Unless you didn’t pay into SS, you get paid. I think there are some cases where occupations don’t pay into SS, firefighters? They instead get a state pension plan that is quite perky.
I’ve worked with retired military for nearly 30 years as an Advisor. The retirement income is pretty stout, and many of them are out in their 40’s where they take high paying jobs outside of the military. During their careers, it’s common for these military folks to have bought more than one house and done a reasonable amount of investing. Retired military are way more affluent than average Americans.
Granted, they had to endure risk of life, disruption of life, and untold politics and drama.
“I’ve worked with retired military for nearly 30 years as an Advisor. The retirement income is pretty stout”
It really depends on your rank, personally I think officers are overpaid, especially Junior officers who probably shouldn’t be paid much more than an E-5.
I know retired E7s who basically make about 25% less the house payment as a retirement, and because they moved around their entire career from Base to Base or Station to Station they often times are in the middle of a mortgage or they’d never had a mortgage. So all that hard work and effort equals a paycheck that doesn’t quite equal a house payment not to mention taxes, utilities, excetera... And because you moved around so much you haven’t established a residence or what you could have been paying on for years. And because you lived around so much chances are your spouse hasn’t been able to find anything much more than minimum wage work. Unless they are college grads.