Get Rich In The Military: A Real Life Example

A while back I wrote guest blog post for the site Bizzia entitled Get Rich in the Military. The post was a summary of some of my personal beliefs surrounding money and how you can exploit some of the unique opportunities you have serving in the armed forces. I hadn't really gone back and read the post in a long time but the other day I got an email that had me go back to revisit it. The email I received was from a fellow Air Force member named Jared. He spoke about how he has transformed his outlook on money and began achieving his financial goals. It was great for him to reach out and to allow me to post his story. I think his story is a great example of how achieving your financial goals is much more about your mind and a few simple habits than any complex system or knowledge. If you treat your circumstances as opportunities, don't make excuses, and keep your overall happiness as the ultimate goal then i think success is inevitable. Jared definitely is subscribing to the BadskiBlog definition of what true wealth is and it is great to see him succeeding. Thanks for taking the time to email me!

Matt,

My name is Jared, I'm Active Duty AF and currently in contracting career field. I'm currently an E4 and will sew on staff next month. I like what you had to say about finances and the military.

I have been very fortunate and blessed in the last year and a half.. First off I'm in a very hot career as I believe your in the same one too. Next I have no bills (except for cell phone) and rent. I do agree buying a house is good but when I'm only using half my BAH for rent then I think renting may be the best option. I just re-enlisted with the 7 SRB they were offering. I'm investing most of that money now. On top of that I got a sweet assignment to Moron Spain where the COLA is very generous. I'm going to invest all that too. I've deployed 2 times in 4yrs and have paid off all credit cards and my truck. No sense in getting a new vehicle mine runs fine. I'm single w/ no dependents so I can save half my paycheck every month. I have sworn to never get in credit card debt again. I had over 10 thousand in credit card debt alone at one point.

So to boil this all down I joined the military 4 1/2 yrs ago with a total of 30 grand in debt to now having 2 Roth IRA's with 10 plus grand in each and over 50 grand in my bank. And you know what....it was all in the military and I only reenlisted for 4 years and I'm only an E4. I'm finishing up my business degree and the military has literally paid for all of it as I try to get my books free from a library.

I'm completely blown away with the power of money and your completely right it's all about looking at an investment in time, ownership of your time, your life.

I'm not here to brag at all, in fact I'm just amazed and tickled. If people would take your advice and stop whining about being in the military and look for the upper hand of it all you would see a lot more military millionaires at the end.

I now give advice to young Airman and telling them...it can be done!! I started late too as I joined when I was 27 yrs old and now I'm 31.

Thanks again and hope to hear back your thoughts.

Jared

From Stock Broker To Pizza Delivery Man

I read this article a few days ago and I knew I had to blog about it. I love this article because it affirms my definition of being rich. Here is this larger than life stockbroker who at one point in time was making more that $750,000 a year, had all the toys and the big house, yet he is broke within 3 years once his income stops coming in. I don't want to make it sound like I am relishing in someone else's pain because I am not. However, I think that his story is an excellent illustration of how the conventional definition of rich is flawed. Making $750,000 a year does you no good if you have $751,000 going out the door. It is all about managing you cash flow and making the surplus of cash coming in work for you through various investment vehicles. I think it is ironic that Ken was paid very handsomely for managing other people's money yet it took him becoming a pizza man making $7 an hour to learn to manage his own. Take note of this lesson and don't fall into the consumerist trap of upping your lifestyle faster than your income, it's not realistic for one and it surely won't make you happy in the long run.

You CAN Buy Happiness?!?

I have to give credit to Ben Casnocha's Blog for leading me to The Happiness Project a blog based around, well no surprise here... happiness! I have provided this link because the author addresses the myth that money can't buy happiness. That's right I said the myth. Before you start accusing me of being a shallow, money obsessed loser check out her reasoning. She uses some reasoning that is very similar to my Money Tips post on my definition of rich.