With the pace of day-to-day life, trying to find time to focus on and manage your money could seem too difficult.  But taking time now – even just carving out 10-15 minutes a day or every other day – to learn about how to set financial goals, manage your money, save money and invest that savings for your future will help put you in a better position to be able to:

• avoid getting into a “debt trap”
• take advantage of opportunities to move or pursue new career possibilities in the future
• achieve important life and financial goals like purchasing a home or paying for a child’s college education
• retire with the necessary financial resources in place

What does it mean to take charge of your family’s finances?  Well the good news is that it doesn’t mean becoming a financial professional.  It doesn’t mean that you need to spend hours everyday clipping coupons, balancing your checkbook, reading the finance section of the newspaper or watching the stock ticker on CNBC.  Although after a while, as you educate yourself and gain confidence in your ability to make wise financial decisions for yourself and your family, you may find yourself able to, and wanting to, do all of those things! 

Taking charge of your family’s finances really means choosing to put aside or work through any fears, frustrations or misperceptions you may have about the topic and being committed to learning what you can about personal finances and then applying what you know.  Let’s start by looking at the reality of needing to budget on a military salary.