Doug Nordman and Carol Pittner
- Doug’s Military Website: The Military Guide
- Doug and Carol’s next generation FI website: ChildFIRE.com
- Doug’s Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: Doug Nordman
- Facebook: Carol Pittner
What You’ll Get Out Of Today’s Show
- How do you raise kids for financial independence? Doug Nordman, author of The Military Guide, and his daughter, Carol Pittner, talk about their new book, Raising Your Money-Savvy Family for Next Generation Financial Independence.
- Hear their different perspectives and experiences as father and daughter discover how to foster a legacy of financial independence for the family.
- While they both served 20 years in the Navy and earned pensions, Doug and his wife were able to reach financial independence and stop working because of their high savings rate.
- Like her parents, Carol also joined the Navy. However, she transitioned to the Reserves before hitting the 20-year mark to focus on her family. Following her parents’ example, during her active duty years, she focused on her savings rate which varied from 40% to as high as 90%.
- Because her parents had created positive, understandable experiences with money, Carol developed positive, understandable ideas about money. The ability to choose exactly the kind of life she wanted turned out to be the best incentive for financial independence.
- Doug used everyday opportunities to provide Carol with teachable moments about money and let her manage and make mistakes with her once-a-month allowance as a child.
- Children’s desire to learn more about money progresses naturally as they begin to understand the need to earn more to get more of what they want.
- Doug incentivized Carol to save her allowance by creating the Bank of Carol, where she could earn interest on her savings.
- Doug created a kid 401k for Carol when she was 5 years old that would be “worth” $5,000 when she turned 16. Being money-savvy, instead of buying a car with that money, she negotiated a lease deal for a car the family already owned where she could recoup the $5K at the end of the lease term.
- When financial trouble hit at the age of 17 and Carol spent more money on a credit card than she had, instead of admonishing or punishing her, Doug worked with Carol as she figured out how to solve her problem.
- Doug and his wife set up an education fund for Carol to use for college or learning a trade. Rather than spending it on the best of everything, they instituted a profit-sharing model which gave her a financial incentive to efficiently manage the fund.
- Carol went to college for free through an ROTC scholarship, which got her a guaranteed job for 5 years after college, and she received 50% of what was left in her education fund due to the profit-sharing model.
Resources Mentioned In Today’s Conversation
- Join the ChooseFI Military Facebook Group
- Find the best prices on term life insurance with Policy Genius
- Earn high-interest rates on your savings with CIT Bank
- If You Made a Million by David M. Schwartz
- The First National Bank of Dad: A Foolproof Method for Teaching Your Kids the Value of Money by David Owen
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
- Pre-order Doug and Carol’s book, Raising Your Money-Savvy Family for Next Generation Financial Independence!