Get to Know Joshua Brooks, Financial Advisor for Lockheed Martin Employees & Executives

I try to talk as little as possible in a first conversation. A doctor asks before diagnosing. Same principle.

The questions I ask a military retiree: What is your biggest financial challenge right now? Where do you hope to be in three to five years? What do you do for fun?

Then the military ledger. Is your TSP all pretax, or did you contribute to the Roth side? What does your retired pay look like? What is your VA disability rating? I know that is personal, but it drives real planning decisions. What did you elect on SBP, and who depends on it? What is your clearance status?

Then the household. Does your spouse work? What does the family picture look like? How do you feel about paying for the kids’ college? What estate planning have you actually completed, not just researched?

And finally: how do you feel about your financial plan? Not the spreadsheet. The feeling.

Here is why I ask. Coordination is the most valuable part of a financial plan. Competence is the most important part of executing it. Empathy and understanding are the most important parts of the relationship between a client and an advisor. The answers tell me whether the pieces of your financial life were coordinated on purpose or are just individually reasonable. Those are different things, and the difference is where the damage hides.

I don’t think any benefit at Lockheed Martin is underutilized compared with the others.

However, I think it’s important to reframe the conversation around the quality of the company’s benefit stack. Smaller companies, generally, don’t possess the resources to offer a comprehensive set of benefits the way that larger firms can.

Therefore, the fact that employees are automatically enrolled at hire and matching contributions automatically and immediately vest shows Lockheed Martin’s commitment to providing a quality employee experience.

These things are helpful to understand because they aren’t required of the company; you could call them enhanced benefits or an incentive to work at and remain at the company. The company match is a layup that most people understand. In certain circumstances, people don’t contribute because they’re prioritizing other objectives.

Retiring from Lockheed Martin?

Get Before Your Last Day, a free printable Decision Map for sequencing your pension, 401(k), insurance, HSA, Social Security, and taxes.

Review their employment contract and benefits. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Many people are quick to take the first or second job offer because it provides comfort and security, then they get locked into that organizational culture.

In real estate, it’s location, location, location. At work, it’s culture, culture, culture. Culture wins hands down. Now you still have to earn a decent paycheck, but if you’re fighting with your boss or coworkers, how helpful is that? Salary matters, but so do PTO, attitudes, values, the overall benefits package, location, and executive leadership.

I also recommend consulting with Human Resources if a manager or supervisor doesn’t align with how you want to be treated or exhibits counterproductive leadership tendencies.

Some people should keep managing their own money. I have told prospective clients exactly that.

Picture a senior officer, a composite of people I have met, not a client. Spreadsheet pro. Rental properties handled. Estate documents signed. Steady temperament. Stable home life. He does not need me, and I would say so to his face. Managing your own money for twenty years with solid results means you did something right. You read the right books. Bogleheads, The Intelligent Investor, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. No shade. You are a rare breed.

So when does managing it alone stop being enough?

When you are not diversified. A good ten-year run is not a strategy. There is no free lunch, and very few professionals outperform the market over long periods, let alone the rest of us.

When you are constantly trading. Investor behavior, not investment selection, is where most self-managed plans bleed.

When investments are the only thing you manage. Investment management is one horse in the show. Insurance, tax, retirement income, and estate planning are the others, and coordination among them is where a plan earns its keep.

And when someone else would inherit the plan. If your spouse would be handed a spreadsheet and a filing cabinet, that is not a plan. That is homework for a grieving person.

Not everyone needs an advisor. Many people need an advisor. Which one are you?

Ask these questions of any advisor you are considering. Then watch how they answer. Some will be calm and explain. Some will hem and haw around the bush. That tells you plenty.

How do you get paid, and by whom? I am a fee-only financial planner. My clients pay me directly, and no one else does. Fee-only does not eliminate every conflict of interest, but it removes the most common ones, and I disclose the rest in writing in my Form ADV.

Are you a fiduciary at all times, in writing? I am.

Where is my money held? Your assets should sit at a third-party custodian, in your own name. Mine custody at Altruist. An advisor who resists this question is telling you something.

What credentials do you hold? I earned the CFP® certification in 2020. Ask what the letters after any advisor’s name actually require.

Who is your typical client? Mine are military retirees and transitioning senior leaders. Some want a full plan with investment management. Some want planning only. If an advisor cannot describe a typical client, you may be about to become whatever walks in the door.

And read the Form ADV before you sign anything. It is free, public, and where the honest answers live.

The stability is real, but it is concentrated.

Lockheed Martin is an extraordinary company, and defense work provides steady income and strong benefits. But your paycheck, any company stock you hold, and the health of your whole industry ride on one customer: the federal budget. Budget fights, continuing resolutions, and contract cycles are facts of life in this industry. You already know this better than most.

So two things shape the conversation.

First, structure. Hold enough cash to ride out a contract cycle without touching long-term money. And do not let company stock pile up unmonitored on top of a company paycheck. That is not diversification. That is keeping your eggs, your basket, and your grocery store in the same building.

Second, the clearance itself. Financial considerations are one of the adjudicative guidelines the government uses when it grants and reviews security clearances. For a cleared professional, a disciplined financial plan is not just about retirement. It protects the career that funds the retirement.

I have spent 22 years in the Army, first in the Infantry and now as a chaplain, with combat deployments in between. I serve military retirees, transitioning senior leaders, and professionals entering the defense industry. I tell them all the same thing: stability you haven’t stress-tested isn’t stability. It is an assumption.

The #1 mistake, hands down, is overconcentration. The #2 mistake is associated with #1: emotional investing. They feel like they know the company, its products, services, and widgets, but they’re not comparing the business to the total universe of investable assets, their portfolio composition, or their risk tolerance. Emotions are helpful tools and very powerful, but they can interfere with sound investing outcomes.

I want my clients to understand that risk tolerance is not necessarily about the maximum amount of risk you’re willing to take, but the amount that helps you sleep well at night. Naturally, people become more conservative if they’re relying on their retirement nest egg and, say, Social Security benefits. If you start planning ahead of time, this becomes a non-issue because you’ve saved enough or have enough income sources to feel comfortable. That’s not the case for everybody.

I would tell them that we need to take a closer look. For example, many people haven’t heard of Net Unrealized Appreciation. This is an advanced financial planning concept. Once you explain it, the lightbulb goes on.

Just schedule a brief conversation to talk it over with a professional. If you were doing a major landscaping project, air conditioning repair, or automotive maintenance, it’s not worth it to try to do it on your own.

BLUF: Evaluate your options as ruthlessly and as strategically as possible, and know that nothing forces a TSP decision on day one. Moving money should be the last decision you make, not the first.

Here is something worth knowing up front. Most advisors get paid when you transfer assets to their custodian. That is not a bad thing. Professional advice can be worth every penny. But it means anyone urging you to move your TSP quickly has an interest you should understand. Just like you would purchase a luxury sports car, a high-end appliance, or a riding lawn mower, you do your research. Read the reviews. Ask trusted friends. The same standard applies to this decision: who can you trust?

The real problem is bigger than the rollover question. You just left one retirement system and joined another, and the two were never designed to talk to each other. Your pension, your TSP, and your new Lockheed Martin 401(k) each make sense on their own. Uncoordinated, they drift.

Four steps, in order of march.

First, capture the employer money. Contribute at least enough to receive the full company contribution in the new plan. Check your plan documents for the current match structure.

Second, position your taxes. Your salary now stacks on top of a pension, and that combination usually puts you in a different bracket than you had in uniform. That changes the Roth-versus-pretax math. This is tax positioning, and it deserves a deliberate decision, not a default box-check.

Third, give each account a mission. The TSP is a solid vehicle, but you still have to drive it. It is low cost, it is simple, and the G Fund exists nowhere else. The new 401(k) is where your ongoing contributions and employer money land. Decide what each account is for before deciding where each account lives.

Fourth, and only now, the location decision. Leaving the TSP alone, consolidating into the 401(k), or rolling to an IRA each carries tradeoffs: costs, investment options, creditor protection, withdrawal rules, and what you give up when you leave. Consolidation is a choice, not a default.

Keep in mind: every employer plan has its own rules and procedures. Plan provisions vary by employee group and plan year, and TSP and tax rules change. Verify against current plan documents before acting. Every situation is different.

I am an Army Reserve chaplain, CFP® professional, husband, and father of four boys. As a fiduciary, I am required to act in your best interest, and I built my firm to do so.