Lizann Lightfoot raised five children on an enlisted Marine’s salary. She knows the financial stresses that come with being a military family.
“There were definitely moments where we were struggling, and if I had known a little bit more about financial terminology and some of the options and the products out there, it would’ve made me feel like I had more options in some of those very stressful situations,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot is the Vice President of Marketing at GoVA Foundation, a nonprofit providing financial education and literacy resources to military families and veterans. Its goal is to help the military community shore up their financial well-being from active duty through retirement.
“Our family definitely experienced a lot of the common financial challenges that military families face, everything from frequent moves and military spouse unemployment and living in high cost of living areas,” Lightfoot said. “So that has made me very passionate about wanting to provide resources that’ll help make a difference for our military families.”
Two years ago, GoVA launched The Edge, an interactive online digital education platform designed to give military families “the edge” on their financial education. C&F, a Virginia-based community bank, partnered with GoVA to provide fifteen qualified low and middle income military families in Virginia Beach with access to The Edge.
C&F executive vice president Matthew Steilberg said the bank has a passion for the armed forces.
“That’s why the GoVA Foundation’s work was something we knew we had to support,” Steilberg said in a statement. “In fact, it’s the foundation of our promise — to focus on the goals and needs of those around us, because when they succeed, we all succeed.”
In addition to providing the grant, C&F will host four financial literacy webinars in 2026, open to all GoVA members. Topics include budgeting and savings techniques from a C&F expert.
Partnerships like C&F’s make The Edge free for all military families. GoVA uses a broad definition to include as many military-affiliated people and veterans as possible.
Two years in, The Edge has about 8,000 members worldwide.
“We are hearing a lot of great member success stories where people are actually starting to make those small changes and see some differences,” Lightfoot said. “Some people have closed their budgeting leaks where they found subscriptions or unnecessary spending that was easy for them to close up and really improve their household budget.”
Because military families face unique challenges to securing financial health, traditional advice doesn’t always apply. For example, a 30-year mortgage may not be suitable for the average service member who moves every 2-4 years.
The Edge was designed with those military-specific challenges in mind. The platform hosts video courses, short educational articles and personalized financial health assessments to help military members learn about financial resources.
The platform uses artificial intelligence to provide individualized recommendations based on their specific needs and financial goals. Lightfoot compared the dashboard with Netflix or Amazon, where users see choices based on their own interests.
One popular feature of The Edge is the “money personality” assessment, which makes recommendations based on the user’s money, personality and learning style.
“Browsing through a library of hundreds of financial resources is extremely intimidating and no one can absorb all of that,” Lightfoot said. “GoVA has really harnessed a technology that can walk the user through that process in a way that feels approachable, user-friendly, with very small increments of information.”
She said the videos and articles, which take just a few minutes to view, are designed to make information more accessible.
“It’s something that the user can do consistently and regularly while growing in their confidence and feeling financially empowered.”
The Edge collects little data from its users and does not host advertisements.
“We wanted to be in a neutral position to be offering a variety of options — we’re not pushing a user into just one particular financial choice or funnel,” Lightfoot said.
In light of the recent government shutdown, Lightfoot says that there are small changes that military families can make now to help strengthen their financial health for the long term. Cutting back on $25 of spending per week, going out to eat one fewer time per month, consolidating a credit card, can help build up an emergency fund for planned moves or for times of economic uncertainty.
“All of those small things can really set them up for success and give them a strong financial future so that they won’t constantly be struggling and drowning in their financial choices,” Lightfoot added.
There are many ways to learn about budgeting and finances online. But Lightfoot says those resources often overlook the connection between what’s happening in a person’s financial life and how that impacts their physical and mental wellbeing.
Out of the 20 leading indicators of veteran suicide, four of those indicators are financial.
“When we see people in financial distress, it isn’t just a matter of their bank account balance or their credit score, but it’s affecting their literal health, their ability to sleep, their ability to interact with their family and maintain healthy relationships,” Lightfoot said. “We want to be able to improve the overall health and wellbeing and empowerment of the military community by building up their financial confidence.”
Lightfoot says one of the ways to address financial stress is through education with the support of banks like C&F.
“We’re able to lower that financial stress during the 12 month grant period,” Lightfoot said. “There’s a lot of things that can help to reduce a user’s financial stress, and that’s the real tangible community impact we’re seeing.”
To sign up for The Edge, visit GoVA’s website.
Emma Rose Brown, 757-805-2256, emma.brown@virginiamedia.com
