Chris (3:03)

I'm well, Jill, thank you.

Jill Schlesinger (3:05)

What's going on? How can I help you out?

Chris (3:07)

Well, I just really kind of wanted to touch in and see if we're on the right track. You know, we're 37 years old, active duty, military. We move around every two to three years. We're one income household right now and we've got two young kids, a three year old and a five year old. And I just kind of wanted to see if we're on the right track or if there's anything smarter that we could be doing.

Jill Schlesinger (3:29)

First of all, thank you for serving. Do you think that's, that's kind of weird when people say that or do you like it? I just always. I, some people are like, oh my God, like another idiot who's just thanking me. They don't know anything about what I do. Do you like it or do you not like it?

Chris (3:43)

No, it's, it's great. I, in all of us, we appreciate it and we'll say the same thing to each other.

Jill Schlesinger (3:49)

Okay, well, good. Thank goodness I said the right thing. You're, you're in Arizona now and you move every couple of years. So what does that do to your, like, your mindset? Like, how do you, how do you manage that? I'm sort of intrigued by the moving around. They always say, like, when people say like, what are the stressful things that go through? It's sort of like birth, death, illness, moving. So how is that moving? How is that?

Chris (4:13)

Well, it's great. You, it is certainly a mindset that you get used to. We've, we've had friends who moved for the first time ever and said it was the most stressful thing ever. So I, I hear what they're saying, but I think at some point you get used to it and in truth, every couple of years, if we're someplace for two years, we start to get a little antsy and Ready to move on to see something else. So we're, we're very fortunate. We've been overseas quite a bit. We've lived in Italy and England and New York, Arizona, Kansas, and then most recently, just. We've actually only been in Arizona for about a month. We moved here from Alaska. We were up there for three years.

Jill Schlesinger (4:45)

Oh, my God, that's amazing. Where is, where has been your favorite place to live so far?

Chris (4:51)

Either upstate New York. It is beautiful up there. Or probably Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is one of the greatest places in our opinion in the country.

Jill Schlesinger (5:00)

Wow. A big plug for Savannah and upstate New York. Mark, how about that? Compared to Italy? He's going to pick up state New York. It's incredible. I love it. Okay, so Chris, let's talk a little bit about what's going on for you guys. So as active duty military, how much are you earning right now?

Chris (5:19)

About 100, I think. This past year I was made 110,000.

Jill Schlesinger (5:23)

Okay.

Chris (5:24)

So I've been in for 15 years. We got about five years until we're looking at a potential military retirement. Obviously, we're years away from a regular retirement.

Jill Schlesinger (5:31)

And in five years, what would that military retirement pay in terms of a pension benefit average?

Chris (5:38)

It would probably be around 70,000 a year.

Jill Schlesinger (5:42)

Okay. But you're not going to say, oh, I'm going to call it quits. You're very young and you'd be in your 40s. You would do something else after that, is that right?

Chris (5:50)

That's right, yeah.

Jill Schlesinger (5:51)

Okay. All right, so tell us about the money that you have saved so far, both in terms of the addition to the pension and also whether or not you've saved money in excess of just retirement other ways.

Chris (6:05)

Yeah. So we have right now about 16,000 just in emergency savings. It's in a high yield account with American Express. And then we've got about 7,500 just in kind of regular savings account savings. We also, in addition to the retirement, so we, we've been maxing out for both me and my wife Roth IRAs. So in mine we have 173,000, and then my wife's is 102,000. And then we also contribute to the Roth TSP program, like for DoD employees.

Jill Schlesinger (6:41)

Yep.

Chris (6:42)

And we've got just over 30,000 in that. And then we just keep a little bit in some, some brokerage accounts, one with Fidelity that's kind of more retirement focused with 10,000 in that.

Jill Schlesinger (6:54)

Okay. And for the kids, you get one GI bill. In terms of college, is there any other money that you've socked away for them. I know that at three years old can tell their scholars we are trying.

Chris (7:06)

To set some aside. So we have five 29s open right now with the state of Georgia. The five year old has 11,000 in it and my three year old has 6,000. We just contribute a small amount every month to that, about $50 a month. But then if, if the kids get, you know, money for their birthday or Christmas or whatever, we put it into the 529.

Jill Schlesinger (7:26)

Okay, so, but that's great. How is your cash flow doing all this? You've, you've accumulated a lot of assets. Are there any, any other ass you are not telling us about yet? Any rental property or anything like that?

Chris (7:39)

No, we don't, we don't own any houses. We don't own any rental properties. And that's one of the things I'd be curious to talk about. Our, our cash flow is good. We, our monthly expenses are probably about 3,000amonth. We don't really have any debt except for two cars that we had to get when we moved back from England in 2021 at the world's worst time to buy two cars. So our only debt is really just about 1,000amonth in car payments and everything else is. That's kind of it. Now we do, we don't eat out much, so we do have a pretty high grocery bill, about 1,000amonth. But I'm going to say our monthly expenses are about 3,000amonth. And then we put quite a bit into just savings, about $500 a month in addition to just all the retirement focused stuff. So we don't really have any issues.

Jill Schlesinger (8:25)

That's great. Do you have some place in mind that you, you know, again, it's five years from now, five, six, seven years from now. Do you have an idea? Like, you know what, we're going to move back to Savannah. Is that something that you kind of push into like the dream category or like, oh, we're going to make that a reality?

Chris (8:43)

I think actually we haven't really settled. We're not, we're not ready to settle down yet. We still like moving and seeing other parts of the country in the world. I, if I had to get my dream way, it would probably be in the Northeast, like either, you know, Vermont, New Hampshire, northern New York. My wife is more in the Southeast, that kind of coastal Georgia area. So we, we really don't know. And that's been one of the reasons that we haven't wanted to purchase yet. We've, we've been hesitant and for one reason, because we live overseas so much, we haven't really wanted to maintain.

Jill Schlesinger (9:17)

You.

Chris (9:17)

Know, have a house and then have to worry about it or the upkeep or anything like that as a rental property. And then additionally, you know, we have a lot of friends who own one, two, maybe even three houses our age. And when you talk to them, you start to feel kind of behind. But then with those good friends that you're open to talking about money with, when you ask them what their real revenue is after, you know, management fees and all that, and it seems like they. They are often making two to $300 a month. So it, in that sense, it kind of isn't worth it to us yet. But maybe that's a naive view.

Jill Schlesinger (9:52)

Well, I mean, look, it totally depends. Sometimes the income is not the driving force. It may have been like, you know, if you're lucky enough, you know, I have a friend whose son in the military and, you know, he happened to buy. He was. He's an Air Force guy, so he's up in Syracuse, New York. Okay. And he happened to stumble upon a cheap house at the beginning of COVID for a low mortgage interest rate. So he stumbles onto it when he goes to his next post. It's going to be a good rental property because he's into it so cheap. The question of whether, like, you should just do it for the sake of doing it, I don't think so. I tend to be more in your camp, which is, I'm not dying to be a remote landlord. It's not going to be huge money. Just think about that. Prices overall are up about, you know, 45% in five years. Mortgage rates are high. I wouldn't really be jumping in unless you felt compelled if you said to me the reason why I asked that sort of. Is that the dream thing, if all of a sudden you guys said to each other, like, you know what? We're both all in. We're going to Vermont, New Hampshire, Northeast. We know we want to be there. You could sort of keep an eye out and we could have almost like a sinking fund getting ready to buy something when you were ready. But since there's not consensus yet, I don't think I would do that. You're doing an incredible job of saving. I mean, you have a lot of money that you have accumulated in those RO IRAs. I wouldn't necessarily jump into the I must buy real estate. In many respects, just given your life and where you're all, you know, you're all over the world. It seems like you're in a wonderful place and you have a very low cost of living. I mean, look, it's probably going to be that in the future. Wherever you land in five years, it's not going to be $3,000 a month of expenses. You're going to have a different kind of life. Right. And you're either going to have to rent something that is probably more expensive or maybe you'll buy. But for right now, I think you're doing an incredible job. It's really, it's like inspiring, frankly. So, yeah, I mean, Mark, I'm just going to bring you on the mic. Do you not agree with us? Like, this guy is making $110,000. Look at all the money they've saved, the two of them. They're 37 years old, they got two kids.

Mark (12:09)

No, no. They're 100% on track. I know. In his email he says, you know, it's hard to believe, it's hard to see how 300,000 that they have now will turn into, you know, 2 million and 30 plus years. Well, I'm telling you right now, you're saving 14 and a half percent to retirement every year. If you keep doing that, in 30 years, that 300,000, it'll be between two and a half to $3 million, no doubt. Plus you have a $70,000 a year pension. I mean, all good, all.

Jill Schlesinger (12:34)

And you know, I know it is hard, Chris, to, to think about that because it's really hard to see in, in real time today how compounding works, but it really is incredible, which is why, because you started early and you were, you had, you really were not spending a ton of money. This is, this is like knock it out of the park kind of numbers to me and you. Some, maybe you've listened to the podcast and maybe you've heard people, come on, I've got $5 million. I got this. But you know, we don't talk to as many people who are 37 years old. And in this situation, often when we're talking to a 37 or 40 year old, what's happening is they're telling us like, yeah, I've saved a million dollars and I spend $12,000 a month. That's a huge difference. It really is. So I think you're in such good shape as part of being active duty military, you have to have your estate planning done. Is that right? Don't you have to have a will?

Chris (13:27)

We don't have to, but it is highly encouraged and you have to do it for free on the installation.

Jill Schlesinger (13:32)

And you have that. Great. And what about life insurance? Do you. Because since you are the primary wage earner, do you have any extra life insurance then? What, beyond what is provided to you by the military?

Chris (13:43)

Yes, we do. We have a small policy with USAA that's 100,000 a year. So in total, it's. I think my. My benefit to my wife is like 500,000, something like that.

Jill Schlesinger (13:54)

If you could bump it up a little bit, I wouldn't be a bad thing. Just because you have those two little kids and who knows what's going to happen? So maybe 750, if you could add a little extra coverage, that would be good. Okay, Chris, if you were not doing what you do right now, if you were not in the military, what do you think is. What is the job that you think you might be interested in, like, in five years? I'm sort of dying to know what the next chapter looks like.

Chris (14:20)

Well, my. I. I love boats, so I'd probably love to be around boats. I don't know. I'm thinking maybe a marine diesel mechanic or something.

Jill Schlesinger (14:26)

Oh, okay.

Chris (14:27)

Low stress and by the water.

Jill Schlesinger (14:29)

Oh, okay. Wait a minute. Does that mean you're in the naval part of the armed Forces?

Chris (14:33)

No, I'm absolutely not.

Mark (14:35)

Not in Arizona, I was going to say.

Jill Schlesinger (14:37)

How would you do that? I was like, what. What's happening? What part of the military do you think Mark could be in? What do you think he could do in the military?

Chris (14:45)

Hey, we're looking for the right people anywhere. You could be a great finance officer.

Jill Schlesinger (14:49)

Oh, Mark, look at you.

Mark (14:51)

You know, I was very, very close. I mean, coming out of high school, I was, you know, all I had to do was sign the papers. I had several meetings with the recruiter. I was just, like, probably days away from joining in the Air Force.

Jill Schlesinger (15:01)

Really? I didn't know that, Mark.

Mark (15:03)

And then some little bell inside of.

Jill Schlesinger (15:04)

Me went off and you said, wait a minute, that seems really hard.

Mark (15:07)

I was on my way. I think it's Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. I was, like, on my way there, and then I decided at the last second, no, I'm not doing this.

Jill Schlesinger (15:15)

Did you get scared, Mark, or did you just. Did you just say, like, it's too much of a commitment? It's very young to have to make that commitment?

Mark (15:22)

Yeah, I think I was probably doing it for the wrong reasons. You know, I wanted to get out of the. Speaking of upstate New York, Chris. I wanted to get out of upstate New York and just kind of get a see something else. But it wasn't a good enough reason for me to do it.

Jill Schlesinger (15:34)

Chris and Mark, I know it would not be a shock for you to learn that there was not even a whisper of a thought that I could ever do anything in the military. Mostly because when people tell me to do things, I usually ask a question like this, but why? That is not the right mindset for the military. Although I respect you all and again, just want to thank you again for serving because I think that that is incredibly important. We take it very seriously. So, Chris, we are going to send you off with a military salute of some sort, which would be weird, but you guys have done a terrific job. And if you need anything else in the future, don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We're hoping that your next posting will be somewhere fabulous. He's going to be like in somewhere around the world and give us a holl like, hey, I'm in Antarctica. Which would be amazing because I don't think we had a caller from Antarctica. But keep in touch with us and thank you. And if you have anything else that you need, let us know. And gang, if you are listening to these conversations and it's maybe spurring a question in yourself, then why don't you get in touch with us? Just go to our website, jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note, and if you'd like to join us live, check the box. Mark will do everything else. Mark who I just learned something new about. It's like. It's like being with somebody dating somebody for 15 years and learning a new little nugget of information. Who knew that Mark wanted to maybe go to the military? I certainly didn't. Anyway, give us a holler at whatever is going on. You can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review. And of course, do do something nice for someone else today. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

Mark (17:25)

Hey, I'm Ben Stiller. And I'm Adam Scott. And we host a podcast called the Severance Podcast, where we used to break down every episode of the TV show Severance. Severance isn't back just yet, but the podcast is. Each week we'll discuss the movies, TV.

Chris (17:39)

Shows and ideas that influence the making of Severance.

Mark (17:42)

We're going to talk to the incredible artists who inspire us to do what we do. The Severance podcast returns Thursday, June 26th. Follow and listen everywhere you get your podcasts.