From Air Force to Airwaves: Tony Hollinsworth on Overcoming Financial Turbulence and Empowering Veterans

What if the journey from military service to podcasting could teach you invaluable financial lessons? Join us for a riveting episode featuring Tony Hollinsworth, the voice behind "Inside the Hoosier Mind," as we explore his transformation from an Air Force serviceman tangled in debt to a successful podcast host. Alongside financial expert Joey Laswell, Tony opens up about his Indiana pride, military challenges, and the financial strategies that turned his life around.

We'll navigate the often-turbulent waters of military Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves, unraveling the financial chaos and unexpected burdens they can bring. Tony's personal anecdotes reveal a landscape of logistical nightmares and mounting debts, tempered by life-saving connections and clever financial maneuvers. Discover how he leveraged housing allowances, tax rebates, and credit card rewards to claw his way back to financial stability in record time, offering fellow veterans a roadmap to reclaim their own fiscal balance.

The transition from military to civilian life is fraught with hidden financial pitfalls, but preparation is key. As we dissect the psychological aspects of spending habits and the virtues of living within one's means, you'll gain insights into the critical importance of early planning and resources like the Transition Assistance Program (TAPS). Tony's story serves as a testament to the power of resilience and proactive financial management, providing veterans with a platform to share their stories and support each other on the path to long-term financial wellbeing. Tune in and honor our veterans by learning from their experiences.

Chapters

• 0:00 Tactical Gear and Financial Planning
• 11:39 Financial Struggles During Military PCS
• 21:10 Financial Strategies for Military Moves
• 32:39 Financial Struggles in the Military
• 48:19 Financial Transition After Military Service
• 52:33 Financial Planning for Military Veterans
• 59:47 Honoring Veterans Through Radio Broadcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Introducing LT Defense Tactical Gear, your ultimate solution for top-notch protection and performance in the field. Our armor bundles provide unmatched safety and comfort, while our battle belts and holsters ensure quick and easy access to your gear. Stay prepared for any situation with our high-quality medical supplies designed to keep you ready for action at all times. Looking to enhance your skills, Our firearms training programs will take your proficiency to the next level. Trust LT Defense for all your tactical gear needs and gear up for success on the battlefield.

Speaker 2: 0:35

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.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Our military should not be mistaken for our cable news gab fest show. We don't care what you look like. We don't care who you voted for. We don't care who you voted for, who you worship, what you worship, who you love it doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when he died or if he knew who your father was.

Speaker 2: 1:16

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.

Speaker 4: 1:25

We will not be intimidated. We will not back down. We don't want war.

Speaker 2: 1:30

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 6: 1:56

Military Broadcast Radio military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a voice. Find us on the web at mv radious military. Um, I'm a certified financial social worker. Um, I was in the Air Force for 14 years and then I paid off $20,000 of debt while I was active duty within three years as an E3. So that's kind of like I got really into personal finance and so I've been really passionate about that ever since, and that was 10, 12 years ago now. So since then I became a social worker and now I'm a certified financial social worker. So we kind of get into, you know, dealing with finances, but then also kind of dealing with the psychology behind finances, like the you know, the mental side of things.

Speaker 5: 2:38

So Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy when it comes to finances. Please welcome the fire social worker, joey Laswell.

Speaker 7: 2:52

All right, hey, hello, hello, hello everybody. This is Money in the Military on Military Broadcast Radio. Just wanted to say I'm excited to be here today. Got a special guest, a continuation from the last session that we had Our good friend, tony Hollinsworth from another co-host or a host of his own show Inside the who's your Mind on Military Broadcast Radio. So, tony, how's it going? Man Good, how are you.

Speaker 8: 3:21

Appreciate you having me on. I know we haven't really got to talk a whole lot as far as like one-on-one conversation, so this yeah this is kind of a good introductory path oh yeah, I like it.

Speaker 7: 3:30

I like it. You know, I really appreciate your sense of humor. You've jumped in on just a few of my streams, added some nice color commentary, so I really appreciate that. So, uh, just real quick tell us a little bit bit about your podcast and what time can we catch you on that show.

Speaker 8: 3:47

So I primarily do a sports podcast here on MBR. I primarily cover the NFL, college football and college basketball even though I've been a terrible college basketball fan because I have not watched much of the games this season so far. But you can catch me just about every Tuesdayuesday night at 6 pm eastern uh here on mbr all right, and uh, I'm guessing inside the hoosier mind.

Speaker 7: 4:12

So you're a big hoosiers fan, I'm assuming uh, not necessarily, but I am.

Speaker 8: 4:17

So it's kind of weird whenever, whenever I would meet people from across the world primarily when I was across the world and I'd meet somebody from indiana they're like eh, I'm kind of shy about being a, being a Hoosier, cause we're, we're a flyover state, like I'll admit it.

Speaker 8: 4:30

There's not a whole lot here in Indiana other than the Indy 500 once a year, um, but I wanted to kind of highlight that I'm I'm proud to be from Indiana. Like I don't feel like a the story of where does the term Hoosier really come from, and there's two stories, but none of it, neither one of them, are truly like confirmed.

Speaker 7: 4:49

So oh, okay, yeah, I just remember, was it the Gene Hackman movie Hoosiers. Is that pretty accurate? As far as is it capture the the?

Speaker 8: 4:58

the Hoosier spirit. Oh yeah, a hundred percent.

Speaker 7: 5:00

Yeah, a hundred percent Awesome. So that was Tuesdays at 6 pm Eastern, correct. Yep, okay, all right. So, everybody, if you're checking in listening to this show, this is kind of like a crossover show, like in the comic books. And so Tony had chimed in on the previous stream and had commented on a story that he had where he basically paid off a good amount of debt in a very short period of time, and I was just like, well, we got to have you on the show and kind of have you tell the story. I'm really curious to learn about that. But before we get into that, let's let's just get a little bit to know you, to know my audience, to get to know you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your military background and then I guess, how did you get into podcasting?

Speaker 8: 5:53

So I was in the Air Force for eight years. I was active duty, so I joined in 2014 and I just got out in 2022. And when I first joined I joined in a very unique way. So I was originally supposed to be a 2t2. For anybody who doesn't know air force jobs, I'm supposed to be air transportation and initially, when I first heard it, I'm like so this is kind of the air force's version of like ups, fedex, like they handle a lot of logistics, a lot of cargo, a lot of boxes, and I was like, ah, I'm looking for something. Maybe potentially I could do better on the outside. That isn't, you know, ups, fedex or Amazon. So in order to kind of relieve myself of that, I happened to get lucky and the Air the uh little little honey that they brought out to you know, try to attract you to join was you could pick any afsc that didn't have a prerequisite that needed to be met beforehand. So as long as I didn't need to have like a top secret clearance or, you know, be an absolute like computer genius or anything like that, I could. I could uh pick that job.

Speaker 8: 7:02

So I joined the air force Honor Guard for my first four years. I did funerals at Arlington National Cemetery for two years of my time while I was there, so Monday through Friday I would be doing funerals. And then, while I was there, I got the opportunity to do public affairs for the Secretary of Defense's office. So all I did was public speaking and it was essentially I had to memorize a 33 page script verbatim. I had to learn how to say it while walking backwards throughout the entire Pentagon and be able to pick up and, uh, be able to pick up where I left off. You know, just have conversations with people, just make them feel as comfortable as possible and teach them about the military, how it worked, all the branches.

Speaker 8: 7:51

And then I ended up crossing over, becoming a medic in 2018, which is where my financial story starts to kick into place, but we'll, we'll touch on that. And I got into podcasting right before COVID started. Okay, because I thought, wow, I hear all these people like they're working from home, like you know, they're going to have a lot of spare time and me, being a goober, I'm like, oh, I'll have time to do this. Little did I forget I'm a medic and in the military.

Speaker 8: 8:12

I have no time for that Right right.

Speaker 8: 8:15

I started technically in 2020, but I didn't really start getting more consistent with it until 2021. I had a really good friend before I joined that he and I would just talk sports all the time and it was we would talk sports from like a very neutral perspective. You know he was a fan of a team but he liked and appreciated other players and how other teams did things and kind of enjoyed watching them, and so that that's kind of where I adopted it, and I didn't really meet a whole lot of people like that in the military, so I was like well, I want to podcast about it, I want to meet other people that like to talk about this too, and it's just been, it's just took off since then that's awesome, man.

Speaker 7: 8:52

So when? When did you join mbr?

Speaker 8: 8:55

uh, I joined mbr uh april of this year, actually so april of 2024 all right.

Speaker 7: 9:01

So, yeah, you're actually not too far ahead of me. I think I joined in. My first broadcast was in june on mbr, so all right. So, yeah, you're actually not too far ahead of me. I think I joined in. My first broadcast was in june on mbr, so all right. Well, that's, that's cool, and I mean it sounds like from your air force experience. Like you know, I guess podcasting is a natural transition. You know, like you seem to be good at talking and and, uh, you know, so that's, that's really awesome and it sounds like that was a really cool experience, a one-of-a-kind experience that very few people can say the uh, they had the similar experience, so oh, 100 I'll I'll never forget, like the memories, the connections I made from that.

Speaker 8: 9:36

And yeah, I will say, as somebody, believe it or not, outside of podcasting, I am a thousand percent a massive introvert like if you catch me outside, I will probably not say a word to hardly anybody we're not.

Speaker 7: 9:49

We're not that far apart from each other because, uh, yeah, I'm pretty much the same way, um, but uh, well, yeah, thanks for kind of giving us some backstory. Um, so you, we had mentioned your um, your, your financial story. It's kind of got some ups and downs and some crazy stuff, it sounds like, but I haven't heard it yet, but I'm really excited and curious to learn more about it. So, yeah, just give us a little bit of background of what set up this whole journey and then we can kind of just take it from there.

Speaker 8: 10:23

So really the background is so kind of like I said, I didn't start off with a normal Air Force job. I started out as the Air Force Honor Guard and you can only do that for roughly about four years. You can maybe give or take a little bit, just depending on circumstances and situations, if you're waiting to retrain and for us coming out of bootcamp we have to retrain into something different, to have a technical skill. Now if you come in um what they call prior service so say you were a senior airman with like a line number to staff or you know you were an officer and you come in, uh, you still do it just for four years, because any longer than that you're considered, you know, basically like stale out of your current AFSC and they're like, yeah, we, you've been out of the game a little bit too long. I don't know if we could still use you right.

Speaker 8: 11:07

Um, so my time for retraining came and uh, to kind of help set it up for anybody who doesn't know the air force, if you retrain into a job that is less than six months cumulatively, then you are supposed to be sent TDY or temporarily You're supposed to be able to get your housing for the base that you're currently stationed at, and obviously the Air Force would cover all your hotel expenses, everything like that Instead of sending me TDY. My chief, who was also my career field manager, was not my biggest fan by any stretch, so I was actually PCS to the schoolhouse filling in instructors billet for a job that I had never officially done for the military, so I was never properly in processed and as a result, I had to pay for all of my hotels, all of my travel costs, my storage costs, everything out of my own pocket.

Speaker 8: 12:07

Couldn't use my gtc, which I'll get into that a little bit later, but yeah that? Uh, that is essentially what, what started the the spiral a catalyst.

Speaker 7: 12:17

Wow, that was that. So that's the origin story of the of the event. So, wow, okay, so, um, so it sounds like, yeah, you, you pcs'd instead of tdy and route, and you know a lot of this is going to be just complete jargon for most people that might be listening. If you're not a military member or veteran, then you probably were like I don't know what you're talking about. But essentially you know normally the, the military, will cover your costs for moving and then, if not up front, they'll reimburse you for it after the fact. So you may come out of pocket a little bit, but then eventually you get reimbursed and you're whole again. So what actually happened here in this situation? As far as like, um, where did the, the debt come into play?

Speaker 8: 13:08

uh, so basically it, it really all started, uh, when I got my notification to retrain, um, I had filled out the paperwork I needed to to fill out and I submit it back. And they, um, they gave me my, my date of when I was supposed to be at school. Uh, then, shortly after I got my notification of, hey, this is where you're going to be stationed at, of when I was supposed to be at school, uh, then, shortly after I got my notification of, hey, this is where you're going to be stationed at, and I said I was going to be stationed at Lackland, I'm like, oh, don't necessarily want to stay in Texas, but that is what it is. Um, but then I looked at the dates and the dates were the exact same. So I was supposed to be stationed there at, like, my unit training manager, my UTM at the time. She's like I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what to do.

Speaker 8: 13:48

Luckily, I had made friends with a master sergeant at the Pentagon who, at the time, his job was to only deal with the PCS assignments of all of the chiefs across the entire force. That was his job. So I was like, hey, I really hate to ask this. I said but I'm getting no help from my leadership. Can you look into what? What am I supposed to do? Like, am I going there for school? Am I living there? What am I doing?

Speaker 8: 14:11

Um, he couldn't really get any answers, but he got my, my date pushed back to October. Um, and he said, look, you know, just save your money as best as you can, you know, cause you're you're probably going to end up having to owe them money back. So just just save it aside as much as you can do what you need to do. But in the meantime, you know, you can get your stuff packing, kind of get, hopefully get everything figured out on the way there. Um, well, I come, I come down to Texas with my orders and my, my school, my paperwork saying I'm there for school, the the uh coordinator there for the phase two, which essentially that's all the secondary schooling of, like your hands-on training.

Speaker 8: 14:47

So you go some places you have phase one to go for your hands-on or not hands-on, your like book, like your book, and actual class training. And then you have your phase two for more of the hands-on and your technical skill proficient, your proficiencies. So I go there and I'm like, hey, I here, here's the paperwork he's looking at. He's like, oh, that's kind of weird and it didn't really seem to fully register with him. But he's like I'll send it up to the civilian, he'll figure it out. Yeah, in the meantime I had already paid for my hotel that I'm, that I was staying in at the time and I had already paid for my storage.

Speaker 8: 15:20

Uh, I used a storage pod, so I paid the initial deposit on that. Then I was paying a monthly, monthly rate on it so it would stay in an indoor climate controlled area. Um, so all this is accruing and I'm like, hey, is there, is there any update as to what we're doing so I can stop paying all this? And they're like we don't know what you're talking about. Just keep, just keep doing whatever you're doing.

Speaker 8: 15:41

I'm like but this, this really hurts my wallet, this yeah, this is starting to hurt a little bit absolutely, and this accrued all the way up through phase one, when I was in texas, all the way through phase two, when I was in ohio, and then, when I finally got stationed in ohio, I finally had to stop paying for hotels, but then I had to start working, then I had to start paying off the debt that I had accumulated throughout that entire time.

Speaker 7: 16:06

Wow, man, that's, that's. It's. I mean like just knowing the ins and outs and how complicated, you know, pcs it can be. You know, it doesn't surprise me that that happened, but it's still pretty, pretty odd that that happened. But but that's, that's really cool. Cool, we're gonna, um, we're gonna take a quick little break, um, a musical break, and then we'll get back into you know like what you're like when the dust settles. You know like what, what was your game plan? How did you, you know? And then maybe we can talk some numbers and stuff too. But uh, but yeah, we're gonna jump into um, my usual intro musical um guest, which is Noah Peterson, us Marine Corps veteran in San Antonio. So here is Noah Peterson, we'll be right back.

Speaker 5: 18:56

The Thank you.

Speaker 3: 18:57

Thank you, military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a voice find us on the web at mbradious 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.

Speaker 7: 19:23

All right, we are back. This is Money in the Military. We are live on Military Broadcast Radio talking with fellow MBR host, tony from Inside the who's your Mind, who has a show Tuesdays at 6 pm on the multiple platforms for mbr, and uh, yeah, just uh glad to have you on. We were, before the break. We were talking about his um roller coaster of a financial journey. That was basically not, it was not his fault, but he had to kind of deal with it, uh. So, yeah, yeah, before we left off, you were telling us about how, you know, basically you had to, finally didn't have to stop paying for, you didn't have to pay for the hotels and stuff anymore, but you were left with the bill, right? So what was the damage? What was your initial thoughts and what was your game plan at that stage?

Speaker 8: 20:23

So I kind of took some pre-measured steps that I didn't expect to really help me, but it ended up being a pretty major tool later on. So right before I left, usaa had actually sent me an offer for a $10,000 limit credit card with 0% interest for two years and I was like that would be really nice for right before I move, because again I was like, okay, I'm going to pay for my moving and stuff up front. So I was like that'll be nice to kind of have. I can reimburse it, pay it off and then everything will be great, come to find out.

Speaker 8: 21:04

That helped me overall because that's what I had started to put the hotel bills and everything like that on um.

Speaker 8: 21:07

So ultimately, what I ended up doing um was I. When you first moved down to texas for anybody who doesn't know, uh, you have to kind of pay what, what is similar to a state tax in texas for the first 30 days. After 30 days you're considered a resident of Texas and then you essentially get what is like a state tax return from them of all the taxes that you paid. So the hotel I was staying at, I stayed at the same one the entire time. I just kept extending my stay like another month and another month and another month, so it would all hit at once. As far as my payment for it, I got a little bit of that back thanks to um, thanks to the taxes, and luckily this credit card also gave me cash back rebates, so I was able to pay a little bit of that off. Essentially, what all this money, where all this money was coming from, was because I was stationed in dc. Originally, I was still getting dc bah, but I was living in station in Texas and I was properly in processed.

Speaker 8: 22:05

So, they never changed my BAH rate from DC to Texas.

Speaker 7: 22:10

Oh gotcha.

Speaker 8: 22:11

So now I'm sitting there, I'm like, okay, well, now I'm going to have to probably back pay them money, because they're like overpaying me.

Speaker 8: 22:17

BAH from like this should cancel out, though, because I'm having to pay for all this out of pocket um, so essentially what I did was I would get the, I would get the credit card racked up pretty significantly and I would put about because bah was about 1700 a month, I would put about 500 a month in my savings and then I'd put the rest all towards that bill and I would just start hitting it each and every month that I could save a little bit, pay a little bit of it off. Save a little bit, pay a little bit off. I ate pretty cheaply. It was there a lot of, a lot of packets of tuna, a lot of vienna sausages out of a can, a lot of, uh, microwavable mac and cheese and like white castle bites, but, um, yeah, all total with the moving costs, the hotel costs in both texas and ohio and the storage cost you were looking at roughly anywhere between about 25 to 30 thousand dollars.

Speaker 8: 23:15

Yeah that I had to that, I had to eat yeah, man, that's I mean as an e4 as an e4.

Speaker 7: 23:23

Yeah, that's 84 um, and where you were single at the time or you uh yeah, yeah, so that makes it a little bit easier, but then you're not making as much money as the married people, you know, right. But, um, okay, so that's pretty. I mean it sounds like a pretty solid plan, um, in general. But like, um, what were some of the? You know? You said you kind of cut down on food costs, but was there anything else that you did to kind of like kind of grease the wheels or get the, get the you know the money coming in?

Speaker 8: 23:56

I. I guess what really helped me was the, because the hotel costs kind of fluctuates because of the fact of the time I went there. So I went there in early. I went there actually late October, early November, so I kind of had to deal a little bit with the holiday prices cause they would upcharge a little bit. But then after December, so I was there from, um, basically beginning of november through april, you know to just uh, january through april is actually not that bad and everything you have to remember too. I didn't have an internet bill. The only, the only bills I really had was a car payment, my insurance, uh, and my cell phone bill. Other than that, everything else was basically all included with the hotel that I was living at.

Speaker 8: 24:42

Uh, now I did have my two pets with me, but that was any. I had already kind of stockpiled on up on food for them before I left, because I was like I'll be able to get this when I get there, so I'll at least have me a little bit of supplies prepared before I do that.

Speaker 7: 24:58

Wow, that's, that's crazy. So how long did it take for you to actually kind of get the debt knocked out pretty relatively quickly, right?

Speaker 8: 25:09

Yeah, it took me about eight months to to really get it, to really get it knocked down, and a lot of that was due to the fact of I was still getting that DCBAH and, luckily, moving from Texas to Ohio. The cost of living was significantly cheaper in Ohio than it was there, so I was able to put a little bit more money towards that. I did dip a little bit into the savings just to get it knocked out quicker, but that was also kind of the advantage of having that 0% interest. I didn't have to worry about that. And because I had been racking up so much but then paying so much off, I actually got a lot of that cash back value from that USA rewards. So I was able to knock about 2,500, 3000 off just in, like the cash back rewards and stuff too. So that that helped also tremendously.

Speaker 7: 25:56

Yeah, yeah, I mean it's all those little things add up for sure, and I mean that's one of those things too A lot of. If you use credit wisely, you can you know if you're going to spend that money anyways on gas and groceries, things like that. You pay it off at the end of the month. That's essentially like free money. But I caution some people to think of it like that. You know, like if you're managing your credit smartly and you know with, with focus, then yes, you know you might as well, you know, put it on credit and then pay it off at the end of the month. So, yeah, so that's uh, that's pretty uh, man, I'm just still blown away by the numbers and the dedication that that probably took for you. Um, so it sounds like you also had some good financial habits, maybe prior to that, where you had a savings account, like you had some decent financial habits. So did you learn that on your own, or did you have that kind of coming into the military, or where did you learn that?

Speaker 8: 26:57

Funny enough, I had like zero dollars in my savings prior to all of this. So this actually kind of forced me to be like, okay, you have to save money, you can't just use this to play with. And it was also one because I I had actually learned it a little bit from mom. Uh, you try to pay off and she learned it from, I believe, dave Ramsey, or is it? Whoever gives the really good financial advice? That's a big radio guy, dave Ramsey, is it Dave Ramsey? Pay off your small things first, that way you can start hitting your real big things.

Speaker 8: 27:38

Like I said, my cell phone bill was pretty low. I did have a car payment, but that wasn't that wasn't a huge chunk of my paycheck. Luckily I had refinanced that um to actually a lower payment Um, but I was still paying like normal, so that way I could pay it off quicker, um and that, and that's really just how I kind of treated it of. You know, I need to put a little bit back to to save. I ended up actually saving about five to six grand out of that Cause again that that DCBAH helped and like I said, those help, those hotel fluctuating prices and whatnot helped me pretty tremendously too.

Speaker 8: 28:10

Plus, I had a 2012 Ford fusion, so gas really didn't hurt me too bad either. But, like I said that, that having to maybe get a little bit lower quality in food but saving the cost of I'm not eating out as much, I'm not spending as much money. I really didn't have a kitchen to cook in, so I'm not having to pay a whole lot as far as groceries and whatnot go either.

Speaker 8: 28:31

So that that kind of helped me quite a bit too. As far as basically nickel and diming it to you know the lowest bit and I had, I had always been raised to as much as name brand usually, you know, looks better or maybe it tastes a little bit better off brand stuff usually tastes really close, if not just as good.

Speaker 7: 28:49

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, that's one of those cost saving things that people, you know, they probably don't even think about it, you know, but they just think, oh, I'm going to get the name brand stuff. But really, yeah, like, the generic stuff is usually just as good, if not, you know, the same as the name brand stuff, just way cheaper, yeah. So we got a couple of comments. I got some emojis coming through Alien ghost, alien ghost, alien ghost. Okay, so that's from Into the weeds. Yep, amber deets co-host. There. We got joel, some fire dropping some fire and some money emojis. Terry lynch says hello, another, uh, mbr host for the tracer rounds podcast, and she confirms that. Yeah, we were talking about dave rabsey with the debt snowball method. Um, so, man, like, um, I guess I'm curious to think about like, so this was kind of like a very difficult time period for you, um, financially speaking. Oh, yeah, um, but, uh, what are some of the good, I guess, the good things that came out of that, that um, that you kind of take into your current, um, financial situation?

Speaker 8: 30:02

Honestly, I think this is what taught me probably the best as far as how to budget. Um, and literally all it was was I took. What do I all total with BAH, bas and my base pay? You know what do I earn each and every month? Okay, you know, here's my total. And then, all right, let me subtract how much is this month from the hotel bill? Okay, now, this is how much I have left.

Speaker 8: 30:25

This is from the car payment, this is from the phone, and it was a mixture of, like I said, putting about 500 bucks away in savings and then, okay, now I have this much money to go to everything else. Now, how much do I have out, left out of? And then, whatever that number was, I would usually cut that in half and that would be the extra bit of money that I would pay to the credit card to also help kind of knock that out a little bit quicker too, that I that I still use to this day. It's like I take, I take all my income that I get, I take all of my you know my income eaters away, and then I see, okay, this is how much money I have left. This is what I can put into savings. This is what I can put to any other credit cards and again, just learning from mom, like you said, if you use credit wisely, it can be a great tool to kind of help you stretch your money. You're not eating away at it.

Speaker 8: 31:15

Uh, I was never one. I never tried to get myself in a whole lot of debt.

Speaker 8: 31:19

I say that as I have a fifty, six thousand dollar jeep, um, that I'm having to pay off but uh but, but that was that's kind of what I've always grown up on is you know, don't, don't always put yourself in debt. If you, if you feel that you don't have the money to spend right now, like in hand cash value, just the same then don't put it on a credit card and, you know, dig yourself into that hole yeah, because it's like a death by a thousand cuts.

Speaker 7: 31:45

you know, like those little, those little purchases that really the sneaky ones really can add up really quickly. And it's a lot of times people rationalize it because it's like, oh, it's just nine dollars from amazon. Or you know like they just have their card linked to their Amazon account and I've been guilty of this too. But you know, it's just like a mindless thing where you're just like, oh yeah, we need this thing, so I'll just go on Amazon and then it'll be here in two or three days.

Speaker 7: 32:11

you know Right, but yeah, it's one of those things you got to be really careful about debt, because it's uh, it's very sneaky, um, sometimes not so sneaky, sometimes it's just right up in your face it's like, hey, yes, a buttload of debt, but uh, um, but uh, yeah, we got a comment from mj, another host, uh, um, from mbr, thanks for sharing a good uh, got some good, um good interaction from the audience tonight. Um, so I guess, uh, I did want to, um, kind of talk to you a little bit more about what, what is it? Oh, we'll have to take a little break after this, but, um, but maybe we could talk about, um, some of the like if you could do it over again, or if you were counseling an airman who was going through your situation, maybe some some tips and tricks that you learned along the way, cause you know this is money in military. You know this is a realistic financial situation that military members can find themselves in. So you know, any way that we can help.

Speaker 7: 33:14

That's that's kind of. You know that's what we're here for. So that's kind of what we're here for. And then, if anyone has any comments or questions for us, please shoot us some questions and we'll answer them on air. And in the meantime we're going to play. Let's see Andrew Roborow. That's kind of like my second always pick. So lead, red, white and blue. So we'll be right back after this musical interlude.

Speaker 9: 33:52

Since I'd seen his face, not much had changed, just a different time, different place. When I shook his hand, I knew something had changed. This was a different man From the one I knew back then.

Speaker 4: 34:28

That's when it's said we do the goals. Yes, I stand in line.

Speaker 9: 34:36

And watch the flag wave and drag.

Speaker 4: 34:41

You see, this is what I do. Yes, I bleed Red white and blue.

Speaker 9: 34:55

He told me the tales Of his journeys far away, three times gone and the land most only seen on the front page With honor and glory. He stood so tall.

Speaker 4: 35:28

Honor and glory. He stood so tall and fought for you and I so we could be free from it all.

Speaker 9: 35:40

That's when he said we do the goals. Yes, I stand in line and watch the flag wheels fly you see, this is what I do.

Speaker 4: 35:48

Yes, I bleed. Red, white and blue when duty calls. Yes, I stand in line and watch them weep and pray. You see, this is what I do. Yes, I bleed. This is what I do. Yes, I bleed. Oh, this is what I do. Yes, I bleed.

Speaker 3: 36:29

You know, I know military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a voice find us on the web at mbradious 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 2: 37:08

Find us on the web at mbradious.

Speaker 7: 37:13

All right, we are back. This is Money in the Military on Military Broadcast Radio. This is Money in the Military on Military Broadcast Radio. I'm here with Tony from Inside the Hoosier's Mind podcast, also on Military Broadcast Radio, streaming on Tuesdays at 6 pm Eastern Central Time or Eastern Time. There we go.

Speaker 7: 37:38

So he's been telling us a little bit of a story about his financial rollercoaster ride that he had while he was in the Air Force, something that anyone who's been in the military and had to deal with military finances can attest. That a lot of times the paycheck, it could take months and months and months for it to truly finalize and solidify, because there's so many things changing going up and down and you know, um. So yeah, it can be, it can be challenging balancing, um, that kind of fluctuating income, especially if you're overseas too. You got colo that changes a lot of times. So, yeah, so, um. So we did get a comment over the break, uh, from Terry. She's giving us some information about if you stay in a hotel for over 30 days in Texas, they rebate the taxes and the hotel will give you a long-term rate.

Speaker 8: 38:28

Okay.

Speaker 7: 38:29

Okay, some good travel hacking there. Um, you know, I was thinking about it like um, did you get any kind of like crazy points for, like the hotel that you stayed at?

Speaker 8: 38:43

so, funny enough, the, the because again, I was paying all this out of pocket and I was like, like I don't really have luxury hotel type money, so I gotta live I stayed in um called the extended stays okay and and depending on state state you go, those are really nice um the ones I stayed in. My first couple months I had to spend a lot of money on anti-cockroach products.

Speaker 8: 39:09

Oh, it's not great but I couldn't really afford anything else. And the other, uh, there's a couple other like sergeants and ty's that were there. Um, they were staying in this hotel that like super nice, you know, 25, 30 minutes away. They're like why don't you pay, why don't you stay here?

Speaker 7: 39:24

and I'm like I can't afford those prices right, because I mean you're paying out of your own pocket at that point right you know.

Speaker 7: 39:30

So that's, that's different, it's a, it's a different calculus that you had to make. Um, right, so so, yeah, so I guess, knowing what you know now, is there anything that you would do differently? Or if you had to, like you know, basically talk to a young airman or a young soldier and be like, hey, this is a situation that I'm in like because I don't know, it didn't sound like you had a lot of help from this situation, so, like I guess would probably be the first thing you would do is have some somebody that can vouch for you, like a first sergeant or something.

Speaker 8: 40:02

Yeah, I, I think if I and it's, it's going to sound really bad. And again, I don't know, I don't know what would have happened if I went back and done it now, but honestly, I think I would have just denied those orders and said, look, I'm not leaving until I have a better, clarified answer, or until everybody is at least on the same page of what we're supposed to do, right, because, yeah, I, so funny enough. Um, so I, I had been mentioning this every time I was in the schoolhouse to different instructors, to pretty much any anybody that was an NCO or higher. I'm like, look, I'm, I'm like floating just barely above water here. Somebody helped me, right, and it was. It was really aggravating as an E4 because, you know, while while I was the only person in ocps at the time, the you know operational camouflage pattern and everybody else was in the tiger stripe, abus.

Speaker 8: 40:58

You know, I'm like, look, I'm obviously different, like I'm not your usual pipeliner, like I kind of somewhat know what I'm doing. Like, help me. Um, yeah, I. Eventually they ended up having me write a report while I was there because I had failed. I had failed four out of five tests, and you can only fail it to five. And they were like well, now you have to write a report of do you want to be washed back into a class that is a little earlier in the subjects or do you want to retrain into something else? But, like I mentioned at the beginning, my everything in my pers, everything through afpc said I'm already a four and oh, whether I graduate or not, I'm a four and oh wow

Speaker 8: 41:45

and I'm sitting there thinking, well, it's going to take you all a lot of paperwork to cross train me again and you can't just force that. So you know what I want to cross train, put me into something different, because obviously you guys just don't care. Um, luckily I had a tech sergeant who was she would been selected for master sergeant, so she was getting a lot more of those responsibilities while she had read my report before it went to the commander and luckily she caught that and she goes. Wait a minute, what is this e4? This, this man is. He's mad, he's 20 in debt, he's mad. So she pulled me out of class and she talked to me and so I explained everything that happened from day one to then. She said, okay, give me, give me a couple hours, I'll be right back, and when she she goes, you are in air force limbo.

Speaker 8: 42:35

The only things that are definitive is you belong to the air force. Yeah, we're here at Fort Sam Houston, stationed at a Lackland air force base. It's like cool, I didn't. I didn't have a supervisor, um, the first sergeant at the time who I had a really big issue with him, to kind of derail the story, and this is where I tell any uh any airman, soldier, marine sailor, space force guardian or coast guards. Coast guardsmen do not do what I did. And um, the first sergeant was doing an internal investigation about a other individual who was cross-training, who was a sergeant, and he was having what they considered an inappropriate relationship with a pipeliner. Everything was completely consensual, but it broke schoolhouse rules that they would have an inappropriate relationship.

Speaker 8: 43:30

When I was questioned about this from the first sergeant, I essentially told him look, I don't really care about two consensual adults doing whatever two consenting adults do. Uh, I am $20,000 in debt. Why will you not do your job?

Speaker 4: 43:44

and fix me being $20,000 in debt.

Speaker 8: 43:49

That was not met with a very good response.

Speaker 7: 43:52

So, Ooh yeah, that's tough, I mean the one in one hand. You gotta you gotta advocate for yourself, you gotta you know but, you know, yeah, that's, that's a tricky one, that's a tricky one and that was.

Speaker 8: 44:02

That was essentially the where I was at. It was I didn't have anybody there as far as a supervisor or command to really fight for me. So, yeah, it was, I had to. I had to fight for myself, I had to to rely a lot on previous senior NCOs, previous NCOs and family, friends and whatnot of. Okay, look, this is the situation I'm in. What would you guys do and that's what I would tell anybody who would potentially be in that same situation of you know go, like you said, advocate for yourself, ask anybody and everybody that you can.

Speaker 8: 44:34

If you feel that they are any type of smart and you said advocate for yourself, ask anybody and everybody that you can if you feel that they are any type of smart. Um, and I honestly I feel like that's one of the positives of social media. Like you mentioned earlier about how, for the military, there's a lot of times that you know those paychecks can take months to get through. Um, I don't know if you saw it on TikTok there is a Marine that was stationed down in Pensacola. Uh, he had joined the marines back in september. He has been in pensacola for two months now.

Speaker 8: 44:58

He has not received a paycheck since september his entire time and he, they, his mom, reached out to a marine on tiktok who was a sergeant major and that sergeant major got it pushed all the way up to a three star and he immediately got his money like that.

Speaker 7: 45:14

So yeah, that's crazy, and you know it's funny, like I've I've come across this and when I was, and when I was active duty too where sometimes you just got to find the right person, you know like the right person at the right time that's willing to to do that little extra step, or or you just got to connect to that right person that can make make the moves happen. Because I've I've seen situations where you know there's some problem is going on for months and months and months and then all it takes is like that one supervisor or that one nco that basically you know goes like a bull in a china shop kind of thing, and just raises, raises, all kind of craziness, but uh, but yeah, I mean I really I really feel I feel bad for you honestly.

Speaker 7: 45:58

I mean it sounds like it was a really tough situation. It wasn't your fault and you really were kind of like in in this like almost like a purgatory limbo situation in the air force, which sadly does happen sometimes. People fall through the cracks, you know. But yeah, I would imagine doing it over again.

Speaker 7: 46:18

Or if you were in, you know, a supervisor's shoes, that you would have handled that way differently, you know as a supervisor the first things they would try to do, because you know, I will say, you know, when I was in the air force there were some programs to help people with their finances. Uh, there was like the loan eagle eagle loan or something like that. And you know, you can go to your first sergeant and explain your situation. You have to do a whole budget and, um, you know, like you have to work, work for it. But I mean, it was like a loan, uh, um, uh, like a uh an emergency loan, basically that the air kind of.

Speaker 7: 47:00

Um, I mean, you just had to pay it back out of your paycheck. So yeah, there are some resources out there. Uh, I think I give the DOD a little bit of a hard time, you know, just because I saw so many financially illiterate people and I was like surely there's something that can be done for the active duty members. But yeah, it really kind of comes down to that personal touch having a direct supervisor or a mentor or somebody that you trust, and it sounds like you at least had some people in your orbit that, uh, that were able to give you some advice, sounding board and things like that. But, um, man, such a crazy story and um, I guess, well, you know, if you were I already said we could do it over again. But, like um, had those any of those habits kind of carried over, or, um, you do you have? Did you build a savings muscle from that, how you feel?

Speaker 8: 47:57

okay, so yeah, yeah, I, uh, I definitely, I definitely started saving a lot more, because it was like you know what, in case anything does crazy happen, and finances like actually you owe us all this money back, and then, right, then you know, eight years down the line they'll be like actually we, we owe you this money back, and then they'll pay it to me on my deathbed, basically because that's how finance loves to work. They take forever, but no, I mean that that did help me as far as, like, my savings, like I said, even even how I budget to this day is like OK, what's my total cumulative money, what all is coming out, what all is coming in, what can I afford and never spending over my means. It is kind of funny and I don't know if you've ever heard this. I've always heard the most successful, rich and wealthy people always act as if they have no money to keep that money.

Speaker 7: 48:48

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I think I mentioned that in another stream, the Millionaire Next Door. Yeah, I think I mentioned that in another stream, the Millionaire Next Door. It's a really good book. I talk about it a few times, but yeah, they interviewed a bunch of millionaires and statistically it showed that they drove modest cars, they had modest houses, they were just consistent savers and they spent within their means or below their means and put that extra money away. It's really not rocket science if you really get down into it. It's that psychology piece of it, the shiny object syndrome. There's just so much temptation out there now that I totally understand Marketing advertising. Their whole job is to take your money. You know, yes, they're really good at that.

Speaker 7: 49:40

So you kind of at you're already up against the wall you know, in some sense, that that you have this whole machine that's trying to take your money from you. But you know, that's just one of those things we got to. We got to no-transcript. Know, like, I kind of like, I kind of like it's a kind of aggressive but, um, you know, I think it's also goes into finding that balance of, you know, spending versus saving. You know, enjoying the moment while also preparing for the future. You know, so that that's that's a tricky balance, and not not everyone, you know not everyone has the um, the patience or self-control to put money away for the future, and that's a muscle that you have to build. So, since you've been out, how's your transition been with your finances? Like, as a veteran, would you say finances are better off or about the same, or was there a transition period that was really tough for you?

Speaker 8: 51:17

They're definitely better. I will say the first, the first few months when I got out. Because when I and I would say this to any veteran, if you're about to get out, regardless of rank when I was first getting out, when I was looking at all the different jobs, when I factored in how much do I need to make, I didn't just take my base pay of what I get every month for my paycheck. I took, you know, I added in that BAS and that BAH of okay, this is what you're cumulatively actually making. So say, for numbers sake, say you make $4,500 a month, you need to figure out out of $4,500 dollars a month. Let's say you want to work a normal eight to five. Okay, divide that by five days, divide that by eight hours a day.

Speaker 8: 52:02

This is your, this is your, your rate that you want to try to hit to keep you about in the means that you're making. You know, as it stands right now. So that one that was a little bit rough because, uh, I had done that, it was ended up being a little bit less than, uh, what I initially planned for. But then, luckily, um, I was fortunate enough to get a disability rating from the va, so that kind of supplemented a lot of that. Um, so then I was back to making okay, this is about what I was making when I got out to make things a little little easier and whatnot yeah, yeah, well, that's the other thing too.

Speaker 7: 52:33

I always caution veterans or military members who are about to get out and, you know, factor in healthcare costs too, because unless you have a hundred percent disability or you have retirement, you know, try Care for Life. You know most veterans don't have those benefits. So you know you're going to have to go into either the healthcaregov portal and get your insurance or get it through your employer, but that's not free. So it's like you've got to factor that in, because there's a lot of sticker shock. When I talk to veterans they think, oh man, I'm only making like $30K, like 30 K a year, um, taxable, Um. But then when they actually do the math like you were doing, uh, when you, when you really, when you really add up all the benefits, um, it's, it's a lot more than people realize.

Speaker 7: 53:27

So, um, but yeah, that's that's good advice to to kind of, like, you know, crunch the numbers before you get out, don't wait until until you're about out the door, or already out the door, to to be like oh wait, you know I didn't factor this in, or I didn't think about this, and and I know, taps, uh, they do have a finance portion and it's. It was when I did it in 2020. It was, it was decent. You know, like I think it, it had the right components to kind of get people thinking about it. But, honestly, they could do a whole week's worth of finance stuff just for transitioning service members. Um, maybe three days. Three days, we'll split the difference, because a week might be overkill. You might might, you know, have some people pulling their hair out, but um, yeah but I mean it's a necessary thing, you know.

Speaker 7: 54:18

I just think that more people coming out of the service, um, just need a little bit more education or they need a little bit of a push, because they're in that mindset of I've got all these things taken care of, but you don't have a price tag on them sometimes.

Speaker 8: 54:32

So right and that and that's why, even for me like because I, because after that whole fiasco I was like, okay, I'm kind of dead set on getting out. So from that point forward, I was like all right, I got a plan on getting out.

Speaker 8: 54:44

You know what do I what I have to make, what I have to do. And I would tell any, any service member that if you're about to get out and uh, because same thing, when I TAPS was really good, I felt like they gave a lot of really good base information, but you only had a week and then, especially if you're doing it close to when you're getting out, you're getting bombarded with so much information. You're only required to take TAPS at least once a year. Before you separate, you can take that TAPS class as many times as you feel necessary to get through that, as many times as you feel necessary to get through that. And that's what I would recommend.

Speaker 8: 55:16

People you know, give yourself a good timeline of. You know kind of start putting feelers out there for jobs as far as what you feel your resume needs to be worked on. You know what do you need to fit, where do you feel like jobs are going to fit at. You know the cost of living area. You know the, the overall cost of living. You know, like you said, with with the health care benefits, with the um, with the bah and the bas, you know what, what is going to be able to fit in your means financially. Do that as early as possible. That way you know if you're six months into this you're like actually things aren't really lining up the way I want to, I maybe I ought to re-enlist just to, just to save myself the headache. It may not be what you want to do, or maybe you do the, maybe you do the um, the, the guard or the reserve, as kind of a transition in between. That way you can at least keep your, keep your tenure, keep your time and everything like that.

Speaker 8: 56:02

You're not completely cutting ties, so that yeah that's another route that people could do and I would I'd strongly recommend the earlier planning the better yeah, yeah, because I mean you're, you're basically gonna throw a whole monkey wrench in your financial world.

Speaker 7: 56:17

Um, plus, you're, you know you got steady paychecks, you've got. You know it's just, it's just so it's. It works so smoothly well, not always in your case, but it generally works smoothly um, but, yeah, so that's some really good advice. Um, we could probably do a whole show on just transitioning out of the military for finances, because that's, like I said, it's a lot, it's a lot to process, but I mean, it's also one of the things that you do at once for most people and then that's it. You know, and you, you just, yeah, you're just kind of winging it sometimes, even though you have all these people trying to give you really good advice. But but, man, so Tony, I really appreciate it. Like we're getting getting close to time. Any last minute pearls of wisdom that you got from, from your situation, or anything you want to just tell the world.

Speaker 8: 57:13

Well, to give you a closer, I ended up not getting any of that money back because I luckily had a really good first sergeant.

Speaker 8: 57:21

I had a chief at Wright-Patterson that helped me get stationed there. He heard the thing. He was like you said bull in a china shop. Irate that that had happened. He's like, thank goodness you handled that better than most E7s that he knew would probably handle it. I had a first sergeant, you know, put in the package but then COVID hit so they took their, took their very sweet time and then right before I got out there's another first sergeant, took it over and he dropped the ball. So I ended up not getting anything but my, my, my biggest thing to people.

Speaker 8: 57:51

You know control what you can control in the moment. You know there's a lot of stuff that's always going to psych you out, whether it's financial, whether it's personal. You know, just do what you can to keep yourself happy and healthy. You know again, you know, if all it is is, you know, I can budget a little bit better and I can make this work you know, do that to be able to keep yourself going. Don't let something like that completely overwhelm and overpower you, to keep you from enjoying life. You know, make you miserable, because if we know anything about life once one thing piles on on you, everything piles on after. So just control what you can control and do what you can do on your end, and you will. You'll definitely be much happier.

Speaker 7: 58:39

Nice, I love it. That's some great advice. You know you turned up a difficult situation and you overcame and you know you're here to tell the tale and I really do appreciate you coming on and telling your story because, who knows, you might actually help some you know young airman or soldier in the similar situation. They'd be like oh yeah, I saw this and now I need to talk to my first sergeant. You know something like that, so hopefully it it will resonate with some people.

Speaker 7: 59:04

Um, but uh, you know just thanks, thanks for jumping on the stream and um know, we'll, uh, we'll have you on again, uh, if you want to come on and we'll talk some money again. But, um, that's pretty much all I got. Uh, that's going to be the end of the end of the stream for the night. But once again, thanks for tony jumping in telling his story and, uh, tuesdays at 6 pm eastern um, check out some some great color commentary about, uh, the, the sporting world, so, uh. So thanks everybody for jumping in, thanks for all the NBR people and we'll catch you guys, um, on the next stream.

Speaker 5: 59:47

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.