If you are MOAA members, they have some very helpful information. Membership is cheap (around $35).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reason I am asking DCUM is because my husband is totally disorganized, and will not look into this on his own, and I don't have all of the information nor will anyone release information to me if I call on his behalf. When he was deployed, he was too disorganized and overwhelmed to even find out where to apply for the mortgage interest relief program, so we didn't benefit from it! He cannot even find his keys in the morning, much less help strategize about his retirement and how it plays into our financial picture.

This is concerning. Your husband leads soldiers? I don't care what his MOS is, as a COL he is expected to be a leader. If he's that disorganized I feel bad for his unit.

Don't worry, he's very organized when it comes to the army. Anything related to the home and our personal finances, however, has always fallen to me.

Anonymous wrote:The reason I am asking DCUM is because my husband is totally disorganized, and will not look into this on his own, and I don't have all of the information nor will anyone release information to me if I call on his behalf. When he was deployed, he was too disorganized and overwhelmed to even find out where to apply for the mortgage interest relief program, so we didn't benefit from it! He cannot even find his keys in the morning, much less help strategize about his retirement and how it plays into our financial picture.

This is concerning. Your husband leads soldiers? I don't care what his MOS is, as a COL he is expected to be a leader. If he's that disorganized I feel bad for his unit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can help. As a reservist he gets a certain number of points per year. I believe it's 2 points per reserve drill day, 15 membership points and 1 point per annual training day. Each year of active duty is 365 points. So, total up his points and use the calculator below. https://www.hrc.army.mil/Calculators/SurvivorBenefitPayCalc.aspx
He can begin collecting at age 60 which results in a weird situation where people usually make more money by retiring than staying in!

Thanks, this was really helpful. If he ever remembers his passcodes, I can get him to look at his latest LES. Will that have his point total?

PP here. No, it's not on the LES because it relates to RLAS. He can ask his unit for an "AHRC Form 249-2-E" which will list each of his years of service and total points for that year. He's a full bird Colonel right? When he comes home have him e-mail a request to his unit administrator (likely an NCO) and I'm sure they'll have a response to him ASAP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can help. As a reservist he gets a certain number of points per year. I believe it's 2 points per reserve drill day, 15 membership points and 1 point per annual training day. Each year of active duty is 365 points. So, total up his points and use the calculator below. https://www.hrc.army.mil/Calculators/SurvivorBenefitPayCalc.aspx
He can begin collecting at age 60 which results in a weird situation where people usually make more money by retiring than staying in!

Thanks, this was really helpful. If he ever remembers his passcodes, I can get him to look at his latest LES. Will that have his point total?

The local military pay office may be able to assist. They can access your husbands LES from years back and should be able to help with the total points number. He wants to do this before he retires. It's harder to challenge the points if he's already out.

I wondered you could have him make an appt and then go with him.

Anonymous wrote:The reason I am asking DCUM is because my husband is totally disorganized, and will not look into this on his own, and I don't have all of the information nor will anyone release information to me if I call on his behalf. When he was deployed, he was too disorganized and overwhelmed to even find out where to apply for the mortgage interest relief program, so we didn't benefit from it! He cannot even find his keys in the morning, much less help strategize about his retirement and how it plays into our financial picture.

I agree with you OP. My DH isn't military, but his HR won't speak to me about anything and it's infuriating. Spouses should have access I believe. I do all of our finances and it's hard managing them or figuring out his retirement account (which he can only access at work). I couldn't even get my DH vision insurance last year because his HR wanted him to do it and wouldn't let me do it. DH is just too busy.

Anonymous wrote:I can help. As a reservist he gets a certain number of points per year. I believe it's 2 points per reserve drill day, 15 membership points and 1 point per annual training day. Each year of active duty is 365 points. So, total up his points and use the calculator below. https://www.hrc.army.mil/Calculators/SurvivorBenefitPayCalc.aspx
He can begin collecting at age 60 which results in a weird situation where people usually make more money by retiring than staying in!

Thanks, this was really helpful. If he ever remembers his passcodes, I can get him to look at his latest LES. Will that have his point total?

Anonymous wrote:The reason I am asking DCUM is because my husband is totally disorganized, and will not look into this on his own, and I don't have all of the information nor will anyone release information to me if I call on his behalf. When he was deployed, he was too disorganized and overwhelmed to even find out where to apply for the mortgage interest relief program, so we didn't benefit from it! He cannot even find his keys in the morning, much less help strategize about his retirement and how it plays into our financial picture.

There are classes that you and your husband can attend. Contact the Family Service Center at one of the local bases.

The reason I am asking DCUM is because my husband is totally disorganized, and will not look into this on his own, and I don't have all of the information nor will anyone release information to me if I call on his behalf. When he was deployed, he was too disorganized and overwhelmed to even find out where to apply for the mortgage interest relief program, so we didn't benefit from it! He cannot even find his keys in the morning, much less help strategize about his retirement and how it plays into our financial picture.

I can help. As a reservist he gets a certain number of points per year. I believe it's 2 points per reserve drill day, 15 membership points and 1 point per annual training day. Each year of active duty is 365 points. So, total up his points and use the calculator below. https://www.hrc.army.mil/Calculators/SurvivorBenefitPayCalc.aspx
He can begin collecting at age 60 which results in a weird situation where people usually make more money by retiring than staying in!

^^^^11:39 beat me too it

You're asking Urban Mommies this question? Why not have DH ask the Army's HR-equivalent? They usually have classes for imminent retirees to go over all of the details on what to expect.

You need to talk to someone at DFAS about this. Or google one of the online calendars. This is very specialized information that needs to be tailored to your husband's situation. Why would you think that DCUM would be a reasonable resource in this case???

Can someone help me understand how much this might be? My husband will likely retire with 22 years in (about 6 of those active duty) as a Colonel in the Army Reserve (likely with 3 years as a Colonel) at age 50 in the year 2017. What does this translate to dollar-wise in terms of a pension? When does he start collecting it? Is it like Social Security (i.e. is there an incentive to delaying drawing it down?). We are trying to understand what our cash flow will look like and wondering if we are overly stressing about college, given that we will have some cash flow at around the time our kids enter college (2028 and 2030). I have looked at various websites and find the information very confusing. I know some of this is based on when he entered service. He entered service in college as part of an ROTC program in 1988 I believe, though I would have to check on exact year. I don't think he did the REDUX thing. He had a few ineligible years because he was in the IRR, which is why he is not retirement-eligible yet. Thanks DCUM!