We talked with Brandon about:
- How early financial education can help service members avoid common money pitfalls
- The importance of understanding and maximizing military benefits, available resources, and financial tools to grow wealth
- How financial advisors can effectively reach the military community to support members as clients
About Brandon Lovingier:
Brandon Lovingier, ChFC®, MQFP® aka The Enlisted Money Guy™, served over 19 years in the Army — including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After navigating his own financial challenges, he became committed to helping other service members avoid similar pitfalls he experienced and achieve financial freedom. Through his Enlisted Money website, blog, and educational videos, Brandon shares practical resources and strategies to empower the military community to make smart financial decisions.
Featured Resources
- Enlisted Money
- Enlisted Money Confessions
- Enlisted Money Success Stories
- MilMoneyCon
- ChooseFI Military Facebook Group
- Military Financial Advisors Association
Enjoyed This? You’ll Also Love
- A Journey from Army Officer to Fee-Only Financial Planning through Reading and Teaching with Ian Gates
- Scale Your Financial Services Team By Hiring Military Spouses With Instant Teams
- Financial Literacy: The First Step in Becoming Your Own Money Boss with Jamie Bosse
Full Audio Transcript:
00:00:00 - 00:08:11
Lauren Hong
All right, Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:08:13 - 00:13:08
Brandon Lovingier
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be on the show and get to chat with you a little bit here.
00:13:10 - 00:24:17
Lauren Hong
Yeah. So, we're going to get into it, and I am excited to hear about — is it enlisted money guide.com? Is that the website?
00:24:19 - 00:26:16
Brandon Lovingier
It just enlisted money.com.
00:26:18 - 00:38:21
Lauren Hong
Okay. So we were just chatting a minute ago. How in the world did you get in the space? What made you look for this? Tell us about who you are, your background, and Enlisted Money.
00:38:24 - 01:02:15
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah, I'm a little bit all over the place but long story short, I was terrible with money and ended up realizing in a cold, stinky tent in Afghanistan that financing a brand-new pickup truck maybe wasn't the best idea and kind of realized that I could have almost bought the truck I had before that I loved in cash for what I'm paying in interest on this truck.
01:02:15 - 01:25:02
Brandon Lovingier
So that led me down a whole long journey, through blogs and all that. Ended up doing the Total Money Makeover thing, the Dave Ramsey deal, getting out of debt. Fast forward, all that change has been really excellent in our life. And I wanted to help other people. And when I finished my bachelor's degree, I kind of had a void there.
01:25:02 - 01:42:20
Brandon Lovingier
I was used to getting up at 4:30 in the morning, doing my studies and all that kind of stuff. And after I finished my bachelor's degree, I just started reading a lot of personal finance and getting into it and pretty soon I was like, I'm kind of at the end of all the 1.0 stuff, so where's the 2.0?
01:42:20 - 01:56:14
Brandon Lovingier
The 3.0? And so that's when I really started kind of getting into just digging deeper and ended up looking into coaching, planning, all that kind of stuff. So that was really kind of the nexus for me, getting into the space in the beginning.
01:56:16 - 02:07:01
Lauren Hong
So tell me about the 2.0 version. Have you been to it? I’d love to hear about how you unpack that and how you're supporting other people and that side of things.
02:07:04 - 02:29:25
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah, I think there's so much stuff, especially whenever you get into a lot of blogs and stuff like that, it's like save more, spend less. What? Whatever. I got that. I got Roth versus traditional but why? And then I’m like a little kid — why is it like that and why is this like that and why is that like that?
02:29:25 - 02:50:13
Brandon Lovingier
And what is this thing? So just the more threads you pull, the more questions you have. The internet has some ideas but there's nothing concrete. And so that was where I was like, I'm gonna have to go back to school to really understand this stuff because I wanted to help other people but I wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about.
02:50:13 - 03:09:19
Brandon Lovingier
I needed that confidence to make sure I wasn't giving bad advice. And so I originally looked at coaching and it seems like that's not really that well regulated. You don't have to have anything to be a coach, or you could do this AFC thing, or you could do, you know, whatever.
03:09:19 - 03:36:26
Brandon Lovingier
But then I kind of stumbled into financial planning. I literally had no idea there was a profession called financial planning. And then before I knew it, I found a scholarship through the American College, applied for that and fast-forward, I've started a pair of planning businesses, started a couple different blogs, and I'm just doing stuff and trying to help people like me.
03:36:29 - 04:02:14
Brandon Lovingier
Well, preferably somebody who was like me when I was 18, before I made all the mistakes. So that's really kind of what I'm trying to do and circumvent people having to learn the hard way. I've already made those mistakes. There's a lot of us who have already made those mistakes. And so I'm trying to kind of share what I know, and share other stories as well so people can see that and go, oh, I don't have to do it that way.
04:02:14 - 04:08:25
Brandon Lovingier
I can do it a different way and have a much better life. So that's really kind of what I'm trying to get into as far as all that goes.
04:08:27 - 04:20:13
Lauren Hong
So tell me a little bit more about who you're specifically targeting. Are you exclusively working with the military community? Or tell us a little bit more about that.
04:20:15 - 04:43:14
Brandon Lovingier
So basically for my personal project, Enlisted Money, I'm trying to find PFC Lovingiers of today and help them out. But also, interestingly enough, I've been starting to write about preparing for my own retirement. And so I've been getting a lot of good feedback and a lot of questions and dialog with that.
04:43:14 - 05:02:10
Brandon Lovingier
So I've been kind of leaning into that a little bit here lately. But ultimately I'm trying to get that information out. So literally if I could find somebody who’s coming into the military and be like, here's the information you need — do this, don't do that. And you'll never have to worry about money.
05:02:10 - 05:13:04
Brandon Lovingier
And that's kind of what I'm trying to do. I even wrote the first draft for my book this summer. So hopefully I'll get that going too.
05:13:06 - 05:21:29
Lauren Hong
Wow. Congrats. That's a huge undertaking. Yeah. Any sneak peeks you want to share?
05:22:01 - 05:45:14
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah. The working title is Enlist to Wealth, The Enlisted Service Members Guide to Avoiding Money Mistakes and Living a Better Life. I think that’s the subtitle now. I finished it in June, and then just said, I'm going to set it aside and I'm going to come back with fresh eyes later on.
05:45:16 - 05:59:11
Brandon Lovingier
And plus I'm in kind of a busy season. I'm still on active duty. And so, I'm doing all this stuff in the margins before work, over lunch, at night. So I have to pace myself a little bit.
05:59:13 - 06:14:02
Lauren Hong
Yeah, that's totally fair. Well, it's kind of nice that you're still in the thick of it because I'm sure you're having conversations and things are coming up so you definitely have your ear to the ground with all of that. But early congrats on the book. Do you have a timeline for launch?
06:14:04 - 06:34:23
Brandon Lovingier
I don't. I'm just giving myself a little bit of space and taking my time with it. I'm not going to let it sit there forever. You know there's a tendency to be like, I could always make it better and all that, but my plan is to this winter, dig in and do my own first self-edit.
06:34:25 - 06:42:23
Brandon Lovingier
And then save up a little bit of money to pay for an editor and kind of go through that process. So hopefully about the time I retire I'll have that ready.
06:42:23 - 07:21
Lauren Hong
That's so awesome. Okay. So since you've been going through this whole process of writing the book and figuring this out, and then also just like your own personal experiences, are there any stories like the one you shared earlier about how you bought your truck?
07:23 - 07:18:08
Lauren Hong
Are there any stories that would help listeners, kind of like lessons learned if they were in your shoes? It was a great example about the truck. Any other kind of thoughts like, hey, if you do X, Y, and Z or be aware of this big red flag, what would you like to tell folks?
07:18:10 - 07:45:16
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah, really the biggest thing is just understanding what pay and benefits you have and what you can actually do with that. And being really cautious about that. There's so many people out there who really prey upon service members and go, hey, look, you've got this steady paycheck. You're making the big bucks now or whatever and then get you to finance everything.
07:45:16 - 07:59:29
Brandon Lovingier
I literally mean that. It’s kind of laughable now but I literally financed our wedding ring set at a place you could also buy subwoofers. So just to give you an idea of the kind of places that soldiers find themselves.
07:59:29 - 08:03:12
Lauren Hong
It’s a real story, right? So go ahead.
08:03:15 - 08:24:01
Brandon Lovingier
And as a recruiter, I got to see this a lot as a lot of us came from places where money management wasn't a thing because there was no money to manage. And so you're kind of in an uphill battle to a certain extent, at least with the enlisted folks.
08:24:03 - 08:39:21
Brandon Lovingier
But getting back to stories and things like that, I actually have two pages on my website, one for Enlisted Money confessions and one for Enlisted Money success stories, just to be able to share those kinds of stories and things like that.
08:39:21 - 08:57:26
Brandon Lovingier
So I don't have a lot of them out there yet but I'm starting to build up a few, I think. I just posted success story number five. And I think I'm up to confession number three or four. So we're getting there. I’m just trying to share that and let people know you're not alone.
08:57:26 - 09:10:29
Brandon Lovingier
There's other people who are going through this or have gone through this. And, if you just take small, consistent action over time, you can do a lot with even the little pay you think you have there.
09:10:29 - 09:26:16
Lauren Hong
So, with that, are there any good habits or takeaways or things you would say if you could go back to your former self and say? I’d love to hear that too.
09:26:19 - 09:46:06
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah. I think the biggest thing is just understanding some of these things that are out there, and understanding the power of some of them, like for instance, when I joined, the only thing I remember from my brief on the TSP, which is our equivalent of a 401(k), is they're going to take money out of your check and you can't use it until you're 60.
09:46:06 - 10:04:16
Brandon Lovingier
And I was like, hey man, I need this now. I don't know if you know much about my life but I need this cash now. And so I didn't invest anything in the TSP. Just by really dumb luck, I ended up starting a Roth IRA and putting 50 bucks a month in there.
10:04:19 - 10:27:04
Brandon Lovingier
Before I knew it, there was $20,000 in there. And then it doubled, and it's continued to grow. I was like, man, if I would have done this, like 5% with my TSP from the get-go, I would have been in a much better spot.
10:27:04 - 10:48:11
Brandon Lovingier
And I would have never missed the money. I spent money on cigarettes and everything else, and I never missed that money. If I would have put a little bit into something like that, I would have been in a much better position and I would have had a lot more confidence to leave the military sooner, if that was my choice.
10:48:11 - 10:53:17
Brandon Lovingier
But I kind of always felt stuck, at least in the beginning part of my career.
10:53:20 - 11:10:27
Lauren Hong
Well, like you said, there's a lot of mixed messages. And then also, when you jump into the beginning part of your career, when you're thrown in, you're going for it, so you might be 18 but you're doing stuff — they throw you into the deep end of it.
11:10:27 - 11:14:15
Lauren Hong
So there's that too. All of it.
11:14:20 - 11:36:27
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah, definitely. And there's a book called “Scarcity” that I really like, and it talks about that a little bit too. When you have a lot of stuff going on and you're getting thrown into the deep end on many different fronts, you don't make the best choices because you're just doing everything fast and in a hurry.
11:36:27 - 11:52:05
Brandon Lovingier
And there's so much information that's getting thrown at you. The way the military trained you a lot of times it's just drink from a fire hose. You get bombarded with all these mandatory trainings and you just become numb to it.
11:52:05 - 12:05:06
Brandon Lovingier
And maybe it's good information. Maybe it's okay but you just end up going, this is too much. And I'll figure it out later. And then later comes and you're like, oh gosh, this isn't exactly where I wanted to be in life.
12:05:08 - 12:23:05
Lauren Hong
Yeah, well, I appreciate what you're doing because by educating others who are willing to pick up the book or read the stories or listen, whatever it might be, hopefully you're cutting through the noise to be able to say these are decisions you don't want to make super quickly. These are the decisions you make to be smart for your long-term planning.
12:23:08 - 12:43:15
Lauren Hong
So I appreciate that you're paying it forward in that way. Any other kind of thoughts you have for people who are at their 2.0? What things should they be thinking about at that point? Should they be talking with someone like yourself or what advice would you have for someone who maybe has done the Dave Ramsey, they've taken in these tips.
12:43:15 - 12:47:26
Lauren Hong
And now they're ready to kind of go upstream.
12:47:28 - 13:09:01
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah. I think that unless you want to do what I did to actually go back to school, there's a lot more resources available out there. The Military Financial Advisors Association is definitely one of them that's growing. I've got the MCV designation, the military qualified financial planner designation.
13:09:03 - 13:29:26
Brandon Lovingier
So there's some grassroots efforts to create some of those next-level military-specific places you can go and you can turn to and get advice. And there is some advice on the options if you want to do that. There's a lot of different coaches and things that are available as well.
13:29:28 - 13:55:28
Brandon Lovingier
Also another thing too. There are a lot of folks who just don't know they have some of these resources available, like having a personal financial counselor they can go to on post and pick their brain. That's literally their whole job, to answer questions, help you with a budget, talk you through the TSP, talk you through home buying, credit building, all those kinds of things.
13:56:01 - 14:21:13
Brandon Lovingier
But just knowing that, getting the basics right, is the first thing. But then, once you have a little bit of — I like to call it Play-Doh — you can't make a great model if you don't have a lot of Play-Doh but once you have a little bit of Play-Doh built up and you can start making some cool stuff, then it's helpful to have somebody who’s been there before to say you might want to build this framework first before you start piling stuff over here and make it a mess.
14:21:13 - 14:24:03
Brandon Lovingier
So yeah, that's kind of the way I think about it.
14:24:05 - 14:43:21
Lauren Hong
Yeah. That's fair. I think sometimes there are so many resources for military personnel that it can also be overwhelming. And I often see too, if there's somebody who’s been through this or you can lean on, maybe they can just help connect that dot with the right resource to go to or what have you.
14:43:23 - 15:12:07
Lauren Hong
Those are really good tips. And then any other kind of thoughts for folks who are listening in who might have a target market of working with the military and supporting them with making sure they're making smart money decisions? Any thoughts about how to reach that audience or things about how they communicate and talk with that demographic?
15:12:09 - 15:40:25
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah. As far as financial professionals who want to serve the military community or think they might want to serve the military community, I would definitely first say get yourself out to ___________ at some point. I'm a huge fan. There’s a lot of wonderful people out there but there's a lot of different spots and things like that where you can find some other like-minded individuals; there's Choose Fi military Facebook group, things like that.
15:40:25 - 15:57:11
Brandon Lovingier
There are some folks out there, good people. You just have to be cautious of folks who want to try and get you to replace all of your benefits with a particular policy of sorts, and things like that.
15:57:11 - 16:21:17
Brandon Lovingier
So there's a lot of people who would rather have money to put into a product as opposed to letting you use your benefits. So people got to be cognizant of that, I guess. But if you're looking to get into this, I think that it’s really rewarding. And the military personal finance community is fairly small but the nicest and most welcoming group of people I've ever come across.
16:21:17 - 16:25:10
Brandon Lovingier
I absolutely love this community. It's really awesome.
16:25:12 - 16:42:06
Lauren Hong
So awesome. I really love hearing that. And thank you, among all the things you're doing in between writing a book, full-time active duty, and all the other pieces, you're running a website, all the things you have going on, just for taking the time to be able to share a little bit more behind the scenes of what you're doing to pay it forward.
16:42:08 - 16:49:25
Lauren Hong
That's not easy to be able to squeeze out. And as you were saying earlier, in between everything that's going on. So we appreciate you sharing some insights today.
16:49:28 - 16:59:16
Brandon Lovingier
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it. I love talking about this kind of stuff and yeah, if we can help somebody out then it's definitely worth a few minutes of my time.
16:59:18 - 17:05:03
Lauren Hong
Well, thank you. And I'll just say like, go Chiefs there, a shoutout to your background as well.
17:05:04 - 17:07:18
Brandon Lovingier
Thanks!
17:07:20 - 17:11:01
Lauren Hong
Awesome. Well, thanks again. Have a great rest of your day.
17:11:04 - 17:16:27
Brandon Lovingier
All right. Yep. You too. Thanks.
