Sometimes the message does get through!

[Walt34]

We found out that the young lady "Sarah" that I wrote about in this post (old thread) did in fact read the books I sent her and is now saving ~$600 monthly for retirement. She's now happily married and they are expecting their first child to arrive in January. And a few years ago she applied for and got active duty status in the Navy, now stationed in Norfolk, VA. When that happened I sent her a copy of Nords' book.

DW has a big pile of gift-wrapped boxes in the basement for the upcoming baby shower. Good thing Sarah's hubby owns a pickup truck. They're gonna need it to get all the stuff home.



Anyone else have a success story where the message did get through?

 

[audreyh1]

WOw!

 

[Red Badger]

Great news on both the active duty status and the new found LBYM!

Our DS works FT and was frittering entirely too much money on useless stuff (video games, eating out, etc). Several months back, I tried to motivate him about FI, and how to get there. I got the horse to water, but no drinking occurred. Later, be was watching TV, and saw some of the, "I'm 85 and I wanna go home" commercial being aired by a FA company.

That hit home with him! He came to me and asked for more advice. He now knows some basic investing concepts, but more importantly, is plowing 25% of his pay into his 401K (broad based, low cost index funds).

 

[Midpack]

That’s wonderful, well done.

 

[VanWinkle]

Outstanding news and she evidently had a great teacher!! Congrats to her!

 

[GravitySucks]

Great news!

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

For about 14 years of my Active Duty career, one of the many hats that I wore was as 'Command Financial Specialist'. As such whenever a servicemember got into financial problems, they were sent to me, to fix it. The hope was that I could get the servicemember back on track before they jeopardized their security clearance and lost their job.

At most commands, I was scheduled to give training every quarter on the topic. I do not know if any of those crewmen ever caught on.

I sure tried though.

At my last command, about 2 months before my retirement ceremony, I had to attend a 1-week class on how to transition to retirement. In a classroom of 30 servicemembers, all of us within 6 months of retirement. I was the only one there who had investments and a budget that could support myself with my pension. All the rest were hoping for a follow-on career to keep them from being homeless.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

So this is what I thought I was going to be doing (helping younger folks who didn't have a clue) when I started this career- but that is not what the job was all about, sadly. What I did do, was use this as my "charity mission." I educated every kid I could get in front of, every chance I got. Come speak to your class/ girl scout troop, boy scout troop? Yes I will! I don't know how many I affected- I know of a few. A few clients came back and told me that their kid signed up for their 401-K after I talked to them, etc.

My biggest successes I think are with my assistant and my nephew. I watched my assistant go from no savings at all to retirement savings of over $100K in less than 10 years- she went from the "work-until-I-die" plan to possibly retiring early.

Nephew was a sniper in the Army, and while he was stationed in some middle east country, I sent him letters and care packages of everything I could think of. One week I couldn't think of anything to send so I grabbed some books off of my "client lending library" and sent him a few of those, and I wrote him a long letter about financial independence and my goal of retiring early. He read it. All of it. He hasn't confided in me but asks enough questions and I hear 2nd hand accounts- he's on his way, y'all. Wahoo! Nieces paying a good deal less attention. Oh well...

 

[kcowan]

This is really encouraging those of us to keep throwing the stuff at the wall and hoping some of it will stick. Well-done folks!

 

[friar1610]

At my last command, about 2 months before my retirement ceremony, I had to attend a 1-week class on how to transition to retirement. In a classroom of 30 servicemembers, all of us within 6 months of retirement. I was the only one there who had investments and a budget that could support myself with my pension. All the rest were hoping for a follow-on career to keep them from being homeless.

I retired from the Navy in '96. At my transition seminar there was a Navy Lieutenant Commander taking the course who was working part-time with a "financial planning" firm (it may have been Ameriprise but I'm not 100% sure) with a view toward doing that full-time after retiring from the Navy. Somehow he convinced the seminar leaders that he was some sort of financial guru and asked for a time slot in the program. The seminar leaders introduced him like it was some special, once-in-a-lifetime good deal that this guy would be willing to share his knowledge with us. I was investing in mutual funds at that time but had not yet become a full-fledged Boglehead/FIRE guy but I was reasonably literate financially.

He started the presentation by asking if anyone knew what the Rule of 72 was. I raised my hand and explained what it meant. The "guru" seemed to be blown away that a mere mortal would have any inside knowledge such as this. I similarly thought about the rest of the sailors in the seminar - that they likely had very little financial literacy and that guys like the soon-to-be "financial planner" would be all too willing to "help" them.