is national guard retirement worth it

Any opinions are those of the author alone, and not those of an advertiser to the site nor of The Military Wallet. Personally, I enjoyed my first 10 years of active duty. With extra bonus points for doing it on Sunday morning. My active-duty spouse might have been sent on an unaccompanied tour to Diego Garcia. Military Hops Space-A Travel: Military hops and Space-A travel are another topic we discussed. (No PowerPoint back then only Lotus Freelance.) A unique feature of Reserve retirement is that the pay base is determined as though the reserve member were serving on active duty immediately prior to retirement, thus the years of service continue . If Id joined the Reserves then I wouldve drilled until 20 total good years (active + Reserve) to earn the pension. This article and podcast shows you how to qualify for Guard and Reserve retirement benefits, how to calculate your Reserve retirement pay, and how to make the most of the valuable benefits you have earned. Enter your information to join our mailing list. When (not if) that happens, you wont have a lot of time to figure things out, and you may be too tired to tackle the research. of Defense or any governmental entity. Reddit, Inc. 2023. For more information, please see our All rights reserved. Advertiser Disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the authors alone. All rights reserved. Guard and Reserve retirees become eligible for TRICARE Prime at age 60. The money isn't worth it to me. Divide that by 360, then multiply by 2.5%. There are some calculations that you have to do, an when I did mine, based on the numbers in the second paragraph up there, I came out to about 14%. The formula computes the number of equivalent years of service the soldier has completed (comparable to full-time service). Assuming you are retired for 30 years, that one decision . I asked them a few questions about their billets, pay, & pensions yet I never really made the time to learn about the system. In the High-3 pension plan, your pay base is the average of your highest 3 years of pay (rough rule of thumb that will equal about 95% of your final pay). So far theyre listening to me (and your advice that I send a long). If you retire this will have value, most Soldiers will not reach 20 an qualify. Cookie Notice The infantry is wearing me out. Scan this QR code to download the app now. The content offered on The Military Wallet is for general informational purposes only and may not be relevant to any consumers specific situation, this content should not be construed as legal or financial advice. The Military Wallet and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. The best time to save for financial independence was yesterday. Three Creeks Media, LLC 2023. Compare the rates, fees, and rewards of top credit cards for military servicemembers and veterans, including cards with waived annual fees under the SCRA. When the fun stops, though, then its time to think about leaving active duty for the Reserves or National Guard. Archived post. O-5 Monthly: $3,848.70. (Added Note: Effective 1 October 2002, and on, the eight-year requirement was changed to six years) and, not be entitled, under any other provision of law, to retired pay from an armed force or retainer pay as a member of the Fleet Reserve or the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve; and. We were saving for financial independence long before those marketing guys wroteThe Millionaire Next Door. eHealthInsurance.com has a lot of great options. (After sea duty, every other billet seems like a paid vacation.) I might have struggled to figure out what I wanted to do with my life as the Navy bounced my spouse from one homeport to another. The4% Safe Withdrawal Rate was only Bill Bengens research project filling a deadline hole in a financial journal, and a quarter-century later were still fiercely debating its relevance. Just looking for a ballpark figure. I do realize my impressions are not standard for everything e.g., there are military careers that are 60-80 hour weeks and there are corporate jobs that are very worker/family friendly. In the Reserves or National Guard, you will receive retirement pay (if you qualify) when you turn 60 years old - which could be up to 20 years later in life for some Reserve retirees. While there is no such thing as a normal year in the Guard or Reserves, a base year might look something like this: All your points are maintained by your parent service and work toward calculating your retirement pension. However, this is an incredibly powerful benefit, because most civilian pensions plans arent indexed to inflation. Great post Doug, Ill share this with my kids starting their AF career. While still serving in the National Guard and Reserves, members are eligible for TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS), which is a premium-based health insurance program. No good answer without math. This is where its a good idea to listen to the podcast episode. Some or all of the card offers that appear on The Military Wallet are from advertisers. Archived post. All rights reserved. The U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday it is leading an investigation into the loss of the Titan submersible that was carrying five people to the Titanic, to determine what caused it to implode. Military retirement is a huge topic, and we tried to cover as much as we could in the 40 minutes or so that we talked. Published June 20, 2023 Updated June 22, 2023, 1:58 p.m. There are no monthly premiums for this plan. Basically the title. I was clenching my jaw (and grinding my teeth) to deal with the daily pressure, and I have the medical records to prove it. For more information, please see our Sorry, this post was deleted by the person who originally posted it. I was not just ignorant about the Reserves and National Guard but even more ignorant about building a civilian career. RESERVE I might have been mobilized to support contingency operations in Kosovo or the Middle East, and certainly after 9/11. I have owned your book for a few years and dig into the blog content on occasion. Yet I was suffering from the military inferiority complex. No tables, rankings or lists are fully comprehensive and do not include all companies or available products. Scan this QR code to download the app now. You can often find trips going all over the world, and many of the flights go out on a regular basis. With Tricare For Life then they pick . This gives you the total number of years served (the military calculates a month as 30 days to make the math easy; so each year served is 12 months at 30 days each, for a total of 360 days). You are able to buy back any active duty reserve or national guard time to count towards your civilian retirement. 53 53 comments Best DrDobolina 2 yr. ago I think it's worth it especially if you'll have kids and a wife someday. This category of years of service includes all periods of active service and all periods of Reserve or National Guard service counted day for day. Noordman donates 100% of the revenue from his book sales to military-friendly charities. For years, the services had difficulty accurately establishing when a member of a reserve component had completed 20 qualifying years of service. The VA Home Loan is one of the only home loans available today with no down payment required. Our commands were also filled with active-duty junior servicemembers who were separating at 8-12 years of service, and older ones who were retiring at 20-30 years. However, retirees are only eligible for TRICARE Prime if they live within a certain distance of a military installation or regional health care center. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), more than 75% of Americans have retirement savings . Your retired pay will be increased annually by a cost-of-living allowance (COLA) based on the change in theConsumer Price Index(CPI) from the third quarter of one calendar year to the third quarter of the next. (Another classic which took a few years to gain traction during the Internet decade.). This sub is NOT maintained or endorsed by NGB or the ANG. Ryan started The Military Wallet in 2007 after separating from active duty military service and has been writing about financial, small business, and military benefits topics since then. A qualifying year is one in which you earn a minimum of 50 retirement points. National Guard and Reserve members earn 15 Points for each year they participate in the Guard or Reserves. Blah blah, I got lucky with my civilian employment. If you have questions about Veteran programs offered through or by the Dept. If I was a drilling Reserve/Guard member today then I wouldve also had Tricare Reserve Select, and after I retired awaiting pay then I would have bought Tricare Reserve Retired until age 60. You should receive this letter within one year of completing 20 qualifying years of service for retired pay purposes. They can do this through their civilian employer, by purchasing a private insurance plan, or by self-insuring for dental care. Is it worth it to stay in for this reason alone if the guard is starting to interfere a lot with my civilian career plans? If you have a traditional civilian career then once a month youll work 12 straight days around the drill weekend, but its still a lower operating tempo than active duty. No tables, rankings or lists are fully comprehensive and do not include all companies or available products. But waiting until you are 55-60 to draw that 10-50% of base pay Guard members qualify for is stand alone a shit reason to make the sacrifice. of Defense or any governmental entity. For example, completing correspondence courses might be required to progress in your career and they earn you points toward retirement, but you may or may not be paid for completing the course. Read more about active duty retirement on the OSD website. However, I had my active-duty blinders on and I didnt see any other path. I didnt know it back then, but (like many Pearl Harbor submariners) when I showed up at my drill weekends I wouldve eventually been offered a contractor or civil-service job on that same staff as a tactical development officer. To share experiences, and engage in more meaningful conversations, join our Discord: https://discord.gg/CVSXTz7 Unleash the Full Potential of Your VA Home Loan Benefits, federal law 10 U.S. Code section 1407(d)(1)(a), the Financial Management Regulation (DoD 7000.14-R) section 030205.A.2, National Guard and Reserve retirement benefits, Your Path to Homeownership Begins with a VA Loan, 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate was only Bill Bengens research project, Discover the Power of a VA Loan for Veterans and Military Families, Veterans: Unlock Your Homebuying Dreams with a VA Loan, US Marine Corps Pay, Benefits and Careers, How Military Members Can Steer Clear of Spear-Phishing on LinkedIn. It is not the bank advertisers responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. An official website of the United States government. It has always been at age 60, however when I was deployed to Iraq there was lots of conversation about a program that would deduct the years served in combat zones from the age 60 requirement and in my case possibly begin drawing retirement pay at age 58. of Veterans Affairs, the Dept. All rights reserved. You get 2 points for every day on drill status, 1 point for every day on AT/ADOS/AGR whatever, and like 15 points/year for being handsome. Retired members of the Reserve Corps havent been involuntarily recalled to active duty since WWII. But in general, we are working with the assumption that it takes 20 or more years of service to be eligible for military retirement. If you complete a standard part-time term in the Guard by age 60, you could be eligible to receive monthly payments* based on serving one weekend per month plus an additional 15 days per year, for 20 years. Then you multiply that by your pay base. Better yet, her unit was full of Reserve submariners who happily explained to me the lifestyle that Id missed out on during the back half of my active-duty career. This book provides servicemembers, veterans, and their families with a critical roadmap for becoming financially independent. Im active duty and coming up on year #9 this May. But only if you choose to retire under the right classification. A phone call on Thursday asking if you want a Saturday midwatch? That said, the Reserves use the same retirement plans as active duty servicemembers. October 17, 2019 Part-time jobs often mean minimum wage and little chance of advancement. With what I know now, I couldve worked part-time for a few extra years to build up the same investments (and continued to drill for a Reserve pension) instead of full-time for the 60-hour weeks to get an active-duty pension. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. What Is the High Year of Tenure in the U.S. Military? You can make the finances work. One of the Reservists on our staff had even been a shipmate on our first submarine. I was looking for current information on combat deployments impact if any would have on my eligibility for retirement pay. Your healthcare options in retirement depend upon your age (Gray Area Retirees are not eligible for TRICARE Prime or Standard), where you live, and other factors.

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