In this historic time, Mark Steffe, President and CEO of First Command, has some financial tips that active duty military and military spouses can keep in mind as we navigate the current financial challenges of the pandemic. Mark will discuss why now is a good time to revisit long-term financial goals and create a plan. He will also discuss why First Command is a great place for military spouses to pursue a long-term career as a financial coach.
Mark Steffe is President and Chief Executive Officer of First Command. In this position, Mark leads the company on the continuous improvement of the First Command client experience, focusing on military engagement and the continuing adaption to a rapidly evolving digital world. Mark holds Series 7, 8, 23, 63 and 65 securities registrations, plus life and health insurance licenses.
What Can Financial Changes Can You Do Right Now?
With most people sheltering at home and working remotely, now is a great time to update your budget with your spouse.
With a reduction in gas expenses, dining out and entertainment from your budget, consider moving that money to savings or into the TSP.
Make a plan for your CARES act check that includes saving, paying down debt or investing.
Consider moving your emergency fund into a high interest savings account that will grow and at least keep up with inflation.
Make sure that you and your spouse know where your financial documents are, along with the passwords to the accounts.
Now is a great time to teach your children about saving. Talk to them about how they should set aside a portion of the money they earn from jobs or even birthday gifts.
Why doesn’t First Command charge military families for financial planning?
The average American thinks financial planning is as a high-end service just for the wealthy. But that’s not true at First Command. First Command is committed to serving the financial needs of our Nation’s active duty military families. They know the best way to get financially squared away is through having a financial plan. And lastly, it has been proven that the earlier in your career you start planning the better chance you have of getting on path to financial security.
First Command wanted to help military families by removing the “barriers to entry” by making financial planning free for military families. But what will a financial plan get you? With a complimentary financial plan from First Command, you can get started now on reducing debt, protecting your family, building wealth, and pursuing your lifetime financial goals and dreams. All for free. Go to www.firstcommand.com and click on the Find My Advisor button today!
Is First Command a great place for a career?
First Command is a great place for veterans and military spouses to pursue a long-term career as a financial coach. This is a career, not a job.
Why we hire military spouses:
Why First Command is a terrific career choice:
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Amanda Huffman
Welcome to women of the military podcast. This week I'm doing a bonus episode with First Command CEO Mark Steffe. In this historic time Mark Steffe, President and CEO first command has some financial tips that active duty military and military spouses can keep in mind as we navigate the current financial challenges of the pandemic. Mark will discuss why now is a good time to revisit long term financial goals and create a plan. He will also discuss why first command is a great place for military spouses to pursue a long term career as a financial coach. Mark is the President and CEO of First Command. And in this position, he leads the company on the continuous improvement of the first command client experience focusing on military engagement and continuing adaptation to a rapidly evolving digital world. Mark, hold series 7, 8, 23, 63, and 65 security registrations, plus Life and Health Insurance licenses. I'm so excited about this interview and I know that you are gonna walk away learning something about financial planning or getting control of your finances right now. So let's dive right in. You are listening to the women of the military podcast where we share the stories of female servicemembers and how the military touch their lives. I'm your host, military veteran military spouse and mom, Amanda Huffman, my goal is to find the heart of the story and uncover issues women face while serving in the military. If you want to be encouraged by the stories of military women, and be inspired to change the world. Keep tuned for this latest episode of women of the military. Welcome to the show Mark. I'm excited to learn more about how First Command can help military families during the COVID-19 crisis and help plan for their future. So let's dive in with focusing on what you can do. Right now related to help ensure you are making the right financial decisions among the COVID-19 crisis, what is the first thing that people should be doing right now.
Mark Steffe
The first thing people should be doing at this point is, it's a great time to update your budget with your spouse or your significant other, to sit down together and estimate your expenses, determined how you'll track everything and stay on top of that on a weekly basis. And I think you'll be able to find some extra savings that you can probably allocate to, to your emergency savings account or maybe even to your to your long term goals. And the other thing I would tell you is that it's a good time to find a qualified, trusted financial advisor as well. The objectivity they provide the experience that they have in going through budgets with couples or with individuals to find opportunities that maybe the couple or the individual wouldn't have found on their own or couldn't have found on their own. So I think going through your budget, you'll find more opportunities for savings and putting money away than you probably realize. Were there and to have a professional help you with that can only make that process better.
Amanda Huffman
That's so true. And many people are driving less because they're not driving to work or they're not doing their so or they're saving money by not eating outdoors or doing as much entertainment. What are ways that we should take that extra money if we happen to be having to have it and like invest it? Where should we put that money?
Mark Steffe
Well, that's a great question. The first question is, should you invest it or not? If this is something that, you know, we're saving that money now, and, but when things turn around, we might go back to spending that money again. So it's only sort of a short term savings, maybe that money would be better put in an emergency savings account. So if this crisis goes on longer than we think we know that we're squirreling money away to, to save for the future. But if you look at those things, and you and you believe that this could be a permanent change to your spending habits, a great place to live Look is put it into a diversified portfolio of mutual funds potentially or the TSP account, if you haven't maxed out your tsp contributions or you have the opportunity to raise your contribution level, tsp is often a great place to put those assets as well.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah, that is a great suggestion. And I liked how you talked about how if it's just a temporary thing to put in your emergency fund, but if it's something you can keep for the long term, so there's two different answers based on how you're going to live after COVID-19 is over Exactly. And
Mark Steffe
I think that's another place a financial advisor could help you figure that out as well. And maybe it's a little bit into an emergency savings, maybe it's a little bit into an investment portfolio or the TSP account. So and it's just going to vary person by person or a couple by couple.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah. And what should people be doing with their stimulus check. And I know that I just read that they're thinking about doing another stimulus law. So what would you say to be doing with that extra money if you're in the military and still getting paid, and then you get this extra money, what would be a good thing to use it for?
Mark Steffe
Well, I think the government would want you to go out and spend it on, you know, a new television or new vehicle or something like that. But that might not be the first place you want to go. As an individual or a couple you should look at, you know, do we want to save that money? Do I want to put that into my emergency savings account as well? Is there a certain amount of debt that I want to pay down or my credit card, would this be better off going to my credit card payment, or maybe to my car payment, and if you've got those things pretty well covered, then again, that's another opportunity to look at investing and potentially increasing your tsp contributions. The one thing I would say though, is don't feel obligated to go out and spend it I know, that's what what those and how those stimulus checks are, are positioned and how they're being communicated. But the first economy you have to take care of is the one at home. And the one thing you have to in the things I encourage people to be careful about Just making sure you've got your own financial situation squared away, before you go out and just, you know, spending spending that check to improve the economy.
Amanda Huffman
Right. I think that's really good advice that you need to take care of your own your own financial plan before you start going and helping stimulate the economy you need. Absolutely. Yeah. So what, what can we do with our emergency fund to help make it work better for us instead of just having it in like a bank account? And it's like a really low interest? Is there anything we can do to help make that emergency fund grow?
Mark Steffe
It you're in a tough spot, interest rates are so low and there's predictions all over the place that they're going to stay low for an extended period of time. The inflation rate last I saw was on an annualized basis is about 0.3%. And you can find savings accounts or maybe one year CDs that are paying in the one to one and a half percent range, which gives you a little bit better than inflation, which is good, you always want to stay ahead of inflation. So, compared to inflation, it's not so bad. But compared to other opportunities out there, there's nothing out there really from a savings perspective, that's gonna pay you a really high interest rate. And the thing about an emergency fund is, it needs to be available when you need it right? And no one gets to predict, you know, when they're gonna when they're going to find an emergency. So putting it in the stock market doesn't make the most sense. My bigger advice is to not touch your emergency fund in terms of do everything you can to not spend money in your emergency fund as we're going through this pandemic. And that's why that first question you asked me, Amanda is so important about where can we find savings now, it's much better for people to, you know, find places where they don't need to spend money, they don't have to spend money, and start saving that money and add that to your emergency savings account as opposed to saying Well, let's just leave our spending patterns where they are. And we'll just make up the difference potentially with this emergency savings, you would like to, I'd like to see people not eat into that emergency savings. Unless they absolutely had to.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah, that's really good advice to try and save it for, like an emergency, like a flat tire or, you know, an emergency that comes up. But try and limit as much as you can, during this pandemic to not draw into and find ways to cut money in other ways.
Mark Steffe
Yep, exactly. I think it's always a while that money is available, and it wouldn't require us to change our spending patterns. But then you start working that emergency fund down and then as you said, you know, you need a new set of tires, your washing machine goes out, and you go to that emergency fund and it's empty than it wasn't. It's not there when you when you need it. Whereas at least through this pandemic, we all have an opportunity to step back, like we said before, look at our budget, find some obvious ways, either on a temporary basis or a permanent basis that we can cut some spending, take out some expenses on a weekly or monthly basis, and then add that savings to the emergency fund so that you're actually growing that fund during this time as opposed to depleting it.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah. So we talked you talked a little bit about how first command offers financial planning, and I know that you offer free financial planning for military families. Why does first command make that service free for military families?
Mark Steffe
The main reason we make the service the financial planning service free to military families, it's out of one big piece is just a recognition of the contributions and the sacrifice that our military men and women are making to our country every day. And we are dedicated to working with military families in an attempt to get them on a path to financial security. And one of the things that often keeps military families from working with a financial planner is that they just assume they can't afford it. They assume that maybe financial planning is just a high end Offering only available to wealthy people. And so we wanted to remove that barrier to entry, we wanted to not let that be a reason or an excuse to not sit down with a financial planner. So we took cost completely off the table and eliminated the financial planning fee. For active duty military families. We also don't require a client to have an account minimum, there's no account minimum size required to work with one of our financial advisors. And in many places, you might find a $50,000 or $100,000 or $250,000 account minimum, we actually have no account minimum because that was another reason we found that military families weren't even considering working with an advisor because they just didn't think they had enough money. And so we were working hard to try to remove any of these barriers to entry. Don't let price be an issue. So we dropped the planning fees to zero Don't let minimum count size is being issued. So we don't have one because our goal is to To get people started as early in their military careers as we possibly can, and then put them on a path to long term financial security.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah, that's great. And I think sometimes we say like $50,000. And those numbers scare people, especially if they're first starting out their military career, and they don't have that much money. So I think it's great that you're offering it. And you alluded to earlier that they can help you with your budget. What else does financial planning do for me and my family if I want to take advantage of it?
Mark Steffe
I think in addition to that budget review, you know, one of the things that financial Another thing I should say that financial planning does for you is it provides that roadmap from from where you are today to where you want to be five or 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, I can tell you and I think everyone can relate to this. If I'm starting from point A and I want to get my car and get to point B. If I've never gotten there before. The first thing I'm going to do is go onto my phone. Go into maps or ways or something and plot, of course, to get me from where I am now to, ultimately where I want to drive to financial planning, or financial plan, in many respects is the exact same thing. I know where I am today. I know what you know, hopes and dreams and aspirations I have for my financial future, the things I want to do, whether that's having a successful retirement, putting children through college or something else. And just like driving from point A to point B, it takes a plan to get you there. And so that that financial plan will help ensure that you're on the path to achieve those financial goals at some point in your future. And then he is not to just that to just build it right. But then you like any leaving, like driving, you have to make course corrections along the way. And through regular meetings with a financial advisor. That's part of the process is to ensure that you're still on that path to get you to your goals, you know, at some point in the future.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah. And I think when you mentioned about How like you, it tells you things that you don't know, just like a map tells you where to turn. I think a lot of people don't realize like how much they don't know about money or how much they don't know about investing. And to have a professional who can help you and have that for free is such a great resource.
Mark Steffe
I couldn't agree with you more. And you know, I've been in this business almost 30 years now, there's probably a day, there's probably not a day that goes by where I'm not learning something new. And as you as you can see, through this crisis, things are changing all the time tax laws change, benefits, change, etc. And to have somebody that knows this space and is current on those issues and how it can make sure that you're making the right decisions, and you're making them every step of the way, is critical to people's success. The other piece that I think is incredibly important, especially for military families, is the fact that when you think about your financial plan, you want to make sure you're you're taking full advantage of all the benefits that the government offers. families as well. And I would assume, based on all the work I've done, and I would assume your listeners feel the same way is that most military families don't understand all the benefits that are available to them, and therefore, they go under utilize. So to make sure that you get full benefit of those benefits because they're there. They're so so deserved from from the sacrifice and the commitment our military families make. And at first command 80% of our advisors are former military or military spouses themselves. So they're, they understand the lifestyle, they understand the benefits inside and out. And we make sure that those benefits get factored into a comprehensive financial plan as well.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah, that's so true. I think sometimes we don't realize the benefits that we have as a military family. And it's awesome that you guys hire military spouses and veterans who can help understand that so why do you focus on hiring military spouses?
Mark Steffe
First of all, I think for military spouses, so many of them I believe, are in In search of a career, not just a job, and when we look at the military spouse community, what we find no big surprise, they're highly educated, incredibly hard working. They're looking for careers, not just not jobs, like I just said, they're usually making the family's financial decisions already. So they're they're used to dealing with the financial issues that military families face, and they're incredibly resilient. And when you when you pull all that together, it makes it incredibly great package for somebody to become, or to potentially become a new financial advisor. At first command. They have a natural market being connected to the military. military spouses tend to have a high level of trust with each other. They're highly networked and when you when you add all that up, it tends to make a very successful advisor first command.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah, that's awesome. I love the service aspect of financial services giving back is so engrained into people who serve in the military and the spouses who serve alongside them. So it makes sense that this career would be such a great fit for military veterans and spouses. I think we're out of time. So I want to say thank you so much for being a guest on the show. And I learned a lot in this quick interview, even though I had the talking points beforehand. So I'm really appreciative of you taking time to be on the podcast.
Mark Steffe
It's my pleasure, man. And if there's anything you need, as a follow up, just let us know and we'll be sure to get you that information. And I think I saw somewhere in an email somewhere that you were considering actually meeting with a with an advisor.
Amanda Huffman
Oh, yes, I'm definitely gonna talk to my husband about meeting with a financial advisor because I think it's so important and I definitely liked when you talked about how you don't know what you don't know and I always want to learn so I it there's no reason not to.
Mark Steffe
I couldn't agree with you more. Where do you guys live? I think I saw you're in Virginia somewhere.
Amanda Huffman
Yeah, we're in Northern Virginia. Okay,
Mark Steffe
We've had a lot of offices out there. So there's a just for you personally. Well, for Anybody but there's a if you just hit www.firstcommand.com and there's a find your advisor button, there's offices all around Northern Virginia. So find the one that's closest and they'll be happy to help you out.
Amanda Huffman
Awesome. Thank you so much.
Mark Steffe
My pleasure. Thanks for your time today.
Amanda Huffman
Thank you Have a great day.
Mark Steffe
You too.
Amanda Huffman
Okay, so that was the interview with Mark from First Command. And I just want to do a quick reiteration of some of the talking points that he touched on so that you can remember them and you can write them down and you can take action. And the first thing is, if you're married to make sure to get with your spouse and look over your budget. One of the best ways that you can relook at your budget is to take advantage of the free financial planning that first command offers for military families. And another thing is to if you're saving money, and you're gonna be able to make changes to your budget, long term. Think about investing in tsp. But if it's something That's just a temporary change because of the pandemic, then put that into your emergency fund for right now and save it for when you need it. And we also talked about how the stimulus packages are coming out and the government wants you to go spend it and buy new stuff, but that might not be the right decision for you and your family. So you need to do what's best for your family, make sure that you're taking care of yourself, and either save that money or put it towards something that you really need to and one thing that we didn't have time to talk about but I know is really important is make sure that you start to talk to your kids. Now, I recently went to a presentation and he talked about how his parents never told him about money, which I found really odd because my parents told me about money from as long back as I can remember I was having to tie my allowance from when I first started getting it and I learned a lot of the financial stuff from My parents and so it's really important that we talk to our kids about how we save our money, how we spend our money, and how we give our money back to charities and different organizations and get them involved in those aspects so that they know what's going on. I think the more open you are with money, the more that your kids can learn from it. And they'll also teach you stuff as they get older because they'll have that good financial sense and then they can just build on top of it. And don't forget to take advantage of a complimentary financial planning if you're in the military, like Mark said, you just go to their website www.firstcommand.com And there's a Learn More button and there's a find your advisor button and if you click on the Find your advisor button, you'll be able to find an advisor in your area and get connected with the right people to make that happen. And I also like that he mentioned that you don't have to have a minimum account with them. And lastly, if you're a military spouse or veteran and you're looking for a job or a new career, especially Among COVID-19, changing the whole job market, you can go to First Command and find out how you can work for them. There are offices near bases around the country and they're happy to work with military spouses. And they know that military spouses move and they work with you on through those challenges. So it's a great company to work for. And it's a great way to give back by taking the knowledge you learn about financial services and giving it to the people that you work with. So thanks for listening to this episode. And I'll see you guys all next week. Thank you for listening to this episode of women of the military. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the amazing stories I have with women who have served in our military. Did you love the show? Don't forget to leave a review. Finally, if you are a woman who has served or is currently serving in the military, please email me at airman to mom at gmail. dot com so I can set you up to be on a future episode of women of the military.