And so, yeah, they, they try and draw these comparisons just looking at the numbers and like,
it's, it's so different you know it's not it's not
the same and and whether you know the the poorest person
in the united states right now their their lifestyle is
(26:45):
inflated you know even you know even you know compared to the poorest people
in the united states you know 50 years ago and so you know you can you can sit
there and try and make these comparisons and make it look like it's terrible
and all that or whine about taxes or whatever but the fact remains you know
at least least in my opinion.
You're living in one of the best places in the world. You have an abundance
(27:10):
of opportunity everywhere.
It's just your choice on whether or not you take advantage of that.
Yeah. No, I totally agree. And somebody, no matter how bad you got it,
somebody's got it worse and did more with it.
There's a million documented stories and a million more undocumented.
(27:32):
Somebody has it worse. somebody had it tougher than you and got off their ass
and did something about it.
So I think that to the opportunity point is the same thing.
I hear a lot of must be nice.
And well, if I had that, then I would... Listen, maybe that person you're talking
(27:54):
about did have an advantage or didn't, but they did something with it.
And especially in today's day and age where we have access to all this technology.
Anybody can pick up their phone for free and start a YouTube channel,
an Instagram account, whatever it is, and have the same opportunity for exposure as everybody else.
(28:21):
You've got opportunity at your fingertips that you do not need a wealthy family to get started.
Just do something. Get started. Whether that's saving 50 bucks a month or whether
that's starting a passion side project or whatever the get started is for you,
just get started and do something and quit making excuses.
(28:46):
Must be nice. Woe is me. All that other stuff.
Other people are doing it, right? And it's just because they got started it
and started doing something.
Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, that's, you know, that's, that's a,
I just can't, you know, say that enough as, yeah, just, you know,
doing something, get, getting started and, you know, and, and don't let the,
you know, don't let all the super sexy stuff get you, you know,
(29:10):
get you distracted either.
Like you don't have to, you know, optimize every single account to get every
single, you know, 0.01 extra, or, you know, like you don't have to to get the best stock returns,
you know, in, you know, in order to have a, a good retirement.
I mean, really, if, if you work hard enough, you could, you could make a retirement
(29:31):
portfolio of, I don't know, like roof shingles or something like that and sell
them, you know, sell them to, to live off of later.
I mean, you know, I'm making jest, but. No, but there's more than one way to get there.
And sometimes the simpler ways are better, but I think just.
Doing nothing isn't going to get you there. And then the other side of that
(29:56):
coin, what you're saying is you don't really have to be super fancy about it either.
Just do something, get started and stop making excuses.
A lot of the stuff you're talking about, a lot of the mindset is applicable
to everybody across the board, but you also have unique perspective and something that a lot of
(30:19):
people like myself don't, which is having a military background.
What's some of the stuff that's different or some of the value adds that you
can bring up that would apply to military or ex-military people that maybe doesn't
(30:41):
cross over as much and is more unique to that.
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest places where military members and veterans
leave money on the table is just knowing about their benefits that they have earned.
There's a lot of veterans that aren't applying for a lot of benefits that they have access to.
(31:04):
Same with military people that are in the military. A lot of,
you know, I just point in case like, like college, free college and things like that.
There's a lot of people that I know that, you know, went several years without
taking any college classes.
I mean, I, I didn't take very many, you know, but I, I always took one or two here and there.
And so, you know, there's a lot of advantages that, you know,
we, we get, you know, from, you know, different, different programs and things that are out there.
(31:28):
And so I think that's, that's kind of one of the, one of the big things, but then also too. Yeah.
Not leveraging their veteran and military community to look for mentorship and
stuff outside of the military too.
So we talk a lot about counseling, coaching, mentorship, and stuff like that
while you're in service, but I think it's equally important and way more valuable
(31:52):
on the outside, at least way more valuable in terms of dollars.
I would say my number one asset that I have as far as if I found myself on the
street tomorrow with nothing, the most valuable thing that nobody can take away
from me is my network. I know a lot of great people.
And I know that if I found myself, you know, with nothing tomorrow,
(32:13):
I can reach out to some folks, I can shake some things out of the bushes and
I can, you know, I can get back on my feet in short order.
And so I think that's, um, you know, something that, that often gets overlooked.
Yeah. I know you had mentioned to me before that a lot of veterans as they transition
position out, tend to lean towards entrepreneurship?
(32:37):
Is that something that you're seeing often?
Yeah, I think, I mean, for me, I mean, that's a path that I'm going to take.
And I think that it's a, it's a pretty common path.
And I'm, I'm even in, you know, some veteran entrepreneurs groups,
you know, there's like veteran, vetrepreneur tribe on Facebook,
and then I'm part of their warrior council as well.
And, you know, that's been really good to connect with, you know,
(32:58):
other people doing some really creative things.
And I think military in general, you know, we're, I think we have a lot of experiences
within the military that really help out with entrepreneurship.
You know, we're kind of, you know, your whole life in the military is basically
just being handed something.
It may or may not really be possible, but you have to figure it out.
(33:19):
And so, I think that's a lot of what entrepreneurship is in general.
It's like, Like, here's a problem in the world.
How are we going to solve it? And how are we going to make it profitable?
You know, they just kind of add that last little piece on how are you going to make it profitable.
And then you've got a winning combination. If you...
Wanted somebody to listen to this, just take away one thing, say, I made an impact.
(33:45):
What's the biggest takeaway here that you can leave us with?
I think the biggest thing that I would leave people with is that no matter where
you start, no matter what you have now,
you can chart a path forward and you can start taking action to make your life
incrementally better over time.
And if you just keep doing that, you will look back one day and be amazed at
(34:09):
how much progress you've made just by, just by doing that, just taking some
action and just keeping after it and just,
you know, just keep working at it and you will, you will find more success than,
than you could ever imagine. Yeah, well said.
I think we'll leave it with that. It's something that just made me think about,
this is why I'm grinning.
(34:29):
I played college football in a very small school, and something that our offensive
coordinator used to say was, take the crumbs.
And it's the same exact thing. He would, if the defense gives you a three yard
cushion, take the three yards.
Don't look for it. Just keep taking the crumbs, taking the crumbs.
(34:50):
And before you know it, you're on the goal line.
And that's the same thing with what you're talking about is get started.
Take what's available to you little by little. And all of a sudden you look
back and there's 90 yards behind you.
You actually did something. thing. But if you keep swinging for the fences or
throw your hands up and say, somebody else has it easier than me,
(35:13):
I'm not even going to get started. You're not going to get moving.
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that's great. All right, buddy.
Tell everybody how they can learn more about what you're talking about,
what you're writing about and how to follow you.
Yeah. The best place to find me is just at enlistedbunny.com.
(35:34):
I've got a newsletter that I send out twice a month. And then on socials,
I'm most active on Instagram.
I put up a bunch of, you know, goofy reels and stuff like that.
But I also put, put out a lot of really important information.
Like I'm on a campaign now talking about continuation pay because I just don't
think enough service members know about it.
So I'm at enlisted money guy there on Instagram, but yeah, I mean,
(35:57):
really, I try and put out, you know, fun content, but you know,
I do some deep dives on stuff.
And I just really, I just really want to make sure that the information is available.
So for the ones that do take that challenge to take a little bit of action,
they can kind of shortcut that process and not have to start from scratch.
All right, buddy. I love it. Thanks for coming on. That's Enlisted Money.
(36:20):
And we'll talk to you later. Thanks. Yeah.
Music.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com