Imagine you listened to an old man’s advice.  You wisely chose not to go to college and start life in debt.  You served for six years, made the rank of Sergeant, and rejoined civilian life just as your friends are getting their Doctoral Thesis bound. 

Imagine you did manage to invest that spare $40,000.00 you had laying around.   Now what?  Where are you going to live?

That was my first challenge on discharge.  I had earned a VA Home Loan Guarantee, but I was not convinced where I wanted to use it.  I didn’t want to rush out right away and buy a home.  You could, of course, but just knowing you don’t have to, just knowing you have an ace card to play whenever you want, that is freedom which cannot be measured.

Your friends just graduating from college will be thinking along the same lines.  But with all their student loan debt, banks are going to be very uncomfortable issuing them a loan.  All your friends who chose the College-to-Debt route will do what young adults have done traditionally when buying their first home.  They will beg their parents to provide them a down payment and co-sign their loans.

Veterans of the Armed Forces all earn a VA Home Loan Guarantee.   It is not a handout; it is just a guarantee.  The best part is banks do not require a down payment on VA loans.  That is how I just bought my first (and last) house.  

I probably would have been better off financially earlier in life if I had used it the year I was discharged, but I wasn’t convinced I wanted to retire in Colorado.  In fact, I knew I did not.  I wanted to retire in the best fishing region in North America, the Great Lakes region.  But I didn’t want to live and work there.  I just wanted to retire there.  

I decided to play my ace card later in life, not right away.  I didn’t know I could have been financially independent because I didn’t have an old man around to tell me how that could be done.

Don’t be me.  Be who I wish I had been.

If you want to be financially independent before your friends graduate grad school, invest that 40K in the market, let it ride, then use your VA Home Loan immediately after discharge.  In fact, use it in a city with a major military installation.

Why?  Because, when a veteran sells their home to another veteran, the selling veteran acquires the purchasing veteran’s VA Home Loan benefit.  You only get one home loan guarantee unless you sell your VA financed home to a fellow veteran.

So, there you are, at the young age of 23 years old, with $40K invested in the market, earning $1,000.00 a month from the market, and owner of a three-bedroom home near base, sleeping in one while renting out the other two.  You can do your tenants a favor on their rent and still be making money. 

Am I getting through to you soldier?

I pray I am.