077: "It's around the moment you're leaving the military where the opportunity truly is." Catching up with husband and wife team Scott R. Tucker & Jen Amos

Jen Amos 0:00

Welcome to holding down the fort, an award winning podcast show dedicated to curating knowledge, resources, and relevant stories for today's military spouses, so they can continue to make confident and informed decisions for themselves and their families. Because let's face it, we know who's really holding down the fort. I'm Jen, a most a goldstar daughter, veteran spouse, and your host for holding down the fort by us bet wealth. Let's get started.

Hello, hello. Welcome back to season four of the award winning podcast holding down the fort. I am your host, Jen, a most veteran spouse and goldstar daughter. And today I'm really excited for this first Friday of season four of our show, I get to bring on my amazing husband, who is a West Point grad army vet, and founder of the sponsor of our show us vet wealth. So honey, welcome to the show.

Scott Tucker 1:04

Thank you. It's good to be amazing.

Jen Amos 1:06

Yeah, sometimes sometimes. depends on my mood.

Scott Tucker 1:12

I was like, Wow, that was a real exciting intro.

Jen Amos 1:15

you warm up question, how has: 2021

Scott Tucker 2:01

I think it's, I mean, just been a good start to the year we've been knocking off a bunch of projects and kind of plan out for how we're going to tackle things to come now that other things have sorted themselves out one way or the other. So it's been fun to come up with their kind of new plans to network and get out in the community. And yeah, I guess I always joke around with a Why does the new year have to be the time for changing things up and setting but just happens usually work out that way. We've had these different phases. And you know, what we've been working on. And it always seems to make a big shift every new year, right around that time.

Jen Amos 2:40

Yeah, I forgot to mention, if people are hearing about us, or hearing us talk together, for the first time, Scott is my husband. And a little bit about our background, he was actually referred to me as a client in my former business. And this doesn't happen all the time, I promise. But we were able to hit it off. And I eventually decided to work with him at us fed wealth. And here we are today, what five years later. Now, still, fortunately, working together. But also having been able to build my own brand, thanks to us, but wealth, which is this podcast show holding down the fort, my perspective and working with us. But while that the time is that it was mainly veterans, considering how my husband is a veteran, and he's been able to attract other veterans to have worked with us. And so eventually, we started to realize that we needed to have almost like a military family representative. And considering my background, and having been raised in the military for the first 10 years of my life, and eventually becoming a gold star daughter. It just seemed like it was a natural fit for me to be that voice for our business. So Honey, I'm just kind of curious what your take has been so far since I guess, the birth of holding down the fort, which has this year, it'll be two years since the show has started

Scott Tucker 3:56

really well. Okay. Well, I mean, I think first and foremost, it was definitely the right type of message for an audience that you wanted to bring. And it's been a great tool for you to kind of re engage with the community after I know, before you've met me, you hadn't really considered yourself a part of the military community, you know, since since you lost your dad. So no, that's been fun to watch. And now that it can be you know, a true brand building, you know, place for community and for you to kind of get your message out more. That's been fun to see at work.

Jen Amos 4:30

Yeah. And thanks for being a part of it. And in support of it.

Scott Tucker 4:33

Well, yeah, it's like, if I got to listen to your voice every day, then you know, of course, it'd be better if more people heard it. I think got to Yeah, I meant to say I get to since I get to it's like wow, this this I gotta get this voice out there more.

Jen Amos 4:49

Oh, well, well, thank you for saying that.

Scott Tucker 4:51

Yeah, no, honestly, I mean, like I always said your big reason that I was able to do a lot of the things I did you know, cuz you gave That Foundation, what do we what do we say? Holding down? You held down the fort? There you go. No, but it's a it's kind of a, you know, a lot of veterans are trying to figure out, I don't know what I want to do with my life after I grew up, and you need time to explore it sometimes. And after the stability in rigidness, of a military life military career, when a veteran is like, Listen, I really need to not follow orders. You're not being a rigid structure, if for whatever reason, that's my true personality. I've been lucky enough to have a spouse that was like, cool, that sounds fun. Versus I you know, the free you know that, of course, I mean, you're going to be insecure with when you're used to stability, and if it's there. So that's kind of the purpose of a lot of the messages we talk about is alright, how do you give yourself that foundation that control feeling so you can have the safety to maybe do it's not considered conventional, I would say the conventional path isn't the safe path these days as things change rapidly. But that's part of the the message we're trying to get out. So it's been fun to watch.

Jen Amos 6:08

Yeah, I think the common theme I have found in our military community that I believe we all can understand at an intimate level is, finding order in chaos. If there's anything that we all have in common is that military life is a constant treasure hunt, and you know, trying to establish a new normal, trying to establish those new resources or connections with wherever you're stationed. And that carries into civilian life when you transition out. And so, the show is one of many ways to provide a sense of home or familiarity and stability in regards to a place where you can depend on relevant knowledge, resources, and stories for our military families and spouses today. On that note, I wanted to use this episode to update everyone on our journey here at us but wealth, just a little background. I don't know, you know, how many of you want to share just a brief history of what led us to doing us about wealth today? Or why we've been doing it together for five years, but in reality, you've been doing it since you transitioned out of the military.

Scott Tucker 7:20

Yeah, I'm on like, version number eight, this brand of what's become us fat? Well, when I first got started, I was with a firm, and tried to use their logo and stuff and acted like that was gonna make a difference. And I remember I made a thing, it was the name of that company, and then stood guard, like, like, I'm the guy in town. And then I hired a brand new guy and I created something else called was a secure future starts here. Like that mouthful. Eventually, I went to this thing called be financially fit. And a couple other ideas in between after that with like, military transition and stuff. But anyways, eventually, we kind of realized, I mean, what that all was, was, that's been an entrepreneur trying to put things in the marketplace, they have an idea did this work? And not exactly, but I got some feedback. And I really started to become more aware of what are the unique problems in our industry that people aren't solving. And when I kind of found that that's where we had our blue ocean epiphany, kind of saying, Oh, don't go into a red ocean, where the sharks are, where the competitors are, be unique, have unique value, go basically create a new marketplace where there have no competition. And that's what's really kind of led us to go off the beaten path and create something unique. And we couldn't have done that without kind of a unique set of skills that aren't typically related to the industry we're in, you know, it's always kind of going against the grain, so to speak. So I know I'm more free to do that. And as we were talking a minute ago about foundations and stuff, it's like, hey, it's great to have ideas, but you gotta have some sort of ground, you're putting things

Jen Amos 9:07

right and after be financially fit, you had rebranded to us that life, which very quickly when we moved out here became awarded as best startup of the Year by the Rosen network. And the San Diego Business Journal. Funny thing about that is Well, for one, it was an award, I mentioned by the San Diego Business Journal, and we were already in Richmond at this point. So we had to fly back, you know, less than 100 days moving out here to receive that award. Any thoughts you wanted to add to that?

Scott Tucker 9:38

Oh, just it was funny, that kind of, we're actually going through a transition in our mission and stuff right around that time. But, you know, it was like, start to you know, have some Okay, we've got validity around this. You know, people aren't taking notice. I need to go back to the drawing board and a lot of work to do. But the concept is saying Hey, that's needed, really validated for me at about that point that was about a year or so after really kind of focusing on what our version of wealth management or financial advice or whatever you want to call it, you know what they tell you that should be versus what our focus on, hey, it's around the moment you're leaving the military where the opportunity truly is. That was wherever with all this stuff started tied together, and nobody was talking about that in regards to money. And knowing that the Rosie network is about entrepreneurship for spouse, I mean, that's all to me about purpose and money, right, you want to find another way to get your income that isn't only this traditional path. Your resume better reversed better than that person's resume, I mean, based on you says who versus the more control you can take through the internet, the digital skills. What it means to invest or/and own a business, maybe entrepreneurship, but more you can tie into that stuff, the more money is liquid for you, you can bring it to you, or attracted to you. And that solves the problem. That's where you're not answering to somebody else. So, that's what the original mission of the Rosie network was about, to give military spouses those opportunities, we were able to learn from them. And then to kind of be validated that we're on the right path is pretty cool.

Jen Amos: 11:25

Right? And the interesting thing about our company today us that wealth is initially it was a subsidiary of us fetlife. And what we had come to find is that people seem to resonate with that name, more than us fetlife do you want to talk about that?

Scott Tucker: 11:42

Well, I mean, the only reason we had us fetlife originally, was because technically we were going to be selling life insurance. And veterans life insurance was a $10,000. You know, domain name it. So was trying to figure out what's something else cool. And I went through, like 30, other potential ideas and names, but focused on veterans in life, and then us fetlife got suggested. But as we started, this is how you learn in the industry. It's like, Okay, that makes sense. That sounds cool. To me, because how do you not gather your life? MetLife that's an insurance company. Right? And usually, we're pretty good with acronyms. That life, you know, the we're talking about money. So it's a financial thing. You think it's life insurance? People weren't getting that. And so it's like, okay, that I can't believe that's not resident who said, What do you guys do? And I'm like, well, we're kind of a wealth management strategy, you know, but since I didn't say, us that life insurance, I mean, Hey, that was a big, big lesson that didn't really make a whole lot of sense. But then it's like, well, actually, I was about, hey, well, maybe it's it kind of means like, we're creating the new that life. And that still holds true. But ultimately, the way people understand things, this comes down to communication. So it all good marketing, you know, people know, are you going to use the language that people don't understand. And wealth to us, means a lot more than money. And that's fine, because most people think that's about money. So you start the conversation there. And then they say, well, let's leave frame. It's not about how much yeah, it's about money, but not necessarily about how much it's about where you use it, how you use it, how you get it to work for you. How do you actually create time give you a chance to find true purpose? I mean, I don't know that sounds like a better definition and more expansive, more flexible one, then retirement planning, you know, so, you know, that's when it really started to come together. And then yeah, as we, you know, people get introduced to us, because they think it's about dollar signs. And then as we get to talk, and it's like, Yeah, we got to start there, typically. But it can be so much more than that. And when the light bulbs go off and go, it's almost like, oh, you're saying I have permission to go? Try my own thing one day? It's like, yeah, and, okay, cool. We used to fall in orders, it took me close to 10 years to finally stop feeling like I gotta answer to them, or my old boss. It was kind of I mean, really held me back. You know, maybe it had to happen that way. And that's fine. But, you know, if you don't start kind of looking for that true freedom. I mean, I saw a quote from navall raava Khan the other day, where it's, it doesn't matter how much money you have. If somebody else is telling you what to wear, how to behave, what to do with your time, then you're not rich. You don't have freedom doesn't matter how much money there is, if somebody else is telling you what to do. And, you know, that resonated with what it is we're trying to do. Because ultimately, you know, people say, Oh, I just want to get retirement where I don't have to work to anybody. Okay, well, that sounds like A long way away, always. And then when you get there, most people are just exhausted. And I've never truly saved enough anyways, because how do you know?

Jen Amos: 15:20

Hey, everyone taking a quick break here to share some really exciting news for you, especially if you enjoy listening to podcasting, and most of all, have been thinking very deeply about starting a podcast. So let me cut to the chase. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, now is the time it's not too late. It's easier than you think. And if you're looking for representation, this is your opportunity to be that representation. Be the voice you've been waiting for someone else to be creating, for, it's you. You're the one you've been waiting for. And that's me quoting from the song show yourself from the movie Frozen to really love that movie, by the way. Anyway, the sooner you get started in podcasting, the sooner you'll be the change that you want to see, the sooner you'll hear people say thank you for making them feel seen, heard and valued. And let me tell you as a podcaster, who's done nearly 400 episodes at this point in her career, I can't tell you how it never gets old to hear people say thank you, thank you for providing a space such as holding down the fort to make me feel seen, heard and valued. With that said, I want to share an exciting announcement with all of you. Once again, I am going to be a speaker at pod fest global summit. The first time was actually back in August 2020. And the fun thing about that event is that we were actually able to break a Guinness World Records title for the largest attendance for a virtual podcasting conference in one week. So the record at the time was 5000. And we broke it at 5003. So three extra people. And guess what, we are going to be doing it again this year, starting the week of February 22. And that first week of March. Now, like I said, if you're interested in starting a podcast and you don't know where to get started, I highly recommend that you sign up for this global summit. It's virtual, you can do it from home. And let me give you my promo code so you can register for free, or at least get a $49 discount on any of the other tickets you choose to purchase. So visit pod fest Expo. That's pod fest Expo calm and use my promo code Gen emos my name, which is about JENAMO s and you will either get a free ticket or if you choose some of the higher tickets at least a $49 discount. So once again, visit pod fest Expo calm, use the promo code Gen emos, J ENMO. S and take advantage of that affordable education to start your podcast. All right, thank you all so much for listening. I personally will be speaking on February 2 2021 more details soon in an upcoming newsletter until then, please sign up and I look forward to seeing you there.

Scott Tucker: 18:31

But then there's these holes of financial independence and you know financial freedom. And that's cool to couldn't concept. But you just hear about really young couples who are making a good salary and spend nothing for five years and then buy a van, you know, have managed to save a million dollars by van travel around the world. Now they're financially independent, like okay, maybe not everybody wants to do that. That's somewhat inspiring for very few discipline people. We'd like the idea of flexibility and control because we want to be control of it our money so just you know hoping some financial advisor Wall Street people are gonna do whatever with it. We have no control over what's going to happen there. Not to mention pay in taxes, the government and that kind of stuff. But the flexibility thing is, hey, goals and opportunities are going to change if you're improving yourself if you have aspirations for other things in life and don't want to just wake up, you know, today and be doing the same thing. 20 years from now in the same job. If that's not you, that's what this concept idea these strategies these solutions are for. And yeah, that's how it all kind of manifested to actually mean what it means.

Jen Amos: 19:42

Yeah, I think for us, wealth means if it doesn't sound obvious already, wealth, for us means more than just the financial aspect, but the ability to position your money in a way that is adaptable to your exploration of yourself. And pursuing a sense of purpose in post military life, or even as you start to prepare to transition from the military. Alright, so on that note, I just thought it'd be fun for people that are joining us for the first time on holding down the fort to learn a little bit about the major sponsor of our show, which is the company that I'm fortunate to be working with, with my husband, Scott here. So with that said, I want to go ahead and shift gears here a little bit. And another reason why I wanted to bring you on the show is, we've been getting a lot of inquiries on the kind of looking at an alternative for the survivor benefit plan. And so can you tell us a little bit about how people have been finding us? And what have they been asking us here at our office at us bed wealth in regards to the survivor benefit plan?

Scott Tucker: 20:48

That's a great question. I know a lot of people are lucky to do it. I mean, hey, let's go through the typical story. You know, a couples with a military family approaching that 20 year mark already that 2023 year mark, typically, and kids are either not just teenagers, or soon to be and really thinking about, okay, what's coming next after the military? So a lot of it's focused on all right, how do I apply for jobs? And how do I meet the right recruiters. And then you go through these transition briefs, and they tell you a bunch of stuff. And at one point, they mentioned how your pension works. And you know, how you collect it, and all that kind of stuff. And then what happens for your family a survivor benefit, if you get hit by a bus. And so all of a sudden, the veterans and they say, Well, here it is, the spouse would get 55% Oh, by the way, kind of like with sto, I got a little bit of money came out of your le s every month, you kind of got used to it, it really wasn't that much. Well, there's some similar if you want this survivor benefit plan to protect your pension, even though it sounds like it's all kind of wrapped in together, that comes at a cost of six and a half percent of your pension. So that amount now, instead of $27 a month, you know, could be three $400 a month coming out of your pension, depending on your rank and how much pension you get, you know, it's still a fixed cost for everybody, six and a half percent. And all of a sudden becomes a very scary and emotional decision for the family. Because really, it's up to the spouse, the spouse has to decline that if the family doesn't want to, but so many people are coming to us and saying, Scott, you know, I ran the numbers. The only good thing here is, if I die early, and my spouse collects this monthly stipend for the rest of my life, and of course, the spouse is thinking, yeah, with there better be something there. And it's very difficult, often so late in the Career After you're so used to just getting the standard government thing to realize that this is just an option, you have the free market. And really all you're doing with this government program is doing a version of pension protection, you get roughly a little more than half paid out monthly. And it's taxable. If you go on the private marketplace, it's just life insurance. So don't overthink it. But this is where you used to get confused on how benefits work, or you're trying to say is, can I get enough death benefit? To cover at least the 55%? Why not the whole amount of the pension? And rather than just paid out monthly, it gets paid out in a big tax free death benefit. So would you rather get half of the pension monthly that doesn't include VA disability? Or would you rather get, you know, 1,000,002 million or however much insurance you buy to cover the via the pension? You know that and again, neither of those scenarios are probably likely to happen, you're probably going to be alive and kicking in 30 years. And so that's where they realize, wait, that not only that, what I have paid money into it, how much would you paid into it? You know, for the typical Oh, five officer, it's nearing $200,000, over 30 years that would go at us. So that's potentially sunken cost. And that's where folks are telling themselves after they come out of these meetings, and they're just confused. How do I make a decision? Is there anything better? And that's what they're typing survivor benefit plan alternative. That's how they're finding our website or webinars, videos, e-books, and blogs. I've done the research, and I put it out there for so many years. I was dealing with this on an individual basis. It's easy to look for a modern alternative, but it's not always easy to apply for a good to get approved, because unfortunately, since we're not aware of this problem, and we don't find out about it until our late 30s or 40s, we got a lot of things going on in our medical records. We don't know if we can always get people approved, and it's kind of like, hey, if you want to be able to use your VA loan to buy a house, it sucks. If you can't get approved for it, even though it's kind of guarantee, you want to go to use your benefit, right. And so that's what this time you spent serving the country, they earned that benefit, it has a value, why not protect that full value, but why have a cost go right back to the government out of your benefits, really to just pay for current beneficiaries. It's kind of like the Social Security Ponzi scheme, the benefit does'nt sit somewhere with your name on it, you're just in the system. There's an assumption, there'll be other people paying into the system later on when and if you'd needed. So, if you have the health and financial wherewithal to make a contract on the private market, do the same things, but you also have to help you avoid the cost. That becomes pretty interesting. And so that's really the whole SBP story. It doesn't have to be hard, they make it hard, they shove it into a bunch of other information, 'cause they know they need those incoming payments to pay for the current widows. That's how they get 80%, of retired military to opt into it, they don't really inform them that this is just a choice.

Jen Amos: 26:14

Yeah, I think the most interesting thing about the survivor benefit plan is that the service member is most informed about it when they get informed of course, which is like you mentioned toward the end of their service when we have to remember it's called the survivor benefit plan. It's supposed to benefit the survivor, which, most of the time, is the military spouse, and the spouse only knows so much about this survivor benefit plan. As things start to near toward the end, and many times, we have found that it's the spouses that are holding down the fort, they only know so much, and so, they feel like it's better to have it than to not have it.

Scott Tucker: 26:52

Right. And if you're not doing anything else, if you can't get qualified for anything else. Yeah, exactly. That's the benefit as a veteran, the United States of America, at a bare minimum, you can be guaranteed this. That's why that's why how the VA loan works at a bare minimum, you're guaranteed this amount of alone, as long as you can qualify for it. Without downpayment, right. So, yes, those are benefits, it doesn't mean you have to use them. And given how life insurance works, these programs have not been updated since the 1970s. Again, they're fixed costs, same for everybody. So you don't get rewarded for your health, nor do you get to control the benefits or the cost. So if that's what you want, then you have to go to the private marketplace for it. So that's the real opportunity is, okay, if I am healthy and able to get qualified, and you know, financially, again, you have to be able to, it's not a handout from the government, that's automatic, you know, when you actually take control of something of your finances, you have to make the decisions on how it works and take ownership of it as an asset, just like you would any other asset. If you own your own car, you take care of it. That's of course, you know, always an issue with government handouts, or any sort of benefit, it makes things easy, makes you apathetic, like or not, that's just human nature. So as you're taking some of those standard ones off the table, you give yourself an option for an opportunity to take control over. But then you're also taking the responsibility. So that's why for anybody who's able to do a mortgage is this is where you can take more control, instead of living in military housing on base, that's easy. Or you could use those same bH payments, you'll put a mortgage on the house, not again, not everybody should do it. But it's the same thing we're doing over here in the life insurance space for those. Now the problem is, so again, a lot of people probably shouldn't, you know, that are used to the government use standard payments, maybe they should just stay that way, you know, if it's easy, but for those those 10%, I think in our community who are looking to do more, they shouldn't be shuffled into the same briefings. You know, it's not fair. There's, there's other options available. And we should just understand how to use your benefit to your advantage a little better.

Jen Amos: 29:14

Okay, so people, Google people do a search of the survivor benefit plan alternative, they come across our content, they're enlightened, and they reach out to us when you have these conversations with them, which we've been having a number already at the start of this year. What have you found to be maybe the most common epiphany they get when you're talking to them?

Scott Tucker: 29:36

First is they said, Man, I've been looking for all sorts of information on this kind of topic or other topics. And I find your website man, just nobody talks like this, like you just talk. And the reason is because I'm just telling the honest truth. I don't think anybody else is lying. I think they're, in a way just lying to themselves if they don't kind of see through it unable to articulate the BS that we're typically told about this.

Jen Amos: 30:00

Yeah, I think what we've come to find are the people that we've been interacting with are aligned with our own values of living life with more purpose and intention. And part of that is looking at your money. And so I think it's really astounding how the people who reached out to us already did their research, like you said, already did the math and realized that something like the survivor benefit plan isn't necessarily of benefit to their family.

Scott Tucker: 30:22

Yeah, I mean, it has to go with just kind of like anything that whether you cease to have an experience or your military career, where you just kind of fed up, we all have it. I mean, it's a giant bureaucracy, there's always a screw up your orders or something like that. And so there's a frustration when it feels like, Man, I'm getting out of the military, you're telling me I still got to be tied to this thing for life. Like, we're all proud to be veterans. But you know, we're trying to get out. We want our freedom back at some point. It's I mean, we all get it. And that's the opportunity here that I think a lot of people kind of get that. Okay, cool. So you're telling me there's the chance I can't get there's good news. There's good This isn't like this bad. Oh, my God, I'm so torn on how to do it. It's like, there's good news. You know, maybe but the good news is one, you got this thing with the government at a bare minimum. Cool. What if you can do better?

Jen Amos: 31:14

Right, right. And that's it. That's all we're really trying to do. At Are you

Scott Tucker: 31:17

deserve to know about it? That's Yeah, I mean, I don't care if you do it. I mean, right.

Jen Amos: 31:22

Right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker: 31:24

Yeah, you know, I

Scott Tucker: 31:24

just would hope you'd be like, Okay, this is an option, oftentimes, you know, we can understand what's going on. But it seems like too much response to that. I just, you know, I'm not good with that kind of stuff. I want the cool, good. Thank god SPP. Is there?

Jen Amos: 31:39

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, ultimately, what we try to do with us bet wealth. And even on this show, holding down the fort podcast, is to provide relevant knowledge, resources and stories. So you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. And that's ultimately what we're trying to aim for. So thank you, honey, for just taking the time to really talk about this. And I think overall, our excitement that more people are questioning what they're benefits and wanting to understand or become aware of other alternatives, if possible. And, and so that's just kind of a glimpse into our business, and what we offer and the kind of education that we like to put out there so that you can continue, like I said, to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. Before we go for people that want to look for that alternative, let them know, how can they learn more about this alternative that us vet wealth provides.

Scott Tucker: 32:39

So there's a series of videos on our YouTube channel that are with webinars that are easy to go through, it's the playlist is survivor Liberty plan, or of course, you can go to our website. And at the top where it says resources, there's a drop down menu. And of course, when you get into there, you get into our blog and start playing around with the various articles on on this topic, or others all categorize them. So that's all free access on our website. You know, a couple of times you just got to register for like a webinar for a download, if you want to get the E book, and but otherwise tons of blog content that you can check out. We'd love to get your thoughts.

Jen Amos: 33:21

Awesome. Well, thanks, honey for being on my show kicking off the new year together.

Scott Tucker: 33:26

No, I'm happy to be here.

Jen Amos: 33:28

Yeah, for sure. And yeah, thank you all so much for listening, really appreciate you all taking the time to empower yourselves and educate yourselves on what is available for you today. And you know, whether it's within the community or people that are advocates for the community, which for us, I sort of say it's both because we both were in the community and now we're here serving the community well after. With that said, we hope that today's episode gave you one more piece of knowledge resource a relevant story, so you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. We look forward to speaking with you in the next episode. Tune in next time.