Real Life Planning Podcast Ep.56: Section 121 for Military Homeowners

In Episode 56 of the Real Life Planning Podcast, Cynthia Meyer, CFA®, CFP®, ChFC®, sits down with Becky Noss, financial planner and founder of Healthy Wealth, to explore the unique tax advantages available to military homeowners. Becky breaks down how military families can use Section 121 of the tax code—the capital gains exclusion for the sale of a primary residence—even if they haven’t lived in the home for the typical two out of five years. She demystifies the nuances, shares planning strategies, and uncovers how military families can make the most of their housing transitions.

"   [The] 121 capital gains exclusion… It's basically the elimination of the tax on your capital gains when you sell your home up to a certain value; 250,000 if you're single, or 500 if you're married, filing joints and typically you have to have lived in your home for two of the past five years when you have a look back.” - Becky Noss

This week on Real Life Planning Podcast:

Takeaway Quotes:

" The most important element I've learned is how different and how nuanced and how essential it is to have someone who's military knowledgeable planning for you if you are in the military. ” - Becky Noss

"  Typically when you sell a property that's been used as a rental, if you've been taking straight line depreciation, which for residential property is 27 and a half years, then that depreciation that you've taken, that unrecaptured gain is recaptured on the tax return in the year that you sell it.” - Cynthia Meyer

Connect with Becky Noss:

•  Website: https://www.healthywealthfinancial.com
•  LinkedIn: Becky Noss
•  Facebook: Healthy Wealth Financial
• Email: info@healthywealthfinancial.com

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• Email: podcast@reallifeplanning.com  

About the Real Life Planning Podcast

Hosts Cynthia Meyer and Vekevia Tillman-Jones explore practical steps for real estate investors to build financial freedom and make working for someone else optional.

Episode 56 Transcript

[00:00:06] Cynthia Meyer: Few weeks ago, we've talked about Section 121, the capital gains tax exclusion for the sale of a primary residence in the context of moving into a home, renovating it, adding value, and then taking the profits and moving out to your next project; zero renovation. Today we're going to have another take on this with Becky Noss, the founder and principal of Healthy Wealth. She's here to talk about how Section 121 works when you're a military homeowner. Becky, so glad to see you today.

[00:00:43] Becky Noss: It's great to be here.

[00:00:45] Cynthia Meyer: So tell us a little bit about yourself. What's important to know about you?

[00:00:50] Becky Noss: Yeah, so I am a military spouse of 15 years, and I got into this line of work. I career hopped over here really because we were stationed overseas and I just couldn't do my job where I was, and I didn't particularly like that career field anyways. And so I decided to- I needed something different. And then, just through the necessity of learning all the nuances of finance for my own personal finance, and how that pertained to military, I really did a lot of the work there. I have a mom who's a CPA, and so it's a natural progression with my math background, my education background to move into something where I'm applying that numbers element and helping to teach people and help other people learn and succeed in their finances.

[00:01:43] Cynthia Meyer: How do you help clients in your firm, or what kind of clients do you typically have in your firm?

[00:01:48] Becky Noss: So, I specialize in planning for military members. Military members, veterans, DOD, they're fairly similar, but most of my clients are active duty or retired veterans. And I do full scope planning, so we go through education benefits, anything they need with home buying, retirement planning, estate planning pretty much, full scope insurance as needed. All of those elements.

[00:02:13] Cynthia Meyer: I love how you're using your life experience to pay it forward, right? To create a transformation for people who are like you and your spouse and your situation. What in particular do you think are some of the things that you've learned as a military family that help you in your business?

[00:02:32] Becky Noss: Well, I think one of the most important elements I've learned is how nuanced military planning is in finance as opposed to many other careers. There's every single aspect of planning. (VLOG TITLE) When you're looking at military members, there's a "Yes, but" so when we talk about education planning, yes, but military members have the GI bill. When we talk about buying a home, yes, but military members have the VA. We look at retirement planning, we have yes, but- a lot of times they'll have VA disability; often there's a pension supporting their plan. It's a very different type of planning when you have that guaranteed income.

[00:03:11] Even when we look at estate planning, there are some elements where  if a service member passes on active duty, they can take the insurance that's through the military and put that in a Roth IRA. That is an enormous benefit that is very different from anything in the private sector. And so I think the most important element I've learned is how different and how nuanced and how essential it is to have someone who's military knowledgeable planning for you if you are in the military.

[00:03:41] Cynthia Meyer: Well, so that kind of kicks off how we met, which is online in a forum for XY Planning Network. And we had both been answering some questions for somebody that had a question about Section 121, like capital gain tax exemption for the sale of a primary residence and your answers were so thoughtful and on point that I reached out to you and said, we've got to talk about this on the podcast.

[00:04:05] So can you tell everybody listening first, just define what the issue is and then talk about how it's different for military families that owns homes?

[00:04:16] Becky Noss: Sure. So the issue is that 121 capital gains exclusion. It's basically the elimination of the tax on your capital gains when you sell your home up to a certain value; 250,000 if you're single, or 500 if you're married, filing joints and typically you have to have lived in your home for two of the past five years when you have a look back. The big difference for military members is that you don't actually have to have lived in it for two years. You can move and if you've only been in it for a year or 18 months, you can prorate your time and prorate the exclusion, which is something that you have to have an extenuating circumstance in to under normal 121 rules. Another element of that is you can pause or suspend that look back for up to 10 years and so this really changes planning. So you know, you can have a house you live in say for two years, and then you move out and you can rent that house for 13 years and sell at the end of that and still have your full $250 or $500,000 exclusion.

[00:05:27] Cynthia Meyer: So the exclusion then wouldn't be prorated then proportionately? It would just be 100% the full capital gains tax exclusion. I mean, of course with the caveat that we are not CPAs, we are financial planners. Always see your tax advisor.

[00:05:42] Becky Noss: Yes, so the proration is going to depend on the time you live in it. So to maximize that exclusion, if you live for two years, rent for 13, that's how you maximize it. You have to have been gone on active duty orders for those full 10 years that you pause it. So that's the problem with that IC, is there's a lot of nuances in there that people will sometimes miss where maybe they'll move out due to orders, but then they leave active duty and they think they still have that full extra 10 years, or they will want to suspend multiple homes, which you may not do. You can only suspend one home at a time. There's a whole lot of weaving of if you, especially if you have multiple rentals, weaving those and making sure that you're hitting all the wickets to still be able to get that full exclusion.

[00:06:32] Cynthia Meyer: Do you have to pick the most recent home that you've lived in, or can it be any of the homes that you've lived in along the way?

[00:06:40] Becky Noss: Yeah, that's a great question. You do not have to pick the most recent home, and in fact, you can choose which home you're suspending at any given time. So sometimes we'll have people who live in a home, they get orders, they move, they rent it, they move into another home, they get orders from that one, they move out, they rent it. They get a third home, they sell that third home and while they're doing that sale or living in it and then doing that sale. They have one house has to be using its look back time and then the other house is paused. And so then maybe they'll sell that first home and then they'll give it two years and sell the next home and give it another two years and then they can go back and sell that first home at that point still and get exclusions on all of them as long as they haven't exceeded that five-year look back element and they haven't suspended more than one property to do it. 

[00:07:37] Cynthia Meyer: Something that happens in terms of the forms that your tax preparer would file for you- does it happen at the end of the period you're just claiming the Section 121 exclusion just on that year's tax return, or is there some sort of form that gets filed in the interim?

[00:07:53] Becky Noss: Nope, there's nothing that gets filed in the interim. It's just upon the sale. You indicate that it's being sold as a primary residence, just like you would with a normal 121. I believe you have like a write in where they say, suspended due to military, there's a, like a line you're supposed to just like write in the explanation area, but there's no annual filing; no anything that you have to do outside of that. 

[00:08:17] Cynthia Meyer: So it just reported on your tax return.  It sounds like a pretty interesting tax planning opportunity for somebody who's in the service. Somebody who plans to be a career service person, or at least for some extended period of time. Expects to be moved around a lot and is interested in real estate; that there are some backward looking planning opportunities that many people when they sell rental property, either they're going to recognize the gains or pay taxes on that with recapture gains and depreciation. Recapture, if they did an accelerated cost segregation study or they're going to 1031 exchange, which is the most likely outcome.

[00:08:55] But now there's a third thing. So can you give a case study or an example of how somebody has used this recently in your practice?

[00:09:03] Becky Noss: Yeah. We talk about that, that backward looking element, but there's also a little bit of a forward where I had a client who ended up being deployed to a combat zone for 11 months out of the year, and so their taxable income in that year was a few thousand dollars. I mean, it was virtually nothing. And so not only did they have a property that they had owned for around 12 years, and it had over a hundred thousand dollars of depreciation recapture, which you do still have to take. You can get out of this capital gains, but you cannot eliminate the depreciation recapture.

[00:09:40] Cynthia Meyer: That's right. 

[00:09:41] Becky Noss:  She was on the fence about when she wanted to get rid of it, but she was pretty confident she wanted to, and I said, Hey, you absolutely should sell this year. And she was like, oh, but I'm deployed and it's a lot while you're...

[00:09:52] Cynthia Meyer: it's a lot of work. 

[00:09:53] Becky Noss: Yeah. I was like, I understand that but because she sold in a year where she had virtually no income, instead of having all of that in the 24 or 25, capped at that 25% rate, she was able to fill up her standard deduction, the 10%, the 12%. Not only did we save about $15,000 on the capital gains element by taking that 121 exclusion, we also saved, I want to say it was close to about $17,000 in the differential in the tax rate- on the depreciation recapture because it was so much lower for that phase in. 

[00:10:32] Cynthia Meyer: That's right. And just for people who are listening, who aren't as interested in tax rates as Becky and I, typically when you sell a property that's been used as a rental, if you've been taking straight line depreciation, which for residential property is 27 and a half years, then that depreciation that you've taken, that unrecaptured gain is recaptured on the tax return in the year that you sell it; if you don't, 1031 exchange at your ordinary income rate, up to 25% is the cap. So whichever is less. For those people who are listening who are real estate professionals or using short term rental strategies, and you've taken an accelerated depreciation expense; that's different. There's no cap on that. So the cap on recapturing that depreciation is the highest income tax rate. So 37%. Yeah.

[00:11:28] So do you work with a lot of folks in your practice that own rented properties?

[00:11:35] Becky Noss: It's, yeah, it's surprisingly common. I often, more often see what I call the accidental landlord than I do the intentional landlord; just due to the nature of the constant moves of the military. And sometimes, they've either gotten in on a property, something like back when Covid hit and we've had this massive increase in rental prices and it's just a viable rental right away. Or even for people who bought right before the crash of 08, now it's under water. And so they're renting just to try to keep up with things because they can't sell it without taking a massive loss. We have people who are thrown into this rental position that they weren't really anticipating. Some people find they really like it. Some people don't like it, but that's all they know. They haven't really done many other things towards savings, and so they just keep on going. So some of what we're doing is looking at, hey, is this a profitable rental? Do we really want to keep holding this or is this something that maybe we should offload? And then of course, the tax consequences and benefits that we are potentially giving up if we don't sell it by a set time. But yes, we see a lot of that. 

[00:12:48] Cynthia Meyer: Do you find that many of your clients are interested in adding to their real estate portfolios, like maybe retiring to real estate, retiring from the military to real estate, for example?

[00:12:57] Becky Noss: Some of them do. There's a huge variance in kind of what people want to after the military. We see some people- I've got one person that bought a camper and drove down to Mexico with their kids. And they're spending a year just driving around south America and Central America.

[00:13:16] And then we have others that jump right from a professional field into their professional field in the civilian sector. We see some people who focus on real estate. There's actually a number of groups out there that specifically focus on military members who want to become real estate focused as their job when they leave the military.

[00:13:37] And then we see some people who get out and maybe they hold onto that one rental they've got 'cause they've just had it, but they're doing kind of a less professional, just something to keep 'em busy type job. I had one guy who says, I do yoga in the morning and I work at the gun place in the afternoon and shoot guns 'cause that's what I like doing and I've never been less stressed. And that's what they do is they, hang out at the gun place and sell ammo 'cause they get a discount at the range. Sometimes they see those people who really want to focus on real estate, but more often than not, it was again, that accidental landlord and so the interest in the real estate isn't there, it was just, they stumbled into having it and that was just part of what they have.

[00:14:19] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah. So I find that interesting. Now, we have many clients that are former members of the military, but not as many active duty people. I mean,  that's a situation where talking to a military financial planner I think is really helpful because there's so many things that are really specific that you want your planner to have knowledgeable about benefits, what happens when you move about things like this Section 121 exemption on how it applies to military homeowners. I think is important to get professional guidance from somebody that, that is specializing in this area.

[00:14:55] Becky Noss: Absolutely. 

[00:14:56] Cynthia Meyer: While somebody's particularly, while somebody's on active duty. 

[00:14:59] Becky Noss: Yeah. But even for veterans, because this does some of your benefits, like this extend past. When you get out that suspension ends, but you still have those three years where you could get the full exclusion and if you're working with someone who doesn't know that, then you know, even when you get out there's definitely some education benefits up there that you really want to have a military knowledgeable planner for. The transition period is a really big one, when you can benefit from someone with military knowledge.

[00:15:29] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah. And for any of the planners listening, we'll put an article or two, a resource about this for financial planners in the show notes so that you can read more about it and then refer to somebody like Becky.

[00:15:40] So I want to go back to your personal story for a little bit, Becky. It sounds like your mom was a CPA, right? So it sounds like you were pretty well versed in tax lingo at a young age, which I think many people come- I've been a financial planner for a long time, since the mid 1990s, but I find that really there isn't enough education in the curriculum, in my opinion, about tax questions. And our clients don't separate the tax questions from the financial planning questions, right? And so it's super important that financial planner be knowledgeable so that, of course we're going to refer to a tax preparer but we need to know what the issues are. The big issues that you see you would like to make sure that all financial planners know about working with military families?

[00:16:35] Becky Noss: Yeah, so as far as tax elements for financial for military members, obviously the 121 is probably the biggest one. There's also things like military members can deduct moving expenses, whereas for most other people...

[00:16:50] Cynthia Meyer: that was the rest best. We can't anymore. 

[00:16:52] Becky Noss: ...with the, yeah. With the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. And then the other one is the huge thing for a spouse, if they have a service member that passes; with the HEART Act where they can take that SGLI and they can take the other a hundred thousand dollars from the government and move that into a Roth IRA. You have to do that within a year of receiving the funds. But as far as tax planning goes, that is just..

[00:17:17] Cynthia Meyer: That's a biggie. 

[00:17:18] Becky Noss: Oh yeah. I mean, $600,000 growing tax free instead of somewhere where it's taxed is five digit differential by the time we're done with their plan, often. So I'd say those are probably the biggest tax things. 

[00:17:33] The other few would be that they are eligible for PSLF often if they've worked for 10 years in the military. So making sure they're applying for that and they're on the correct payment plan. Although again, student loans right now...

[00:17:45] Cynthia Meyer: The public student loan forgiveness.

[00:17:48] Yes. The public student loan forgiveness. And then also if someone has a hundred percent disability and they take out parent PLUS loans for their children, those are eligible for a hundred percent forgiveness automatically. 

[00:18:06] You have taught me something new. I did not know that. 

[00:18:09] Becky Noss: Yep. 

[00:18:10] Cynthia Meyer: If a veteran is on a hundred percent disability, then they take their parent PLUS loan for additional help for their child's go to college. Hopefully, their child would've taken their own student loans at that point. Then they can, they're eligible for loan forgiveness if their child works in a similar situation for regular loan forgiveness.

[00:18:28] Becky Noss: Nope, their child doesn't need, it's not about the child at all. The person who takes out the loan is the person who owns that loan, and so the forgiveness is based on them. It does not matter what the child does. As a service member? Well, a veteran at that point, 'cause you have to get out before you're rated, but if they have that a hundred percent rating, they take out the parent PLUS loans, the VA is actually linked in with the student loan system and so they will try to automatically forgive them after the first round. You have to defer that until you're done taking out parent PLUS loans, because forgiveness due to disability is something you can with very rare exceptions, only get once. And you defer that until you're done taking out parent PLUS loans and at that point you apply for the forgiveness due to disability and the loans are gone. Has to be the service member though, that takes them out. Can't be the...

[00:19:22] Cynthia Meyer: Not the student.

[00:19:23] Becky Noss: No. Not the student. 

[00:19:24] Cynthia Meyer:  That sounds like something that would be really important for somebody to know. 

[00:19:28] Becky Noss: Yeah. 

[00:19:29] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah. So you are still a military family, right?

[00:19:34] Becky Noss: Correct. Yeah.

[00:19:35] Cynthia Meyer: Are you still moving around a lot?

[00:19:37] Becky Noss: Oh, yes. We are moving here in two months actually. So we are in that whole process of, just made the decision, do we want to list or rent? And we went with selling the house. So we've just gotten on the market and we are moving out here in about two months.

[00:19:51] Cynthia Meyer: And when you say moving out here, you mean moving to...

[00:19:55] Becky Noss: We'll be moving to Pennsylvania. So we're leaving Florida and moving out this house.

[00:19:59] Cynthia Meyer: So you'll be my neighbor next door. Where in Pennsylvania?

[00:20:02] Becky Noss: Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

[00:20:04] Cynthia Meyer: I'm sorry, where?

[00:20:05] Becky Noss: Carlisle?

[00:20:06] Cynthia Meyer: Okay.

[00:20:07] Becky Noss: Yeah. Near the Hershey Gettysburg area. It is near Mechanicsburg.

[00:20:13] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah. Yeah, so about three hours away from me. That's very cool. It does snow around here.

[00:20:19] Becky Noss: I know, although we got hit, I tell you what, we got six inches of snow and caved in our patio this past summer.

[00:20:26] Cynthia Meyer: Really? Oh, that's amazing. On the panhandle right now. Oh, your kids must have been thrilled.

[00:20:30] They were.

[00:20:30] So you're still moving around. This is something that you're living. I'm curious how- since you've become a financial planner, how have you found that this particular career as a financial planner, how have you found that kind of the pros and cons of doing this as somebody who is also living with regular relocations.

[00:20:51] Becky Noss: Yeah, I think part of being a good military planner is having experienced some of that military life because there's so much that you just can't understand until you've been in the trenches doing it. Things like your pay is just all messed up or you just don't get paid back for something that you're supposed to for months and being able to empathize and understand that or that experience of, oh, we got orders one place and just kidding, now we're going somewhere else. And oh wait, but they've redone 'em again for the third time. I've lived that or that worry of, is my spouse going to make it home for me to have this baby? Right. I've lived that too. And so having that understanding and that ability to relate to my clients is really important because you can learn the technical aspects as well as anybody up for any kind of niche, but to really connect with your clients, having been through those experiences is really helpful.

[00:21:58] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah, when I talk to new financial planners who are just getting started, I always encourage them to don't just focus on some group of people that you think are going to have a lot of assets to manage or are going to help you build your business, right? Focus on the people that we can help. Our life experience has prepared us to add value to that person or family, right? We can create transformations for them. I'm a big believer in financial mentorship and the financial mentorship model, right? Where we are working with people that are, maybe a decade or two decades behind us, or in some cases it's just a couple years behind us where we can really say, Hey, we've done this. We want to show you how you can do it, too. 

[00:22:41] Becky Noss: Yeah. It's definitely important and also just helping the people that are new and jumping into the field to get up to speed on all those nuances is important. I like working with the clients that are younger than me. I also like working with the clients that have already gotten outta the military. They're retired, they're veterans because one of the things I can bring being a little bit on the younger side for an advisor is that they're not going to have to change advisors. They can stay with me through the end of their plan. They have that continuity. So I feel like I'm very blessed to be kind in that sweet spot where I've got enough life experience that people aren't necessarily looking at me and going, does your mommy know you're an advisor?

[00:23:23] Cynthia Meyer: You can teach somebody, but you're also experienced enough that you can help people that are in a later life stage.

[00:23:30] Becky Noss: Exactly.

[00:23:30] Cynthia Meyer: Yeah. It, it's an interesting career. I think I said this to somebody not too long ago. This is the only career where you gain more street cred the older you get.

[00:23:40] Becky Noss: Yes, absolutely.

[00:23:43] Cynthia Meyer: What other benefits are available to military members and families that they should take advantage of?

[00:23:51] Becky Noss: So a big one is the SCRA and the MLA. These are laws that really protect our service members. They limit how much interest creditors can charge. They prevent things like foreclosures on homes, especially if someone's been ordered to active duty overseas or in a combat zone. They've recently included that the military spouse can claim the residency for state purposes of their state that they're originally in, the state of their spouse, or the state where they're stationed, which can have pretty significant implications.

[00:24:26] And then also the licensing portability where you can move your license from one state to another without having to jump through the hoops like you would if you were normally moving. And then of course there's the benefits like using the ED center. There's a lot of free resources that you would have to pay for with subscriptions and stuff through the library. There's a lot of credit cards that will waive fees and such if you're a military member, you just have to apply and ask for that SCRAMLA benefit. 

[00:24:55] Cynthia Meyer: So just to dig into the licensing question for a minute, does that mean, for example, if somebody's a registered nurse and they move, say from Florida to Pennsylvania, that they can opt- they can work in Pennsylvania without having to go through the relicensing process?

[00:25:11] Becky Noss: Sometimes they have to go through the relicensing process but basically it says that Pennsylvania has to recognize their license and give them credit and allow them to work until they have finalized the process to apply and gotten there. It helps prevent that break in service or ability to work. It depends on the profession because some professions, different states will have agreements and if your state that you're moving to and from already has that agreement, you have to fall into the requirements for that interstate agreement. However, if there's no interstate agreement, basically the federal government has said, we're forcing you to have one.

[00:25:55] Cynthia Meyer:  If somebody say was a hairstylist, right? They should be able to move from exactly from one to another or something else that requires a license. I would think like maybe being a lawyer, that might be a little harder.

[00:26:05] Becky Noss: The lawyers is the only profession that was excluded, but all the medical professions, real estate, anything from, like beauty salon or hair beauty. The mechanic or whatever credentialing you need for kind of that type of work. Teaching is a big one. We have a lot of teachers and spouses. All of those have portability now, so they can be, the states are required as long as you have been actively licensed in good standing in the state you're in before you move. They have to recognize it in the state until it can basically give you a provisional license until you have finalized the process to have it and there may even be a requirement to have it expedited, although I'd have to go back and see if that was federally mandated or just some states do that but that's a really big one for military spouses. 

[00:26:58] Cynthia Meyer: What are some of the benefits for somebody who is deployed? What are some of the tax and financial benefits?

[00:27:06] Becky Noss: Yeah, the big one obviously is that, you can contribute to TSP above the 23,500 normal contribution- your elective deferral, you can contribute up to 70,000 as long as the money above your elective deferral is going to traditional and it's while you're in a combat zone. So this will be tax exempt money going in, but it has to go into that traditional style, and it has to be contributed while you're there.

[00:27:35] There is the SDP, which is the Savings Deposit Program, you can get $10,000. At 10% guaranteed growth in a savings account while you're deployed. There's an email for the IRS where you can let them know that you've been deployed and then you get a automatic extension for not only when you file, but when you pay your taxes and also the ability to contribute to IRAs.

[00:28:02] So that extension is 180 days after the date you get back plus whatever time you were in the combat zone and could have taken that action. I have people who have deployed and for a year and a half, they were stationed in Bahrain and then they're still able to contribute to their IRAs to years later because they had the full year and 15 months plus 180 days from when they got back.

[00:28:30] Cynthia Meyer: Does that include the spousal IRA contribution? 

[00:28:32] Becky Noss: Yep. 

[00:28:33] Cynthia Meyer: Wow. Wow. And for the larger deferrals into the TSP is that income dependent? If you made 80,000, you could contribute 70,000, right?

[00:28:45] Becky Noss: You can do that. It has to be from your military pay. So it's that direct deferral, just like a normal TSP contribution. They do restrict your traditional contribution. You can't do all of, like, you can't put in your BH and such because they want to make sure you still have money to live off of and all. 

[00:29:03] Cynthia Meyer: Well, probably if you're deployed, you're not paying groceries, but.

[00:29:07] Becky Noss: But your spouse might be. 

[00:29:08] Cynthia Meyer: That's very interesting. So did you have a mentor in your business?

[00:29:12] Becky Noss: I did at one of the firms that I was previously employed in. Right now, I have a solo practice, so I don't have anyone that I'm working under me, but in the firm I was at previous to launching my own firm, I had a number of people that I mentored, worked with, and I'm still good friends with them. We have a conference for military finance that happens every year, and I'm sharing a room with one of them when we get there. We stay in touch and definitely bounce ideas and content back and forth on each other, as needed. But yeah. So I have mentored some.

[00:29:48] Cynthia Meyer: And you're an XYPN, right?

[00:29:50] Becky Noss: I am, yes. I'm an XYPN.

[00:29:51] Cynthia Meyer: Are you in the military mastermind?

[00:29:54] Becky Noss: I am. Yep. Yeah, and there's a conference. It's coming up here about a month that is the MilMoneyCon and it is phenomenal. It's like a mini XYPN. XYPN is a phenomenal conference. But if I had to pick only one conference to go to in a year, it would be MilMoneyCon, just because it's so rich and deep in the content that I specialize in. We have the DOJ there, we have DOD there, we have tons of advisors who are very knowledgeable and it's an excellent conference for anyone. We have spouses, lots of spouses, military spouses come just to learn about finances for their own personal life. So you don't have to be an advisor to go and it's wonderful. 

[00:30:39] Cynthia Meyer: Tell me what the most important thing is that you've learned about yourself since you started your own business.

[00:30:46] Becky Noss: I think the most important thing I've learned is to be confident. I think a lot of people, and this is common throughout the industry, when you first launch, you have a little bit of that imposter syndrome where you're like, am I really a business owner now on top of being an advisor? And so really just growing in that confidence to say, yeah, I've got this. I can do it.

[00:31:08] Cynthia Meyer: So if we were having this conversation 10 years from now and everything turned out exactly the way that you wanted it to in your practice, what does that look like?

[00:31:19] Becky Noss: Yeah, so 10 years from now, I will be sending my youngest- well just gone off to college.

[00:31:26] So I think at that point I'll actually have started growing the business a little more again. Right now, my intent is to cap at a smaller level clientele; just to allow that work-life balance. And so 10 years from now, I'd like to have probably 50 to 60 clients that I'm working with. I would consider having a second advisor, maybe an admin in there just to that have that smaller boutique style plan where I've got more than just me working. I would like to see the same clients that I have today with me at that point and I love getting to watch people grow in their life and achieve their goals and be able to help facilitate that.

[00:32:08] So that would be my dream is to be able to have added a few more clients, but really enjoy the fulfillment and richness of seeing the people I have get to where they want to be.

[00:32:20] Cynthia Meyer: While we finish up here. A couple of questions that I usually ask folks. Best piece of advice that you've ever received.

[00:32:29] Becky Noss: Best piece of advice for finances, it's definitely that live within your means, right? Your habits are going to dictate your success more than mutual fund A over B. Those nuances absolutely do add up, but really, if you build good habits, you're going to set yourself up for success.

[00:32:51] Cynthia Meyer: I completely agree with that, right? Everybody who has big aspirations for retiring at all, much less retiring early, for example, or for hitting a big goal like buying a property or sending to college, you have to create some white space between what you bring home and what you spent, right? And invest that in things that grow like securities and rental properties, and sometimes investing in your own business.

[00:33:14] What are you curious about right now?

[00:33:16] Becky Noss: So I'm really curious about how the financial landscape is going to change in the next couple years. We have the TCJA that's about to sunset. Will they allow it to sunset? Will they not? And then, also I'm interested to see the changes they've started to bring into the military element as far as- they've just introduced the DCFSA, the healthcare FSA. They've said they're going to allow in plan conversions for military members in TSP. So, I'm really interested to see for that. Will they allow the tax exempt combat zone money to move independently or are they going to make it move pro rata? Yeah, there's a lot of kind of nuances in finances that I'm really interested to see where they end up and how they work out.

[00:34:03] Cynthia Meyer: You are a wealth of knowledge and I have really enjoyed talking to you today. If somebody would like to contact you, where can they find you online?

[00:34:13] Becky Noss: Yep, so you can find me online@healthywealthfinancial.com. That's the website. You can just go to the get started link and reach out to me there. And then obviously I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well.

[00:34:26] Cynthia Meyer: So we'll put that in the show notes and thank you very much, Becky, and we will see everybody next time.

[00:34:34] Becky Noss: Thank you so much for having me.    

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