Raising Money Smart Kids in Military Families with Daniel Kopp #164

How to teach your military kids about healthy and positive money habits, set expectations for college, use the GI Bill, and leverage 529s and other investment accounts for your military family.

With today's guest, Daniel Kopp, we discussed:


• Teaching kids spending, saving, and giving buckets

• Teach, demo, supervise with your kids

• Give them chances to fail

• Wants vs. needs & delayed gratification

• Don't make money a big secret- talk about it

• Evolving the lessons you teach your kids as they age

• 529s, UTMAs, taxable brokerage accounts, and life insurance

• Tax efficient gifting strategies

• FAFSA for military families

• VA chapter 35 (link

• Prepaid college 

• The "College Pre-Approval Process"

• How to avoid overpaying for college

Links we mentioned:


• Money Scripts episode (link w/ Daniel Kopp (episode # 82)

• Cybersecurity 101 podcast episode (link (#157)

• Military Financial Advisors Assocation (MFAA) (link

• FDIC's Money Smart Catalog (link

• CFPB’s Money As You Grow (link program

• NCUA Games (link

• U.S. Mint (link  free games and activities for children

• Military to Financial Planner podcast (link

• Wise Stewardship Financial Planning (link

Daniel Kopp is a fee-only, fiduciary financial planner (link and founder of Wise Stewardship Financial Planning where he helps young widows and widowers as well as servicemembers get their financial lives in order by aligning their money with their values. He is also an Air Force veteran after almost 9 years as an officer on active duty during which he served as an Air Battle Manager participating in combat deployments and training opportunities all across the world. Outside of his official military commitments, Daniel has always had a passion to help servicemembers and their families master their finances where he served as a volunteer financial counselor during most of his time on active duty.

Books mentioned in this episode:


• Raising your Money-Savvy Family for Next Generation Financial Independence (link by Carol Pittner and Doug Nordman

• How to Pay for College by Ann Garcia

• The Missing Billionaires by Victor Haghani & James White

• The Price You Pay for College by Ron Lieber

• The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber

• Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze

• Four Money Bears by Mac Gardner

For a limited time, Spencer is offering one-on-one Military Money Mentor (link  sessions! Get your personal military money and investing questions answered in a confidential coaching call.

Our new TSP course is live! Check out the Confident TSP Investing course at militarymoneymanual.com/tsp (link  to learn all about the Thrift Savings Plan and strategies for growing your wealth while in the military. Use promo code "podcast24" for $50 off. Plus, for every course sold, we'll donate one course to an E-4 or below- for FREE!

If you have a question you would like us to answer on the podcast, please reach out on instagram.com/militarymoneymanual (link  or email [email protected].

If you want to maximize your military paycheck, check out Spencer's 5 star rated book The Military Money Manual: A Practical Guide to Financial Freedom on Amazon (link  or at shop.militarymoneymanual.com (link .

I also offer a 100% free course on military travel hacking and getting annual fee waived credit cards, like The Platinum Card® from American Express (link , the American Express® Gold Card (link , and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (link  in my Ultimate Military Credit Cards Course at militarymoneymanual.com/umc3 (link .

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