Category Archives: Money Management & Personal Finance

Raising an ER-smart kid

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Doug Nordman

Short post today, but it’s building the foundation of raising a financially smart kid. An earlier post talked about the challenges of retiring early when you’re still raising your kids.  That raises another question: How do you raise kids to … Continue reading →

Posted in Military Life & Family, Money Management & Personal Finance | Leave a comment

Building the Ultimate Investment Portfolio

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Doug Nordman

I’ve been reading financial discussion boards for over a decade, and they tend to converge on a few perpetual topics. One of them is “How’s my portfolio?”  Here’s a typical example: “Hi guys glad I found this board great to … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing & TSP | 2 Comments

Military Survivor Benefit Plan – An Overview to Help You Decide if You Should Buy in or Not

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Doug Nordman

This “simple little SBP summary” mutated into a two-part description. Today we’ll cover Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) for active-duty retirees and in the next post we’ll cover the Reserve Component SBP. The SBP will cost you up to 6.5% of … Continue reading →

Posted in Insurance, Money Management & Personal Finance | 13 Comments

Asset Allocation Considerations for a Military Pension

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Doug Nordman

Here’s my in-depth answer with the nitty-gritty details of the following question: If you’re receiving a military pension, then how should you invest the rest of your portfolio? Frankly, to the majority of you readers, this will be a boring … Continue reading →

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Living with Inflation – How to Handle Inflation in Your Investment Portfolio

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Doug Nordman

The last post described the long-term effects of inflation and explained how a COLA pension (plus a portfolio of equities) can stay ahead. One of the issues with the COLA system is its reference: the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. … Continue reading →

Posted in Military Retirement, Money Management & Personal Finance | Leave a comment