Get Ready: Before Life Happens Podcast
Tony Steuer is a Financial Readiness Advocate, award-winning author, and host of Get Ready: Before Life Happens. Drawing on nearly 40 years of experience in insurance, financial education, and consumer advocacy, he helps people create their in-case-of-emergency plan, ask better questions, recognize red flags, and prepare before life happens.
On this channel, you’ll find conversations with experts, authors, advocates, educators, and other trusted voices, along with practical ideas about financial readiness, life transitions, insurance, consumer protection, scams, and better money decisions.
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Get Ready: Before Life Happens Podcast
How Military Members (and Everyone) Can Outsmart Financial Predators
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On this episode of the Get Ready Before Life Happens Podcast, I spoke with Brandon Lovingier, Founder of Military Money, about the tactics financial predators use and how military members (and all of us) can stay one step ahead.
Key Takeaways:
🔹Start with your goals, then decide if a product helps you get there.
🔹 Ask questions, until you understand what you’re investing in or purchasing
🔹 Understand your benefits. For example, you don’t need to pay anyone to “unlock” your VA benefits.
🔹 Slow down, time pressure lends to suboptimal decision making
🔹 Understand how someone gets paid and their underlying incentives.
🔹 How military members (and all of us) guard against financial predators.
🔹 Be wary of pitches that lean on military status or shared connections.
🔹 Learn how a Military Qualified Financial Planner can help protect you.
Connect with Brandon Lovingier:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonlovingier/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@enlistedmoney
- Website: https://enlistedmoney.com/
- Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/enlistedmoneyguy
- Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/enlistedmoneyguy/
Resources mentioned:
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
- Military Qualified Financial Planner designation: https://mqfp.org
Bio:
Brandon Lovingier, ChFC®, AFC®, MQFP®, wasn’t born into money. He joined the Army right out of high school and has served for over 20 years on active duty – including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. When he was younger, he wasted money on trucks, beer, cigarettes, energy drinks, and everything in between. At one point, he and his wife had to put rent on a credit card just to get by.
Fast forward, they’re debt-free and building wealth. He established his blog, Enlisted Money, to help enlisted service members avoid the same mistakes he made. He earned his Chartered Financial Consultant – ChFC® designation in 2022 and is one of the first Military Qualified Financial Planner – MQFP® designation holders. He was awarded The American College of Financial Services NextGen Financial Professional Award for 2024. He’s been a speaker at MilMoneyCon and loves mentoring other service members on their own financial freedom journey.
The Get Ready Money Podcast and its guests do not provide investment advice. All content is for educational purposes. Guest opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Get Ready Money Podcast and Tony Steuer.
