Author: Brandon Lovingier, ChFC®

As a service member getting closer and closer to retirement myself, I like to look at and think about how to value my military pension. I recently received my last promotion I plan to get before I retire, so I’m getting a lot more serious about how this fits into our overall plan for financial… Continue reading The Value of Military Pay and Pensions

Creating a budget for the first time can be so intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! Whether you know a little or a lot about personal finances, having a budget is vital.

Budgeting isn’t particularly fun. We’ve recently started using a simple, homemade Google form to augment our envelopes and automation that we normally use. So far, we’ve had great success with it! Even if you try and change the name to spending plan or whatever, its still a budget. It’s not fun. So I attempted to… Continue reading Google Forms Budgeting Experiment

Food is one place we actually spend more on, but we are still pretty frugal. Here’s what I mean. We prioritize health and performance. We buy high quality meats and vegetables. We also use a lot of spices, so that adds a bit to the budget as well. To take advantage of all these tips,… Continue reading Saving Money On Groceries

I grew up in an environment where DIY was a way of life. I was mostly unaware of paying other people to do simple things around the house or minor car repair. I literally helped my dad build the house I grew up in. I taught myself how to work on my own vehicles.However, over… Continue reading Is It Always Best to Do It Yourself?

Is earning more money or saving more money better? Often, when I’m faced with a need for extra cash, I automatically turn to making more money.  I grew up knowing that hard work earned you money.  If you need more money, then you need to work more.  If that still wasn’t enough, then go talk… Continue reading Earning More Money Versus Saving Money

Having an Emergency Fund is Essential Having an emergency fund is vital to the security and long-term success of anyone’s financial future.  It’s really important to leave some amount of money completely separate just in case everything turns for the worst.  You just never know what might happen and having cash on hand for an… Continue reading Emergency Fund: An Essential Part of Your Financial Success

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey was introduced to me by JD Roth’s blog Get Rich Slowly.  This is the book that started our journey to becoming debt free and put us on the path to financial independence. My wife and I read The Total Money Makeover chapter by chapter and discussed everything as… Continue reading Book Review – The Total Money Makeover

You Can Make It On Your Own FU money can help members of the military make the best decision for them based on what will make them happy. One could argue that the pay and benefits from military service definitely help with happiness. However, about 93% of Americans go through life without ever serving in… Continue reading FU Money For Military: Don’t Stay for the Money!

The Experiment I Call Start100K So there I was, New Year’s Day 2021, sitting on my computer looking at domain names for a new project idea that I had.  I had a burning desire to start helping people with their money, I had zeroed in on helping with the first $100,000 of net worth.  I’d… Continue reading Perpetual Improvement in the New Year