…and I’m just the spouse. I married my high school sweetheart – the MilPers, active duty airman, holder of the pension, Mr. Chill – young. I’m talking a year out of high school young, and we’ve been together ever since. He just hit the 17-year mark in Active Duty, and as we close in on 20, the pressure is on to figure out life after retirement.

I say I’m “just the spouse” jokingly as I do have a life outside of being a military spouse. I work full-time in health care by trade and am a mom of 2. Healthcare, smealthcare – what I enjoy doing is gathering information and boiling it down to the “need to know” bite-size nuggets. I cycle through different hyper-focuses – minimalism, budgeting, sometimes career-focused medical guidelines, but mostly as of late, retirement planning. I have had waxing and waning interest in personal finance over the years, and we have made a multitude of mistakes along the way (hellooooooo, whole life insurance). Now, we are elder millennials in our mid-30s and all-in on a path to Financial Independence (FI), chasing that DD-214.  

There is a wealth of FI information out there, but I keep coming to the same conclusion – the military (and retired military) situation is unique in many ways. We aim to address as many of those exceptions to the usual FI rules as we can find. We will share our 17 years’ worth of mistakes, encouragement, and advice that will be applicable whether you’re repping that butterbar or approaching ETS.

We hope you’ll TSP & Chill with us.