It's Tuesday, my dudes. Be here Thursday *this is not financial advice

I talk a lot of shit on linked in. It's a bit stressful, but someone has to do it and I have a DD214 blanket, so I volunteered as tribute. With LinkedIn premium, you get to see who reads your content - I really enjoy sifting through the list to see who is watching us in the shaddows. Yesterday, the assistant deputy commandant of manpower and reserve affairs commented on this poll: Do you know the answer? What do you think? I'm excited that he did, because Algorithmically speaking, I know several Generals are going to get introduced to Freelance Corporal because of it. I'm interested to see who supports this cause, and who tries to hide us under a rug. We will be tactful, we will be respectful, but we will be heard. Also, please for the love of sweet baby Jesus go make a LinkedIn account. You get premium for free, and we can all connect and endorse each other for skills that will make you far more competitive for civilian jobs. Anyways... your underpaid gunny or boot captain may not tell you today, but I appreciate the hard work you're doing. It's not for nothing!

Hey gang! I tend to get really sucked into working on web design nonsense, and can become a bit of a social zombie... it's something I'm working on. This project takes up about 90% of my headspace. Working on freelcpl began as a school project. I had this idea to "gamify finance" in order to make it easier to learn about. After graduating the idea became a personal passion. I filed an LLC, learned how to build a website, and filed for a trademark. Lots of Marines were interested, so we self funded an app build, and conducted a pilot study. This study was conducted by an applied psychology graduate student at USC. The research went well and we found what we wanted to... so I took the results to the VA and the DoD to share the results. Knowing how much the DoD spent on the last app aimed towards helping us learn how to do money good, I was very optimistic that they would have resources to help us. They did not. Was it a kick in the nuts? Kind of... Fortunately my second tour as a Lance Corporal taught me how to have the lowest of expectations from our shiny collared leaders. Onward. I guess I'm just trying to "share the load", if you will. This has been a long, hard effort - and we still have a good ways to go. It will be fun, it will be miserable. A cocktail I learned to enjoy in our beloved gun club, amirite? As always, stay tuned for more exciting announcements. Promoting the freelcpl brand is not my strongest suit (getting promoted in general has been a weak point...) These imperfections asside, I know what's on the horizon and I can't wait for you to see it too. Keep working hard, someone appreciates you! Disrespectfully to those who need it, And lovingly to everyone elese, -LCpl Brandon

Happy Thursday, killers Whether you're a POG, or a grunt. Whether you're a vet, or poolee. Whether you're a Private or a Colonel. Whether you're her boot, or his flop - you're a perfect pair with freelcpl. We love you just the way you are, you drunken isle of misfit bastards. Anyways, tell your doody that tonight is a general clean up. The Smaj passed it at the very end of the safety stand down and most of the unit missed it, but it's true - Gomez was there and he heard it too.

You little stinkers better not be using the unit pages to place bets on the foozeball game! If I see any talk of pools, point spreads, money lines, over/unders, or parlays I'll be forced to get involved... ...in the action, who's got what? 😎

A few months ago I ran into Donny at a conference in Vegas We had a great talk about all the things Marines love to discuss: finance, app development, and entrepreneurship... We ran into each other again last week at an event in San Francisco, and seemed to have got the ball rolling on some sort of collaboration. Not positive what it will look like just yet... but I love VetTV and their mission, and they like us and what we're trying to do. In other words, we've sniffed each others asses and like what we smell. I asked Donny if he'd donate a signed picture of his silky meat as a prize, and he said yes - so I've immediately taken to the internet to tell everyone I know. Budgeting, and most of the educational bullshit around it is boring AF. Donny is exceptionally talented at bringing a fun loving attitude to difficult tasks. I'm proud and excited to have him on the app. Let's kick the week off right with a goal. Log below!

There's a good chance my goals will fizzle out before February like they have for my last 30 laps around the sun... but this year is different. This year I'm keeping track of my goals here, where I can't lie to myself about them. The payday ¢hallenge costs five bucks per paycheck, and at least half of the money goes into a cash pot that we'll give to one of the players - this is our solution to the problem the pentagon can't fix (and wouldn't give us money for...) but I digress. Play ball! To growth! 💪

During my short tenure as a Corporal, one of my Marines could barely read and write. He got made fun of for it (often), but we slowly taught him how to make words on paper. This skill matters. Many Marines were never taught how to use spreadsheets, like Microsoft Excel, or Google Sheets - the way your money is displayed to you through your banks app interface. Do you see the problem yet? We laid out a typical LCPLs budget with color coding, so that even after your Marine eats all of their crayons, they can still figure out where there money went. But I think we can do even better for our jar-headed peers. Look at the green box at the bottom right of this image: You'll find spending goals for each day ($21), week ($159), Month ($637), and Year ($7,648). The box at the very bottom tells you what this money would add up to at your EAS date. This example uses a devil getting out on June 20, 2026 - they could easily get out with 15 or 20 grand in the bank, with a little bit of effort. Effort can be a tricky little bitch, though. You can absolutely bust your ass, working as hard as you can, and still end up with less than nothing - this is bull shit, and we can fix it. I propose that if an 18 year old American PFC doesn't know how to spell, it's safe to assume they could be deceived financially. That would be simply unacceptable. The following image depicts the exact same information as the calculator above, only it is laid out visually. Does this give a better picture of where this Marine's money goes? To me, $637 seems like a pretty good chunk of change to party for a month. Especially because we already saved and set aside $150 for beer! My goal for the new year happens to be $21 per day, which I will be keeping track of in the payday challenge program. I predict that I'll pay more attention to the money I'm spending if I pay the $10 per month to challenge myself. At the end of the month, I'll have more money than if I didn't play the game. I'm playing because I can't afford not to. Can you? -LCPL Brandon, M.S.

🎼On the first of the month Lance Corporal said to me Set a budget goal and you'll be free On the second of the pay period Lance Corporal built for me Two fucking apps, Just set a budgetary goal you're freeeee 🎶 I'll post a winner later tonight, along with an exciting announcement around 9pm Pacific 😎

Hey team, Sorry for the lack of polls and prizes as of late... December can be a tough month on a number of fronts - check in with your friends and share a joke or a song or something. Listen to them bitch for a few minutes, and then tell them you miss them but you'll see them soon, it matters. I've been putting a lot of late night hours into some projects I'm excited to share with you through 2023. To hold myself to this timeline, let's do a 12 days of Christmas... thing. 🎼On the first of the month, LCpl gave to me A budgetary goal and now I'm freeeee 🎶 (We've started a day late, but it will work out because the 27th is an important day for me) 🚁🔫🍒

Good morning, Freelancers I was up early this morning reading through the pentagons most recent financial audit failure, and it reminded me of a lot of the frustrations I've been avoiding around this problem. In the interest of my deteriorating mental health, I had placed my notes aside for a couple weeks - but I am rested up and ready to get back to work. It's stressful throwing rocks at the pentagon, but I'm honestly just trying to get their attention to help them help themselves. The efforts often seem "disrespectful", or "untactful". This is our bread and butter. If you have a few moments this morning to leave us a review on the app/play store it would really help me stick it to the man. If you'd like to follow my mouthing off to the man more closely, check us out on LinkedIn. I'll show you how to get premium for free, and how to optimize your profile to get the job you want when you get out. Thank you for your continued efforts, and I'm super excited to show you what we have planned for January 1. Warmly, LCpl Brandon, M.S.