Introduction: Military, Money, and MORE

The military teaches discipline, strategy, and resilience, but what it doesn't always teach is financial literacy. For many service members, transitioning from active duty to civilian life is a battlefield of its own, filled with financial uncertainty, career shifts, and the overwhelming challenge of building wealth. I know this struggle firsthand.

When I first enlisted in the Navy in 1992, financial freedom wasn’t even a concept I considered. Like many service members, I lived paycheck to paycheck, focused on my mission and my duties, and assumed that financial stability would somehow fall into place later. I made the same mistakes so many of my brothers and sisters in uniform made: overspending, under-saving, and failing to leverage the benefits I had earned through service. I lacked resources, but more importantly, I lacked the knowledge to use what was available to me.

It wasn’t until years into my military career that I had an awakening. I realized that financial success wasn’t about how much money you make; it was about how well you manage and grow what you have. I started learning everything I could about money, credit, investing, and homeownership. Eventually, I leveraged my VA Home Loan to purchase my first home, and from there, I built wealth through real estate, entrepreneurship, and smart financial strategies. I have owned multiple properties, run a successful real estate business, and mentored veterans and active-duty service members on how to escape financial uncertainty and build lasting wealth.

But here’s the problem: out of the 19 million veterans and service members in our country, only about 12% have ever used their VA home loan benefits. That means roughly 88% of eligible vets aren’t taking advantage of what could be the single most powerful financial tool in their benefit package. One major reason is that nearly 35% of post-9/11 veterans face housing cost burdens—struggling to afford homeownership even when working full-time.

This is the real issue we need to solve. Too many people in real estate focus only on the 12% who are already financially qualified, teaching them about VA Home Loans and homeownership benefits. But that’s treating the symptom, not the disease. If we want to truly impact the lives of military families, we must address the root cause: financial illiteracy. Without a strong financial foundation, veterans and service members will continue to struggle, regardless of the benefits available to them.

That’s why I wrote Military, Money, and MORE: to equip veterans, active-duty military, and their families with the knowledge and tools they need to achieve financial success. This book isn’t just about using your VA Home Loan; it’s about understanding money, building wealth, and creating a legacy.

The Military, Money, and MORE Blueprint

In this book, I will guide you through the essential financial strategies that every military family needs to know, including:

• Budgeting & Debt Management – How to stop living paycheck to paycheck and take control of your money.
• Credit Mastery – How to build and maintain a strong credit score (a key factor in homeownership).
• Leveraging Military Benefits – Understanding the VA Home Loan, Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), and other wealth-building opportunities.
• Real Estate Investing – How to use your VA Home Loan strategically to build long-term wealth.
• Transitioning to Civilian Financial Success – Planning for life after the military, from business ownership to passive income.

It’s Time to Take Action

This isn’t about luck or background, it’s about strategy and execution. I went from being an enlisted service member with no financial knowledge to building a successful business and real estate portfolio. If I can do it, so can you. Homeownership, financial freedom, or success is not an entitlement, you have to earn it. And just like in the military, the path to victory starts with a plan, discipline, and execution.

Let’s begin the mission!

From Humble Beginnings to Financial Freedom

I wasn’t born into wealth. I wasn’t handed a roadmap to success. In fact, for much of my early life, I was just trying to figure out how to survive. Growing up as an only child, I split my time between two very different but equally challenging worlds. During the week, I lived with my mom in Richmond, Virginia, where she worked tirelessly to provide for us. She always made sure we had a roof over our heads and food on the table, but we struggled. When we moved to the West End of Richmond, it was a wealthier area, but we were far from affluent. In fact, I was probably one of the poorest kids in my high school.

I got teased a lot for wearing hand-me-down clothes, and while my classmates had name-brand food, I learned how to make my own Thousand Island dressing with mayonnaise, ketchup, and relish because we couldn’t afford the real thing. I remember moving into an apartment with my mom, but we couldn’t afford much furniture. For years, I didn’t even have my own bed. Instead, I slept on a foam egg crate mattress on the floor, with my toys scattered around because I didn’t have a dresser.

Despite these challenges, my mom never gave up. She worked herself to exhaustion to keep us afloat, but as soon as I was old enough to stay home alone, I became a latchkey kid. That meant long days by myself, figuring out how to navigate life without much guidance. It was lonely, but it also taught me independence.

Then there were the weekends with my dad, where life was a different kind of struggle. He lived in a rough neighborhood, and his apartment got broken into multiple times a year. I remember going to visit him, knowing that at any moment, our stuff could be stolen or our home violated. It wasn’t the safest environment, but it was part of my reality.

Despite their financial struggles, both my parents did their absolute best. And even though money was tight, we made memories. I remember getting a silver dollar for my birthday, and instead of keeping it, I used it to take my mom to a Sunday matinee for fifty cents. To this day, that remains one of my favorite childhood memories—not because of the movie, but because of what it symbolized: making the most out of what we had.

From Rebellion to Realization

I wasn’t always the disciplined, mission-driven leader I am today. In fact, I spent much of my early years doing everything possible to go against the grain. My mom became my first mentor. She hustled, working in sales and traveling across the state, often taking me along on her business calls. Riding with her, I learned more about business and sales than I realized at the time.

Despite her efforts, I was a painfully shy and nerdy kid. The thick-rimmed glasses, held together by tape, didn’t help. In the seventh grade, I finally found a group of friends who accepted me, but they weren’t exactly the best influences. We were what they called back then “headbangers,” a bunch of mullet-wearing, heavy metal-loving kids who spent our time sneaking out, experimenting with drugs, stealing, and getting into trouble.

By the eighth grade, I was fully immersed into that lifestyle. I wasn’t necessarily a bad kid, I just had no direction. I started mouthing off to teachers, skipping class, and spending half the year in in-school suspension. I developed a kleptomania problem, not stealing from people but from stores, believing it didn’t really hurt anyone. My friends and I became so comfortable with it that we’d walk right out of stores with whatever we wanted. I couldn’t afford those things, so I just took them. Until one day, it all came crashing down.

On what felt like a routine shoplifting run at the mall, my friends and I were caught red-handed, paraded through the store in handcuffs, and handed over to the police. That moment should have been humiliating, but at the time, I barely cared. It wasn’t until I stood in front of a judge that I realized I had reached a turning point.

Instead of giving me a harsh sentence, the judge offered me a second chance: a six-month program called Pathfinders that would erase my record if I successfully completed it. That program changed my life. It taught me discipline, accountability, and the power of making better choices. It made me realize I had the potential to do so much more with my life.

Finding Focus & Direction

Despite my less than stellar past, I still had a strong work ethic, but lacked focus. I didn’t know what my true calling was. I bounced between jobs, always working hard but never finding the right path. That all changed when I met Colonel Upchurch, a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot who ran a vocational aviation training program at my high school. He was a true leader—the kind of man who commanded respect just by walking into a room.

Under his mentorship, I went from an unfocused teenager with a 2.1 GPA to one of the top students in my school with a 3.6 GPA. He showed me what discipline, responsibility, and leadership looked like. That’s when I made the decision to join the military.

The Navy gave me structure, opportunity, and the ability to try new things. While I served for twenty-four years, I was able to change jobs every three years, keeping things fresh and challenging. The military allowed me to explore different career paths, develop my leadership skills, and learn how to adapt to new challenges.

Learning the Value of Hard Work

By the time I turned fourteen, I was ready to take control of my own financial situation. In Virginia, fourteen was the earliest age you could legally work, so I wasted no time: the day I turned fourteen, I got my worker’s permit and landed my first job at McDonald's.

But for me, working wasn’t just about earning a little spending money. It became a way of life. Between the ages of fourteen and nineteen, I worked seventeen different jobs, trying to figure out what I was good at and searching for the right path. I worked everywhere—from fast food to retail, to gas stations, from working in warehouses to delivering pizzas. I never stopped hustling.

Even after I joined the military, my work ethic never changed. While many service members focused solely on their Navy careers, I was always working two or three jobs at a time. I did everything from selling security systems to working at Best Buy; yes, even as a Senior Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, I worked at Best Buy just to provide for my family. It wasn’t because we had to; we made the decision early on that my wife would stay home to raise our kids, and I would be the sole provider. That commitment drove me to always find ways to earn more, save more, and build a better future for our family.

The Turning Point: From Military to Money Mastery

In 2009, while stationed in Italy, I made one of the most important financial decisions of my life: I purchased my second home in California using my VA Home Loan. My real estate agent was Derek Barksdale, an active-duty service member who went out of his way to help me, even using his own leave to pick me up at the airport for house hunting.

That experience changed everything. I saw firsthand how homeownership could transform a military family’s future. But I also saw how many service members never took advantage of their benefits because they simply weren’t financially prepared. That’s when it clicked—financial literacy is the foundation of everything. From that moment on, I became obsessed with helping veterans and military families break free from financial struggle.

Why I Wrote This Book

Too many people in the real estate industry focus only on selling to the 12%—the veterans who are already financially stable enough to qualify for a mortgage. But that’s treating the symptom, not the disease. If we want to change the narrative for military families, we have to address the root cause—financial literacy. That’s why I wrote Military Money & MORE—not just to talk about VA Home Loans, but to give veterans and military families a real plan for financial success.

• How to break free from living paycheck to paycheck
• How to build and maintain strong credit
• How to budget and eliminate debt
• How to leverage military benefits for financial growth
• How to use real estate to create long-term wealth

I’ve lived on both sides of the financial struggle. I know what it’s like to sleep on a foam mattress on the floor. I also know what it’s like to own multiple properties, run businesses, and build wealth. And now, I want to help you do the same. This isn’t about luck; it’s about having the right plan, the right mindset, and the right strategy. At the end of each chapter, I have offered you the space to jot down those ideas, observations, questions, or whatever else comes to mind so that at the end of this book, you will have that list of things that will help you further explore, refine, and develop the right plan, mindset, and strategy for wherever you find yourself in your career.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor or a tax professional! Everything I provide here is based on my personal experience and knowledge. I highly encourage you to consult a fiduciary financial advisor, and I emphasize fiduciary because that means they are legally obligated to make investment decisions in your best interest rather than lining their own pockets. Too many so-called “financial advisors” are really just glorified salespeople pushing high-fee products that benefit them more than you. Don’t fall into that trap.

Want to learn more? LET’S GET TO WORK!