From Service to Savings: Joey and Kenny Laswell on Military Financial Freedom and Lifetime Resilience

In this heartfelt and insightful episode of Money in the Military, host Joey Laswell brings his brother, Kenny Laswell, retired Master Sergeant of the Air Force, onto the show for an in-depth discussion about life in the military, personal finances, and transitioning to civilian life.

Highlights:

Kenny’s Military Journey: Kenny shares his story of joining the Air Force in 2003, motivated by a desire to create a better life for his growing family. Over a 20-year career, he served as a structures troop in the Civil Engineer Squadron, with five deployments under his belt.
Financial Wisdom: Kenny emphasizes the importance of living within your means and offers tips for saving during deployments, such as avoiding lifestyle inflation and taking advantage of tax-free bonuses. He reflects on how contributing more to his Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) earlier could have made a significant impact.
Transition to Civilian Life: Kenny discusses the challenges of transitioning from active duty to civilian life, including navigating federal job opportunities and finding affordable housing. He shares how his family temporarily lived in a camper to manage costs and adjusted their lifestyle to fit their retirement pay and savings.
Early Retirement Goals: Kenny outlines his dream of retiring at 55, enjoying hobbies like golfing and fishing, and focusing on his family. He also contemplates creating a foundation to support veterans, highlighting his dedication to giving back to the community.
Key Takeaways:

Discipline in finances is critical during and after military service.
Start preparing for separation or retirement at least a year in advance to build a financial cushion.
Be cautious with credit options like the military Star Card to avoid financial pitfalls.
The episode concludes with Kenny’s reflections on the values of functionality and balance, both financially and in life, and an inspiring message about the importance of veteran support. #veteransresources #personalfinance #financialfreedom #podcast #financialliteracy #veteransaffairs #federaljobs #financialindependence #fire #firemovement 

Chapters

• 0:00 Defense Gear and Military Finances
• 4:13 Military Deployment Finances and Advice
• 20:52 Military to Civilian Financial Transition
• 38:00 Financial Lessons in Military Transition
• 45:40 Early Retirement and Giving Back
• 58:45 Honoring Veterans With Military Broadcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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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. 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, who you worship, what you worship, who you love. It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when he died or if you knew 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 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, will raise your sons and daughters.

Speaker 3: 1:48

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

Speaker 5: 1:58

Find us on the web at mbradious Military. I'm a certified financial social worker. 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 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. Go, feed the budget, go feed the budget.

Speaker 3: 2:44

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

Speaker 6: 2:53

All right, hello everybody, this is Money in the Military Brother Edition. This is my name is Joey Laswell and I have my esteemed brother, kenny Laswell, and I just thought this would be a fun little thing to try and do, and you know, and bring my brother into the mix. But you know he's technically I mean he's basically financially independent and I just wanted to highlight his story, you know, maybe showcase what it's like to be retired military after 20 some odd years, and just kind of talk about finances a little bit and share his story and what successes that he's had along the way. So, mr Kenny, or Kenny Wu as you're affectionately known as, how are you doing? Doing well? Thanks for having me. Yeah, man, of course. Of course Got to keep it in the family. So, since the audience doesn't really know much about you you don't have really any social media presence. You're like a ghost out there. Tell us a little bit about your military history or what inspired you to join the military, and we can kind of take it from there.

Speaker 7: 4:10

All right, good evening. I'm Master Sergeant Kenneth Laswell, retired Air Force. I joined in 03, retired last year. I was Structures Tro, structures, troop A3. We were part of the civil engineer squadron, moved around quite a bit, deployed five times. I'm kind of nervous for some reason.

Speaker 7: 4:36

But really the reason I wanted to join was because I kind of already had a military background, because dad was in the Marine Corps. This is weird. I just got nervous all of a sudden. But at the time my fiance was pregnant and really wasn't doing much, so I saw an opportunity to kind of jump into something, not really knowing what I was getting into, but it turned out to be the best decision I've ever made.

Speaker 6: 5:13

Nice, yeah, I mean, I mean I've seen it firsthand, you know the transformation and everything that is done for you, and I mean I've already mentioned it in previous episodes but you, you were the inspiration for me to join the Air Force, you know, because I saw everything that it had done for you and I was like, well, you know Kenny's doing really well, I should do the same thing, you know. So you, technically, yeah, you inspired me by you doing what you did and serving the country yourself. So I just want to say thank you for that. Thanks. So we got Amber Amber. Amber, amber we have comment already. So amber from uh into the weeds podcast says hello with the fun little uh alien emoji.

Speaker 7: 5:56

So thanks homage to the drones in the northeast uh, maybe, maybe.

Speaker 6: 6:01

Well, she, her, her podcast is very much about you know, paranormal, she talks about ufos and you know things like that. So she's got a really cool show. Another mbr special. So check out mbr if you have uh, if you have some time got some very interesting and various content out there for all your um consumption needs. So a little plug for m. I wouldn't be here without you guys. So, thank you, mbr. All right, so, yeah, you joined 2003,. You know, wanted a better life. How was that early period of time for you in the Air Force? Was it like E2, e3, or how did that work out for you? E2, e3, or how did that work out for you?

Speaker 7: 6:43

Yeah, so I signed up for six so that was automatically E3 once I graduated tech school. It was kind of weird because sorry, because I wore the A1C, I wore the two stripes all through tech school but I didn't get paid that until I actually graduated. I think that's how it worked. I don't remember, but it was something like that, or maybe it was upon graduation of basic, I can't remember.

Speaker 7: 7:17

Um sounds about right, but yeah, I mean early, early on. You know we had three young kids living in base housing at Luke Air Force Base. You know we kind of look back at it now and kind of wonder how we did it, because we did have car payments. You know we had two car payments and we had the cable. We had cable television, didn't have much stuff, but but uh, you know, we it wasn't a struggle, you know, and I think, um, to really be successful, you know, in what you're getting paid is, you know, living within your means. So and I I think we did a good job of that. You know, if it was something that we wanted, we didn't necessarily have to get. You know we waited or saved up. But we also had credit cards, you know, to kind of help offset some expenses, especially if they were bigger expenses, especially if they were bigger.

Speaker 6: 8:30

You just got to pay your bills and live within your means. So you said you had five deployments under your belt. I wanted to talk a little bit about deployment finances, since you had so much experience with them. What are some tips or tricks that you did that kind of helped save some money? Maybe you could talk to a current deployed member right now. What would you say? You know, to kind of help them with their finances while they're deployed.

Speaker 7: 8:54

Well, it's obviously it'd be a good opportunity to save because, you know, depending on what zone you're at, it could be combat or tax-free. And then there's different kind of pay, like combat pay, you know, depends on where you're at, obviously. But if you're mostly at a support location like the DEED or Kuwait or something like that, you know that's just a great opportunity to save because really you know you're still going to have your bills that you're going to have to pay for. You know, if you have a auto loan or something like that, or mortgage, but it's definitely a good time to try to put back what you can because you're not going shopping. You know brick and and mortar you can't really do that much. Of course they're. You know online has gotten real popular online shopping, so there's still that that way to spend money. But you know it's just takes kind of willpower and discipline internal to you know say, hey, I want to achieve some goals, I want to save.

Speaker 7: 10:10

We just kind of like, personally, we just didn't change our spending habits, you know even though there was, uh, extra pay in there, whether you elected to receive it during your employment or lump sum whenever you're done. Um, you know, it's just kind of the same thing live within your means, don't splurge. Only splurge when you can, but we just kind of just live the same, you know yeah, no lifestyle, no lifestyle, inflation or anything like that.

Speaker 6: 10:44

Right, right.

Speaker 7: 10:44

Exactly.

Speaker 6: 10:45

Yeah, you got to stay the course, live within your means. That's something that we talk about a lot on the show. But obviously, yeah, you do splurge sometimes. It's okay, you earn the money and you deserve to enjoy yourself, enjoy your time, but yeah, obviously, doing it responsibly, just like anything else. That's kind of the golden message. But so with your deployment money, can you give us a little bit of like? I heard there you know, I think you did this right where you, if you reenlist while you're deployed, then you can do that like tax free if you get like a bonus. Is that right, yeah?

Speaker 7: 11:27

um, I don't think they're giving them out much anymore because we were so overmanned, you know, of course, but, um, my, my career field and other career fields and ce, um, they, what the Air Force did is they realized, hey, we have too many people. So you know, we're going to. I don't know if there, I can't remember if there was incentives or anything, but essentially, you know they there weren't any bonuses or anything. So they were wanting people to separate when their time was up and you know if. And once they did that, you know they too many people got out. So, in order to try to recruit and retain people to stay in, they started giving these SRBss selective re-enlistment bonuses and, um, you know, if your time came and you re-enlisted in that zone where you know tax exclusion, combat, whatever it was, then yeah, you would be able to get that tax Nice.

Speaker 6: 12:44

And you were able to do that right, At least once.

Speaker 6: 12:47

I don't think so, oh you were talking about it at one point I thought you did it. But yeah, it's just something that I wanted to highlight, that in the military you do have kind of unique situations like that Financially. You know, a lot of people don't know what they should do with like a lump sum like that, and if it's tax-free that's just more money in your pocket, uh. So it kind of, you know you have to thread the needle to do that, but it is possible. Um, so when you're you were a supervisor, e7 right, and you had to counsel, you know, airmen, I'm assuming with uh, with their their life, their life stuff you Did you ever have to counsel anyone with their finances? Any young people?

Speaker 7: 13:30

Not that I can remember off the top of my head, of course, the military star card. It's a big one, because if there was a delinquent payment or something, that goes automatically to the first sergeant or the commander commander, first sergeant, one of those. So you know that was I guess a common problem. But you know, I wouldn't necessarily say that I had to counsel somebody because they were terrible finances you know, mean stuff happens.

Speaker 7: 14:04

Maybe they just forgot to pay. But, um, you know, in that, in that field of finances, you know it's like hey, make sure you pay your, your star card, because it's automatic goes to your leadership yeah, for those that know what a star card is, it's a military star.

Speaker 6: 14:24

It's like a basic, it's like a credit card. That, um, that military members. Is it just air force or is it all military? I think it's all military members, right yeah, I'm not sure okay, uh, yeah.

Speaker 6: 14:35

Well, it's like a credit card that you can use on base uh at different establishments and you can kind of use it to build your credit. But it's also kind of tricky because it's sometimes young people's first instance of credit and they don't know how to necessarily use it properly. And they get you with that 10% discount on your first purchase.

Speaker 6: 15:03

So, a lot of people yeah, a lot of people, got sucked in by that. I think I did too, honestly if I'm looking back on it, but, yeah, like 10% off your first purchase, and then you know the, you know, basically, you, they would give you a decent, decent amount like credit limit sometimes. And next thing, you know you have this, you know e3 living in the dorms that has a fully racked up star card and they can't make the payments, you know. So that's this my, uh, my, public service announcement for the military members right now, if you have a star card, use it cautiously please, because, like, like kenny said, you know, if you start messing up with your star card, then then your chain of command is going to know about it and, uh, you will, you will have to pay that back, so, and you'll probably get in trouble too.

Speaker 6: 15:57

Um, all right, well, uh, I wanted to, uh, to kind of talk to you a little bit maybe. Well, let's see, I think we actually have to do a little bit of a commercial break. So, uh, we'll play some music and uh, and then kind of come back and talk some more later. But, uh, I wanted to highlight, uh, I usually, I almost always play this guy, noel Peterson, but uh, I'm working with him to try to get some of it. He's got a new album out, um, so I just wanted to highlight he's a Marine Corps veteran based out of San Antonio.

Speaker 8: 16:32

He plays really, really cool fun music and, um, I always, I always play stuff, so no-transcript 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 6: 19:51

All right, we are back. This is Money in the Military Brother Edition on Military Broadcast Radio, where we're giving veterans a voice. And a veteran that we are choosing to give our voice to today, at least for me, is my brother, retired Master Sergeant 21 years, 20 years, ce structures. So I did want to um, you know, just thank you for your service to the country and appreciate, you know, everything that you've done. Um, so yeah. So I wanted to talk a little bit about you know, some some lessons learned, maybe during active duty, but then eventually I would like to talk about your transition to the civilian world after retirement. How did you make the financial transition? So anything that you learn while you're active duty financially that you would like to impart upon, maybe someone who's in the active duty right now Maybe they want to retire. If you had to do it over again, is there anything differently that you would do financially?

Speaker 7: 20:57

yeah, I would have, um, I think I would have contributed more to my tsp. Okay, I did five percent for about, I'd say, 18 years, 19 years. I didn't do it immediately, I kind of just ignorantly. You know, I didn't know anything about it, I just knew, you know, like a kind of like a 401k right. But you know I was like, well, it sounds pretty decent, I'll just kind of contribute what I can and I think the first couple of years, you know, it may have just only been one or two percent and then I just did five percent. You know, whenever probably E4, e5, and just kept it at five percent. You know, with promotions and things like that, you know whenever you hit every two years you get a pay increase because your years of service.

Speaker 7: 21:54

You know it had been, I think, looking back, that's probably the one thing I wish I would have done was just contribute more, because I could have. I could have done more than 5% and you know, not everybody can Right Right. But, um, you know, in in my situation I could have done a little more, and I wish I would have done that.

Speaker 6: 22:11

Okay.

Speaker 7: 22:15

Well, what percentage?

Speaker 6: 22:16

would you? Would you recommend?

Speaker 7: 22:16

You know, not five, but it's hard to say. Or if you had to do it over again.

Speaker 6: 22:20

What percentage would you put it at?

Speaker 7: 22:24

Somewhere between five and ten, okay, and maybe during those deployments or whatever, maybe jump it up, jump it up a little bit yeah, or 12 or something, because that extra money, you know, could have been going toward the TSP or something, right, but yeah, that's the only thing.

Speaker 6: 22:48

Okay, I mean that's good. Hopefully that resonates with somebody out there who's active duty right now. You know, like, take it from somebody who's active duty right now, you know, like, take it, take it from somebody who's, you know, retired. Uh, you know, and basically they wish, they wish they had done a little bit more. It's a lot of people feel that way, you know, when they get a little bit older, they start to look back on all the time that they could have been compounding and growing and you know, you kind of realize that a little late in the game sometimes. So yeah, that's good advice.

Speaker 6: 23:21

We actually got a comment from Jose Flores, the Motivated Mindset. Hello, joey. So another MBR host there, motivated Mindset. Really great energy from Jose. He's awesome. I had him on my show once and, oh man, he's just, he's just a bundle of energy. So, yeah, definitely check out his, his show. Great stuff there. All right, so we were talking about active duty. Um, let's talk a little bit about your transition to the civilian world. Um, what would you say? Like I, I guess, financially speaking, you know, you're probably to the point where you guys could. You wouldn't have to work necessarily, but you choose to work. Is that accurate?

Speaker 7: 24:04

Yeah, that's accurate. But you know I didn't know what my disability rating was going to be. So whenever you know, I did retire, see, I retired on. Well, 1 October 23 is my actual retirement day. So my last duty day was 30 September. But I had enough leave saved up and you know you get permissive house hunting days and I think there's like a separation type leave or something I can't remember exactly. But so I had about's like a separation type leave or something. I can't remember exactly. But so I had about three and a half months of leave and all that where I took before I retired. So my last day in uniform was May the 12th. I'm pretty sure that's when I final out, when I final outed of the Air Force, may the 12th, 23.

Speaker 7: 24:58

And we, you know, moved, got out of the house. I was stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base. I loved it there. I'd go back there. The family kind of got old, they grew old on them. But anyways, you know we, we moved from Idaho to Mississippi. That's my home of record. I graduated, you know, 40 minutes north of here. My in-laws live close. So we decided on Mississippi, which, you know cost of living is pretty low in the state, so kind of factoring everything in retirement E7 with 20 years, you know, I think it's like $2,500, $2,600, something like that, and projecting jobs and salary without knowing disability rating Cause you know I was going through all that. Uh, once we moved back, uh, you know, it.

Speaker 7: 26:06

it actually started when I was in Idaho, but you don't get the actual rating for after you retire, right? So for those three and a half months, you know I was receiving active duty pay from the Air Force. But yeah, during that time we're trying to figure out. You know what we're going to do. We basically essentially we kind of set the blueprint of finances on retirement and a soft projection annual salary based on what was available around here.

Speaker 6: 26:48

Right.

Speaker 7: 26:49

You know, I have my CCAF but I'm still working on a bachelor's degree. But I'm still working on a bachelor's degree. So kind of job searching, doing some figuring, you know we were kind of looking at 30 to 40,000 a year, you know, and based off those numbers plus retirement, we kind of made a decision.

Speaker 7: 27:17

We bought a house we actually lived in. We bought a camper, financed a camper and lived in that camper for a couple months on my in-laws' property while we were trying to figure out where we were going to live. So we didn't incorporate any kind of disability, you know it was all up in the air at that point. So we bought a house based off the retirement, which was 100 you know we knew that was going to come in and a projected annual salary with both of us working yeah that's where you know we found the house that we live in now.

Speaker 7: 28:03

Of course, interest rates were pretty high at that time but, um, you know it was just within our means. I'm probably going to say that a lot, but you know we purchased a house that was going to be within our means, which was retirement pay and projected annual salary, but then whenever I got the disability rating I got 100%. So it's just kind of extra.

Speaker 6: 28:35

So it's, yeah, we could afford more, but you know, just functionality, I guess, if you will, yeah, a modest house that fits your needs, but it's not anything more than you need, which is a really smart decision, and you know you had mentioned living in a camper for a couple of months. I wanted to highlight the post-retirement or post-separation transition period and how delicate of a dance that can be sometimes financially. Was there anything that you guys did during the transition period or any advice that you would give to somebody who's maybe soon to retire?

Speaker 7: 29:22

soon to transition out. You know any kind of good advice you got. So I mean, just try to try to find stuff you know that you can afford. Yeah, the camper, we we did think we were expecting to live in the camper a little longer than we did, but the winter came. The winter was coming and our youngest daughter, naomi, you know she was staying at the in-laws house, which I mean we're staying on there in their backyard essentially, but there was that, um, separation that we didn't like. So, you know, we kind of I wouldn't say rushed sometimes I feel like we rushed into the house, but, um, yeah, I mean the only advice would just be you know, really look at your finances, know what you could afford and live that way.

Speaker 7: 30:20

And it might be rough at first you know, but you know, maybe you get a good paying job and you can get something that you desire.

Speaker 6: 30:30

Yeah, we actually got a comment from Jose. He says I recall when I was retiring it was terrifying. I had stayed a year out getting ready to retire. It was for me where I was going to retire was the DMV area. I figured out what GS level I needed as an admin to maintain my same pay. I was in quality of life for him. It worked out and retired on a friday on terminal leave, started to work on monday. I did have six months emergency pay just in case. So that's a pretty, it's a pretty good transition right there. You know, um, not everyone gets to to go right into federal job. Um, which is something that you've actually looked into as well. Right, trying to get into federal position yeah, yeah, that's what I suppose.

Speaker 7: 31:16

They got. Lucky there ain't there, ain't crap around here oh man, yeah it's tough.

Speaker 6: 31:22

It's tough like uh it. And then there's like a hiring freeze now and there's all kinds of stuff. But yeah, um, yeah, that's uh. I mean he did have a six-month emergency, um, just in case. So that's, that's a huge one right there. And I would definitely advocate for people who are separating to have a cushion, like an actual legit cushion, because you never know, there's so many unknowns when you separate from the military. So just yeah, jose does comment, he says I was lucky. So Jose does comment he says I was lucky. So Jose admits it.

Speaker 7: 31:57

You know, whenever you're separating or retiring, you have to do tap and all that so and I think it's very harped upon in there as well. I think six months is actually you know the term used six months of savings, and I think that's really good advice. I don't think I I don't think we had that much. I think we probably had like three and a half four months, you know.

Speaker 7: 32:20

but we knew that the retirement check was gonna was gonna come in, so, and plus, living essentially rent free, you know, in the camper, with campers, you know you can do a long, longer loan and your payments aren't that bad. Uh, but you know we got, we were lucky on that because we were just on the in-laws property. If you have to go to a campground, you know, I think it's depends on where you're at, but maybe five to $700 a month, you know.

Speaker 6: 32:51

so yeah, that adds up and I look, I, we, we looked into that at one point too, was getting an RV or like a tiny home or something, and just to kind of, you know, a little alternative living and maybe try to save some money. It didn't work out but, uh, yeah, rv living for some people is is where it's at, they really like that. So, um, well, that's good stuff. Um, I really appreciate you. Uh, you know, um sharing your story. We're going to take, uh, another quick musical break and, uh, we'll be back and we'll talk. Um, you know, we'll just kind of we'll talk about the, the civilian life, and maybe you can give some advice on on the transition and, um, you know, help out some fellow soldiers and airmen and and whatnot, so, uh, so, yeah, we'll come back. Uh, this is going to be another Noah Peterson song, Um, and we'll be back right after that, thank you.

Speaker 8: 35:51

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 All right, hello everyone, we are back.

Speaker 6: 36:22

This is Money. In the Military Brother Edition we got Kenny Wu Laswell. I'm sure there's a story behind the Kenny Wu nickname. A lot of people know you as Kenny Wu and they only know you as Kenny Wu. Well, can you give us a little brief recap on where the Kenny Wu came from? Just a nickname in school.

Speaker 7: 36:43

You know, there's obvious some Asian-ness in my face. And you know Corinth High School, there weren't too many Asians Fair enough.

Speaker 6: 36:55

yeah, but you were also a big Wu-Tang fan at the time too, right? Wasn't that an influence?

Speaker 7: 37:02

No, not really really, it was just. It was just a name, kenny woo, I guess it flowed well off the tongue and, um, yeah, just kind of stuck. I used it. I used it, uh, probably like the first year of of operational air force. You know, at luke I I used it and then I, I guess I kind of just grew up and was like yeah, I'm not kenny woo anymore right.

Speaker 6: 37:29

Well, yeah, I mean that my, my nickname from high school was joe cat, um, and there are still some people that might think of me as joe cat, which is fine, but you know, um, not not really my first choice of nicknames, but, uh, it was a, it was a, an endearing nickname, I guess, but, um, I do love cats. So there is that, um, that was unintended, but I wasn't why I was joe cat anyways. So, yeah, just a little uh, backstory about the laswell brothers. Um, I did want to talk or ask a little bit about your. You talk or ask a little bit about your. You know, we talked a little bit about your transition. Now you're a civilian, you're just a full on civilian, you know, is there any lessons or anything that you've learned going from active duty to civilian life as far as finances go? Was there any good lessons that you learned in that process or what you would, you know, help? How would you help someone else that's going through a similar situation?

Speaker 7: 38:33

um, I, I would just say, yeah, make sure you have money saved up, because you never know what can happen. Um, you know, you, I kind of lucked up and got a job. It's not the job that I, I kind of jumped on the job for one because they were the only one that could contact me back so uh, you know I work at a state hospital, kind of three, three small facilities doing maintenance, um, which was kind of what I did facility maintenance in the Air Force.

Speaker 7: 39:09

But you know, if I was trying to, if I was really wanting to be picky about where I wanted to work, then you know we would have had to live off those emergency funds. As Jose said, pretty much savings until either A I had to just chew on whatever I had to get or have the spouse work and live off her income. But then that probably dictates well, we can't purchase a home yet, we're gonna have to live in the camper travel trailer, you know, things like that. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I just have have money saved up.

Speaker 6: 39:57

You don't know if you're gonna have steady income yeah, absolutely, and that's where I'm hoping that transitioning service members will take heed of this. Like, if you're going to separate, like a year out, at least you know, start getting your finances in order. You know cause it's. It's a, it's a tall order. You know you're losing your healthcare, you're losing housing, you're losing food allowance here. You know there's so much that that goes into what you're losing and a lot of times you don't even realize you're losing it until you have to actually pay for it. And you, you're lucky enough you don't have to pay for health insurance. But I do and that's I've talked about it in previous episodes that health insurance on the civilian side it's not cheap and it's definitely not free. So you got to factor that into your financial picture, you know.

Speaker 7: 40:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 6: 40:45

So yeah, that's just a lesson, lesson that I've learned. The hard way is you know those, those costs add up very quickly. But yeah, you got to. You got a nice state job, right State of Mississippi, which is kind of it's really nice, good, you know, good, solid foundation. So you're going to try to work there for a few years, get vested and then retire from there?

Speaker 7: 41:12

probably, yeah, you know I wouldn't call it a goal, but the wish would be to retire at 55, which is another 12 years, yeah, 11. How old am I? Yeah, 43. 43. Yeah, so I've been there for, like I said, they were the only ones that called me back, and so I've been working there since August of 2023. There's Allison there since august of 2023, there's allison and um, so I've been there for a year and four months roughly uh so you know, I told my supervisor I said I'll give you six months, I'll promise you six months of employment.

Speaker 7: 41:55

I'll stay here for six months and but I am going to be looking because I really wanted to go federal. But you know, the federal job market around here is very, very thin. In Tupelo, I think there's some Social Security, you know offices or something. Department of Treasury, I think there was a few. You know positions there. But Columbus Air Force Base, small training, pilot training base, it's about an hour away from me. I was looking hard at Columbus. The Natchez Trace is a federal highway that runs through Mississippi and the federal land. It's, you know, it's Department of Interior and there were some job openings there. Where I applied, you know I used veterans preference things like that.

Speaker 7: 43:03

But the problem and this is just an assumption, but um, you know, it was doing maintenance and I was like, essentially I'm in my mind, I'm like I'm a for this job right I did this for 20 years active duty air force. I'm a shoo-in so I never, I never got selected the same job open again and I applied, didn't get selected. So I think, uh, I think what it is. You know it's a good old boy, it's an assumption, right?

Speaker 7: 43:40

but you know, whenever you're in small town, yeah you know that's the only thing I could um chalk it up to. So you know I went, I went after that. Then I went after some positions in columbus. Didn't get hired on, you know, maybe it was the resume.

Speaker 7: 43:56

I don't know, it could have been but, um, just being retired master sergeant, I kind of expected to be able to get a federal job pretty easy. Not because I was a retired master sergeant, but you know, usually a master sergeant you have some years of experience, you know you have the tactical level, then you have some supervisory experience, then you have some management experience. So you know, I just I thought I would get a federal job pretty quick. And when that didn't happen, you know six months goes by my current job. I told Matt, hey, six months. But you know, here's month seven, month eight. It didn't look promising. So at some point I just said you know what I'm done, I'm not going to try to go federal. You know I've got about a year here. If I just said you know what I'm done, I'm not going to try to go federal, you know I've got about a year here. If I just do seven more years I'll be a vested employee.

Speaker 7: 44:54

And that's where I could receive benefits monetary benefits.

Speaker 6: 45:00

So yeah, that was kind of I think that's what I'm going to do. Yeah, so and so, retired at 55, that's, that's early retirement, you know, uh, you're still going to be gainfully employed for the next few years. Um, what, what does retirement look like for you? Like early retirement? What are you going to do with your time? I'm just curious.

Speaker 7: 45:18

Uh, I like to golf Fish.

Speaker 6: 45:25

You're talking about when I retire?

Speaker 7: 45:27

Yeah, when you early retire at 55, what's your game plan? Just hang out, drink some cold beers.

Speaker 6: 45:37

All right, that's living the life. We actually got a few comments coming in. Jose followed up. For me, the hardest part of getting a government job is being selected Understand how USA Jobs works and how to make sure your application stands out. In my case I had top secret clearance and that's got me in the door. The rest was up to me. And how to interview this is the key to get the job. And know how to sell yourself and why you are a best person for that job. And you know that's something they cover in TAP a little bit or TAPs. You know, like the transition drop, interview prep and things like that. But you know the federal hiring is a beast, you know it's just there's no way around it. So, yeah, jose also comments that there are some remote government jobs that you can look into to get your foot in the door. Yeah, that would be nice. And Kenny says Kenny, organizations like Wounded Warrior Project can help you with your resume. So hey, there you go. Wounded Warrior Project can tweak that resume if you really wanted to. You know, push for the federal down the road. You still could. Um. And then we got um tanya grant from linkedin. Hey, guys, came across this by accident. Let me know how I can stay in the loop. Cool show, all right. Well, thanks for the shout out, tanya. You know it's a. You know good brother chemistry we've got going on here.

Speaker 6: 47:02

Wow, early retirement, that's kind of the whole goal of this show is to try to get people to think about early retirement. It's not for everybody mathematically, it's not necessarily for everybody. It is a math problem. It's a math equation, essentially in reverse, where you need a certain amount of money to live off of every month, every year, and if you can mathematically have a nest egg that pays you that money, then you can mathematically retire. Now, one thing that is in the early retirement community is what does retirement look like? Because we have this idea of does retirement look like? You know, because we have this, this idea of what retirement looks like, but for every person that's different.

Speaker 6: 47:47

You know you retire at 55. You know you get 10 years to do um, you know where other people are still working. You basically have the flexibility to do whatever you want. You know, um, some people like to do, they like to volunteer. Some people like to just relax and hang like to volunteer. Some people like to just relax and hang out and and, uh, do all you know, just just be, just not have to work. You know that's kind of the whole point of the retirement. But uh, some people actually like to work, you know, so they'll, they'll do a variation or you know they'll get a summer job type of thing or seasonal job, just for socialization and bringing a little extra money. But that's where you kind of have to define what retirement is going to look like for you. So that's why I was curious what you had lined up or envisioned in your mind's eye about what is early retirement going to look like for you well, I think it was just gonna be.

Speaker 7: 48:47

55 was just a wish, because you know what, just like a number that you picked, kind of thing yeah, you know, um, to still kind of enjoy, you know, because you start getting older you know, with the, with my hips, you know I got bad hips, my rotator cuffs torn, um. So you know, like these are things that you know when a retirement like when I say golf and fish, things that I hope I can still do at 55 you know there's no problem now, yeah, their pain flares up and stuff like that.

Speaker 7: 49:23

But you know, if I wait any older, any older than that, then you know there might not be the opportunity to do those things. So 55, I think is just the age where you can still go out and be active and enjoy things. And I think by 55, you know just financially, you know it'd be doable. You know we still have naomi at home. Um, she's third, she'll be 13 in march. Uh, you know, just just kind of going off historical patterns from the other kids, you know she'll probably be gone at eight, between 18 and 20 or something. Um, you know they'll. They'll put me at 50, 51, 52, um, and I think nester what's that?

Speaker 7: 50:17

you'll be an empty nester yeah, be an empty nester and, uh, you by 55, maybe we'll be able to put more away because maybe she'll be financially on her own, which the kids are pretty much there we help. Callie out with the car. But you know they still receive help but for the most part they're financially straight, you know.

Speaker 6: 50:49

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7: 50:51

Or financially doing it I'll say, I wouldn't say straight Financially doing it.

Speaker 6: 51:07

Well, you know, like that's, the tricky part of, you know, raising kids is that you want them to be self-sufficient, but you don't want you don't want to just cut them off completely. So it sounds like you're finding that balance, uh, yourself. So that's awesome. I really, um, you know, this has been a great conversation. I really hope, uh, somebody took some things from this. Um got some great comments from Jose and um, I was going to ask you something, um, oh, you know. So, so, going off of the early retirement conversation, kind of thing, but like, uh, let's say you win, win the lottery and you literally don't need any money, like, what do you? What do you, uh, what are you going to put your money into? What are you going to do with your time?

Speaker 7: 51:47

Well, you know, I've never really done. Well, I haven't, I haven't done um, what is that investing investments? I haven't. You know, the tsp kind of does that, depending on which index fund you put it in, or whatever, um, but as far as like actually playing investment, person market yeah, I have. I've never done that. Um, that's probably something I might look into, obviously through probably, you know, like edward jones or something like that, because I don't, I don't think I have the interesting being interested in the factor to do that you know, and it would probably be more like a hobby.

Speaker 7: 52:32

I wouldn't really try to base future finances off that, but it's probably something I would dabble in a little. What was your?

Speaker 6: 52:46

question what would you do like if you didn't have to work at completely? You had all this money in the world. Like what would you?

Speaker 7: 52:52

do. Oh yeah, you know, the, the rational, smart me would say keep working you. It's a good job, it's decent pay for around here. You know there's perks. I work with cool people. It's a pretty easy job. Let's just say that it's a pretty easy job. So I think it would be dumb to leave. But I mean, if you don't have to work for the rest of your life, you know why. So that's a tough question. It's a good hypothetical question.

Speaker 6: 53:28

Yeah.

Speaker 7: 53:30

I think the rational thinking me would say you know, still work. But then, like, the other part of me is like why? You know why do you want to wake up early and go into?

Speaker 6: 53:43

work right. But it's like if you had, uh like, if you were to create like um on or um like a foundation let's say you had the money to create a foundation that you would give, give back to the community what kind of foundation would you? Would you start?

Speaker 7: 54:01

well, it would probably be for veterans. Um, you know, just through generations, you know we've we've known or we've been a part of that. Um, you know, uncle tim served too. So there's just, uh, it would be toward veterans. You know something that maybe improve toward veterans? You know something that maybe improve the community some way?

Speaker 6: 54:30

yeah, but you know veterans, because there's a lot of veterans around here.

Speaker 7: 54:32

Yeah, um so yeah, it would be definitely something to do.

Speaker 6: 54:34

Veterans nice, okay. Well, maybe that'll be our joint effort. Together we create an organization for veterans. That'll be our legacy, sure. So we got a couple more comments from Jose. He says I have Edward Jones, they're very good, very good. There you go, something to look into. And Jose also says Kenny, thank you for sharing Great meeting you.

Speaker 7: 55:01

Yeah, same to you, Jose.

Speaker 6: 55:03

Yeah, jose's good people and I think he's just a bundle of energy, even on the chats he's all over the place, but I love it. Thanks, jose, I really appreciate it. It looks like the clock is ticking. We've got just a few more minutes left. We covered a lot of ticking. We've got just a few more minutes left. You know just, we covered a lot of ground we covered. You know your Air Force history. You know some of your financial nuggets that you've kind of accumulated over the years. Yeah, and then we talked about your transition to the civilian world and you know some of your future hopes and aspirations of what your rich life is going to look like. So you know, I really appreciate you taking the time to. You know, to humor me, I kind of threw this on you last minute and you agreed and I appreciate that and you know, just want to say thanks.

Speaker 7: 56:04

It's been an experience.

Speaker 6: 56:05

Yeah, yeah, but you got any last-minute nuggets, anything that came to your mind after the fact that you wanted to share or impart.

Speaker 7: 56:18

No, I would just say, like I said at the beginning, if you want to be at a fairly good spot financially, you have to live within your means. You know you just have to. You can't, you know it's. Can we afford better things than we have? Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we need to buy them. Functionality I like saying functionality Save what you can Really be disciplined with your spending and with your saving. I think in the future, if something happened where you needed to lean on savings or whatever the case may be, and you'll be able to do it.

Speaker 6: 57:08

Yeah, awesome. Well, we actually got one last comment from Tanya. Call me before you go to Edward Jones, kenny, I would love to hear more about the different sectors of government benefits. It seems that it varies. The government employees that I've serviced have different variations depending on the location.

Speaker 6: 57:28

Thanks, joey and Kenny, for a great talking point. So, yeah, so I guess you know. Maybe she wants to. You know she would like for you to, instead of going to Edward Jones sounds like she would like for you to work with her. So if you're interested in connecting with Tanya, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll get that set up. And, um, yeah, just get an interesting comment, uh, from Tanya. She says thanks, guys, good night, all right, well, thank you, tanya, for joining in, thanks everybody else for joining in as well. You guys made a great show, and I just want to say thanks to MBR, thanks to all the veterans that were out there, all the social workers out there, and thank you once again to Kenny Wu and Team Laswell. We're just two brothers trying to make it in this world All right.

Speaker 6: 58:24

Well, that's going to make it in this world All right. Well, that's going to be it for the stream. I really appreciate it once again and we'll catch you guys, I guess, around next year. So, happy 2025. Happy New Year's. Hope you guys had a happy holidays and we'll talk to you guys later.

Speaker 3: 58:45

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 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.