One Personal Finance Course Could Someday Influence the Entire United States Military

The USAA Educational Foundation is partnering with Texas A&M University to prepare the military leaders of tomorrow with a financial education today.

By Jordan Herr '23

Photos by Josh Lewis

November 12, 2024

A career in the United States military is marked by singular characteristics unlike any other profession—a dedication to the nation, a lifelong bond with fellow service members and a commitment to a cause greater than any individual person. But such a particular professional also comes with its own nuanced considerations.

“Military service offers some terrific benefits to service members and their families, but the nature of military life can also create some unique financial situations,” said Texas A&M assistant professor of practice Scott Halliwell, CFP®. “For instance, military families are often required to relocate every few years. This means your budget and cost of living are always changing. Even car purchases that made sense at one location might not necessarily make sense at the next one.”

To best prepare the men and women who dedicate their lives to service, Halliwell teaches a course in personal finance for future military service members. Housed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Financial Readiness (FINP 335) is one of two financial literacy courses offered through the Financial Planning Program. Tailored specifically to the Corps of Cadets, the three-credit-hour course covers topics such as budgeting, money management, investing, and credit and debit—all framed within the context of a military perspective.

A Military-Minded Partnership

The course launched in 2016 as a joint effort between the Texas A&M Financial Planning Program and the USAA Educational Foundation. Founded by USAA, a financial services company for military members and their families, the USAA Educational Foundation is an independent charitable foundation that seeks to improve financial readiness for the military community. With this goal in mind, the organization is increasing its efforts to support the course by establishing an endowed professorship in financial readiness. This professorship will provide an extra source of discretionary funding to endlessly improve the course and provide premier classroom experiences to future service members. Once awarded, it will ensure the course continues to be taught to members of the Corps of Cadets while the professor serves national level thought leader in personal finance for military members.

Professor Scott Halliwell with members of his Financial Readiness (FINP 335) course from the fall 2024 semester.

“Texas A&M is one of the leading military-serving institutions, and a partnership like this only makes sense,” said David Evetts, president of the USAA Educational Foundation. “Given the USAA Educational Foundation’s mission to help military members and their families achieve financial security, we wanted to create a long-term commitment to supporting Texas A&M and the Corps of Cadets.”

Dr. Nathan Harness, director of the Financial Planning Program, is ecstatic about the endowed professorship—not only for the ways it will elevate the program but also for what it represents. “It’s a testament to the Texas A&M Financial Planning Program and USAA Educational Foundation’s collaborative efforts in promoting financial readiness, especially within the Corps of Cadets. This endowment ensures that continuity of our initiatives will bring financial literary to our campus and beyond, and these efforts will be embedded into the very nature of our curriculum in perpetuity.”

One Class, Two Missions

As the course’s professor, Halliwell knows the exponential impact it can have on future military members. “The course definitely prepares students to make better financial decisions for themselves, but it also prepares them to help their future subordinates work through financial situations they might face, which is almost guaranteed to take place.”

After educating students on managing their own finances, the course seeks to teach these future leaders how to counsel those under their command in financial decisions. Nathan Miller ’23, a former member of the Corps of Cadets and a current active-duty officer in the Air Force, views this leadership mission as being of the upmost importance.

Members of the Corps of Cadets gather after their Financial Readiness class near the Academic Plaza on main campus.

“When it comes to finances, you typically mirror what you learn from your parents—and their knowledge is only as good as what they learned from their parents,” he explained. He believes the Financial Readiness course instilled in him a deeper awareness of his personal finances. “I was blessed to have a family who helped me understand these things, but not everyone is as lucky. Having this information to pass on to young, enlisted airmen is so important to help them get started on the right foot.”

Former enlisted Marine Colm Grove ’26 took the Financial Readiness course while participating in an enlisted-to-officer program that will allow him to reenter active duty in the Marine Corps as an officer after graduation. He extolled the course as one of Texas A&M’s most influential curriculums because of its real-world impact.

“The class actually prepared me to be a Marine officer,” Grove said. “It’s all about providing an extra tool—in this case, financial literacy—in future officers’ toolkits to help make them better leaders. It taught me how to lead by example in my finances.”

Chain of Command to Chain Reaction

Expressing excitement for the new professorship’s forthcoming impact, Evetts said their corporate partnership with Texas A&M “proves we can support success in the classroom and provide a dedicated resource for the larger Aggie military community—specifically the Corps of Cadets but also Texas A&M’s veteran population.” But even beyond Aggieland, this professorship will have an exponential effect across the United States military.

As an endowed resource, the USAA Educational Foundation’s gift will provide perpetual support to the Financial Readiness course and continually elevate it, equipping more and more future military leaders each year with the necessary tools to counsel their future troops. Thus, as the program grows, thousands of United States military members who have never stepped a combat-booted foot on Texas A&M’s campus will eventually benefit from the traces of an Aggie education.

“If you look at the military in general, it’s roughly 80% enlisted and 20% officers, and many of those enlisted members sign up to serve right out of high school. As a result, we’ll simply never get the chance to directly teach a lot of them about personal finance in a classroom setting the way we can in FINP 335,” said Halliwell. “However, by instilling both an understanding of personal finances in their future leaders and the confidence to guide others in what they learned, we’re helping to ensure that this information passes down through the military ranks.”

Through a corporate gift for Texas A&M University, your organization can inspire the next generation of professionals and create a legacy for your company’s values. Learn more by contacting Heather Hirsch ’12, director of corporate relations, at the bottom of this page.