Military Finance Network

Personal finance for military, veterans, and their families

Entries for the ‘Investing’ Category

Why Military Members Should Open Roth IRAs

Military members have one of the best pension plans in the US. After 20 years of service, military members can “retire” with a 50% pension. The percentage can go higher if members are willing to serve more time. But you’ll notice I put quotes around the word “retire.” For most military members, 50% of their [...]

Comments (1)

Free Stock Trades at Zecco – 20 Trades for New Customers

Zecco is offering new customers 20 free stock trades – a $90 value -  when they open a new Zecco Trading account before September 13th. To qualify for the 20 free stock trades, use the promotional code – “bonus1″ (Please note the code is case sensitive!). These free trades are in addition to the 10 [...]

Leave a Comment

CD Ladders Are a Good Choice for Short Term Investments

Where should you invest your money if you don’t want to take a lot of risk and you may need access to it in the near future? If you need the money within the next few years, you probably don’t want to take much risk with it. You should probably go for a guaranteed return.
Here [...]

Leave a Comment

Don’t Stop Retirement Contributions

It’s been hard to miss the recent downturn in our economy – you see it on the news and hear it on the radio. The current financial crisis has caused most retirement accounts to lose a lot of money. While it’s never a good thing for your retirement accounts to lose money, especially when you [...]

Comments (4)

Be Careful Where You Get Your Investment Advice

When you are investing, you should pay strong attention to where you get your information. Some information, like stock quotes are a commodity. You can get them just about anywhere – Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, CNN Money, etc. Just type in your stock symbol and you are good to go.
Most of these sites provide free [...]

Comments (2)

The Only Mutual Fund You Should Invest In

This is a guest article by Ryan Delany, aka HarvardMarine. Ryan is the author of Semper Finance, an investing blog geared to military members and individuals with a goal of improving their net worth.
The only mutual fund you should buy is an index fund.
The first and still the best known of these is the Vanguard [...]

Comments (2)

Where Should You Invest – TSP or IRA?

This post is written to help federal government workers and military members who are eligible for the Thrift Savings Plan decide which investment vehicle is best for their situation – the TSP or an IRA?
First, we should define the investment plans; then we’ll get into the question.
IRA: There are two main types of Individual Retirement [...]

Comments (5)

TSP Hardship Withdrawal Requirements

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) has a feature that allows its members to withdraw money during a financial emergency. While this can be helpful in a tight situation, it is not a decision to take lightly. When money is taken out early, it cannot be replaced into the TSP and you will lose out on [...]

Leave a Comment

What is the Thrift Savings Plan?

The TSP is a retirement savings program for civilians and members of the armed forces who are employed by the United States Federal Government. The TSP is very similar to a 401(k) plan in many ways. They are similar because they are both employee sponsored and they are both defined contribution plans and tax deferred [...]

Comments (5)

Where Should You Invest – TSP or IRA?

Investing for your retirement is one of the most important actions you can do for your financial health. Even if you receive a military pension, it will not likely be enough for you to retire in style. That is why it is important to invest for your retirement now.
This should help federal government workers and [...]

Leave a Comment