MISSION FINANCE: Your personal journey to financial freedom. Take the best next step.

By Mike Hallinan

A must read for military professionals. Mission Finance is your personal guide to financial freedom. It offers a simpler and better way to slay bad debts, start investing early, and benefit from homeownership. This is not your dad's investing or budgeting book. In this book, we transform boring financial advice into an exciting journey with a clear map and achievable milestones.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: May 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662906282

Book preview

THE START

The Journey

The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.

—Thucydides

WE’RE ALL TRYING to figure out how to live a meaningful life. Although success looks different for everyone, Mission Finance strives to provide you with the financial freedom to live your life in your own way, offering a clear and simple financial guide to free you from worry and allow you to adventure.

Want less stress and more freedom to adventure in life? Join us.

In this book we will show you how to create your personal financial philosophy, then give you the tools and support to achieve your goals.

Our financial philosophy:

• Finances don’t have to be complicated

• Slaying credit card debt frees you from worry and allows you to adventure

• Less stuff = more life

• Your journey is unique, and so are your finances

• Small, simple steps create big money over time

• Teamwork is powerful

Benefits of Mission Finance

When you join Mission Finance and follow our educational guide, you get results. Why? Because the journey map forces you to deal with real-world choices. It will help you face the reality of your current situation, will guide you to understand the path to the next milestone, and will then support you in taking your best next step.

We won’t lecture you about retirement. Instead, we’ll focus on small, achievable investments today. We also won’t lecture you about budgets because we know you’re not likely to follow one. Finally, we won’t talk about specific stock picks or trying to time the stock market. Instead, we’ll focus on what matters most—total time invested in the stock market. The key is to start investing early, even if it’s a small percentage of your paycheck.

We will be with you every step of the way with a clear map, tools, and support so you can say goodbye to:

• Expensive credit card bills or payday loans

• The stress of bill collectors

• Damaged credit history

• Impractical financial advice

In this book we’ll present a map to…

• Create a money mission statement

• Achieve financial milestones

• Tap into support systems

• Take your best next step

Is this book for you?

Yes, if you are a military professional (officer, enlisted, reservist, or veteran) or spouse who desires financial freedom.

Yes, if you realize quality financial advice is less available to those with a lower financial net worth. Typically, banks cater to the rich to invest their savings (e.g., bank deposits), or the working poor to charge high fees for services (e.g., payday loans, credit cards, money transfer services).

If you care about your future and finances, this means you need to learn, plan, and adapt to an ever-changing and complex world.

If this sounds like you, then Mission Finance is for you.

Take your best next step.

Become a member today at Mission.app. Basic Membership is free.

DO NOT PROCEED BEFORE TAKING YOUR BEST NEXT STEP.

Use the built-in camera on your phone to scan the Quick Response (QR) code below to signal to Mission Finance that you reached this checkpoint in your journey.

ORIENTATION

Taking Inventory

Mountain training in Dolomites, Italy. Photo credit: U.S. DoD.

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

—Bible, John 8:32

WHEN WE START on a journey, we take a backpack. In our financial journey, what we want to have in our backpack are assets like shelter, food, useful skills, and knowledge. However, sometimes we find ourselves also carrying deadweight, like credit card debt or expensive car payments. The thing is, we don’t always check the bottom and corners of our backpacks because we don’t want to deal with the stress of cleaning out the deadweight. But what if someone accidentally put a rock in the bag, which you don’t know about? Let’s get clear on everything that you are carrying, and help lighten your load so you can go faster and further.

Your credit report is where you will find those rocks that are weighing you down. The report has information about your payment history and current debt levels—information that lenders, creditors, landlords, and employers use when making decisions about you.

BY THE NUMBERS

About 20% of people have an error on at least one of their credit reports. Between 2016-2020, the Federal Trade Commission received 45,848 complaints from active duty military personnel, including 14,943 fraud reports, resulting in an average loss of $500 and total losses of $23,300,000. The vast majority of complaints were related to credit bureaus (6,129), followed by new credit card accounts (4,464), and third-party debt collection (2,737).¹

Essential Knowledge: Lenders use your credit scores and the information on your credit report to determine whether you qualify for loans and, if so, what interest rate to offer