From Imposter Syndrome to Podcast Success: Amber Dietz on Veteran Challenges, Paranormal Encounters, and Financial Resilience

Imagine feeling like an outsider among your own peers. Amber Dietz, co-host of the "Into the Weeds" podcast, experienced that firsthand after a severe injury led to her medical discharge from the Army. Join us as Amber opens up about her emotional journey from feeling like an imposter to finding her footing in civilian life. She shares her struggles with inadequate support and financial instability before achieving 100% unemployability status, shedding light on the often-overlooked challenges veterans face during their transition.

Amber’s story doesn’t end there. She takes us behind the scenes of her podcasting adventures, recounting memorable interviews and unexpected connections. From meeting Frank during a tough period marked by severe migraines to an insightful conversation with Christian archaeologist Mark Zies, Amber reveals how her podcast has become a platform for growth and community. Listen in to hear about her future guests, including country music artist Matt Oakley and an intriguing woman who delves into paranormal and true crime investigations.

But it’s not all about podcasting and interviews. Amber also shares her personal interests and how they intersect with her life experiences. Following her father's tragic suicide, Amber and her family have had perplexing encounters with the paranormal, which she discusses candidly. We also touch on her passion for true crime and historical conspiracies, as well as her unique research methods that help her manage chronic migraines. Rounding out the episode, we delve into investment strategies, emphasizing the importance of understanding risk tolerance and diversification. Tune in for a heartfelt, informative, and multi-faceted conversation honoring veterans and their stories.

Chapters

• 0:02 Military Veterans Financial Struggles and Resources"
• 12:25 Paranormal Interests and Personal Connections
• 24:46 Discussion on Paranormal and Pop Culture
• 41:38 Investment Dilemma
• 59:28 Honoring Veterans Through Radio Broadcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

This entire military is one cohesive, dedicated force. And the threats to our nations? They don't sleep. They're watching our every move. Iran, russia, china, north Korea, isis, al-qaeda they may be watching this right now. Our military should not be mistaken for our cable news dad fest show.

Speaker 2: 0:29

We don't care what you look like. We don't care who you voted for, who you worship, what you worship, who you love.

Speaker 1: 0:36

It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when he died or if you knew who your father was. Who your father was. We have been honed into a machine of lethal moving parts that you would be wise to avoid if you know what's good for you. We will not be intimidated. We will not back down. We don't want war, but if you want war with the United States of America, there's one thing I can promise you, so help me. God, someone else will raise your sons and daughters.

Speaker 2: 1:15

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Speaker 4: 1:50

Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving veterans a voice.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Find us on the web at mbradious.

Speaker 3: 2:01

Opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.

Speaker 1: 2:11

Find us on the web at mbradious.

Speaker 5: 2:17

All right, hey, welcome everybody. This is Money in the Military. My name is Joey, aka the Fire Social Worker, and I'm just excited to be here on MBR giving veterans a voice. And the veteran that we're giving our voice to today is Amber Dietz. She is a fellow co-host on Into the Weeds podcast, so, amber, thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 6: 2:41

You're welcome. Thank you for having me. And, Joey, when I look at you it's uncanny you look very similar to my brother. Yeah, yes you do, so I'm like oh, my God. I'm talking to my brother.

Speaker 5: 2:57

Oh man. Well, yeah, it's awesome that you joined, Just so people might not know your show, but if they're on NBR, I hope that they have watched it. If you would just give us a quick background of some of your military history and then how you got into podcasting, Looks like we might have a delay, All right. Well, while we're waiting on Amber to buffer I guess we were talking about this earlier we were having some potential issues, maybe with StreamYard or maybe with our respective internet connections, but you know, this is why oh hello, all right, we're

Speaker 6: 3:53

back. So I kind of feel like an imposter because I was only in the Army for a year. So being on NBR was extremely scary for me because I've always kind of not felt like a veteran. Because I got hurt during training. At my almost seventh week of basic training I went into a medical hold and then got a job doing drug screening and in processing and out processing soldiers and making sure they had beds and things like that. So I really did not do much in the army. I fell and broke my back in three places and that kind of prevented me from going any further.

Speaker 5: 4:45

But, you know, I would also encourage you to not discredit your service, and I know you've probably been told that many times by now, but you know, you signed the dotted line, you went to basic training. You, you know you were doing your. You know doing more than most, most people would do for their country. So definitely you are and always will be a veteran, no matter how much time you serve. So thank you are, you are and always will be a veteran, no matter how much time you serve.

Speaker 5: 5:07

So, um, thank you, thank you for your service. Um, um, but yeah so. So you were in the army right Um and um, and then you know this is um, you know this is a financial show, but, in general, but, um, you know, were there any um, any financial, um struggles that you came across post, you know, whenever you were transitioning out of the service.

Speaker 6: 5:29

Well, yeah, definitely, because, um, I was disabled, uh, but I was only discharged for uh with 10% disability, so that gave me what like a hundred dollars, a hundred and something dollars a month, hundred and something dollars a month, and that was back in 99 and, um, I tried to work uh for a little bit afterwards, um, but I wasn't able to uh, so I've kind of just been in and out of working. So financially we struggled really hard for uh. Well, up until really genuinely and honestly, probably up until about last year when I got my 100% unemployability.

Speaker 5: 6:10

Wow, well, congratulations, you much deserved.

Speaker 6: 6:13

I mean, you literally broke your back, so you would think that that would be pretty much 100% but yeah, I have, uh, I have 90%, but technically I have uh over 200, but the VA math is so weird that, um, yeah, I'm still waiting on a couple of evaluations.

Speaker 5: 6:35

Okay, so now that you're um, you've got this, um, you know, obviously there's a financial aspect to getting a hundred percent, or getting on a hundred percent unemployable but unemployable. But up until that point you said you were struggling Was there any resources that you stumbled upon? You know, as a veteran, did you even? Was there any assistance at all for you?

Speaker 6: 6:58

Not really and I didn't okay. So when I transitioned out, you know you take classes telling you the benefits and things like that, but then you're just kind of thrown out there on your own and because I had not finished basic training, I had thought that I wasn't eligible for Veterans Assistance and then finally somebody told me I was, so I went and got the help. But yeah, I I pretty much didn't really have any help. I had to do everything on my own. I I went to the VA um all of these years, but it seemed like no one ever cared to think about the financial aspect of it.

Speaker 5: 7:47

Yeah, yeah. So what inspired you to kind of go through the actual effort to get your disability rating increase? What was the catalyst for that?

Speaker 6: 8:11

was the catalyst for that. Uh. So I started fighting I would say maybe six months after I got out of the army, to get an increase with the dav. Um, but they, I don't know what happened. I must have fallen through the cracks or something. I never really got any assistance from the DAV and, um, they may have, uh, gotten me a little bit of an increase. I can't remember cause it's been so long ago, but, um, when I started school, um, my husband and I uh started ministry, uh, or school for ministry. He had been in a really bad car accident and became disabled as well and had to have four back surgeries.

Speaker 5: 8:58

Wow.

Speaker 6: 8:59

And that was pretty much the catalyst to say, hey, okay, this is not cool. You know, I should have some compensation, more than what I'm getting, cause I was 20 years old when I got hurt, so I basically gave my life to the military in a sense, as far as like my social and uh you know work life.

Speaker 5: 9:26

So yeah, yeah, you're. You're definitely earned that and deserve all that. And then so did you get any kind of re? Um like a, a reimbursement or anything like that back pay or anything?

Speaker 6: 9:41

I think we're still frozen oh, okay, okay okay, okay, you're good, now All right?

Speaker 5: 9:46

yeah, I guess when I was asking if you'd gotten any kind of retroactive pay or back pay or anything like that.

Speaker 6: 9:53

I did get some the first time that I got an increase. I actually should be getting a lot more, but I don't know how that's, you know, going to pan out. Um, I, but I did end up having to hire a lawyer because I couldn't get anywhere. Um, I couldn't get any assistance, so I ended up hiring a lawyer, and I can't remember what percentage they take out, but they take a percentage out of whatever I get.

Speaker 5: 10:26

Yeah, yeah. Well, it sounds like you've been through the ringer, but you've. You've kind of come out the end maybe stronger and wiser. It sounds like you're a very resilient person, so I give you a lot of credit for for making it through with. That sounds like you've had a, you know, between you and your family. You had a lot of a lot of strife, a lot of, you know, a lot of really tough times, but you you've managed to to overcome and power through. So that's pretty impressive.

Speaker 5: 10:55

So let's talk a little bit about your podcast. You know I I've been catching, you know that's the thing about MBR is, as we're growing like there's so much content out there, it's hard to keep up with each other's show sometimes, you know. But I know, I know that you've been getting some really interesting guests on and I was just curious out of your, you know, out of your guests so far. I mean not to say that you have to pick one, but you know, was there any, any anyone that that jumped out at you that was really interesting or surprising or, you know, like just a really great conversation?

Speaker 6: 11:29

Yeah, I think my conversation with Frank Steven he is a YouTuber, his channel is a Nigerian perspective and he is a man who lives in Nigeria is a man who lives in Nigeria and he was talking to my daughter and I cause she co-hosts with me about um Sharia law and um the effects that it's having on women and children in Nigeria and um that was a very eyeopening um experience. Um he brought. He brought up a lot of things that I'd never considered and you can definitely see the difference in a Western mindset versus his mindset. You know an Eastern mindset.

Speaker 5: 12:23

So it's like it's very interesting. And how did you, I guess? I'm just curious, how did you even stumble upon uh, how did you make that connection?

Speaker 6: 12:30

because sometimes these, these podcast connections can be really interesting yeah, so, um, because I broke my back, I suffer from migraines really bad and so there was six and a half years where I was in bed, pretty much not able to do anything. I was pretty much bed bound 26 days out of the month for six and a half years, and so I consumed a lot of YouTube and a lot of Spotify and Audible, and a lot of Spotify and Audible, and I stumbled across Frank and he had some really funny shorts, because he talks about Sharia law, but he makes it very funny, and so I started sharing those shorts with my husband and when I got the opportunity to have the podcast, I was like he is a guy that I would really like to reach out to and just have a discussion with, and I did and he accepted wow, that's really cool, so I'm definitely gonna have to check that one out.

Speaker 5: 13:38

Um, I remember whenever it was launching, I was very curious about it. I have to have to spend some time and really dig into that. And then you had an archaeologist on your show too.

Speaker 6: 13:50

Yeah, I did. Yeah, mark Zies, he's a Christian archaeologist and I actually met him. He was a professor at the college that my husband and I used to go to at. Well, it turned into Johnson University of Florida and yeah, and he was a professor there and I met him one day in chapel and I always kept it in the back of my mind. I was like he's an interesting person. So I reached out to him again and I was like, hey, I'm a history nerd and I want to know, I want to pick your brain. And it was kind of funny with him because I talk a lot about paranormal.

Speaker 5: 14:44

Looks like we might have gotten frozen. Alright, I think we're frozen, am I? Okay yeah, you're frozen. Well, let's keep that thought for a second, and then we'll jump to a quick break, and then we're going to play Marine Corps veteran Noah Peterson real quick no-transcript.

Speaker 5: 17:30

Right, welcome back everybody. We are with Amber from Into the Weeds podcast on MBR and we're just. This is Money in the Military. We're kind of doing an impromptu show. I guess you could say we're talking a little bit about everything. I was highlighting Amber's podcast guest recently that she's been having and actually it got me thinking that we have a military influencer conference coming up and Amber is going to be there and we're also going to have Terry from Tracer Rounds podcast and guys from Military Retirement podcast are going to be there. So it's going to be like a mini MBR reunion, I think, or not a reunion, because we've never met.

Speaker 5: 18:25

It's going to be a chance for us to actually meet in real life. So that's coming up the end of this month actually right, the 29th, the 30th, the 30th. Yeah, I'm excited.

Speaker 5: 18:41

Yeah, that's pretty cool. So we're going to try to do some lives maybe from the event. Um, well, obviously we'll be doing, you know, uh, plenty of content, I'm sure, just networking and learning and connecting with people. So pretty excited about that, you know, just watching mbr grow and you know, we've pretty much kind of started around the same time, right, you know, like in that, in that uh period of time.

Speaker 5: 19:04

So we're all in that. Uh, that yeah, early pioneer phase, um, but yeah, it's been. It's been pretty cool, uh, and then joel has been.

Speaker 6: 19:14

I've been, uh, having a lot of fun yeah, yeah, like there's, there's been times where? Oh, maybe are you frozen I StreamYards is messed up today.

Speaker 5: 19:27

Yeah, yeah, we've been having some connection issues, so I apologize to everyone. We're. You know, I guess I'm freezing sometimes and then she's freezing sometimes, so we're not always hearing what each other is saying.

Speaker 6: 19:42

So but can you hear me now? I think, you're frozen.

Speaker 5: 19:46

Yeah, I, yeah, I can yeah I can hear you now all right, and I mean I have fiber internet now, like I just got upgraded to fiber, so I'm pretty sure it's not my internet, but it's. It sounds like it's a stream yard thing, so um yeah I think it is well, the, the show must go on and it is live. So I mean, we just, we just kind of have to deal with it, I guess, but yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5: 20:11

So, yeah, we got the Military Influencer Conference coming up. You have any, any special guests lined up for your show. That you've, you've got, that you're excited about.

Speaker 6: 20:23

Yeah, actually it will be coming out on the 28th. I haven't had the interview yet, but on the 28th I will be talking to Matt Oakley. He is a country music artist and he's got some really great music and so I'm excited to meet him and talk to him. And then I have reached out to quite a few people who have said that they will come on or have shown interest but haven't secured a date yet. But this week I have Parawoman para woman radio. She is um a woman who uh deals with paranormal stuff and um true crime, and so I'm going to be talking and um learning about her interview with, uh Lorraine Warren. Do you know who that is?

Speaker 5: 21:19

That sounds, that sounds familiar.

Speaker 6: 21:22

Um, she's the woman that was portrayed in the car on her husband. Um, they were the demonologists or the people from the catholic church that came in and investigated the hauntings okay, yeah and so she, she had an interview like a prize, prized interview, so, um, that's uh, I want to talk to her about that. Oh man, all right, well, yeah, I guess we're still freezing, here and there.

Speaker 5: 22:01

But uh, okay, yeah, I know, okay, oh man, all right. Well, yeah, I guess we're still freezing here and there, but okay, you're back.

Speaker 6: 22:08

Yeah, I know Okay.

Speaker 5: 22:11

Yeah, I guess we're just going to have to do like Morse code or something and talk to each other via signals or something. I don't know. But according to Joel, he says that your vibe is just too strong for the internet. That's awesome Joel running the show behind the scenes, as always.

Speaker 6: 22:35

I love Joel. He's keeping up on top of things.

Speaker 5: 22:40

Oh, yeah, he's a beast. I don't know how he does it. He's a beast Me either. Yeah, so, um, so, yeah, so you got your. Um, you know, like you're, you've you mentioned you, do you have an interest in paranormal? I remember, do I do remember hearing your story that you, uh, some of the stories that you've mentioned, but, um, you know, like when, when you were, when you were bedridden for those six years, is that kind of where your interest in this happened, or were you always?

Speaker 6: 23:14

interested in paranormal, Okay, so the weird thing is is I grew up, okay, so I grew up in Oklahoma and, um, I think that a lot of the mystique and the love of like Bigfoot and cryptids and things like that is where it started, Because growing up in Oklahoma and then around the Comanche Nation and the Kiowa Nation and other tribes and having friends and family, you know, believing in all those things, that kind of started it. And then my stepdad was also a real wizard. I know it sounds funny to say he was a wizard, but that's what he called himself. It sounds funny to say he was a wizard, but that's what he called himself. So, um, so I grew up around tarot cards and you know, uh, little ladies, little ladies in, uh, my front room, uh, having their tarot cards read and and, uh, ruins cats. You, I don't know how, uh, how it all bleeds together, but it makes one interesting person. So, um, okay, Uh, so, anyways, when my father died actually is when the paranormal stuff started happening.

Speaker 6: 24:46

Um, I actually I actually hadn't even thought about being paranormal or anything for quite a long time because I had been a Christian for well, let's see, I became a Christian at 21 and my dad died at 30, when I was 30. So all that time I didn't really think about the paranormal or anything. And then my father committed suicide and he did it at home and that really had a huge effect on our family. I hope you heard some of that, Did you hear?

Speaker 5: 25:26

that I did.

Speaker 6: 25:27

Okay, okay so. So it had a huge effect on my family and right after he died is when we started having nightmares and weird things happening. We had, I had an incident in a hotel room where some weird thing came and talked to me about my dad and I've been pushed and I've had things taken out from underneath my leg. Sounds weird, but it's happened and I can't explain it, and so that's kind of why I talk about it, because it's like it's happened and I can't explain it, and so that's kind of why I talk about it, because it's like who else am I going to talk to about it? No one else wants to talk about it because they think you're weird. And I'll be honest, when people talk about their paranormal experiences, I think they're weird.

Speaker 5: 26:28

Well. I think, I've heard of a lot of different. You know I'm a very open minded person to the point where I'm definitely open to that kind of stuff. You know, and you know, I think that there's, there's all kinds of you know, the conspiracy theory stuff is there's. There's almost always a grain of truth behind some of that, you know, so so I've always been very curious about some of these things.

Speaker 5: 26:52

But, um, but what, what is like, uh, what has been your most recent like obsession? What are you? What are you really excited about lately? Uh as far as like compared uh conspiracy theories uh well, just in general, I guess, what's what's, uh, what's what's on the radar right now?

Speaker 6: 27:12

well, unfortunately, uh, what's been on the radar recently has been, uh, gypsy rose blanchard, because her mother's autopsy just came out after, um, what happened in 2015 and it just came out, and so all of that evidence has just come out and Demise. So a lot of people have a lot of theories about how how much gypsy is involved in her mother's demise, and so that's kind of the train I'm on, and then I also, uh, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6: 28:02

Okay, and, and I'm also, uh, megan Markle has been on my radar for a long time and, uh, because I'm a history nerd and I love, I love learning about history and I've always thought about do you know who Anne Boleyn is? I've heard the name. Yeah, okay, she was Henry VIII's wife. She was his second wife, and there was a lot of rumors about why she was executed, but basically it was that she was having an affair with her brother, and I've always wanted to know, you know, the real story about that. And so when Meghan Markle came onto the scene, I actually really liked her. I watched her show and I was really excited for her and the royal family, and so I just started paying attention. And then it just kind of devolved into this big, really crazy conspiracy and it's just, it's morphed into something that is kind of way bigger Fraudulent entities that they have become a part of.

Speaker 5: 29:31

Okay, well, we're still having some connection issues, so let me go ahead and cut to a quick break, okay, and we'll play some Noah Peterson again, and then we'll come back after this.

Speaker 3: 32:22

Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you. Opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.

Speaker 1: 32:35

Find us on the web at mbradious.

Speaker 5: 32:40

All right, we are back. Welcome, welcome everyone. This is Money in the Military, with Joey that's me and we also have our veteran guest is Amber, host of Into the Weeds podcast on the NBR platform. So we've been having a little bit of glitches here and there, but you know it is live and it's Internet based, so there's going to be some hiccups from time to time. Some hiccups from time to time, um, but uh, but yeah. So, um, I guess, before we left, we were talking about, uh, your most recent uh kind of obsessions or interests. Um, is there anything? Um, I guess I'm just curious. Um, have you like, how do you, when you do, do you do research on these like topics? Like, how do you go down the rabbit hole of of these things?

Speaker 6: 33:34

so when it comes to gypsy and megan their whole, they're two different worlds and uh, ballparks, uh, basically, I just uh, consume information. Uh, that's put out there, and I follow a lot of creators about Gypsy and about Megan and I'm in a Discord about Gypsy and that's how I find out some information. But when I'm looking into other things, I do more research. Um, this is kind of like um, just consuming information, but, uh, I consume a lot of uh other people's research and, um, it's quite interesting. So I just um, yeah, so, and it's hard for me for me to do like reading a lot, ok, so when I do research on guests or on anything that I'm interested in, I try to find as many sources that are audio based, just so I don't get put into a migraine just so I don't get put into a migraine, gotcha.

Speaker 5: 34:53

Okay, so that's part of your preventative maintenance is that you know you can't just read all day because it's going to cause you to have a migraine and stuff. So that's pretty smart. And the great thing is there's a lot of audio based content out there now. You know, like with all the podcasts, the space is just wide open now. So I mean, you know you could really find a niche podcast that you would have never had, you know, five, ten years ago. So it's a pretty cool time to be, you know, a consumer and a content creator too.

Speaker 6: 35:26

Yeah, it is, and Audible is a great resource for me. I've got over a thousand books on Audible.

Speaker 5: 35:33

Wow Okay. Yeah. That's impressive. Well, so let's talk a little bit about so. We actually in the group chat we were talking about doing like a movie stream thing. Yeah, what do you think about that Like, where we watch a movie and kind of talk about it while the movie's going on? Uh, is that something that you think would be kind of fun or exciting?

Speaker 6: 36:00

yeah, I think it would be fun. Uh, I I don't watch a lot of movies or tv or anything like that. Um, I used to. I used to consume a lot, um, but now I feel like everything I watch or do it has to be knowledge-based. I have to learn something, otherwise I get really bored really quick. But there are some really great movies out there that would be great to discuss. As veterans, I mean, I don't think that I could lend a whole lot to the conversation, but other people could.

Speaker 5: 36:37

Well, I mean, at this point it would be just highlighting movies and just celebrating movies that bring us some type of happiness. So I wouldn't necessarily have to be a, you know, a military themed movie, but you know, um, you know, just like with the gamer channel, like we would maybe have themed nights or, you know, do things like that. But I don't know, it was just. It just seemed like it'd be a pretty cool thing, something that my wife and I do, like I grew up watching mystery science theater 3000, so that I don't know if you're familiar with that show, but, um, but it's, it's like the, I don't know, I mean you might be frozen, but, um, have you heard of it? Yeah, I have.

Speaker 6: 37:22

Yeah, I have heard of it and my father-in-law is a really big science fiction uh person, so he's yeah, he's got all of that stuff yeah, but I really like the.

Speaker 5: 37:35

The premise of the show is and this is something that my buddies and I have always done, and now my wife and I do it but we'll watch a movie and we'll kind of riff on the movie while it's going on so folks, will you know? I mean, we're doing this in the comfort of our own home and we're not doing it in the theater, but, um, but yeah, there's something.

Speaker 5: 37:53

There's something about that type of discussion of a movie and like, there's also a really cool YouTube channel called Cinema Therapy. I don't know if you've heard of it. No, I haven't. It's. It's a. It's a guy who is a practicing therapist and then another guy who was a filmmaker and they basically just kind of like talk about movies, analyze movies, like he, the therapist, comes at it from a therapist's perspective and it's just a really, really great um channel. Like they do all kinds of different content and uh, yeah, so I've been, I've been, we've been watching a lot of cinema therapy lately and it's just something that I just really resonate with and we should do that on NBR somehow.

Speaker 6: 38:39

But we'll see when I when I watch a movie with my husband he's constantly doing that, yeah.

Speaker 5: 38:45

Yeah, I mean some people find it annoying. I mean we kind of like read the room, like if it's a good movie, then we'll sit there and watch it, but if it's like a movie that like all right, this is a bad movie, we're gonna. We're gonna mess with it, yeah, so yeah but yeah, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 6: 39:01

Yeah, yeah, um, you know, there there was something I was going to ask you about, uh, before I forget, oh yeah, the uh, when you asked me to come on and you, you, you didn't have a topic and I was thinking about that, um, that group that I sent in the chat, uh, cfr, uh, christian financial resources, I think is what it is. Yeah, and I was wondering what, what you thought about that. Have you ever heard of an organization like that, that that basically gives loans to churches?

Speaker 5: 39:42

And. I haven't.

Speaker 5: 39:43

I haven't seen much of it, but I mean it's. I looked at it a little bit after you sent it to me and it is, it is legit, mean they're, um, you know they're, they're a legit organization and everything. So it's just like a kind of a niche, um uh, market. You know like, uh, you know like they're. I would consider it something along the lines of like, you know like, companies that focus on green, you know green energy or green green products, like it's like they. They're niched down to the, you know the, the church network.

Speaker 5: 40:14

So um but yeah, I mean, it's um is so you, what was your interest in um you, you in bringing that topic up? I'm just curious, like, did you want some advice on looking into getting into that?

Speaker 6: 40:29

yeah, I do want some, some advice on maybe investing a little bit. And I've been exposed to CFR the first one that I sent you, the Solomon one, I don't know anything about it, but the CFR, I've heard about it for years but never taken the leap to actually invest in them. And I was just kind of wondering for me, since I am more kingdom-minded, building ministries and churches and stuff like that, would that be a better route for me? Or would another avenue of investing be better for me? I don't know, I'm just kind of right.

Speaker 5: 41:18

Yeah, yeah, and I mean I think it sounds like this the organization resonates with you almost more than anything, and that's that's something that like. If you can find an organization or a company that you actually resonate with, that you believe in, then I definitely would support it. Obviously, yeah, you do your due diligence, you do your research and if you're putting large sums of money or things like that, then you want to make sure that they're vetted and accredited and all that other stuff which it seems like I said in my initial review it seemed like it is, but yeah, so I mean, in general, what is your I guess your biggest financial goal right now with looking into this, uh, christian financial resources?

Speaker 6: 42:14

um, yeah, just having um, just building some wealth, just uh, having some something to fall back on, you know um yeah I have some money to invest in something. I'm just not sure what I want to do yet.

Speaker 5: 42:32

Right? Well, the first thing that I usually ask whenever people are asking about investing questions is like how soon do you want to use this money? You know, because that's kind of like you know that kind of dictates where you want to park it, how aggressively you want to, you know, fund it and invest it, and things like that. So what would your initial reaction to be? Is this like long, long term, or is this, you know, fund it and invest it and things like that? So what would your initial reaction to be? Is this like long, long term, or is this, you know, like medium term, short term?

Speaker 6: 42:58

Medium term, I would say within, you know, 30 years. Okay to me, that's medium term.

Speaker 5: 43:06

Yeah, yeah, that's true, it's all relative, I guess, you know. Yeah, so, yeah, so if you're not going to touch it for 30 years, then, yeah, you could probably put it in something longer term that's less, maybe a little bit more aggressive than just the high yield savings account, but maybe more aggressive than, or less aggressive than, the stock market. It really depends on you know, like, if you're, if you're comfortable putting money in the stock market, you know, go, go right ahead, Um. But then I think there's also so some people don't know like their risk profile, maybe if they're just starting out, so they're like you know I'm, you know like, uh, for instance, if you put in a hundred and then the next day it was down to 90. What would your reaction be to losing that 10%? Would you want to like take your money out, or would you be like, um, all right, I'm in this for the long haul.

Speaker 6: 44:05

I would watch it for a little bit and then if it kept, you know, going down, then I would pull it out.

Speaker 5: 44:11

But yeah, yeah because that's kind of a little bit of a barometer of like OK, because some people they can't stomach the thought of losing any of their money, they're very risk averse and so when that $10 or that 10% goes down, they're like no, no more, I'm pulling it all out. You know. But it sounds like you're kind of in the middle there where you know you're like okay, well, let's see how this goes. You know, um, the other, the other, kind of like flipping the script on that, um, as MJ would say, um, you know like, uh, you, you, it's only lost money whenever you sell it. You know so that even though, let's say, it went from a hundred dollars to $90 in value, it's only that $90 whenever you actually sell the, the asset. You know so it's still, it's still worth.

Speaker 5: 45:03

It's still worth that $90, but it could also go up or down, you know. So that's where I would um, I would change the narrative and say that instead of uh, oh, I lost $10, is like now I can buy more, I can buy more of this at a discount. So it's like uh, you're, you're buying the, the, the shares, at a cheaper price.

Speaker 5: 45:27

So, if it was, you know if, if that was one share, let's say, you bought a share of Apple for a hundred dollars, um, yeah, and then it went down to 90. Now you're buying, you're buying even more shares at 90 for the same amount of money. So you, you know it's, it's, it's really, it's really kind of it's. It's small but it's there. So, basically, you're, you're going to get, you're buying. You know, when the stock market goes down, a lot of people panic and they sell. But really, what a lot of people try to to espouse is that, no, you're actually buying these at a discount. Now, you know.

Speaker 5: 46:04

So, um, that's, that's just a little, a little investing kind of like mind shift that I try to tell people about, because a lot of people get really nervous about the stock market, and I get it. You know there's a lot to be stressed out about it, but but yeah, if you're looking at, you know, a 10, 20, 30 year timeframe, then you have, you have that ability to to go up and down. Ultimately, the stock market generally goes up. You know it's it's a.

Speaker 5: 46:34

You know it's a. It's a a slow and steady If you. If you pull out, know 5, 10, 20, 30 years it's always going up. You know sometimes it is going down. I won't deny that it does go down, but yeah, overall, long term it does go up.

Speaker 6: 46:52

So yeah, I've seen uh, I've seen it go up. I've seen people make good money and I've seen people lose some, some money.

Speaker 5: 47:01

And that goes with everything you know, from bitcoin to real estate, to anything exactly yeah, yeah it's really, it's really just that diversification of uh, of your portfolio, and that sounds really nerdy to say, but but it's basically, you know, um, you don't you put all your eggs in one basket, you know? So yeah, so OK, well, let me, let me pick another one more song.

Speaker 5: 47:28

And no, yeah, that's a great question and I'm glad you brought it up. You know this is money in the military, so I would, I would love. I'm always down to talk money, but you know, if, if there's nothing money related, I can always talk about other stuff too. But yeah, like actually after the break, I would like for you to ask me another question and maybe we can talk about one more quick scenario and then we'll, we'll take a, we'll call it a day at that point okay alright, so let's pick a song.

Speaker 5: 48:04

We'll call it a day at that point. Okay, all right, so let's pick a song and we'll be right back, okay, okay.

Speaker 8: 48:24

It's the goods and it's the glory A hundred stripes, a hundred stories. It's the pledge of allegiance on the 4th of July. It's them handwritten letters from home. It's them sleepless nights alone. It's his newborn baby he left with his wife, mr red, white and blue. Lay down, here's a line mr red, white and blue, for these stars and stripes, the stripes, hey, from the fields of Indiana To the swamps of Louisiana, to the golden coast of California. Uncle Sam's the only family he's got. His purple heartbeat won't stop and his 18th birthday was the day he was born, mr Red, white and Blue. Lay down in the light, Mr Red.

Speaker 8: 49:35

White and Blue For these stars to shine. Mr Red, white and Blue For these stars and stripes. Stand on the front lines, pay the ultimate price. He was the man of the house when he was born. His family is proud but torn. But if you knew him you would understand. He was raised on high to be brave, just to see the flags still wave, and then he came home with only one hand. Mr Red, white and Blue Lay down here to lie. Mr Red, white and Blue For these stars of strife. Mr Red, white and blue. For these stars to shine.

Speaker 7: 50:43

Mr Red, white and blue Stand on these red lines, mr Red white and blue Can paint the ultimate bright.

Speaker 8: 50:54

Mr Red, white and blue Lay down his life.

Speaker 3: 51:00

Mr Red White, for these star destroyers, march in line, march in line opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent find us on the web at mbradious all right, we are back.

Speaker 5: 51:54

This is money in the military. And we were just talking with amber uh, host of into the weeds podcast, and I kind of put her on the spot. I asked her to make up a or ask me a question, a finance related question, and put me on the spot and see what I, what I can do.

Speaker 6: 52:11

Well, I couldn't really think of much, but I was just thinking about real estate. That was something I was thinking about investing in, too. What's better? Or in your opinion just your opinion what's better real estate or actually investing in a company?

Speaker 5: 52:41

I think we were frozen again. Um, so you caught off the last part of that. Uh, a company like a stock, basically versus uh, or something like that, yeah.

Speaker 5: 52:51

Yeah, yeah, um. Honestly, I've been kind of like torn um between real estate and and and the stock market in general. I've had like limited success with, with both, but in general I kind of see them as um different flavors of the same coin, if that makes sense. Because, like you know, you can put your money into a house, um, and you know like it can increase in value, just like put money into a stock and it can increase in value, um, you know. But the the inverse is true too. You know you, uh, a house can go down in value and and um, you know the, the difference between owning a home as an investment, as an I've I've had to deal with this as being a landlord is not really that fun, um, but it's one of those things where it's like you could, it is lucrative or it can be very lucrative. So, um, it really like it depends on, like if you had oh sorry, you're frozen too oh man, this has been a fun one.

Speaker 6: 54:00

Yeah, it has been, because I feel like an idiot. Every time I go to talk I lose my train of thought.

Speaker 5: 54:07

Yeah, no, that's fine, I can hear you, but now I can't see you. But it's all good, but yeah, I guess, if you're still there, yeah, I'm still here.

Speaker 5: 54:18

Yeah, I can hear you, Okay if you're still there. Um, yeah, I'm still here. Yeah, I can hear you okay. So, uh, I guess the the the short version is. It kind of also depends on your, your risk profile and how, how like comfortable, like if you put 50 000 into a house, that's like a fixed asset. You know now I got dogs, so there's risk involved. I didn't hear any of that Okay.

Speaker 5: 54:49

I was going to say like if you put money into a house, like a physical house, an asset, then it's fixed, it stays in the house, so it's not something that you can just pull out and you know use, whereas with a stock it's a little bit more liquid and you can actually grab it.

Speaker 6: 55:08

I didn't even think about, because I've seen some really great investments in the housing market. Actually, the way the housing market's been the last probably five or six years, it's been actually crazy, because we ended up paying eighteen thousand dollars more than our house um was listed for and we had somebody come in right behind us and offer $17,000 more. But because we had already signed the contract, they gave it to us.

Speaker 2: 55:50

Wow.

Speaker 6: 55:51

Yeah, because moving here to Missouri in what was it? 2021? You know, right during the pandemic and everything, or like I don't know how far along it was, because I lived in Florida and the pandemic didn't, basically didn't happen in Florida.

Speaker 5: 56:08

Yeah.

Speaker 6: 56:11

So I don't even remember the timeline, but when we moved up here everybody was moving away from the big cities and wanting to move here. So a lot of the areas that we actually looked at we looked at in Tennessee, arkansas, kentucky, several places and we landed here. But we looked and looked and it was really hard to find a place yeah, and it's not.

Speaker 5: 56:43

It's not getting any better. It seems like, uh, you know like the market is. I feel like it's it's over, it's inflated right now, so hopefully, it is anything crash.

Speaker 5: 56:53

but I mean, part of me wants it to crash because, I don't know, I'm just ready for houses to be more affordable again, Um, but as a, as a homeowner, I kind of don't want it to crash because then I'll lose equity on you know. So I'm, I'm, I'm in the middle there where I'm, uh, I'm, I'm actually trying to sell my uh one of my RA in investment property right now, um, within the next month or two, and uh, yeah so it is kind of a timely thing concept to to think about home.

Speaker 5: 57:23

Homes like home ownership, you know like being a landlord, you know like the risks involved with that. So I mean there's definitely times where I was like, uh, is this house even worth it?

Speaker 5: 57:33

You know, Um and then then I don't know how much I'm going to make on it. I might not make a lot, I might make a little bit, and it's just kind of a gamble. So that's. The other frustrating part is that you don't really you can make really good money. Or I've heard of some people that go through the whole house selling process and they make like $3,000, you know which is still better than nothing.

Speaker 5: 57:54

But you know, after all the headache and stuff that you go through it it's kind of it can be kind of frustrating and disappointing my sister-in-law sold her house here in missouri and made almost three hundred thousand dollars on it.

Speaker 6: 58:06

That's how much the market went out that's crazy.

Speaker 5: 58:10

Well, that's one of those success stories right there, for. So, yeah, happy for them, hopefully. Uh, yeah, I'd love to get a fraction of that, but man.

Speaker 6: 58:19

I know.

Speaker 5: 58:22

Well, you know, like as much as the internet has hated us today, I've really enjoyed talking to you, Amber. It's been great and I'm really looking forward to meeting in person in Atlanta and, you know, just looking forward to your, to digging into your archives and then listening to uh your upcoming episodes.

Speaker 5: 58:48

So, um, thank you for being a host and thank you for jumping on this stream with me. Uh, you know, like sometimes, as as you know, just for a little behind the scenes, sometimes things fall through and you don't have a guest and then we have, like this awesome group of of fellow hosts that can jump in and and be a guest host sometimes. So it's really cool.

Speaker 6: 59:09

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5: 59:10

And I would love to return the favor if you ever needed before for that too.

Speaker 6: 59:14

So oh, I will hit you up on that.

Speaker 5: 59:18

All right. Well, I think I think that's the show. Everybody. I really appreciate you guys listening in and watching and we'll see you on the next stream.

Speaker 4: 59:28

Yeah all right ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to military broadcast radio as we wrap up today's show. We want to remind you that the podcast of today's episode will be available right after we go off the air, so if you missed any part of the show or want to listen again, be sure to check it out. And remember we're here to support and honor our veterans. Your stories and experiences matter and we are committed to giving you a platform to share them. That's right. We're here to give our veterans a voice, so don't forget to catch the podcast and stay connected with us Giving our veterans a voice.