If you’re brave enough and willing, the Army can be a lucrative career. Just ask U.S. Army Captains Matthew and Kristen Shifrin.

Matthew and Kristen met in 2004 while stationed at Ft. Bragg, and married a year and a half later. Now both 27, Matthew is training in Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. to be a military police commander, while Kristen is training in Ft. Huachuca, Ariz. to be a military intelligence commander. Together they earn an annual salary of $133,000.

But the couple only recently started their savings plan for the future.

“We were not great savers before we got married – we both saved minimally, and we had a small emergency fund that was nowhere near six months of living expenses,” said Kristen. “When we got married, it forced us to sit down and discuss our financial situation and our future financial goals.”

Matthew and Kristen taught themselves some investment and financial strategies to get themselves on track, with the goal of becoming millionaires by the time they retire.

“Both my wife and I are obsessive about saving for retirement,” Matt said. Their plan is fairly simple: save with one paycheck and live off the other.

Matthew and Kristin max out both their Thrift Savings Plans (TSPs), the government-employee version of a 401(k), for $1,239 per pay check, and they contribute the maximum to their Roth IRAs with $833 per month. Currently, they have a total of $87,500 in retirement funds.

They also invest $500 a month in mutual funds, which now total nearly $44,000.

Since they’re stationed so far from one another, they’ll have to wait until November to see each other again. That also means they do not yet own a home and have to pay two sets of rent and bills. They plan on buying a home and starting a family in the near future.

It helps that $26,000 of their salary is not taxed, because the Army gives them a basic allowance for housing. And in 2022, when they retire from the Army, they will both receive 50% of their base pay and full medical benefits for life, which they expect to amount to a little over $100,000 per year in today’s dollars.

When they retire from the Army, they both would like to continue to work. “We look forward to the day where getting up for work is an option,” said Matthew. “We would much rather sit at home drinking coffee together with our two basset hounds than sitting in rush hour traffic.”

For now, they keep their living expenses relatively low – a combined $1000 per month on rent, and about $460 for utilities. They also spend about $600 a month on groceries and $500 on gas and maintenance costs for their two cars. They bought a Nissan Xterra in 2005 and then an Acura TL in 2006 – both new. The Shifrins paid off both cars when they returned from service in Iraq in November 2007.

And just because they haven’t yet started a family doesn’t mean they aren’t saving for one. While deployed in Iraq, the Shifrins socked away their entire paychecks except investments, car payments and $160 a month for life insurance. Since the Army took care of their food and lodging, Matthew and Kristen were able to save $50,000 in a high-yield savings account earning about 3.75% interest. They’ll eventually use that for a down payment on a home and education costs for their future children.

But aggressive saving doesn’t stop the Shifrins from enjoying life while they’re young. “We also try to strike the delicate balance between saving for the future and living in the present; not an easy task,” said Matt. They spend about $800 a month on entertainment and dining out.

When they’re not deployed, Kristen and Matthew also enjoy flying. Matthew has his pilot’s license, so they often take trips around the country with their two dogs in their refurbished 1967 M20F Mooney airplane. But the plane also costs about $1,000 a month to maintain.

But like many American families, they have some credit card debt. Though they paid for the $54,000 plane in cash, it needed $20,000 in repairs. They put the repair expenses on a credit card with a 7% interest rate. They currently pay off $400 a month.

They are weighing whether to pay that debt off and then use the $400 monthly payments to replenish their savings account, or to move the debt off of the revolving credit and onto an aircraft improvement loan to boost their credit scores.

Our expert’s take

Matthew and Kristen are on their way to millionaire status, but there are some things they can do to maximize their chances of meeting their goals, according to Brian Orol, President of the Strategic Wealth Group in Raleigh, NC.

Since the Shifrins plan on buying a home in the near future, he suggests they each check their free credit reports and correct any errors at least 1-2 years in advance of applying for a home loan.

To pay off the airplane repairs, Orol recommends the Shifrins opt for the loan to eliminate the credit card debt rather than deplete their savings, because it may be a strong item to have on their credit report for at least a year. A high credit score is vitally important in the current credit crunch, especially if the Shifrins want to buy a house in the near future, he said.

He said the Shifrins’ savings plan is solid, but they may want to consider scaling back when they have children.

“Understand – like a house, they come with unplanned expenses,” said Orol. “They need to be prepared for tough choices such as eating out much less often to slowing their contributions to their retirement funds for a two-to-four-year period until they’ve adjusted.”

But overall Orol said Matthew and Kristen are on the right track by saving and investing early, controlling their expenses, and getting rid of credit card debt.

- By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer

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