Happy Veterans Day! I thank all of the men and women who serve, or who have served, in the United States Armed Forces — especially our veterans. I deeply appreciate your service to our country.
Jeff Rose served in the Army National Guard, and is an Iraq combat veteran. He's now a Certified Financial Plannerâ„¢ and blogger. He talks about both in the context of personal finance through his book, Soldier of Finance, a book which I enjoyed thoroughly.
Jeff put a lot of his life and being into this book. He talks about the financial struggles his family had as he was growing up. He candidly speaks about the financial mistakes he made prior to joining the military, and the lessons they taught him. And of course the book is chock-full of well-thought-out examples from his time in the military, all the way from the entrance procedures and the medical examinations, to boot camp, to the war zone in the Middle East, to the flight home on a C-130.
I've seen Jeff's YouTube videos, and that guy has a sense of humor! His book is in a different style. Because I'd seen his videos, I perhaps was predisposed to expecting more humor in the book, but given the subject matter, that was a silly thing for me to expect. Military life, especially with combat in the picture, is serious business. (I've never been in the military, but I work with current and retired military all the time.)
The financial lessons in the book are in principle no different than the lessons from any other good personal finance book. If someone comes out and says that you can retire a millionaire by charging your credit cards to the maximum, paying only the minimum balance, and constantly spending more than you earn, then you know immediately to put that book back on the shelf. Check your credit score, get an emergency fund, pay off your debt, start investing — no secrets of the state revealed here.
What differentiates personal finance books is the manner in which this basic material is presented. I mentioned before that his military examples were well-thought-out. They were simple, and easy to understand. Without giving away too much, here are a few. You'll need the book for the full picture, though:
- Go through your credit report in the same way you'd clear a minefield.
- Why being a P/X Ranger is like Keeping Up with the Joneses.
- Debt is an enemy that must be destroyed. What kind of ammunition do you use?
- The importance of a financial Battle Buddy, and how they keep you away from financial Blue Falcons.
Also in military style, there are checklists, acronyms, and templates throughout. The checklists boil down to yes/no questions (“Go or No Go”). Can't get much simpler than that, but the number of Gos vs. the number of No Gos that you give when you run down the checklist paints a pretty good picture of where you are in your financial life. There are also several mnenomics in the book that distill several topics down to only the most important parts. SIT and SALUTE are two of them. A number of templates related to goal planning are provided as well.
Even without military training, I got a lot out of Soldier of Finance and recommend it highly.
Thanks, Jeff, for writing this book. But more importantly: thank you for your service.
