Is there any type of financial advising class on base or around base? Has anyone been to one? My husband & I were thinking about finding something of this sort to help us with saving money, etc. Thanks! 

ACS!

We met with Mary Cron and she is seriously amazing! So sweet and so helpful. Definitely an eye opener! I recommend her to anyone that asks! 

Where is ACS? My husband isn't in the military anymore, he got out last June after serving 4 years...

Did ACS cost $? 

It's in Waller Hall and it was free. 

Awesome, I wonder if you have to be active duty though? Hmm 

I didn't like the guy that did ours because he was always judging us and idk if he was having a rough day or whatever but he didn't treat us good. 

Ugh yeah I don't want anyone like that! My husband and I are pretty good with our money.... We just need help with the saving part Lol 

Does anyone know if you can go through these financial assessments although my husband is a veteran, but no longer active duty?

He is actually listed as "non-active reserve" lol. 

Here is the number for the Financial Readiness Program manager. I was just call them and ask if you can meet with someone. Is he in the reserves?

FRP Manager: 253-967-9917 

Oh from the MWR website:

Army Community Service is an Army wide program designed specifically to assist military personnel, retirees and their families in coping with a variety of topics from relocation to survivor outreach assistance. Some ACS services are available to civilian employees and their family members. ACS provides information, assistance and guidance to members of the JBLM community in coping with personal and family problems beyond the scope of their own resources. 

Nah, he's non-active reserves, he did 4 years active 4 years non-active. If that makes sense? lol kinda weird how they do that..

So it sounds from that ^ that we won't be able to go to ACS? 

Makes total sense! That's how my brother's contract is/was for the Marines.

Does he still have an ID card? Just a different color? 

Yep, we both still have ID cards :) until 2015 

I know they wouldn't do our taxes in January because he wasn't active duty... So i'm not sure if this would be the same. =\ 

Call and ask! I'm guessing that you'll still be able to use the program, but I'm not sure. 

Yeah, I think i'm going to! 

Everything I learned about fixing our finances, I learned from the Dani Johnson book, "First Steps to Wealth". It's an amazing read. I highly recommend it to everyone I know. Chapter 9 was HUGE (the finance part). We've cut all our credit cards and vowed to live on purely what we can afford. Which is virtually nothing right now, BUT in time, we'll be doing really well. :) 

Awesome, where did you get the book!? 

Heather, I got it from Dani's website.

http://www.danijohnson.com

You go to "Resources" and choose "Home Business Tools" from the drop down menu, and her book is the very first one listed on the left in blue. She has a LOT of really wonderful self-growth, financial, business and spiritual improvement stuff, but I feel like that ONE book covers it ALL.

The book normally runs around $15, but I saw that it's been on sale in the site for a couple of weeks now. You just pay shipping and handling ($7) and get the book itself for free. I've purchased five copies. I loaned 2 out to friends, gave one to my little brother as a high school graduation present, and the other to my little sister who is still a young sprouting wife and mother, and of course, I own the fifth copy. :)

That's how much I love it! 

I need finance classes, but I don't want to pay for something that I'm not even sure will help me, and I HATED the way ACS treated us.

And of course all of the "free" ones tell me everything I already know/practice. 

CSgrey- I feel the same way! I don't want to fork over a ton of money if I have no idea if itll even work. I get ya!

Thanks maui I will look into it! $7! That is amazing, does it outline like a budget and how to follow it? Or does it go Into more detail? 

It's very detailed. And as with any serious budget changes, it takes a lot of discipline. Dani calls it "cutting the fat", or finding the excess funds. Even if you don't have any extra funds a month, she shows you how to cut back on the extras so you do. I thought I was cutting back enough, until I read that book. Lol. I've started doing financial planning for my friends. I ask them what their monthly bills are, each and every one, and then I ask them what their monthly income looks like. We take into account EVERY penny that leaves their pockets. I had one friend decide she was going to cut back on cigarettes (she went from spending $150/month to $50 a month, or 4 cigarettes a day) and cut out cable. That was $200 extra she had to use towards paying off smaller bills a month, on top of the extra $200 she already had. If she follows the plan, she'll have $700 for Christmas for her sons this year, and will have paid off everything, including her $11,000 debt for her car, by June of next year.

Pretty cool stuff. :) 

Wow!!! Ah help me!!! Haha I'm definitely ordering that book! I thought about going to barnes and noble to look for a budgeting type book, but barnes and noble can be a little pricy! 

I dont want to undermine anyone's opinion but I have had a few friends follow the Dave Ramsey method and not only out of debt but have a good chunk of savings. Wish I could claim it myself but honestly, I can't. I do hear good things though from those who did it. 

Dave Ramsey's a financial guru too, definitely. I think he's got an iPhone app, if I'm not mistaken. 

I need to get onto that train soon shouldn't have waited this long, but the couple people who have followed Ramsey are really in a good place right now. My only regret is I hadn't done it sooner. 

I heard there are Dave ramsey classes on post, is this true?? If so, how do you sign up??!