The Military Money Manual Podcast

In this episode Spencer and Jamie breakdown How to stop paying state income tax Why you should do your own taxes How to stop being afraid of taxes We also cover military spouse taxes including the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act (MSRRA), which allows military spouses much more flexibility in which state they are taxed in. This is extremely helpful if you need to PCS in the middle of a year. You can avoid paying and filing taxes in multiple states! We also cover why you DON'T want a large refund when you file your tax return. Other topics include: When it makes sense to hire a CPA What to do if you receive a Combat Zone Tax letter CP04 from the IRS How to avoid tax audits If you need to pay taxes on points and miles Should you keep mortgage or student loan debt around for the tax deduction (spoiler alert: no) Taxes on military career bonuses Taxes on side hustles or 2nd jobs Real world examples of taxes paid by military servicemembers Resources mentioned in the podcast: Military Money Manual MilitaryOneSource MilTax The Military Money Manual Book If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave a 5 star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen! Thank you!

Learn everything there is to know about travel hacking the military in my Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course. Besides welcome bonuses, credit card referral links are the easiest and fastest way to earn thousands or even millions of credit card points, miles, and cash. Spencer and Jamie break down the easiest way to earn lots of point and miles with your Chase and Amex cards.

Learn how to maximize your military annual fee waivers in my Ultimate Military Credit Cards course at https://militarymoneymanual.com/umc3 By upgrading Chase and Amex cards from lower tier cards to higher tier cards, you can earn valuable recurring annual benefits like airline fee credits, travel credits, and much more. For example, you could upgrade an American Express Hilton Honors Surpass card to a Amex Hilton Honors Aspire card even if you already have an Amex Hilton Honors Aspire card. Then you could double your free hotel/resort nights certificates annually and earn $500 of resort credit rather than just $250.

Discover how servicemembers can achieve financial freedom while serving in the military. Dive into essential personal finance literature that can transform your money mindset. Listen to inspiring journeys of overcoming debt and employing visualization for success. Explore strategies like setting a 25x savings target and investing in index funds. Learn to balance financial ambitions with personal happiness, understanding the emotional aspects of money. Gain insights on sustainable habits that lead to wealth and reflections on the true meaning of financial independence.

Want to learn how to achieve financial independence rapidly in the military? Check out the new book, The Military Money Manual, at shop.militarymoneymanual.com Calculators we talk about in this episode include: https://calculator.ficalc.app/ https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement https://firecalc.com/ https://engaging-data.com/fire-calculator/ https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/ https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/ https://www.madfientist.com/

Spencer and Jamie cover a lot of ground in this short, start of the year episode. Topics include: Spousal IRAs Contributing to last years IRA (during this year!) Roth TSP vs Roth IRA And much more Did you know if you max out your Roth IRA every year while you work you could easily end up with $1.2 million by the time you retire? It sounds crazy, but thanks to compounding interest, it's very possible.

Long term, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is definitely the superior card. But you may want to open the Chase Sapphire Preferred first because the Sapphire Preferred often offers a higher welcome bonus than the Sapphire Reserve After keeping the Preferred open for a year you can then upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Reserve. You must wait 1 year to upgrade due to a federal law called CARD Act. Cards mentioned in this episode: Chase Sapphire Reserve Chase Sapphire Preferred Amex Platinum for military You can also compare the Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Chase Sapphire Preferred. Optimal order to open credit cards in while you're in the military. You can maximize the benefits of military annual fee waivers rapidly by opening up credit cards in this order. Learn more about military travel hacking in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at https://militarymoneymanual.com/umc3

Sign up for the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3 to learn how to accumulate millions of points and miles. Plus, you can pay no annual fees if you're in the military or a military spouse. Once you've accumuluated a lot of points, it can be tough to decide if it's a good deal to use points for a purchase or not. Jamie and Spencer break down the math of valuing points. Just take the cash value of the flight or hotel you are trying to book, divide by the number of points required, and multiply by 100 to get the cents per point valuation. So if the hotel is $100 and costs 20,000 points to book, that's $100 / 20,000 = .005 x 100 = .5 cents per point. If this was a Hyatt booking, that would be a bad redemption because Hyatt points are usually valued at 2 cents each. If this was a Hilton booking, it might be worth it, since Hilton points are usually valued around .5 cents each. We also discuss when it makes sense to use a free night certificate. Best credit card bonus offers this month Credit card transfer partners Credit cards that waive annual fees for military in 2022 Best hotel credit cards Best military credit cards The new book is getting great reviews and is available right now at https://militarymoneymanual.com/book/ This is a short, practical guide to financial freedom. Most people are reporting reading it in an afternoon or on a short flight. I very internationally kept it short and to the point so I don't waste your time.

Learn more about annual fee waived credit cards in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at https://militarymoneymanual.com/umc3. In this episode you will learn how to get Military Lending Act (MLA) benefits applied to your Chase and Amex accounts. It's a very easy process as long as your Social Security Number is correctly loaded in the MLA database, available here: https://mla.dmdc.osd.mil/

The best hotel credit cards for military families are: American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card military Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card military Chase World of Hyatt Card military Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier Card military You can learn everything you need to get started with military annual fee waivers in the 5 day, 100% free Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course. All of these cards are annual fee waived for military and come with annual free night certificates. In this episode Jamie and Spencer talk about the 4 best hotel credit cards for active duty militay and their civilian spouses. We cover: How to get annual fee waivers and check the MLA database Value of hotel points Value of free night certificates Which cards to start with How to maximize your benefits Elite status with the hotel cards Let me show you how to earn thousands of dollars of hotel free nights every year in the Ultimate Military Credit Cards course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3 Relevant articles: Best credit card bonus offers this month Best credit cards for military Current cards in my wallet Credit cards that waive annual fees for military Also check out my new book, The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom available right now at http://militarymoneymanual.com/book. This is the book I wish I had received as a gift on my first day in the military. I wrote it for you, the US military servicemember who has no idea what to do with your money. I achieved financial independence while I served and you can too. Thanks for listening!