Military Money Show Lacey Langford

Enrollment for the new Dependent Care Flex Spending Account is now open until December 11th, 2023. According to the Office of Financial Readiness, the DCFSA is a pre-tax account used to pay for eligible dependent care services such as child or adult day care. If you have kids, you know childcare costs can break a family’s budget and determine a military spouse's ability to work or go to school. Using the DCFSA to save for your childcare expenses can help, but how do you know it’s right for you and how much money to save? 
In this episode, Brandon Lovingier breaks down some of the math and planning you should do to decide if enrolling in the DCFSA is right for you. 
We talk about:
Factors to include in your decision-making What you should know about the Dependent Care Credit The role your income plays What divorced service members should think about Brandon, aka The Enlisted Money Guy™, has served over 18 years in the Army – including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He established his blog, Enlisted Money, to help enlisted service members avoid the same mistakes he made and achieve financial freedom. He earned his Chartered Financial Consultant® designation in 2022 and is one of the first Military Qualified Financial Planner® designation holders. He’s been a speaker at MilMoneyCon and loves mentoring other service members on their own financial freedom journey.
The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/Deciding-to-Use-the-DCFSA

What are you planning on passing down to the next generation? People often focus on things like money, furniture, or jewelry, but what about financial knowledge? Teaching your kids financial literacy now can help them have financial success long after you’re gone. 
In this episode, Jasmine Paul shares why it’s important to teach your children financial literacy early, how to do it, plus how you can improve your own financial literacy along the way. 
Jasmine is an award-winning children's book author and founder focused on making wealth fun! Jasmine served in the United States Air Force for ten years as a nuclear missile officer and finance officer across the US, South Korea, and Afghanistan. She is also the founder of The Wealth Playground, a financial education startup teaching kids ages 5-18 about money.
The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/Teaching-Financial-Literacy-to-Your-Kids

There are many resources to help active-duty service members and their families with money, but in the past, veterans haven’t had the same resources to help them with personal finance. But great news, that is changing. 
In this episode, Accredited Financial Counselor Heath Carelock shares the financial resources available to veterans through a newly launched VetCents. This private and public partnership stood up to help veterans get the education and personalized financial help they need.  
The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/financial-support-and-resources-for-veterans

Happy Veteran’s Appreciation Month! It’s that time of year to celebrate our veteran community. It’s also the tail end of Veteran Small Business Week, which, as a veteran small business owner, I’m a fan of. In honor of both, today’s guest is a fellow Air Force veteran and small business owner, as she’s here to help all of us break into the world of government contracts. 
In this episode, Kirstie Fleur shares how to land government contracts for your business and ways to get non-traditional funding to start and run a business. 
Kirstie, Founder and CEO of Freedom Fleur, a luxury sustainable clothing brand, has harnessed her identity as a woman, Air Force veteran, and survivor of abuse to create a unique journey of empowerment. She developed The Soul Health Approach™, guiding women toward clarity, purpose, and economic freedom. Freedom Fleur has grown significantly, using non-traditional funding by securing federal contracts and expanding its team. Notably, the Vibrant Pink Eloise blazer received recognition from Fashionista.com and Yahoo Life. The company introduced the emerging FF Social Club community, offering workshops, in-person Freedom Session events, wellness activations, and business training to empower female founders. 
The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/Landing-Government-Contracts-for-Your-Business

It's the season of tax talk. You’re starting to see more and more news and social media posts to begin preparing for tax season. Me included. I recently saw a post on tax gain harvesting and wanted to learn more about what that is and who should be harvesting.
In this episode, Sean Mullaney breaks down tax gain harvesting and how people can use it in their tax planning. We also discuss the importance of going beyond the mentality of tax filing and into tax planning.
Sean is an advice-only financial planner and the President of Mullaney Financial & Tax, Inc. He is the author of the Plutus Award-winning blog FITaxGuy.com on tax and financial independence. He also has a personal finance YouTube channel and published Solo 401(k): The Solopreneur's Retirement Account, a book about his favorite retirement account. 
The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/tax-gain-harvesting

Many of us want to make the holidays special but worry about the financial strain that often comes with it. That’s because the holiday season sees a big increase in spending on gifts, travel, decorations, and entertainment. There’s pressure to buy gifts and make memories for family and friends, which leads to overspending. To make all that happen, it's common for people to rely on credit cards to cover their Christmas and holiday expenses, but after the holidays, many people find themselves with debt.
In an ideal world, you’ve been saving all year for the holidays, but if not, in this episode, I’m going to break down ways you can prepare in October to have a debt-free Christmas.