There’s a lot that is less than fantastic about military life. Missed birthdays and anniversaries. Worry during deployments. Picking up and moving time and again. But there are also perks to military life. One of those perks is the VA Loan Benefit. What’s not to like about a 0% down loan with no mandatory private mortgage insurance (PMI) and often with lower rates than a conventional loan? If you are eligible for this benefit, it’s one you should take advantage of.

Moving can be stressful on many fronts. Having a substantial savings fund can help to ease or alleviate money burdens for your family.

Depending on the area you live in as well as other real estate market trends, it may be difficult to build significant equity in the home in such a short time. One of the best ways to put your house to work for you is to consider renting out your home when you PCS.

66,100,000. That’s how many blogs, articles, resources, and opinions Google generously spits back when we type in “military families own or rent.” Obviously, renting versus owning a home is a quandary that’s very much on the minds of lots of folks. In the name of convenience (we don’t imagine you’ve got time to read over 60 million citations), we thought we’d highlight the key factors you should keep in mind if this is a decision that you too are currently looking at having to make.

Too often, military families feel like home ownership is out of reach. Maybe they’ve heard of friends being upside-down on a house in a bad market, desperate to sell. Or perhaps they struggle to find and keep renters in their home once they move away. Because of horror stories like this, many military families choose to be long-term renters until they can put down permanent roots.

Choosing where your child will attend school is an important decision. But it’s not one you have to make alone when there are people and resources at the ready to help you find what’s best for your family.

Being a home buyer is overwhelming, but being a first-time military home buyer adds a whole new twist. Not only are you going through the emotional process of choosing the right home for your family and your finances, but you’re also thinking through the layers of other circumstances that may impact your purchase.

So, it’s almost time to PCS again? This time around you have promised yourself you are going to be more organized and efficient with your time and mental resources, but where do you begin? Whether you have an immediate PCS on the horizon or one in the (not so) distant future, these eight Google apps will help you to streamline the process and keep yourself (and your family) optimally organized.

You have orders. The official kind, with the e-mail alert.

Now you have the fun, okay not really fun, of planning and prepping for the move. The logistics are a lot for any adult to handle, even when moving is old hat. Children are not mini-adults, they do not process things the same way. Military children deal with unique issues to the military community, moving often being one of them. There are three timelines that military families take to share the news of moving to their military kid. There are different reasons for each, and it really depends on each family situation and how the military child will do with the news.

Moving is not cheap, or easy. Planning ahead with a budget when you are moving yourself, and when you are traveling on your PCS can help you save money by being creative to make it fit the budget. Save money further with these tips to help you stay within that budget!

Moving can be so overwhelming. There is a never-ending to-do list as you leave one duty station and arrive at the next. Thankfully, the relocation industry is thriving and full of resources that pride themselves on helping ease the transition. Below are 10 services that will help assist you during your next move.

Back before the days of the Internet, FaceTime, and going live through social media apps, the only way for a potential home buyer to see a home for sale was to physically visit it in person to do a walk-through. There would be open houses or mutually agreed upon showing times between buying and listing agents and potential buyers. However, this is no longer the case.

If gaining a better understanding of all things financial in this next year is on your radar, then you may be doing a deep dive on where all of your dollars are going, including the dollars spent on your most expensive asset. Whether you are happily settled in your home or looking to purchase or sell a home in the coming year, it is wise to get a full grasp of all of the costs associated with homeownership.

As the post-Thanksgiving urge to spend money gives way to Black Friday deals, the grassroots Shop Small Saturday, and the pandemic-friendly Cyber Monday shopping, Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to give back. It is actually considered the World’s Biggest Day of Generosity.