Meet our Guest:
Meet Lizann Lightfoot and learn about transition as a geobachelor from a spouse’s perspective. Lizann is a 15 year military spouse, a mom of 5 kids, and a published author. She writes and speaks to encourage and uplift the community of military spouses and loved ones.
Show Notes:
In this episode, Lizann Lightfoot joins Jen to share her story of choosing to do a transition with a service member who is geographically separated during transition. Lizann and her family had anticipated that her husband would do his 20-year career and retire. However, when he was around 19 years, he was eligible for promotion, which meant an additional three years in the military, taking him to the 22-year mark. This decision impacted the family’s plans and led to doing his final tour as a geo-bachelor.
They purchased a house years in advance and rented it out until they were ready to occupy it themselves. This allowed them to financially plan for post-military retirement. However, being long-distance landlords and dealing with renters brought its own set of challenges. Lizann emphasizes that transitioning from military life to civilian life involves not just settling into a new home and school but also involves a loss of identity and major readjustments.
Finally, this episode discusses various resources available to military families, such as Hiring Our Heroes, a program that offers fully funded training and internship opportunities for veterans and spouses, and Veterati, a free mentorship program available to veterans and spouses. Lizann urges active-duty spouses to take advantage of these resources as they prepare to transition into civilian life.