Ask June
Ask June - Sponsored by USAA

Got money ques­tions and look­ing for answers you can trust? Just Ask June! June Lantz Wal­bert is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ prac­ti­tioner with USAA Finan­cial Plan­ning Ser­vices. She is also a lieu­tenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve with 19 years of ser­vice. Walbert’s basic branch is Air Defense Artillery. She also is Air­borne, Air Assault, and Cana­dian Air­borne qualified.

Welcome to Ask June!

How healthy is your finan­cial future? Nearly nine out of 10 Amer­i­cans think finan­cial plan­ning is impor­tant, yet less than half have devel­oped a finan­cial plan. If you have a finan­cial ques­tion that’s keep­ing you up at night Just Ask June! Whether it’s tack­ling debt, sav­ing for retire­ment, financ­ing a home or pro­tect­ing your fam­ily if some­thing hap­pens to you, if your ques­tion is pub­lished, you could get free advice from USAA’s team of licensed finan­cial experts.

June is cur­rently out on leave and dur­ing her absence I’m help­ing out my friend by answer­ing your money ques­tions, so please keep those ques­tions com­ing and we’ll keep the wheels turn­ing until she’s back.
–Joseph “J.J.” Mon­ta­naro, CFP®, USAA Finan­cial Planner

Minimize impact of bonus at tax time

January 10, 2013 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: I’ve got a quick ques­tion I’m hop­ing you can put to rest. I’m a CPT with eight years ser­vice, and I got a $60,000 con­tin­u­a­tion bonus this year that kicked us up into a much higher tax bracket than usual.  I am try­ing to reduce my tax­able income as much as pos­si­ble. I made a $17,000 con­tri­bu­tion to my

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Get Your Post 9/11 Transfer Right!

January 7, 2013 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: I retired from the USAF Oct 1, 2009. I requested to trans­fer my Post 9/11 GI Bill to my wife and two daugh­ters. I was going to trans­fer my ben­e­fits to my 11th grade daugh­ter last week on the Mil­Con­nect web­site and noticed that my wife and youngest daugh­ter are show­ing on the TEB tab of the site, but

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Retirement check shrinkage

December 27, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: May you please tell me what the Defense Finance and Account­ing Ser­vice (DFAS) pol­icy is for col­lect­ing Vol­un­tary Sep­a­ra­tion Incen­tive (VSI) from retired reservist’s retire­ment pay? I am a Grey Area(not yet draw­ing retired pay) retired reservist and I am try­ing to deter­mine how much retire­ment pay I will be get­ting when I retire. It is my under­stand­ing, once

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VA loan a no-go in Korea

December 20, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: Hi, I have ques­tion about VA loan. My wife is going to get sta­tioned in South Korea. She’ll be there for 3 years. We are plan­ning to build our own house in Korea. Can she get VA loan for that? –Jiwoo, U.S. Army A: While I’m a big fan of VA loans, they are not avail­able for a home in South

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Closing credit card could be a bad thing

December 17, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: Hello, I am try­ing to buy a house and was told to not acquire new debts and keep my cur­rent credit cards to a zero bal­ance. Well my credit cards are paid off and have been for a few months but now upon call­ing 2 of the com­pa­nies, if I do not pur­chase any­thing within the next 30 days

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Credit card cash back a risky proposition

December 6, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: My wife wants us to use our Dis­cover credit card for all our pur­chases and pay it off before any inter­est is charged. She feels that we can get extra money from the cash back offer. Is this a good idea or is there some­thing we are miss­ing? –Den­nis, Crofton, Ken­tucky A: The only thing you could be missing

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Roth TSP great idea during deployment

December 3, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: I have a ques­tion about the tax impli­ca­tions of con­tribut­ing bonus money to Tra­di­tional vs. Roth TSP while deployed in a com­bat zone. I am an active duty O-4 cur­rently deployed in a tax-free zone, and will be receiv­ing one of my annual bonuses soon ($15k). Nor­mally this bonus is taxed at 25%, even while in a com­bat zone,

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Death of retiree threatens ex-spouse’s income

November 27, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: I am receiv­ing half of my ex’s mil­i­tary retire­ment after 24 years of mar­riage and 21 of his active duty. If he pre­de­ceases me does the retire­ment stop com­ing to me? I know his stops and half of noth­ing is less than noth­ing, but some folks tell me my half is still going to come to me (it was

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Timing for tapping the TSP

November 20, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: My wife is eli­gi­ble to retire from the VA at 59 1/2 on 12/11/13 with 25 years of ser­vice. Will she be able to draw both her VA pen­sion and make with­drawals from her TSP, or will she have to wait until age 60? –James, Odessa, Florida A: Based on the ques­tion, your wife started with the VA around 1988. Therefore,

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Reserve retirement and divorce

November 12, 2012 • J.J. Montanaro

Q: I was awarded par­tial retire­ment ben­e­fits in the mar­riage dis­so­lu­tion from my ex spouse after 27 years of mar­riage. He was in the ser­vice the entire length of our mar­riage. He was drafted sev­eral months before we were mar­ried, and served 3 years in the Army. When he ended his active duty tour, he was a mem­ber of the

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