Ask June

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.

Unusual military divorce question…

January 27, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: My ex-spouse receives a por­tion of my mil­i­tary retire­ment. She refuses to pro­vide infor­ma­tion for direct deposit from DFAS. I send her a check each month. There­fore I am pay­ing the taxes on her por­tion as well as mine. Because of this I was directed to report her pay­ments as a deduction/alimony on my taxes. Is this cor­rect? –Michael,

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Taxes, belated retired pay split

January 22, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: My new wife is enti­tled to 50 per­cent of her for­mer spouse’s mil­i­tary retire­ment. She received her first DFAS pay­ment last month. How­ever, the for­mer spouse start­ing get­ting his DFAS pay­ments last sum­mer. (He REFUSED to sign doc­u­ments for direct DFAS pay­ments to her prior to his first pay­ment and we had to get a QDRO writ­ten to enforce

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Child support doesn’t end with service!

January 20, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: If my ex hus­band is get­ting out of the Army, will my child sup­port end the month he is get­ting out? –Char­maine, Yuma, Ariz. A: Your ex-husband has likely been directed to pay child sup­port via your divorce decree until your kiddo reaches a par­tic­u­lar age. This will apply regard­less of where your ex works. The fact that he’s end­ing his

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Ins and outs of buying a home

January 16, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: I would like to know the steps I need to take to have some idea on how to get started on a VA home loan. I really don’t have a clue on what houses or loca­tions are avail­able or how to apply. Can you send me some infor­ma­tion on what to do and where to do it? –William, Los Angeles, Calif.

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Making sense of pay stub acronyms

January 14, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: On the retire­ment pay state­ment, what does FITW and SITW stand for? –Ann, Sch­enec­tady, N.Y.  A: The mil­i­tary isn’t the only orga­ni­za­tion to use acronyms to save time and space, but we’ve prob­a­bly led by exam­ple! In this case, the acronyms are pretty sim­ple to define, but are very impor­tant as we near the time of year when prepar­ing our

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SGLI premiums remain behind at separation

January 12, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: What hap­pens to the money that is paid into the Sailor’s SGLI? When the Sailor sep­a­rates, retires, or leaves the Navy? –Michael, Chesa­peake, Va. A: Ser­vice­mem­bers Group Life Insur­ance (SGLI) is group term insur­ance. Term insur­ance has no cash value or invest­ment com­po­nent, it is what we call “pure” insur­ance. You pay the pre­mium and you get the cov­er­age in

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Government raises across the benefit’s board in 2012

January 8, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: I am a widow receiv­ing DIC.…If vet­eran ben­e­fits go up mon­e­tary wise, does that also mean that the money I receive from DIC will go up too? I am also col­lect­ing my husband’s Social Secu­rity as a widow. I see that Social Secu­rity is going up in 2012. Will my widow’s ben­e­fit go up too? –Bar­bara, Vir­ginia Beach, Va. A:

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HEART Act provisions help plan for retirement, kid’s education

January 6, 2012 • June Walbert

Q: June, I am a Finan­cial Coun­selor for the US Army Reserve Sur­vivor Out­reach Ser­vices (and a USAA mem­ber). Can you tell me if the ben­e­fits of the HEART Act regard­ing the increased con­tri­bu­tion limit for Roth IRAs for ben­e­fi­cia­ries of SGLI is restricted to only active duty sol­diers? I am cur­rently work­ing with the mother of an ARNG soldier

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Don’t let your finances spook you!

January 1, 2012 • June Walbert

I meant to post this in Octo­ber! Read my spooky  per­sonal finance tips fea­tured today on Mot­ley Fool.  http://​www​.fool​.com/​i​n​v​e​s​t​i​n​g​/​g​e​n​e​r​a​l​/​2​0​1​1​/​1​0​/​3​1​/​d​o​n​t​-​l​e​t​-​y​o​u​r​-​f​i​n​a​n​c​e​s​-​s​p​o​o​k​-​y​o​u​.​a​spx

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Using GI Bill may preclude unemployment benefits

December 30, 2011 • June Walbert

Q: I will be get­ting out of the mil­i­tary next month and I am enrolled in col­lege. Can I receive unem­ploy­ment after my last mil­i­tary pay check while I am in school receiv­ing my Post 9–11 GIB which cov­ers my rent? –Jonathan, US Mil­i­tary A:  If you’ve read this col­umn, you know I’m a big fan of edu­ca­tion – and am

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