Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Pause and take a moment, remember those men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us so that we can live and make the choices given to us by our freedom.
The Army, National Guard, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy all have creeds. A creed is an oath or saying that provides a value structure by which to live or work by. Creeds then set the tone of life in each service. If you join one of these branches, you will need to learn its creed.
These military creeds are learned in basic training. The creeds are learned and lived until the daily activity and actions of a United States soldier or cadet are ruled and governed by their creed. The discipline demonstrated by these women and men is worth learning for our life.
How can you apply this?
Be a Financial Olympian™ and live the Financial Olympian™ Creed:
The FINANCIAL OLYMPIAN™ CREED
- Save 10% of your gross pay each pay period until you have a year’s gross salary. This will be your emergency and base for lifetime savings, and over the years you will realize how important this simple step is.
- Participate in your retirement plan provided by your company beginning with your first day. Start with at least 3% and increase each year by 1% until you are contributing the maximum. If your company does not have a retirement plan, then start an IRA and follow the same plan.
- DO NOT USE CREDIT CARDS – They are a cancer on your financial health and rob you of opportunity and your future. Do not carry a balance on your credit card. You might have heard that you need to accumulate debt on your credit card to build up a good credit history. That’s just not true.
- Live Below Your Means – You cannot spend every dollar you make and become financially independent. Now is the time to learn to live on less. You have a choice with the part of the Financial Olympian™ Creed. You can either choose to learn by making good choices or life (aka Karma) will demonstrate to you how your choices were poor.
- Give Regularly – If the question running through your head as you read this is, “I am barely making ends meet and I am trying to live the first four parts of the Financial Olympian™ Creed and you want me to DONATE?” Then take a deep breath and reorder your priorities.
Giving is a learned experience. Maybe you are working on changing your life and meeting the Financial Olympian™ Creed. Giving can be in dollars and in time. If you wait until you have paid all your bills, giving will be forgotten. Make giving of your time or your money a priority.
Think of this as Basic Training. We all know someone that has gone on to a military career and survived Basic Training. They made it through by being mentally tough, living one day at a time and leaning on their fellow soldiers.
Let the Tannery & Company team be your team. We can listen, support and offer guidance about how to start working towards being a Financial Olympian™.
We are just a phone call or a click on your smart phone away
Leave your comments below or email me how you are escaping the clutches of keeping up with the Jones.
Michael Tannery CPA CDFA™ AIF® ● CEO
Registered Principal
PS Ready to get started and want to schedule an initial no cost consultation? Click here to schedule an appointment.
