National Guard retirement

[NJ732]

Can anyone give a brief explanation of how retirement works? I've googled it to death but I still don't really understand.

You get a point for each day of service, as in 2-3 days/points a month, or as in 365 points a year while on drilling status?

[fmcityslicker]

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/reserveretirmentpay/a/reserveretire.htm

That is an excellent link but basically you earn 4 points (2 points per drill). When you are on active duty, you earn 1 point a day. So an active duty person earns 365 (366 for leap year) points a year. And earning 7300 points will give that AD SM the 20 year retirement.

Reserves and NG works differently. Also, you need to earn qualify with enough points annually for a good year. I have known many soldiers that missed AT and a couple of MUTAs and did not receive a good year. Also, being in the IRR hinders that too. You will have those years for pay but not for retirement.

Bottom line, if you decide to make the Guard a career, satisfactorily go to drills, and never deploy, you can still earn a retirement after 20 years.

[EOrsini]

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/reserveretirmentpay/a/reserveretire.htm

That is an excellent link but basically you earn 4 points (2 points per drill). When you are on active duty, you earn 1 point a day. So an active duty person earns 365 (366 for leap year) points a year. And earning 7300 points will give that AD SM the 20 year retirement.

Reserves and NG works differently. Also, you need to earn qualify with enough points annually for a good year. I have known many soldiers that missed AT and a couple of MUTAs and did not receive a good year. Also, being in the IRR hinders that too. You will have those years for pay but not for retirement.

Bottom line, if you decide to make the Guard a career, satisfactorily go to drills, and never deploy, you can still earn a retirement after 20 years.

Just adding- When he says on active duty you earn one point a day, this counts when you are deployed, on AT, or at a school. So it helps you to go to schools or AT and such. I actually had a bad year when I was enlisted and doing ROTC, because ROTC and school took precendence and I missed AT and 3 drills. So I won't get my 20 year mark until technically my 21st year

[NJ732]

Thanks for the responses

fmcityslicker, when you say you earn 4 points, does that matter how long the drill weekend was?

Saturday + Sunday = 4 points
Friday, Saturday, Sunday = 6 points?

So on average, without any type of active duty time, a regular drill year will net you about 58 points?

4 points per month x 11 months = 44, + 14 points AT = 58?

I have a long ways to go but I want to make sure I'm at least hitting that 50 point mark for a good year each year

[fmcityslicker]

Again, its been a while but you are tracking the idea. A normal drill is known as a MUTA-4 and if you have to arrive on Friday night that is a MUTA-5. Obviously the more points you make a year, the better the retirement. The LT gave an excellent example on how having a bad year can affect your retirement date and your 20-year letter.

You should receive an annual RPAS that keeps tracks of your points. Now and days you can extract that online.

[fmcityslicker]

I am now using IE 9 beta and I am having issues posting but here is that RPAS link


https://www.hrc.army.mil/site/Reserve/soldierservices/retirement/rpas.htm

[HR NCO]

Once a year you should receive from your unit a retirements points worksheet. This will tell you how many points you earned that year and also in each previous year. It will also tell you how much you should be paid during retirement if you continue on your current path.

[EOrsini]

If you do a regular national guard year every year, you can't collect till 60. I believe every year of active service in COMBAT ops counts as a year less for you to collect. For instance, if you have deployed 3 times in a 20 year national guard setting, instead of starting to collect at 60, you would begin collecting at 57.

[fmcityslicker]

If you do a regular national guard year every year, you can't collect till 60. I believe every year of active service in COMBAT ops counts as a year less for you to collect. For instance, if you have deployed 3 times in a 20 year national guard setting, instead of starting to collect at 60, you would begin collecting at 57.

Excellent point. I know the policy changes were approved by Congress. I think this was in 2006 or 2007 and it was based on 90-day deployment blocks. For you old-timers that have served in OIF/OEF during this window and perhaps prior; confirm your RYE date. See if this is retroactive as well.

[fmcityslicker]

In today's Army Times dtd 22 Mar 2011.....

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/03/ap-retirement-credit-law-riles-guard-reserve-vets/

Retirement credit law riles Guard, Reserve vets

When Congress wrote the law three years ago, it said Guard and Reserve members called up for 90 days or more for war service or other federal duty would be credited for work “in any fiscal year” toward early retirement for each day they were mobilized.

Earning the credit would allow them to retire before age 60 if they had 20 years of service.

But the Pentagon has interpreted that to mean a 90-day period of service had to be completely served within a single fiscal year.

The federal fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. So if a Guard member were to be deployed for three months beginning in September, the time wouldn’t count because the 90 days would be split between two fiscal years.

The situation has added insult to injury for troops already upset that Congress only included Guard and Reserve members deployed after the law was signed in early 2008, leaving out the 600,000 troops mobilized between the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the time the law was enacted. The combined issues could mean retirement will be delayed months or even years for thousands of Guard and Reserve members.