Your Financial
Readiness Starts
Here.
Not with a budget app. Not with a 15-minute in-processing briefing.
With a battle plan.
From an AFC®-credentialed military financial counselor who has been exactly where you are — and fought his way out. Written for Active Duty, Guard, and Reservists at every pay grade.
The System Failed to Prepare You.
"The first time I watched a brother-in-arms financially destroy himself, I stood by and said nothing. We were living in the barracks. My roommate had the car — a top-of-the-line BMW, the kind of European luxury that turns every head at the gate. It consumed more than a third of his monthly paycheck. I ran the math in my head and the coordinates never added up. I PCS'd before I found out what happened. I never learned if he pulled out of that dive or if the debt finally took him down. I still think about it. That question is why this book exists."
— Todd Maki, AFC® · Retired U.S. Army 1LT
Nobody taught you how military pay actually works.
BAH, BAS, COLA, SDP, SCRA — these aren't acronyms. They're money on the table you're walking past every month.
FINRED briefings check a box. They don't change behavior.
One slide deck during in-processing isn't financial education. It's compliance theater. You deserved more.
Predatory lenders know your BAH better than you do.
Every car lot, payday lender, and rent-to-own store near every gate is staffed by people who studied your LES before you did.
The military rewards physical readiness. Financial readiness is on you.
There's no APFT for your bank account. No one flags you when your net worth goes negative. That changes today.
The military teaches you to fire a weapon, navigate terrain, lead troops under fire, and manage millions of dollars in government equipment. But somewhere between Basic Training and your first duty station, the financial briefings stop. You get a fifteen-minute block on TSP during in-processing. You get a pamphlet about payday loans. And then you're on your own — with a steady paycheck, a BAH deposit, and a row of car dealerships outside the gate staffed by people who have been waiting for you.
Warrior Personal Finance
This is not a civilian finance book with the word "military" added to the title. It is built from the ground up for the BAH, deployment pay, PCS moves, SCRA, SDP, and transition realities that no civilian author has ever lived.
What's Your Readiness Score?
7 questions. 2 minutes. You'll get a RED / AMBER / GREEN readiness tier and a specific action plan based on where you actually stand.
Do you know exactly how much BAH you receive and how it's calculated?
Do you have 3–6 months of expenses saved as an emergency fund?
Are you contributing to TSP? If so, at minimum enough to get the full government match?
Do you have any high-interest debt (credit cards, payday loans, car notes above 10% APR)?
Do you track your monthly spending — and does your spending match your plan?
Do you know what the Savings Deposit Program (SDP) is and have you used it on a deployment?
If you received PCS orders tomorrow, are your finances ready for the move?
Todd Maki, AFC®
"I didn't come to this credential from a classroom. I came to it from the hard way — broke, figuring it out through free classes because I couldn't afford anything else, praying for a life with a clear upside. I learned about debt not as an abstract concept but as something that had already done damage to me personally. And then I learned how to fight back."
Todd has supported service members and families across Army installations in the United States and Germany, building a career at the intersection of military service and financial readiness. The AFC® credential is the most important thing he has ever done professionally — it puts him in the room with people who are exactly where he once was.
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Book 1 is your foundation. Books 2–9 cover the full military financial lifecycle: TSP optimization, transition strategy, real estate, veteran benefits, and building generational wealth on a military timeline.