Reserve Airman/DOD Civilian Free Financial Counseling

  • Published
  • By Mr. Kevin Startt
  • 94th Airlift Wing

Reserve Citizen Airmen and DOD Civilians in need of financial counseling and direction can receive it free and confidentially from 94th Airlift Wing Personal Financial Counselor (PFC), Mr. Kevin Startt.

The Personal Financial Counselor Program, as part of Military Financial Readiness, in Room 1322, Building 838, offers a broad variety of services ranging from credit management and budgeting to retirement planning, savings and investments. The services are also available to military dependents. Military retirees can take advantage of the services up to 180 days after separation.

Startt provides completely confidential support through counseling, training and monthly workshops to help individuals improve their financial planning and decision making. His workshops include all Common Military Training (CMT) vector training as well as developing spending plans, PCS and deployment planning, home/car buying, TSP planning and much more. Startt also oversees a joint venture with the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) to partner with local Certified Public Accountants (CPA) to process taxes for Airman at Dobbins. Each year, the program has seen tremendous growth, despite the pandemic, and has returned hundred of thousand of dollars in refunds through the process. Kevin is a complete fiduciary, meaning that he has no outside conflicts of interest and implies total trust in the relationship with 400 plus airmen and officers that he has counseled on base during the last 5 years at Dobbins. Most of the 400, he adds are repeat customers for a one-off question or in-depth planning session.

Startt brings 40 plus years of certified planning to Family Readiness. He grew locally a couple of blocks from Dobbins ARB and comes from a military family working with military families during his personal financial planning career. Mr. Startt also worked as an executive for mutual fund companies serving as National or Regional Sales Manager. “My deployment was a trip weekly to the airport to fly around the country coaching financial wholesaler before returning to personal financial planning,” Startt says. “I also moved 14 times in 12 years before settling down in Marietta and marrying his high school sweetheart of 45 years, Caron. Startt’s father in law was in the Navy and was lead supervisor on the C-130 stretch at it’s inception in the late 1960s and 1970s.

The personal financial counseling program is here at Dobbins to assess current financial situations and help advise Airmen on actions they should take to create and reach short, intermediate and long-term goals. Startt emphasizes, however, that he cannot provide specific advice on a stock or insurance company or TSP fund option. “We are a Compass and a Barometer. As a compass, we are going to point you in the right direction, and as a barometer, we are going to a sensitivity what is going on financially periodically to keep you on track.

The personal financial counselor program is available Monday through Friday, in person or virtually from 8 a.m to 5 p.m and on UTA weekends during the same hours. Mr. Startt can be reached at 404-226-9478 and by e-mail at PFC.dobbins.usafr@Zeiders.com.