272: [Brandon Lovingier] Money, Military and Marriage

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:00

Yeah, I mean, I mean, the. The real big reason why

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:03

is just because I. I don't want anybody to have to go through a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:06

lot of the stuff that I had to go through. And. And

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:09

honestly, we, you know, we always had a roof over our

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:12

head. We always had food to eat. So, like, there's people that have had it worse

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:15

than me, but I remember putting rent on a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:17

credit card because there was nothing, you know, there was nothing

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:20

left. Uh, I can remember, you know, eating,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:23

you know, just random noodles that we had in the, in the, in the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:26

cabinet because, yeah, like, it. There was just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:28

nothing. Um, and,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:31

um, yeah, and it didn't have to be that way.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:34

Like, I had. We had enough money to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:37

be able to be fine, but,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:40

you know, because of my spending habits and all that. And then you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:43

introduce credit cards and things like that. Like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:46

um, yeah, that was just a recipe for just me

Brandon Lovingier: 00:00:48

digging a bigger and bigger hole.

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:54

Welcome, everybody, back to another exciting show, the about

Anthony Weaver: 00:00:57

that water podcast, where we help you build strong financial

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:00

habits so that you feel comfortable talking

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:03

about money, spending money, and even

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:06

wasting money. So one of the cool people that

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:09

I have coming on just a few moments

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:12

is a guy who's served in the military,

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:15

actually the army, for 19 years

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:17

and has deployed to Iraq and

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:20

Afghanistan. He's established his blog called

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:23

the Enlisted Money to help enlisted service

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:25

members avoid the same mistakes that he made

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:28

and achieve financial freedom. He's earned his

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:31

chartered financial consultant, the

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:34

CHFC designation in

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:37

2022, and is one of the first military

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:40

qualified financial planner. How

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:42

you doing today, Brandon?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:01:44

Hey, I'm great. I really appreciate you having me on, Anthony.

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:48

No, uh, problem. Uh, and one of

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:51

the things that I really wanted to have you come on the show

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:53

today was to really take a deep dive and

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:56

another look into really adding that

Anthony Weaver: 00:01:59

resiliency in our finances

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:01

and really helping us set up a budget

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:04

so that we don't have that tendency to

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:07

spend money. Can you talk about a little

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:10

bit, like, why is it such

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:13

a hard thing for us to not spend money,

Anthony Weaver: 00:02:16

Jeff?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:17

Yeah, well, I mean, it's kind of one of those things

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:19

that, um, I mean, I've definitely struggled with this a lot.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:22

Um, I'm a natural spender. Um, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:25

honestly, I kind of struggled with that a little bit because a lot of, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:29

podcasts and different, uh, blogs and stuff like

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:32

that, I was like, yeah, they're, you know, pretty

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:35

seem like a lot of natural savers and stuff like that. And so,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:37

like, some of the stuff wasn't maybe directly

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:40

applicable to me. But you, you mentioned a budget. And, and that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:43

is something that, that everybody can, can use.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:46

But, um. Um, I mean, we've, we've definitely done

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:49

a lot of different iterations over the years, and, and a lot of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:52

that is just because of, like, the way I, the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:54

way I process and spend money. Like, it

Brandon Lovingier: 00:02:57

can't get in my hands because I can't hold on to it.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:00

Like, I've got, I got big, I've got big hands and I got a strong

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:03

grip, but not on money. Like, it

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:06

just slips right through. Um, so a lot of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:09

our processes, uh, are designed around

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:12

that. And so kind of like talking about

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:14

automation, um, you know, we segment things

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:17

into different categories, different buckets, and, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:20

know, and that mental accounting and doing

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:22

that realistic, um, budgeting

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:25

is something that's helped out a lot over the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:03:28

years.

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:28

Yeah. And throughout the years, you always

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:31

find your ebbs and flows of your finances.

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:34

And I found that majority of the time, people

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:37

has a tendency to spend money when they're happy

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:41

or when they sad or when they're hungry

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:44

or just because they want to give, especially

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:47

during the holidays. It's almost like, don't put a price to

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:49

this. Whatever makes you happy. So is

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:52

that, um, is there a way or a structure that we can

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:55

put in place to kind of help us to kind

Anthony Weaver: 00:03:58

of hold some of that back and

Anthony Weaver: 00:04:01

just really be intentional with our finances?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:04

Oh, yeah, definitely. Um. Um, I mean, especially, like, you talking

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:07

about like, the giving and stuff like that. Like, I'm, I'm

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:10

really bad about that. Like, I'll just be like, hey, here, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:12

here's $20, or what, whatever. And it would drive

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:16

my wife nuts because she'd be like, we needed that. Like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:19

that was, you know, we needed that. And so, um. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:22

over time, we've actually got a system in place. Like, we actually

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:25

have a set amount of money that goes into a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:28

specific giving, uh, fund, and then we'll

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:31

use that. And actually, I actually now carry, um. Um, they're,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:34

they're pretty cool. I don't think I have one on me, but they're little, uh, uh, grace

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:37

bomb cards. Um. Um, and then, you know, keep

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:40

those in a, and an envelope in my, in my wallet

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:43

or in my car or in both of our cars, uh, uh, just with a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:46

little bit of cash. And so, like, that's like, set aside for,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:49

hey, if we find somebody that, um, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:52

know, that needs something or whatever, I can, you know, give

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:55

them. Give them, you know, $20 or buy them a meal

Brandon Lovingier: 00:04:58

or whatever they need and give it to them. But

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:01

um, but yeah, I mean, I think you, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:03

really touch on a really important piece is just like, you know, that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:06

emotional component of it because, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:09

we need to know what we're going to do in the moment. Um, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:12

then develop systems around that to, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:15

either not circumvent

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:18

it, but maybe redirect that a little bit or reframe

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:21

it. Um, that's been really helpful for me. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:23

just to know, like, hey, when I say yes to this, I'm saying

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:26

no to something else. Um, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:29

then also maybe,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:31

hey, you can't do all of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:34

what you're wanting to do, but you can do a little bit.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:37

Um, and so that's been helpful. And then over

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:39

time, been able to, um. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:42

like I said, kind of build up like, savings accounts, like

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:45

Christmas giving, um, um, all

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:48

those kinds of things. We actually put a little bit

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:51

away each month into, um, um, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:54

high yield savings accounts for some of those, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:05:56

specific things that we want to do.

Anthony Weaver: 00:05:59

Yeah. So who was the first person

Anthony Weaver: 00:06:02

that actually taught you how to manage money?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:06

That's a, that's a good question. So,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:09

I mean, I learned some real

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:12

basic, um, money management

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:15

skills when I was fairly young,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:17

um, just because I had a checking account and things like

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:20

that. And I had to know how to balance a checkbook. So I'd say

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:24

pretty early on, my mom,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:26

uh, showed me how to balance a checkbook and all that because,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:29

um, we did four h. And so,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:32

um, we, uh, raised hogs

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:35

and stuff like that. And so you had to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:37

basically manage your budget for, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:40

for all that. And that was part of the project is you had to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:43

have your initial costs, like how much

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:46

it costs to buy the feeder pig, how much you bought

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:49

and feed each year, each month and all that.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:52

And then you take them to the sale at the fair at the end of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:55

the year. And then that's kind of how you, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:06:58

figure out, um, how you did and all that kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:01

stuff. Um, so that was actually,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:04

I kind of forgot I even kind of learned that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:07

way. But I. But, yeah. And

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:09

then other than that, I don't think I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:12

really had a lot of money management

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:15

skills until, um, later. I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:18

just kind of, I just kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:21

figured out like, hey, I spent all my money, I need to go

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:24

make more. And so I got really good at like, finding ways

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:27

to make money. Yeah. Oh, I'm really good at making

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:30

money. I'm even better at spending it, though. And so that,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:33

you know, that, that eventually, uh, became a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:35

problem, um, just, you know, over

Brandon Lovingier: 00:07:38

time. So, yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:40

And one of the things that I found is that we

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:43

love, uh, making, uh, money. It's so easy

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:46

to do. Um, um, but when

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:49

it comes to spending, sometimes it depends on, you

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:52

know, your mindset at the time frame. Like, obviously

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:55

during the fall, it's like shots, we ain't going nowhere. Let's spend

Anthony Weaver: 00:07:58

it. Let's go somewhere. Let's do something fun.

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:00

But also, you created this whole

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:04

program, uh, because you delved into a lot of

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:07

stuff before you actually finally honed in onto your craft

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:10

from blogging. And you did

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:13

this mostly because nobody was out

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:16

there talking about it the way that you felt was

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:19

helpful. Uh, can you talk about more

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:22

of a reason why? What is your big why besides

Anthony Weaver: 00:08:25

just like, hey, I just want to give this to somebody else?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:28

Jeff? Yeah, I mean, I mean, the, the real big

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:31

reason why is just because I, I don't want anybody to have to go

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:34

through a lot of the stuff that I had to go through.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:37

And, and honestly, we, you know, we always had

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:40

a roof overhead. We always had food to eat. So, like, there's people that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:43

have had it worse than me, but I remember

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:45

putting rent on a credit card to me because there was nothing, you know, there

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:48

was nothing left. Um, um, I can remember, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:51

know, eating, you know, just random noodles that we had in the,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:54

in the, in the cabinet because, yeah, like, it, there was just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:08:57

nothing. Um, and,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:00

um, and, yeah, and it didn't have to be that way.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:02

Like, I had, we had enough money to,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:05

to be able to be fine,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:08

but, you know, because of, you know, my spending habits and all that, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:11

then you introduce credit cards and things like that,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:14

like, um, yeah, that was just a recipe for just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:17

me digging a bigger and bigger hole. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:20

and, and so, you know, I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:23

guess my, you know, my big why is just, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:26

nobody, nobody needs to do that. And I,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:29

if, you know, if somebody would have told me early

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:32

on, like, hey, man, if you just stay out of debt

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:35

and invest about 100,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:37

5200 bucks a month starting now, and never

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:40

put any less than that, uh, away, then

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:43

you'll be a millionaire someday,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:46

I would have been like, wait, hold on, say that again

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:49

slow. But whenever I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:52

was younger, nobody told me that. The only thing I knew is that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:55

I had the TSP because I was in the army. But the only

Brandon Lovingier: 00:09:58

thing I got from the brief on it was that they were going to take money out of my

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:01

check. I was like, you're going to take money out of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:04

my check? And then maybe it grows and I get it. Like, when

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:07

I'm like 60 something like, am I even going to be alive

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:09

then? Like, I don't. Yeah, I don't even know, man. Like, I'm getting ready to go to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:12

war. Like, no, I need this money now.

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:14

Like, because one of the things that,

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:17

in your story, you mentioned that you started your roth

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:20

with just dollar 50 a month, if I'm not mistaken.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:23

Yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:24

So how is it doing now?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:27

Yeah, um. I haven't looked in a little bit, but,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:29

um. Yeah, I think it's because I haven't

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:32

contributed to it for a long time now. But, uh, I think last time

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:35

I looked, I think there's $43,000 in there.

Anthony Weaver: 00:10:37

Wow.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:38

Um. Um. And, yeah, actually, it's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:41

funny, I didn't even know. I didn't really know what a Roth

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:43

Ira was when I started it. It was just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:46

literally at the end of a phone call,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:50

the bank that I had, they did the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:52

upsell kind of thing. Like, hey, by the way, we noticed

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:55

you don't have a, you know, x, y, and z or whatever. They would

Brandon Lovingier: 00:10:58

always do that, especially mostly with, like, insurance stuff. Be like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:01

oh, hey, have you, uh. Do you happen to. Have.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:04

We saw that you got married. Do you. Do you have a, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:07

whatever, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:10

wedding. Wedding, uh, set insurance, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:12

policy? I'm like, I don't. That's a thing. But anyway,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:15

so. So that's how. That's how I started it.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:18

And they just said, hey, you can just put $50 a month into it

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:21

and it'll grow tax free. And I was like, oh, that sounds.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:24

You know, that sounds good. I was. I think I was. Yeah, I was deployed

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:27

at the time, and so I was, you know, kind of felt like I had a bunch

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:30

of, you know, like, extra money. I was, you know, felt like it was, you know, big

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:33

baller, you know, I was like, yeah, uh, $50. Yeah, no, no

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:35

problem. Yeah, yeah. And

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:38

so. And then I basically forgot about it.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:41

Um. And, um. And then

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:44

when I went to transfer it, yeah, I was

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:47

surprised it was, like, 20, because this was after I kind of,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:50

like, learned. Started learning about personal finance. I was like, yeah, I should probably

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:53

do something with that. Like, now that I know what it is, you know?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:55

And, um, what year was this? That,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:11:58

uh, when I transferred it, that would have been in

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:00

2018.

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:02

Wow, so you've been in there for a while. Like, I'm just thinking

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:05

of. Because roths are fairly new, so

Anthony Weaver: 00:12:08

for you to have that amount, that's really good.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:11

Yeah. And so when I transferred it, I think it

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:14

was right at $20,000. I forget it. Was

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:17

like 19, 800 something or whatever. I think I have it written

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:20

down somewhere. Um, and,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:23

yeah, it's more, and I haven't

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:25

contributed any more to it since then

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:28

and it is over doubled. I don't do anything

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:31

with it. I just let it ride.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:34

Um, and it all started with $50 a month.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:37

And so that's one of those things is like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:40

you can't fight, do anything.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:43

You can at least start with something if you can get

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:45

$50, even if you can't get

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:47

$50, you put 10,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:50

20, 30, whatever, until you can start putting something

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:53

away. But, um, yeah, I mean, you can't

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:56

afford not to start is really like the big thing for

Brandon Lovingier: 00:12:59

me.

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:00

That's actually a good title for the show.

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:04

You can't afford not to start.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:06

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, actually that was, you know, I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:09

don't, I don't run it anymore, but that was my,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:12

the name of my, uh, my podcast that I had, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:15

know, uh, called start 100k. Um, and that was

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:18

kind of my whole idea. It's like if you just get started and then

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:21

just focus on getting to that 1st $100,000,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:24

like, you'll build all the habits and all that kind of stuff. You

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:27

know, like just, you know, make it a smaller goal to start and then,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:30

you know, from there, time will do its thing. So, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:32

um, but, uh, uh, but yeah, so I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:35

think I'm definitely a big one of like, hey, just, just get

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:38

started. It'll, it'll, you'll figure it out as you go.

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:41

Yeah, as we got time, because I do want to dive

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:44

into some of the perks of being in the

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:47

military. Um, and also

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:50

let's kind of bring it back to why did you even

Anthony Weaver: 00:13:53

join the military in the first place?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:13:58

Yeah. Um, as far as, like, joining the military,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:01

funny, funny story about that. So,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:03

um, I more or less, I just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:06

didn't want to go to college.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:08

Um, and I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:11

mean, I didn't, I didn't, I knew I didn't want to stay where I was,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:14

and I knew I didn't want to go to college because I was like, college is just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:17

like, harder high school, but you have to pay for it. And

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:20

I was like, I hate going to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:23

school. I was so ready to be done with

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:25

it. Um, and I was

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:28

smart. I was just as Henri.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:30

Um, so I was like, well, okay, the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:33

army says I can

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:36

go and, um, go

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:39

get a tech job, basically, which I more or less did.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:42

I got into satellite communications is what, um, I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:45

do, did buy trade. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:48

and so I'm like, okay, cool. So technology job. All

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:51

right. That makes family happy. And if

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:54

I decide to go to college, oh, by the way. Yep. Mom,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:14:56

dad, they're going to pay for my college. So

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:00

that kind of was kind of like, the best compromise

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:03

for me is like, hey, I don't have to do any of the stuff that I don't want to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:05

do. And everybody thinks that I'm going to have college. And so, like, all

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:08

right, cool, let's do this. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:12

and then I get in and they're like, hey, in order to get

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:14

promoted, um, you're going to need to start taking college classes.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:17

And I was like, oh, man. Got me.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:19

He's okay. Get away from it.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:22

Yeah. But, um, yeah, that was really the big driver.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:25

I wish I could say, hey, yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:28

I really was inspired to go serve my country or

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:31

whatever. Uh, I mean, there's a component of that too now.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:34

Um, but back then it was really just, I didn't, yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:37

I didn't want to, uh, I needed a good job

Brandon Lovingier: 00:15:39

and I didn't want to go to college, though.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:42

Yeah. And you mentioned earlier about,

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:45

like, having your child now. Mhm.

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:48

And that you're married. Would you, like,

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:51

be going forward and let your child choose military or

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:54

will you give them better, like, m not better options, but other

Anthony Weaver: 00:15:57

options out there in the world? Like, hey, you can actually do something

Anthony Weaver: 00:16:00

else.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:01

Yeah, no, I, yeah, I, um, I know exactly what

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:04

you mean. And, um, yeah, actually, my

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:07

wife and I have talked about that a lot. And,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:09

um, the fact of the matter is, it's done a lot of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:12

great things for me, a lot of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:14

non tangible benefits. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:17

and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:21

I guess, full disclosure, I was a recruiter for three and a half

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:23

years. So I've had these conversations with other

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:26

people and I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:29

really developed a lot of gratitude for the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:32

parents that were, um, you know, that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:35

were open and willing to let their kids have a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:38

conversation with me about what options they might

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:41

have in the military. Um, but I also took that really

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:43

seriously and I made sure and let them know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:46

like, hey, if I don't think this is right for you, or,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:49

hey, your goals, like, yeah, you shouldn't enlist, you should

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:52

probably go to college and do RoTC or something

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:55

like that. Um, and there's some that I'm like, hey, look,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:16:59

if you don't want to go to boot camp, if you don't want to deploy, like, hey,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:02

don't do this. Because, yeah, that's, that's just part of the, you know, that's part

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:05

of the gig. Um, but yeah, I would be,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:08

I would be very proud of my son, if that's, you know, a path that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:11

he wanted to take. But if he wants to do something

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:13

else, hey, you know, as long as

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:16

he's doing something productive and he's a kind and caring person in the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:19

world, that's, that's really our main goal.

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:22

Yeah. And as, you know, you're

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:24

aging, and all of us are aging,

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:27

and, you know, you have your parents

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:30

coming in. So, you know, as

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:33

this, as you moving into this sandwich generation,

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:36

how are you preparing your family

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:39

to having those tough discussions again with

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:42

bringing in the parents into your household, or do you want to

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:45

put them into a home? Like, what do those conversations look

Anthony Weaver: 00:17:47

like?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:49

Yeah, those are, um. Yeah, because we're starting

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:52

to have some of those conversations. I mean,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:54

my, um. Yeah, and it's a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:17:57

little complicated because, like, on, on both

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:00

sides, like, we're, you know, our

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:03

biological parents are not together anymore. So, like, my

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:06

mom passed away, um, when she was 55. My dad's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:09

since remarried. Um, my wife's parents, they split.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:11

And, you know, her mom's remarried, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:14

so there's a lot of really complicated dynamics,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:17

and I don't think that that's unique. I mean, I think a lot of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:20

people have those types of situations.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:22

Um, but, yeah, I mean, I, you know, we bring up

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:25

some of these conversations and it's, it's tricky because,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:28

you know, like, I know my dad fairly

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:31

well, um, but, you know, I don't know his

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:34

wife all that well, and same with, you know, my,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:37

you know, my, my, uh, my wife's, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:39

mom's husband or, you know, like, it's like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:42

you know, you kind of tiptoe around those, but eventually, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:45

it's going to be a problem. Like, and we've kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:48

discussed some of this, and just because of, you know, like, my

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:51

experience and, you know, going the, all the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:54

estate planning courses and, like, all the different things that I know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:18:57

like, um, I kind of, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:00

bring it up. Like, hey, by the way, if you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:03

don't happen to have anything in place, this is what the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:05

state will have happen if you don't have anything

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:08

else in place. So, like, you know, my dad, I'm like, hey,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:11

technically, the way that, uh, the state splits it up, you know, us

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:14

kids get half, she gets half, and then we split the, you know, it's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:17

like, that doesn't, that's not a good, I mean, we don't

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:20

have any ill will and, you know, we don't, we're not going to kick her out of the house,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:23

but if something happens like, now we've got a mess on our

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:25

hands because now we got to unravel and do paperwork and do

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:28

all that kind of stuff. I don't know exactly, you know, the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:31

process for that, but, you know, there is a process for that.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:34

And, um, probably not very pretty.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:37

Um, but then also too, like, like you mentioned, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:40

long term care, things like that, those.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:43

That's a, that's a whole other beast. And,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:45

you know, trying to figure out,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:47

um, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:50

uh, those tough conversations of,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:53

like, I don't want to ask, but I got to ask, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:55

are there. Is there any money? Is there not any money? If

Brandon Lovingier: 00:19:58

there isn't any money, like, okay, then now we have to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:01

kind of understand, like, your only hope is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:04

Medicaid, and then what is that actually going to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:06

cover? And, you know, so there's. I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:09

mean, it's really. I mean, it's one of those where a lot of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:12

people think that Social Security or, I mean, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:15

Social Security and Medicare are going to take

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:18

care of a lot of those kind of things, but they don't.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:21

The only thing that really covers that is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:24

Medicaid, and that's after you've done the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:27

means testing and all that. So basically,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:30

you have to liquidate most of your assets in order to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:33

qualify. And so that's tough to watch,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:36

um, because we've seen that happen with grandparents, and,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:39

you know, it's really sad to see, you know, your

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:41

grandparents house go away or, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:44

know, see them have to get moved, you know, a couple different times

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:47

because of money issues. So, um. So, yeah, it is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:50

something that, you know, we think about, and, um.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:53

Yeah, it's a. It's a. It's a tough topic, but it's a really

Brandon Lovingier: 00:20:56

important topic.

Anthony Weaver: 00:20:57

Hopefully, the roth that you're building up will be able to, you

Anthony Weaver: 00:21:00

know, buy the home so you don't have to worry about selling it at that

Anthony Weaver: 00:21:03

point.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:04

Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:07

um. I mean, that. That's something that, you know, we'll have

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:09

to. I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we. When

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:12

we get there. Um, but, yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:15

in theory, I mean, there are quite a few protections for the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:18

home, you know, itself,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:20

but, um. Yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:22

it's. Yeah, I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:25

don't. Yeah, I don't know the exact specifics of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:28

exactly how that would look and all that,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:31

but, um. And it really. It might depend, too,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:33

on which one, you know, which one, uh, passes

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:36

first and all that. And, um.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:39

Yeah, so it could get. Could get pretty difficult,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:42

but, yeah, I mean, we're kind of, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:45

not like letting them

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:47

know necessarily, but you know, we're kind of more or less kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:50

planning to have to kind of step in and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:53

do some um, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:21:56

have to help out with a lot of that kind of stuff. And,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:00

and even more importantly, um, really

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:02

thinking about the time aspect of it.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:05

Um, and I think that's actually something

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:08

that we got to see firsthand

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:11

with my mom. My mom was in the hospital for

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:13

several months, um, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:16

so just seeing the time, a lot of family

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:19

stepped in to kind of help and we're all like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:22

obviously I couldn't take leave for that much time, but

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:25

my work was um, pretty flexible with

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:27

me. Um, and we just happen to live fairly

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:30

close. Um, but having that time

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:33

flexibility as you've got parents that are getting

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:36

older and have issues and stuff like that,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:38

um, they might be in the hospital for a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:41

while and have to have care

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:44

at the house and um, have mobility

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:47

issues. So those are things that I definitely think

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:50

about as ah, having that flexibility

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:53

to go and assist or

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:56

hey, what does that cost to have a nurse come by

Brandon Lovingier: 00:22:59

once a week, whatever, you know. Um.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:01

Um, yeah.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:02

Can you ballpark for that price? Because

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:05

I know at least in Maryland I think it was

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:08

around almost about a thousand or

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:11

so just to kind of have a

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:14

nurse there around the clock for about a week.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:17

Yeah. You know, I actually don't know off the top of my head how

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:20

much that would cost. I'd have to, I'd have to price that out.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:23

Um, probably should start looking into that. But um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:26

um, but yeah, I know it's not cheap. Um, um.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:28

Cause yeah, I mean yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:31

you look at listings and stuff like that. I mean

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:34

nurses get paid fairly well and then the company

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:37

of course takes a cut. So whoever they work for is going to take

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:40

a pretty big cut. So I assume ah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:43

it's not going to be cheap. So probably, probably

Brandon Lovingier: 00:23:45

costs more than my hourly wage. So.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:50

Um, just looked online, look uh,

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:53

like@seniorliving.org has

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:56

like a basic price down breakout.

Anthony Weaver: 00:23:59

So they saying for the state of Maryland for home

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:02

care uh, for about 8 hours is

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:04

$195 and that's just

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:07

for the day. So you know, you take

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:10

that, you pay somebody's hourly wage

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:13

like their living wage to come to your home

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:16

and goes to the aspect of

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:19

what you were talking about before, which is preparing yourself

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:22

financially, uh, for this

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:24

situation, especially if the parents can handle it or

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:27

the medical,

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:29

um, guess out of their life insurance,

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:32

they can't cash those out if they got like a whole life that they can kind of

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:35

dip into, um, because

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:38

obviously you can't do that with term life, but whole life you can at least

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:41

tap into. And then what

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:44

does it all look like? And I think this

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:46

is a great conversation to kind of

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:49

start talking about, you know, our features and where we want

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:52

to go with that, and which comes down

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:55

to the third segment of the show, which is your

Anthony Weaver: 00:24:58

futures, uh, talking about the skills and

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:01

habits that you feel that will help take you to that next

Anthony Weaver: 00:25:04

level.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:06

Yeah, um, yeah. As far as the. I mean, the future

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:09

for, you know, for us. I mean, one of the biggest

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:12

things that I think about is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:15

building up multiple streams of income

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:19

and then

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:22

how to convert those into

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:24

more long lasting assets and things like that.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:27

Um, and what that looks like.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:30

Um. I think I have a pretty unique, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:33

perspective because,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:35

um. Um, I have the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:38

ability to look at people that are actually in

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:41

retirement and some of the issues and things that they're looking at.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:43

So doing the pair planning and stuff like that, whenever I build

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:46

a financial plan and look through all that, run

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:49

scenarios for Roth conversions, all those

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:52

kinds of things, I get to see a lot of the

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:55

different issues that they're dealing with now. And then

Brandon Lovingier: 00:25:58

I can apply that. If you ever read the book the seven

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:01

habits of highly effective people, that concept

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:04

begin with the end in mind. I'm like, okay, well,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:08

if this is what it's going to look like at

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:11

the end, then I probably need to make a couple different

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:14

changes and things like that for what we're doing

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:17

now and need to make sure we're set up and all that. And

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:20

so I think I'm very blessed in

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:22

being able to have that perspective and then juxtapose

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:25

that with, I know all the things that I should have done

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:28

when I was younger. Um, and then I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:31

can take that and go, okay, hey, you know,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:34

person that, you know, like, young, young

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:37

version of me, please listen, like, you know, like grab,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:40

you know, grab them by the shirt collar, like, hey, listen to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:43

me. Like, um, and,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:46

uh, try and get that across. And so that's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:49

why. Part of the reason why I'm really

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:51

big on Roth and things like that.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:54

Um, but then also, like I said, looking at different

Brandon Lovingier: 00:26:57

streams of income and then what that's going to look

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:00

like. Um, just because

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:03

when you're accumulating and stuff like that, nobody talks about things

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:06

like required minimum distributions

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:09

or the widow's penalty or

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:12

different things like that. And so that can be,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:15

um. Yeah, it can be something that you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:18

really want to look at a little more carefully

Brandon Lovingier: 00:27:21

as you. As you kind of build things up.

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:24

Yeah. And it's good that you're

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:27

talking about that now and looking

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:29

back, because the whole reason why you created

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:32

your platform, the enlisted money,

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:35

is for that purpose, is to kind of help people kind

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:38

of have those tough conversations early and make

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:41

those adjustments early so they don't have to worry

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:44

about digging deep in their

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:46

feelings, have the logic already laid

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:49

out, worry about your feelings later, and

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:52

just make life happens. And I greatly appreciate

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:55

what you're doing for the service members and

Anthony Weaver: 00:27:58

also continuing to serve the community

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:01

as best as you can. And I just thank you for your

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:03

service.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:05

Yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate that. And, yeah, that's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:08

a, um, you know, that's kind of the idea. I'm hoping

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:11

that, um, basically creating everything that I wish

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:14

I would have read, consumed, and applied whenever I was younger. And

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:17

then, you know, I guess what

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:19

my. My goal with all that is, like, help people

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:22

solve that money equation

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:24

first and get that out of the way so then you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:27

can work on the life stuff, like all the important stuff, like, I want

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:30

you to get to be who you were meant to be in life so

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:33

that you don't have the regrets that I do and have to fumble

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:36

through it and all that. And so I think if,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:39

um, you know, I think there's plenty of us out there, you yourself included,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:42

like, just trying to help people out. And I think as a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:45

community, we can all come together, get

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:47

people where they need to be faster, so then we can

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:50

all make this place, like, so much better.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:28:53

I really appreciate you.

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:55

Thank you. Um, is there anything that you want to leave the

Anthony Weaver: 00:28:58

audience before we dive into the final four questions?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:02

Um, no. Uh, I think we kind

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:05

of hit it up. I mean, just with that, just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:07

getting started is super, um, important.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:10

And then also just

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:14

being okay with what my

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:17

system is doesn't have to look like this person's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:19

system or that person's system, and you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:22

don't have to have a huge income

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:25

to start making a huge impact in your

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:27

life.

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:28

Definitely. I like that. Like that. Now, one of the things

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:31

that we both say this is that

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:34

personal finance is personal. And, you

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:37

know, I hope that we actually get to hang out

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:39

in Fincon this year. And

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:42

definitely, I know you've been doing your thing with mill

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:45

moneycon because, you know, congrats on your speaking

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:47

engagement with them as well. Uh, man, you're doing

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:50

a lot of great things. Anything like in the future that you plan

Anthony Weaver: 00:29:53

on getting into?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:56

Um, yeah. Um, I mean, the. I guess

Brandon Lovingier: 00:29:59

the one cool thing I guess I can share with you. Yeah.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:02

Um, I, ah, been selected as one of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:05

the american, um, college of financial services

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:08

next gen financial professional

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:10

awardees. Um, so I'll be going to accept

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:13

that. Yeah, thanks. So I'll be going to accept that, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:16

at, uh, the college's, uh, president's dinner in

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:18

November. Um. Um, but,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:21

yeah, uh, that's kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:25

neat. Um, but then the other big project that I'm

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:27

working on kind of near term, I don't know exactly

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:30

when I'll get it done, but I'm working on my book, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:33

enlist to. Well, and so, um, yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:36

basically, that is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:40

basically, um, a book that I just want to be like, here, do these

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:43

things, and you'll never have to worry about money again.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:46

Um, and so that's really, like, what I'm trying to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:49

make. That book that I wish somebody had handed me whenever I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:52

was 18, getting ready to leave for basic training.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:55

Um, so, uh, those are kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:30:57

like the two, like, biggest things like that,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:00

but personal to me, really. It's just, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:03

I'm getting ready to go, um, getting ready

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:06

for actual retirement from the army.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:09

And so kind of been mentally processing

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:12

that. You've probably seen some of the articles and stuff like that. Kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:15

just mentally processing that. And then also,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:18

like, okay, hey, I've been planning for this, but

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:21

now it's real. I got the orders in hand, so now

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:24

it's time to bring it all together and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:27

really, um, make it happen and nail that transition

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:30

out of the. Out of the army.

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:32

Yeah. And I can't wait, uh, to see where

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:35

you go because definitely, uh, want to do a follow up

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:38

interview just to kind of see what does retirement actually look like for

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:41

you. Uh, and then we can pull up this episode

Anthony Weaver: 00:31:44

like, hey, you know, we talked about this.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. You and I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:50

both are interested to see what it. What it looks like because, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:53

yeah, right now, I. Not

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:55

100% sure. I mean, I've got, you know, because I've already got

Brandon Lovingier: 00:31:58

my, uh, my business separate from, uh,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:02

enlisted money. And so, like, that's my pair

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:04

planning and content writing business, and that does.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:07

Well, it's been profitable from day one.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:10

And so, um, the idea would be kind of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:13

turn that up a little bit. Um, and there might

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:15

be. There might be some other stuff in the works. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:18

and so, uh, we'll see. Uh, but, yeah,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:21

but I think to your point, yeah, I definitely want to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:24

connect with you and other people like you at places like

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:26

Fincon and Mill Moneycon, and there's a couple other

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:29

conferences I haven't had to, had a chance to go to, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:32

economy and, uh, places like that that I really want to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:35

check out. They just seem like cool places, uh, to go

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:38

and meet, um, very interesting

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:41

people and kind people. And so that's really what

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:44

I just want to fill my life with, other cool and interesting

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:47

people.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:48

Awesome. All right, well, you ready for the final

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:50

four?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:32:51

Yeah, let's do it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:52

All right.

Anthony Weaver: 00:32:58

Number one, what does it wealth mean

Anthony Weaver: 00:33:01

to you?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:03

Wealth, to me, really,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:06

just like the word

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:09

wealth, um, is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:12

the, uh, accumulation of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:15

your life's energy, um, and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:18

what form that takes. And so, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:21

to me, wealth is not just a money

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:24

thing, but, um, I would say it's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:27

a sum of all the memories of you that are

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:29

collected within other people and other

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:32

entities around the world. Um, and so

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:35

that's kind of ties into, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:37

for me, like, my goal is every person,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:41

place, organization that I'm a part of. I want

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:43

to leave it better than whenever I got it. And so,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:46

um, that's kind of how I think about a lot of the things

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:49

that I do, and I just try and become

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:52

better, uh, each day. So my personal mission

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:55

statement is perpetual improvement. So that's,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:33:58

um, you know, when I think of the word wealth, that's what I really

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:00

think about as, um, I guess, you know, almost

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:03

legacy thinking about that, but also

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:06

too, um, but the money component of that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:09

is important because that is

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:12

a catalyst for those other things. So,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:15

um, you know, those. A lot of these aspirational things that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:17

I want to do, they do take a little bit of money. So, um, so

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:20

I think there's a component of that, too.

Anthony Weaver: 00:34:23

So true. Number two,

Anthony Weaver: 00:34:26

what was your worst money mistake?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:30

Um, you know, I would

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:32

say,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:35

like, biggest single money, you know, like, worst

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:38

money mistake was. Was financing a brand new pickup

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:40

truck. Um, like, uh, so, which,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:43

I mean, it was. I say that it's my worst and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:46

best financial decision because that was

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:49

actually what got me to understand, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:52

I'm spending a lot in interest. And that's what, you

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:55

know, kind of led me down the path to, you know, finding. I found

Brandon Lovingier: 00:34:57

a personal, it still exists, but not the same, but

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:00

get rich slowly. I found that blog and reading through

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:03

there and then that led me to Dave Ramsey, which led me to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:06

debt free, which then eventually, you know, just, you can kind of pull

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:09

on these breaks, I crumbs and see where it led. But at all,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:12

really, that. That truck was kind of the catalyst for me, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:15

going, hey, idiot, like, this is not, like, this

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:18

is not going to work long term. Like, you could almost bought

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:21

the truck you liked before in

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:24

cash, like, for what you're going to pay in interest. So I was like, yeah, this

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:27

is. That. Doesn't. That. Yeah. Doesn't compute,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:29

Brandon. You've got to figure something out.

Anthony Weaver: 00:35:33

Number three, what is your favorite?

Anthony Weaver: 00:35:36

Financial or non financial?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:39

Oh, that is, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:46

I read so many books, and there's so many that I really,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:49

really like.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:50

Um, I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:53

think I really come

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:56

back to, um, the seven habits of highly

Brandon Lovingier: 00:35:58

effective people. Like, that one, it can

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:01

apply to so many different realms. Um, but I

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:04

think it's just one of those that's been really, really,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:07

um, like, it's on my list of books that

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:10

every human being should read. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:12

so I think that one's a good one. But personal

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:15

finance books, if I could only pick one, um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:18

it'd probably. Probably, right now be the psychology of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:21

money. Um, it's just, ah, really

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:24

digestible. And get those basic

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:27

concepts. How to think about it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:32

Number four, what is your

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:34

favorite dish to make?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:37

Ooh, my favorite dish to make.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:41

Let me think about that, because I like

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:43

barbecue. You might not know this. My first website I ever

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:46

made was a barbecue website. Really?

Anthony Weaver: 00:36:48

No, I didn't know that.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:49

So, yeah. Uh, my favorite dish

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:52

to make would be.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:55

Hmm. Trying to think.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:36:58

Actually, you know what? I'm gonna go with something a little bit different.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:01

Um, so one of my favorite ones to share with people

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:04

is gravy and dumplings. Um,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:07

gravy. Yeah. So instead of, like, biscuits

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:10

and gravy, um, you know, instead of, like,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:12

you know, chicken and dumplings. So, you know, I make. I make. It's,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:16

like, really thick, like sausage and

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:18

bacon gravy. And then put. You know, then put the biscuit

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:21

on top and then bake it. And so then you've got this layer of

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:24

biscuit. I mean, you cannot. You need a

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:27

nap after you eat it. But.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:30

But, uh. Uh, but, yeah, no, it's a, uh. Yeah, that's probably my favorite

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:33

one to make for other people and share.

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:36

All right, well, I definitely have to hit, uh,

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:39

you up on that dish whenever you make

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:42

it.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:43

Uh, come on up.

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:44

Right.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:46

Just make sure you bring a pillow so you can take a nap afterwards,

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:49

so you're not safe to drive after.

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:53

Well, I'll just stay at the hotel like I'm

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:55

crash out.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:37:56

There you go.

Anthony Weaver: 00:37:57

There you go. All right, so the right last question of the

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:00

show, which is, where can people find out more

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:02

about you?

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:05

Yeah, I mean, really, um, my favorite way to connect

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:08

with people is through my newsletter. Um, you can just sign up

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:10

on, uh, enlistedmoney.com, but, um, if

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:13

you're on social media and stuff like that. All the links are

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:16

there as well. I'm probably the most active on, on

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:19

instagram. But, um. But, yeah, really, I love it

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:22

whenever, you know, people jump on the newsletter and reply to

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:25

something I wrote or whatnot. And, yeah, it's

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:28

a, uh, I've had a lot of really wonderful conversations with people there, so

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:31

I really like that.

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:32

Thanks. Yeah, I'll definitely have to sign up for it after this

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:35

interview and, uh, see what you're

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:38

talking about over there.

Brandon Lovingier: 00:38:40

All right. Look forward to it.

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:43

Yeah. Uh, is there, quote?

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:46

By all means. I mean, first off, I just want to thank you

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:48

again, Brandon, for your time, for your service,

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:51

and for everything that you're doing for the community, the financial

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:54

community. Because again, we

Anthony Weaver: 00:38:57

gotta start having more open discussions

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:00

about our finances so that we can continue to build

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:03

that confidence within ourselves and with our family

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:06

and friends, so that we all,

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:09

ah, can just enjoy life and know that

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:11

life is more about money. But this

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:14

topic is always coming up, so let's

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:17

have some confidence around the discussion. And I want to

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:19

continue on to bring more content like this

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:22

to you all. So please make sure you like and

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:25

subscribe because this is very important for the

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:28

show and it's free for you to do so that we can have

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:31

on more guests like Brandon and so many

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:34

others. And I just want to thank you all for your time. Y'all have a

Anthony Weaver: 00:39:37

good one. Be out. Peace.