#031: Veterans - Are you getting ALL your benefits?
Big Picture Retirement®
Devin Carroll
4.7 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2017
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many current retirees have a background of military service. Benefits from military service can become a big part of the retirement planning picture, but it can be hard to know what benefits are available and how you can use them. In this week's episode, Devin and John talk about military-related benefits and how to get information about them.
You can break down most military benefits into one of three categories: retirement benefits, service-connected disability benefits, and non-service connected disability benefits.
Retirement benefits are earned through career of military service, generally more than 20 years. Retirement benefits include lifetime income and Tricare health coverage.
Service-connected disability benefits are available for those who are disabled as the result of their military service. In addition to the benefits available from the Department of Veterans Affairs, there may be benefits available from your state or local government. One important thing to note: many times, the disability that was acquired while you were in the military may not show itself for many years.
Non-service-connected disability benefits are available to veterans who require care for a disability that has no relationship to your military service. Usually called "aid and attendance benefit," or improved pension. It is there for people who need help with their care, and provides monthly income.
If you have served our country through military service, understanding your benefits is an important part of your overall financial plan. Please share this information with your military friends and family!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
John's firm's website: http://RossandShoalmire.com
Devin and John's free ebook: http://bigpictureretirement.net/steps
Once a month, Devin and John answer listener questions. You can submit your questions to questions@bigpictureretirement.net
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Big Picture Retirement Show does not provide specific tax, legal, or financial advice. |
| 0:05.1 | Listeners are encouraged to seek out their own advisors in these areas. |
| 0:12.5 | Hello everyone and welcome to the Big Picture Retirement Show, where we deliver insight on what you need to know for a meaningful and successful retirement. If you are planning for |
| 0:22.6 | or living in retirement, this is the show for you. I'm Devin Carroll and joined as always by my co-host, |
| 0:30.7 | John. Hey John. Hey John, before we jump into the show, several months ago, you told me that you |
| 0:36.3 | had bought the Amazon Alexa. No, it's the Amazon Echo. That's what it's called, the Echo. And so you were telling me how cool it was. It could do all this neat stuff. And so I decided to order one myself. Oh, yeah. My wife's an early adopter on most technology. And so, yeah, we had pre-ordered when they just announced it. Oh, wow. So, yeah, we've had one since it came out. |
| 0:56.0 | Well, so after listening to you talk about it and talk about how fantastic it was, I decided it's time to order one for myself. So I got one. I set it up in my kitchen, and we absolutely love it. It's fantastic. Oh, yeah. No, we've now expanded to where we have one in almost every room, including at |
| 1:12.2 | my office and in our individual offices and stuff. Yep. So the other day, I ordered an extra one |
| 1:18.4 | to put just in my office here so I could listen to stuff in the downtime when I'm working and stuff |
| 1:23.7 | like that because it's so much easier to listen to stuff on the Alexa than it is to go out online and find it or anything like that. In addition, it'll do all of this other stuff too, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, we've even gotten to where we'll order stuff off the Amazon and things just with basically by asking for it. Oh, I know. It's crazy. You just tell Alexa to order something and it does. Some of the other things that it will do, though, is I know people who turn their lights on and off with this thing. Sure. With those enabled little plug-in things that you use, they adjust their thermostats with it. Yep. Karen, my wife, she uses it to build a shopping list. And then when she goes to the store, everything that she just told Alexa to add to her shopping list is right there in her out. Yeah, they're a neat little tool. Yeah, it's fantastic. One of the other things that it will do is it'll pull up the episodes of our podcast. That's right. So I actually listen to our podcast quite often in the mornings before anyone ends up. I'm in there listening to it, figuring out |
| 2:18.4 | how we can improve it. But there's going to be a little bit more in the show later on about how you |
| 2:22.9 | can get your own echo, because we're going to give one away. That's right. Fantastic. Everybody |
| 2:27.2 | needs one of these. John, what's wrong with you? You look slightly injured. Yeah, I have managed to tear my rotator cuff. |
| 2:36.2 | Oh, I've heard that hurts. It does, as a matter of fact. So what were you doing? I was at the gym. |
| 2:42.3 | Yeah, I lifted some weights and the shoulder decided it was done. That's where a lot of people our age get hurt, I hear. |
| 2:49.5 | Yeah, you know, it's like I've got a 1960 Mustang, right? |
| 2:54.2 | And it's in pretty good shape. |
| 2:55.4 | Yeah. |
| 2:55.9 | But occasionally, stuff's going to break. |
| 2:58.9 | That's right. |
| 2:59.7 | Because it's old. |
| 3:01.0 | Because of the age-related nature. |
... |
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