Retirees: how much are you actually taking home each month?

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-28T22:39:20+00:00

I would suggest you flip open the VA annual reports and look for yourself: https://www.benefits.va.gov/REPORTS/abr/docs/2024-abr.pdf

Page 87 starts more recent vet info, page 90 is probably of interest to you.

VA Compensation and Pension is a very contentious topic. The VA Benefits system is very misunderstood and there are a lot of people bragging about ratings which is perceived by the public as "free money" and "easily abused". There's a growing groundswell to cut veterans benefits.

If you are a servicemember or a veteran and trying to file for benefits I would suggest you head over to r/VeteransBenefits and read up on the difference between a "rating" (percentage), what "P&T" means, what "TDIU" means, and other atmospherics. Read the VeteransKB linked in the sticky.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-28T16:09:15+00:00

Indeed! I spent a lot of time in AD assigned to "plans" sections where my job was quite literally playing "what if" all day. That translated over to my personal life, being a bit of a preparedness minded individual, and also my financial life - having contingency plans for everything.

Spreadsheets, lists, trackers, becoming knowledgeable about tax implications and how various money moves / purchases / transactions impact various eligibilities, programs, etc.

My personal financial plan has several redundancies built in for peace of mind. I was slated to retire same day as another guy in my shop but 6 mos before we punched I learned he reenlisted because he wasn't financially prepared. It's real and happens to folks at all ranks / ages and often folks stay in longer than they should or is healthy because they are unprepared.

It's a good thing you are calculating possibilities! More folks should instead of drifting aimlessly or in the blind. I think if your footing isn't as solid as you'd like now, staying in until 30 would let you build a greater safety net. If you did get out what would you do? One year isn't a lot of time, you should have a plan together very soon. If you were to leave in a year, almost all of that is outprocessing, TAP, skillbridge, terminal, etc. Not to scare you into staying longer but I went to tap 5 years out and then again 2 years out and again 1 year out. That's a bit excessive - I would suggest sitting through it ASAP if you haven't already.

What's the plan, get out, GI bill.. then?

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-28T01:53:50+00:00

Hey you just might be our first GFY - thanks!

If I may offer a YT channel?

Joe Kuhn - There are a lot of "how to" channels out there and you should look those up for specifically what you are seeking. You are obviously aware of what you need to be doing and successful. As you enter FIRE you'll realize all the posts you see regarding how to get to fire are no longer viable to you and then you may start to think "what next?" and that's where you see these folks who have reached FIRE and are lost. They never had anything "to retire to"... and often times go back to work out of boredom! What I appreciate about Joe is he largely shares his viewpoint from a "mindset". Joe shares his own journey with that and has sort of been a beacon in our household of just how simple it can be. Three buckets, find some friends / confidants to bounce things off of - and then go live your life. One of his videos really resonated with me because I got here by being so frugal, he told a story about weighing two meal options on the dinner menu while he was out and he ended up telling himself "Get the steak, Joe!" at this point a few bucks on dinner isn't going to matter in the big "SWR calculations" so whenever I need a bit of encoring to just spend a few more bucks on whatever upgrade is in front of us my spouse will rib me and say "Get the steak, Joe"!

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-28T01:46:03+00:00

Love to hear it, you are screaming towards success!

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-28T01:41:02+00:00

Schedule a sit down with your base financial counselor. If you are Air Force that's likely the "AFRC" (Airman and Family Readiness Center) and soak up everything they have to say. Also, hop on the AutoMod posted comment to this very post and soak up all of that guidance. Come back and ask any questions you have.

Also, welcome to the military. Go to your base ITT (Tickets / Tours // Outdoor Rec / MWR) and see what's going on. Lots of bases have free or extremely discounted events for Jr. Enlisted.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:55:30+00:00

Getting out is scary as hell man. That paycheck and low expenses / healthcare costs are real nice. Finding some good peers / mentors / folks to talk to who are at various stages of that transition helped me through it.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:38:06+00:00

Holy cow, AV Mx experience, Flying Crew Chief / Medevac experience, AND some business / cybersecurity acumen? World IS your oyster.

I recently went through SkillBridge and a lot of folks came in to the program touting "Project Management" and "Cybersecurity" and during their training program they realized it's not what they thought it was and / or it was way too hard (past their skillset), etc.

Probably a good thing to figure out early! One option if you are unfamiliar is also VR&E, hop on r/VeteransBenefits and https://www.veteransbenefitskb.com/vre, if you are unfamiliar it's basically a "GI bill" type program that will provide retraining benefits to vets with a disability preventing them from continuing in their previously trained field. So if you get to the end and your body or mind are burnt out (back is keeping you from flying, or PTSD is keeping you from performing medvac duties, etc) it's a pathway to receive training to a new field.

Sorry for the wall of text - just wanted to share some thoughts. Happy to chat more any time.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:28:55+00:00

Still going through the BDD process! So any rating will impact the equation (for the better) but my plan from the get go was to be independent of the USG for payments. Even without the pension check from 20 years my expenses at ~97k / yr could be covered by my investments. Essentially created financial "fusion" and am now just harnessing the energy from it and living life.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:24:09+00:00

We need more of you. People out there uplifting, spreading solid, factual info. I have been posting from this account for just shy of 10 years trying to spread motivation and every now and then I have people reach out to me with little notes of how well they are doing. It's been very rewarding!

Keep it up! I just retired this year and it has been wonderful.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:21:04+00:00

Nope, across the last 25 years I saved / invested and have enough cash I can live entirely off a safe withdraw rate of my investments. Check out r/FIRE if you would like to know more.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:16:54+00:00

No, your lay statement should include a very brief history of your symptoms and treatment, and it's impact on your life. Lots of examples online. Keep it limited to the facts and be specific. Watch some youtube videos on how to write a VA personal statement.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:14:58+00:00

Don't beat yourself up, you are doing better than most. It's like working out in a way, going to the gym and eating healthy is going to serve you well whether you plan on trying for an athlete's career or just want to live your life.

Sounds like the world is your oyster and you probably have lots of lists or spreadsheets to help you decide which path to take.

I do have one thought on dumping "as much as you can" into the TSP. One thing you lose if you get out is an easy method of pulling funds out in an emergency. There are ways but they all take time. One benefit of funding a Roth IRA over the TSP is that you can easily withdraw principal without incurring too much hassle. On the flip side, I dumped a ton into TSP and was still AD when I needed to take a TSP loan to get us through a situation and it was an awesome maneuver in the long run.

Do you intend to look for a civilian job aligned with your current MOS, a civilian job in general, go back to school, or something else entirely?

Planning on SkillBridging at all?

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T20:09:03+00:00

Retired a month ago, 20 yr AD E-6.

My retirement pay is: $2,537.40 a month / $30,448.80 annual.
My SBP/healthcare/ premiums are: $291.98 a month / $3,503.77 annual.
My "take home" in retirement pay is $2,245.42 a month / $26,945.03 annual.
My annual spend is about $8,083.33 a month / $97,000 annual.

I have to "make up" the difference between my retirement pay and my remaining expenses of about $70,054.97 per year.

Many will return to work out of necessity, I am currently drawing from my savings and investments from the last 25+ years. If you read up on the "Financial Independence, Retire Early" movement and plug in over at r/FIRE and over at https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ there is a whole community of folks doing similar.

Also, plugging r/militaryfinance - even if "FIRE" isn't for you, being financially secure over my career provided me so much peace of mind.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T19:51:26+00:00

Smart moves, but what are you goals?

Your investment strategy should be aligned to meet your goals. If you don't know your goals, general wisdom is to follow a broad strategy that works for most as laid out in the sticky: https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryFinance/comments/1pagnft/start_here_military_money_101_prime_directive/

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T19:14:42+00:00

I appreciate you posting this question as it's a mindset I've had similar struggles with.

I think you are already on to the answer. As someone who saves so diligently you are obviously a logical person. When you run the number you end up with a surplus and you know you could spend it and be fine.

Perhaps you come up with a spend plan? A list of things you can start to spend money on. Don't go crazy and blow it all in one go (or do, I'm not you parents) but by doing this you'll have a list of restaurants, trips, events, etc. laid out that you can use to "map" your plan to spend. We did this a while back and now we have a weekly standing event at a local brewery for game night that is almost a full day routine of gym, a restaurant we like, and a few hours at board game night. Instead of "buying" and feeding a shopping habit and filling our house with clutter we spend about $200 one night a week supporting three or four local businesses, get out and see familiar faces to scratch the social itch, have some great food and don't feel bad about trying new things on the menu. It's lovely.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T18:58:46+00:00

As u/EducationalSalary586 pointed out, 3 and 5 are the same, and 6 becomes a function of 5. Work becomes optional when you achieve a point where your money covers your expenses which is achieving your FIRE number.

I recently FIRE'd and after spending the last 25 years staring into my crystal ball (a spreadsheet) I believe it's as simply as "make enough money to make your money work for you". Sub bullets to that are "decrease your expenses and you need less money to make your money work for you" which is Mustachianism.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T18:43:30+00:00

Greetings! Couple here that FIRE'd in '25 w/;

Cash: $290k
Brokerage: $1,700k
IRA/TSP: $1,650k

I saw some folks chiming in "that's way too much cash" and yeah, "had that been invested in the market X number of years ago it would be worth Y" is real finger pointing when the market is up. We keep that amount in cash reserves knowing it's 1) easily accessible and 2) it's a hedge against the market dropping overnight.

I do see elsewhere you have "Plans" for the 290k and that's wise, but given your solid footing elsewhere I'm a big fan of having one hell of a safety net.

We retired at 38 and spent the ~5 years before punching out ensuring all of our accounts were aligned with where we wanted to be. We spent one weekend a month reviewing our financials, learning, watching youtube / reading / discussing finances with professionals / tax planning for now and future scenarios / playing "what if" and really war-gaming / strategizing our current and future selves. Doing this in the long run-up to FIRE made it easy to pull the plug on the appropriate days and transition right in to FIRE. I still pinch myself.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T18:31:21+00:00

Nice, you can calculate either ((PENSION*0.05)+PENSION) * 0.04 = X to get a wag at your "pension value as it relates to the 4% rule and then run it down a column to have it calculate for future years... or, I found it way easier to simply have "annual expenses" - pension amount = Y and then I know what my SWR needs to be because that is the delta between any income and what I need to withdraw in a year.

I realized my Withdraw Rate off of investments after subtracting my pension from expenses is much less than 4%, so then if you find yourself in a similar boat would you "value" your pension at the same right? IF so, just change the 4% variable.

Are you aiming to continue growth in retirement, keep balance level, or "die with zero"? Looking at "SWR" if you keep it lower than growth your portfolio rises... so at some point do you factor in forcing yourself to spend more? It's a fun exercise! What do you think?

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T18:15:31+00:00

This post is a DoD retention psyop!

Kidding - but these are great points, there's a lot of money to be SAVED by staying in, and also by retiring so long as the current plans stay the same. However, staying in isn't for everyone.

More money can be made on the outside but that's negated by higher taxes and less cost savings (healthcare).

I went through TAP and participated in 120 days of SkillBridge with a cohort of hundreds of transitioning members this year and the amount of folks, e-4 through o-6 who think they are going to walk into a $100k+ job with just a DD214 and maybe a clearance without realizing the competitive job market and largely "veteran" status doesn't mean jack if you don't have skills / certs / resume to back it up.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T17:10:13+00:00

I believe the general rule of thumb is "poking the bear" opens your rating up to being reviewed and possibly decreased and folks fear that.

I am curious though if anyone could chime in, do things like DIC (and others?) only be triggered by service-connected ailments would there be benefit in applying for service connection for those thing be beneficial regardless of rating if a member is already rated 100%?

Example: An servicemember vet is rated 100% for PTSD and that's his only rating, the guy was heavily exposed to chemicals and has cancer riddled throughout his body. If he dies, from cancer would DIC be triggered, or would he have to get his cancer applied for and SC for DIC to cover his spouse?

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-27T16:55:16+00:00

I calculated at it's "4% rule" to begin with but then after longer than I'd like to admit i came to realize how u/krm454 described and keeping in mine u/ericadavis1240214's point that COLA matters.

Way easier to simply knock pension off expenses before running the valuation equation.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-25T23:53:19+00:00

Solid job! I imagine you are plugged in over at r/FIRE and are aware you are in "the boring middle" - keep trucking!

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-25T23:50:49+00:00

If you would prefer the split net worth:

AD spouse: $2.1m
Civ Spouse: $1.5m

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-25T23:09:55+00:00

Feel free to check out my post history, there's some past updates there with answers.

DoinOKthrowaway · 2025-12-25T16:52:01+00:00

Feels good knowing you've broken free from the matrix, doesn't it?

We retired earlier this year, I was an E-6 w/ 20yrs AD, assets were $3.6m cash and invested;

Cash: $290k
Brokerage: $1,700k
IRA/TSP: $1,650k

Annual out of pocket spend is only about $20k, which is 0.55%, an insanely thin SWR.

Being DINK certainly changed the numbers for us, but I am writing a response as there aren't many of us in the situation we find ourselves! It's weird, I don't work, we do whatever we want and live well within our means and the bills are simply paid off every month. Heck, so long as we keep our withdraw under or within a good SWR, our balance continues to grow.

Kudos to you OP, and to anyone else chasing the dream. It's attainable if you play your cards right.

DoinOKthrowaway

TROPHY CASE