The retirement is an important decision in military person’s life. He /she must make a decision when exactly to retire to maximize the utility and retirement benefits. The military retirement calculator is the tool that greatly helps you in decision-making process and allows you to arrive to the right decision.
When we speak about military retirement calculator, you should not think that it is a physical tool, like ordinary calculator with on /off buttons and bunch of other buttons. Military retirement calculator is usually a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or web application with a number of input fields that allows you to make calculations about your future retirement.
A military retirement calculator takes into account several retirement variables that you have received during you military service at the US army. This can be additional income sources, discount options or additional benefits.
It is very often when financial institutions retirement services to their clients. Banks and credit unions take charge of managing military retiree’s retirement fund. In this case bank account manager can calculate your retirement options for you.
Currently there are three military retirement plans for US army retirees. These are Final Pay, High 3 Year Average and Redux (Career Status Bonus) plans. They are available to retirees based on the date they joined US army:
If you joined the US army before September 8, 1980 than you are eligible for Final Pay military retirement plan;
If you joined the US Army after September 8, 1980, but before August 1, 1986 then you are eligible for High 3 Year Average military retirement plan;
If you joined the US army after August 1, 1986, then you have a choice. You can choose either High 3 Year average or Redux (Career Status Bonus) military retirement plans;
It is worth noting that for each of these plans there is different military retirement calculator. Although at the first sight military retirement plans do not substantially differ from each other, this impression is quite misleading and eventually they yield very distinctive results.