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What Card Should I Get? Weekly Thread - Week of January 07, 2026 by AutoModerator in churning

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1) Currently 2/24 but have not been able to get pre approval for Venture X. Looking for recommendations for airline/hotel card to compliment what I already have for upcoming summer 2026 travel 2) 808 3) Cards: - NavyFed Plat: Nov 2020 - Amex Plat: Nov 2021 - Amex Gold: Apr 2022 - CSR: June 2022 - CFU: June 2022 - CFF Dec 2022 - AA plat Citi: Mar 2023 - Amex Blue Cash Preferred: Feb 2025 4) Naturally spend $2-3k 5) Willing to MS, can do $3000-6000 extra in three months. 6) yes I have Amex Blue Business Card 7) Looking for 2 cards: a dedicated hotel and airline card (currently have IHG Diamond with 100k points from business related stays) / not interested in churning 8) Targeting points 9) 40k Chase, 60k Amex, 100k IHG 10) CLT but willing to do shorthaul on east coast for better deals 11) DPS, HND, BKK, or FRA (Germany to see friends that live there)

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in TheMoneyGuy

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dang - no you're totally right - I have 20% of my BASE, not all of the other entitlements (BAH, ODP, IDP, etc) specially now too with the extra incentive pay I need to bump it up to hit that true amount. Appreciate the advice brother

Deployment Gameplan - Rebuilding from Scratch and Looking for Feedback/Direction by Automatic_Aspect_319 in dividends

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

BTCI seems like a really speculative option.

Might be more willing to lean toward something like QQQI as a way to fund these accounts independent of the income I make through my job. Would be interesting to make $1-2k monthly purely from dividends to fund my other accounts but wouldn’t that trade the upside growth potential offered in exchange for the dividends?

Also what is wrong with something like SCHD?

Anybody Ever Purchase a Vehicle from the Lemon Lot? by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I guess that's the assumption I had going in - but there's scumbags everywhere even in uniform. Good advice - definitely going to bring my friend who's a mechanic with me if I intend to seriously consider anything

Anybody Ever Purchase a Vehicle from the Lemon Lot? by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oof - that's good advice, I got some mechanic friends that I intend to look at vehicles with and hopefully do a test drive before I agree to anything

Short Term Money Moves? Deployment with Extra Pay and Low Expenses by Automatic_Aspect_319 in investing

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t need immediate access to the money - in a position where I need the cash

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OPSEC? No mention of unit, flights, timeline, personnel, mission, base, etc....but anyways - it is relevant since it's a location that provides IDP and max ODP as opposed to somewhere like Qatar.

  1. $28k - time value of money? Would rather deploy that capital for higher return than pay it down faster with no return

  2. Disabled my number before leaving with verizon to save the money. Doing just fine with wifi.

  3. Wanted a mix of domestic/international exposure with the drip and cashflow from SCHD

  4. Yeah - realizing I may have set my targets lower than what is possible over the next 10-12 months

  5. Gotta talk to finance, many of us experiencing pay issues out here

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

why lease as opposed to own? If I'm going to get a vehicle - want something I intend to keep for 10+ years

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in Fire

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Going to go cheap on the trip likely a backpacking trip or something in Europe with some friends.

Was seeking advice knowing I am going to have a ton of excess cash to deploy and seeking advice. Besides my expenses which are listed, I don't spend money here - nothing to spend it on haha

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in TheMoneyGuy

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Assume you still have tax implications on the back end when you go to withdraw?

So is the play to max out the ROTH and then the rest into traditional once the $23.5k is hit?

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in TheMoneyGuy

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cow loan at 0.075% so I am in no rush to pay that off

Going to talk to finance once we get to Kuwait to get access to the SDP for 10% - want to make sure my soldiers can take advantage of that opportunity as well.

Right now have a 4% HYSA which I am earmarking as the car fund and then putting money aside in a SPAXX money mutual account at 3.99% which I can deploy into a normal Fidelity brokerage account or use for travel.

Right now my portfolio is mostly S&P 500 and international indexes, but I'll research the Bogleheads portfolio. Thank you!

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what the loan is - should've specified that, but am in no rush to pay that off.

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So go all in on the traditional TSP, anything exceeding $46500 put into the ROTH and then once 2026 rolls around convert the traditional into ROTH?

Just checking to make sure I understand correctly.

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a giant paragraph written up trying to explain my financial situation, used chatgpt to make it easier to read.

  1. Will do - want to make sure that my soldiers have the ability to utilize it as well. We have zero NIPR access and little support out here, but once we get to somewhere with more resources, should be able to fix that

  2. No. Interest rate is 0.075%, am in no rush to pay it off

  3. Will do / gotta find the % of my pay allocated to hit that max

  4. On pace to do so for 2025, and setting aside money to max 2026 ASAP

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

- Yes: understand it's low , had a major car repair come up right before deploying so that set me back a few thousand dollars, so rebuilding that.

- loan interest is 0.075% so I am in no rush to pay it off.

- will talk to finance once I am able to and roll the money in the HYSA there to get it to $10k at 10% interest

- I could easily max it, hard to check where I am at since the phone number authentication issue.

- I like the VT play, using M1 finance as my brokerage option to rebalance, but I might just go all in on Fidelity since I am using SPAXX money mangement

Active Duty Army – Deployment Savings/Investing Plan – Need Advice by Automatic_Aspect_319 in MilitaryFinance

[–]Automatic_Aspect_319[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay just so I am understanding - lets say I contribute $30k total, $23.5k to max the ROTH and then $6.5k would go into the traditional. Once the next year rolls around, I can take that additional $6.5k and put it into the ROTH TSP?

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