Looking for a way to keep the family busy this summer without spending, all your extra cash?  Blue Star Museums, which runs 27 May 2013 until 2 September 2013, provides free museum entry to active duty, National Guard and reserve military families.   Whoo hoo! Blue Star Museums is a collaboration between Blue Star Families, [...]

Each year, I see a huge jump in traffic with people wondering if they will get paid before Memorial Day weekend.  Unfortunately, the way the calendar works, it rarely happens.  This year is not an exception.  The next regular, active duty military pay day is Friday, 31 May 2013.  Payday is on Friday because the [...]

I regularly receiving letters from family members who are worried about their current or former servicemember.  The military is confusing enough if you are in it, and it is more confusing for people who don’t have experience. Today’s letter is fairly typical: Perhaps you can help me. My son spent 6 years in the military [...]

One popular strategy for earning higher-than-savings-account interest is a certificate of deposit (CD) ladder.  A CD ladder (or laddered CDs) is a way of purchasing multiple smaller CDs rather than one larger CD, staggering the maturation dates.   There are two main benefits to laddering your CDs:  flexibility and higher interest rates.  While you can [...]

I love Tricare – I think it is great insurance.  However, there are times when Tricare doesn’t cover all your costs, expecially if you are a retiree or using Tricare Standard.  As a result, several companies and organizations offer Tricare supplemental insurance policies.   A Tricare supplemental insurance policy covers some or all of the [...]