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Written by Allison Spurgin, AFC Candidate® | November 11, 2019

Recently the federal government instituted a change to the way they use servicemembers’ credit reports. Previously, the Department of Defense only checked credit reports when servicemembers’ security clearances were up for renewal. This meant that depending on your clearance level, the military was only looking at credit reports and scores once every 5 or ten years. That is no longer the case: now the Department of Defense will be continuously monitoring service member’s financial health.

I didn’t notice the charge at first. It was a small amount, and it didn’t trigger my credit card alert, which I have set to email me a notification when a charge over a certain amount posts. Eventually, though, I was looking over our credit card statement, and something didn’t look right. I finally figured it out – my husband had signed up for a subscription to an online magazine a few months back and had forgotten to cancel it.

October is Credit Awareness Month, and it’s the perfect time to take stock of your own personal financial situation. Before you shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it is a good idea to assess your financial health and see whether your spending plan is still on track to get you to your savings goals.

Written by Cloud Spurlock, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board | October 2, 2019

When we talk about retirement planning, we tend to focus on the time we spend accumulating savings during our working years. It’s equally important to keep an eye on how you’ll access and spend your savings when you become eligible. Here’s some great news for participants in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP): the TSP just rolled out big changes that offer flexible withdrawal options to all accounts.