[Lou L]

Army, Air Force. Navy or Marines. Of course, we do have our standards

Can someone retired from the military explain how this works? How many active years do you need to give, before you can retire, and immediately begin receiving your military pension? I think the military has also shifted to more of a self-funded benefits, where the service member contributes a certain portion of their pay into a savings' program. Is that like a 401(k)?

I have a friend who retired from the Naval Reserves after 22 years, with 6 years active duty. I don't believe he can collect any pension until age 62. The amount is based on some formula of active and reserve years, and actual retirement age.

[xrmusn]

Can someone retired from the military explain how this works?

---

I didn’t retire from Military but I do know that when I went in in 1956 I could have retired in 1976 with a pension.
Sorry, don’t know what % you could get but it was a sliding scale up to 30 years ACTIVE - at least for enlisted.
Of course at that time I was making 75. per month, the maximum reenlistment bonus was $2,000 - that was ENTIRE amount, you got a portion each time you reenlisted and if you reached your cap at say 15 yrs, if you reenlisted at 18 yrs, there was no bonus left.

As to your friend, you said USNR, I am pretty sure the 20 yr retirement was for Active only - but I do think if you were a reserve on active and went Regular, you could get into the 20 yr ret system with prior active time retro.

[Poundstone]

For the military, basically if you’re on continuous active duty for 20 years, you can retire at the 20-year mark and get your full pension for the rest of your life.

There are a few federal civilian specialties that have a similar system. In the Foreign Service, for example, you can retire with a full pension if you have at least 20 years’ service and you’re age 50 or older. The FAA air traffic controllers have a similar arrangement. These specialized government jobs are a very tiny minority of the federal civil service. Civil service pensions only begin once you reach the minimum retirement age, which I believe is 62 (i.e., the age when you can begin to collect a reduced Social Security payment).