Here's a summary of a conversation with a National Guard servicemember who's contemplating moving from a drill billet to the Individual Ready Reserve. We talk through all aspects of the decision, how to deal with the IRR, and how the Guard/Reserve military pension is calculated. At the end of the post, I've ...
Effective 1 April 2016, military occupational specialties 11X, 13F, 19D, 19K, will become gender integrated. This unprecedented act will allow women to enlist into Infantry, Armor and Artillery MOSs and serve alongside their male counterparts. Infantry and armor positions will open to women April 1 in the next ...
Did you know many credit card companies are going above and beyond their legal obligations under the Service Members Civil Relief Act? Many companies are retroactively lowering interest rates for balances placed AFTER your enlistment! Under the SCRA, 6 percent is the maximum interest rate that can, however, in ...
I've been home from travel for almost four months, and I'm finally catching up on my reading. I still have a pile of books that I picked up from FinCon15 (six months ago!), and I'm steadily working my way through them. I'll probably finish just before FinCon16. But then (shameless name dropping) Charles Duhigg ...
[This post is brought to you by "Crew Dog" of OneSickVet.com. If you're interested in contributing at The-Military-Guide.com, please see our posting guidelines.] In a previous post on One Sick Vet, the blogger "Die Fledermaus" showed us a good example of how to prepare for a VA disability claim while still ...
My first book, Military In Transition's Guide to the Survivor Benefit Plan, is available on Amazon. Guide to the Survivor Benefit Plan Previously, I wrote about the Military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). That article’s primary purpose was to take the ambiguous information that resides on the DFAS website & ...
My spouse and I joined the military in the late 1970s. We've been military spouses since 1986, and I was a member of several fine Wives Clubs in the 1980s-90s. Thankfully, the military's gender policies have improved quite a bit over the last 40 years. The male military spouse situation has also improved a bit during ...
This article was published a couple of months ago online, but I’ve made some changes specifically to point out how estate planning should matter to you throughout your military career. I was recently at a financial planning conference, when I listened to a presentation by Natalie Choate, a prominent estate planning ...
A reader question has hit my IN box several times this year: "My spouse retired from the military after 20 years of active duty and is receiving their pension. They're in their 40s and they miss it so much. Is there a way for them to get back in? I know they'd be happier serving than just receiving a deposit every ...
This post has been updated using current pay charts, to determine E7 Retirement Pay... E7 Retirement Pay Consider two 18-year-olds who join the military on the same day. The first stays on active duty for 20 full years to retire as an E-7. They'll base their pension on 2.5% x 20 years = 50% of their High-Three ...
We're military veterans, not financial advisors. We're trying to share what we've learned and to pay it forward – but you have to make your own decisions.
What worked for us will probably work for you, but unfortunately, we can’t guarantee it. Let us know if something’s not working for you, and we’ll try to figure out a better way... Continue Reading...
Doug Nordman 
Curtez 
Forrest Baumhover