I always thought that if you enlisted in the US Armed Forces, and served a certain number of years, something like 20, you would be eligible for a retirement pension, meaning an ongoing payout of some amount of money for the rest of your life, and that the longer you served, the more money you would get each month.
But that if you quit the military prior to some number of years, say 20, you wouldn’t get a pension. Is that correct, or if you serve 15 years do you get a pro-rated pension?
And what happens if after 19 years there is a ‘reduction in force’ and you no longer can stay in the military? Do you still get a pension even though you didn’t make your 20, but you were planning to?
Yes, it is generally true if you serve at least 20 years, you can retire with a retirement check for the rest of your life. I retired from the USAF at 22 years, and get a nice payment every month.
Sometimes, there are 15 year retirements offered, like recently in the AF, so people applied to retire at 15 years, instead of 20. Yes, their retirement pay was not as much as it would be with 20 years.
I have never heard of someone with more than 16 years in being affected by any sort of drawdown, or reduction in force numbers (at least enlisted). I can only speak for AF personnel, so maybe it happened in the other services.
I have seen people voluntarily quit the AF at 19 years, just so their ex-wives would not get any of their retirement money! :eek:
The rules change frequently on this, but generally anyone with over 15 years active service will be offered a chance to ‘retire’. Retirement not only means a pension, but other benefits such as medical, commisary, PX/BX. etc. Someone identified for seperation between 15 and 20 years will walk away with some benefits. No one is being put out with 19 years of service and nothing to speak of it.
I’ll add something regarding years of service. Enlisted paygrades top out on their paychecks. For instance, if you’ve made E-6, but can’t seem to make it to E-7, eventually your pay raises as an E-6 will stop. It used to be at 18 years for E-6 when I was in, so if you retired at 20 years, your retirement pay would be based on the 18 year salary, adjusted for COLA increases over the remaining two years. I think for E-7 it was 24 years or some such. I retired at 23 years, but my ex-wife gets half my retirement check. I only know of one person who went to court and got that overturned. How he managed to beat federal law is a mystery to me.
What’s the current pension rate? I seem to remember that, for the navy, it was 50% of base pay after 20 years and 75% after 30. But I could be wrong about that-- I’m going from what I remember back in the 70s.
My dad left the Air Force with 14 years of service, during the force reductions in the early 90s. At that point he would have been pretty much out of luck. After that, he served in the Reserves for about 10 years, with fairly infrequent and short-term assignments, to earn “points” equivalent to about a year of active duty (and earn a retirement).
Back then, it was 55% for 20 years and 75% for 30 years. And it wasn’t base pay, it was based on your pay for the last 3 years; base pay PLUS longevity, i.e. an E-6 with 6 years got paid less than an E-6 with 12 years. And I think back then, if you had 19 years in, unless you REALLY screwed up, they’d let you stay in until you had your 20 in.
Can you expand on this? Were you married at the time you retired, or did you retire and then get divorced? My ex doesn’t get any of my retirement, and I’m not sure what federal law you are speaking of.
Let’s be clear. If one chooses on their own accord to leave after 15 years, but before 20, they will generally not get anything. It’s only during a drawdown where the military is trying to get smaller that incentives are offered to have people leave before 20.
Current pension rate (after twenty) is the average of your last 36 months pay time the number of years you have in times 2.5% (i.e. 2.5% per year).
Members of the uniformed services can now also contribute to the Thrift Savings Plan, which is basically the Federal government’s 401k plan. I believe service members’ contributions are not matched by employer contributions except in very limited circumstances (basically as a recruiting tool). TSP was opened to the uniformed services roughly a decade ago.
So if one serves for 19 years and never has an option to take an early retirement that would bring with it retirement pay, there is now a better mechanism for service members to save for their own retirement.
Retired, then divorced. Perhaps your ex isn’t aware that she could perhaps sue you for half your retirement. I wouldn’t clue her in on it. This was fought in the courts a LONG time ago and the courts determined that military spouses endured their portion of hardship during a career, including spousal separation and raising kids pretty much on their own much of the time, and that they were entitled to compensation in the event the retiree instigate the divorce. I can’t quote chapter and verse, unfortunately.
Hmmm. It appears that I’m incorrect (in part). From the DFAS site:
Traditionally, 20 years got you 50% of base pay (based on rank+ longevity) from the time you retired until you died. Every year over 20 got you 2.5% more up to 30 years, which got you 75%, which was the max. Anything under 20 years got you nothing. But if you made it to 18 years you were protected from most involuntary separations.
What forces most service members out before 20 years is failure to get promoted. You had to make certain promotions to be able to stay in for 20. For enlisted soldiers, making E-6/Staff Sergeant would let you stay in for 20 years. If you never got promoted from E-5 to E6, you were forced out at 14 years (or thereabouts - the # of years may be off, but the principle is right) Officers were a little trickier, but typically Majors were able to stay in long enough to retire.
Things have become much more complicated, though. At various points in time, the military offered buyouts and early retirements to thin the mid-career service members. Also there have been two separate laws reducing benefits paid from the time service members leave active duty until they reach full retirement age, which I think is 62.
Ok, that’s what I was informed of by my lawyer. The ex-spouse CAN get some of the retirement pay, but it’s not automatic, nor mandatory. It depends on the divorce agreement. My ex signed away any right to my retirement, which is why I don’t have to pay.
I must be recalling that the courts were very sympathetic in divorce cases involving retirement pay, as the ex-wives were usually seen as having spent a tough 20 years out of the workforce and then being left with nothing. I offered half my retirement as part of the settlement, since I figured she’d get it anyway. But in hindsight, I bore her no animosity; I just didn’t want to be with her any longer.
At some point in the early 80’s the rule changed from final base pay to “high three”.
There was a short lived program where the 20 year retirement was reduced to 40% with the additional years adding 3.5% each. The idea was that the 30 year would be the same but it would encourage people to stay longer than 20. What they found was a lot of people opting to leave early because the 20 years for 40% was considered not worth it.
I haven’t looked at Army regulations lately but 18 years is used to be a magic point where you wouldn’t be involuntarily separated for administrative things. For example, failing to meet the weight standards can get you kicked out but once you hit 18 years, failing the standards gets you a mandatory retirement date corresponding to 20 years of service. You can still be involuntarily removed for criminal offenses at any point.
In addition to the 15 year retirement, there was another force reduction plan where you got “retirement pay” but only for two years for each year served.
But do US armed forces with less than 15(?) years get nothing? Or do they just have to wait until age 65 to collect a pro-rated pension?
I know in Canada, every pension must vest (?) after 2 years, although an RRSP (like 401K) payout rather than a defined pension is an option for some plans.
They would have whatever Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) money they might have put in (~ a non-matching 401k) but no pension at any point, now, or after age 65.
My bropther-in-law retired as an Air Force pilot after 18 years. He got no pension, but took a job as a civlian pilot. He figured the difference between civilian and military pay, plus the additional two years on the seniority scale, more than compensated for what he would have made from his military pension. I have no idea whether it actually worked out that way financially, but within the two year period the U.S. went into the Middle East and he would’ve been flying missions in a combat zone.
I don’t know if this still applies, but back when, if you reenlisted early, you could accrue up to six months of what was called “constructive time”. This time could either be added on after 20 years, or allow one to take a slightly early retirement, as early as 19 years, six months. If a person was maxed out on pay raises, there was little reason not to take the early discharge.