Posted on Mar 17, 2022
Can I serve fifteen years in the Reserves after my active duty contract expires, and still retire at twenty years with a pension?
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I am serving a five year active duty contract, and want to know if I can do fifteen years reserves after my contract expires, and still retire at twenty years with a pension?
Pension
Retirement
Reserves
ETS/EAS
Career Counselor
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 67
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Continuing your service in the Guard or Reserve is an excellent option! All of the below information is correct, but each only gives a part of the picture. Yes, your Reserve retirement will be less than if you had done 20 years on Active Duty, but it will still be pretty substantial. And there are multiple things that you can do to increase your Reserve retirement points, including deployments and ADOS (Active Duty Operational Support) tours. For health benefits before retirement, you can enroll in Tricare Reserve Select (TRS) while you are still in, which is very affordable and provides decent benefits (mostly inline with Tricare Prime, actually). More details on TRS are available at: https://www.tricare.mil/Plans/ComparePlans. To get an idea of what you might make when you do retire, Army HRC has an excellent Reserve retirement calculator at: https://myarmybenefits.us.army.mil/benefit-calculators/retirement (requires a CAC or DS Logon Premium Account to use). Finally, keep in mind that certain types of ADOS and deployments could entitle a Service member to early Reserve retirement, before age 60: https://www.hrc.army.mil/content/Reduced%20Age%20Retirement. Good luck!
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I had a total of 32 years in the service. 20 active and 12 Reserve. My retirement figure lumped all retirement points earned active and reserve together that gave me an active duty retirement, "AGR". Although the active Army is title 10, most title 32 points accumulated add to the title 10 years earned. You still need 20 years of active duty whether title 10 or title 32 in order to retire with 20 years of active duty. Also as for the reserve component you have to have what is called GOOD years for those years to count. Let's say you miss a couple of weekend drills and or half an AT one year. That year won't count because you did not get enough points to make it a GOOD year. So if you get 5 years of active duty and 15 years of Reserve Duty where you only get a good year you will have 20 good years for retirement at age 60. However if you get 5 years of title 10 and 15 years of AGR, "title 32 active duty" then you would have 20 active duty years for retirement and could retire any time after your 20th year with a pension and Tricare. Only certain title 32 state active duty points count towards an active duty retirement. My advice...do what everyone who ever got out said they should have done. Stay in and get your retirement. Especially in todays work force.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
Just one clarification. You need to have at least 50 points for each of those 20 years to retire. However, if you have years where you didn't earn 50 points, but still did enough good years to retire, you will still get credit for pay for all the points you earn.
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I did 4 years enlisted, 23 years as commissioned, and then retired and went into Reserves. When I hit MSD, I retired again and the pension reset when I hit 60. It is pretty complex and unless you are in a career field where you do a lot of activation ... the numbers just don't add up for full retirement. A reservist once told me that a reserve retirement check at 20 years equates to about a drill weekend check, Not sure how accurate that is.
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I served 11 years in the IRR earned good years with correspondence courses.I used the PX & commissary even flew spacers plus I made E-7. Promotion to MSG & SGM in the IRR as a Mobilization Augmented is possible. When you get your 20 year letter do not ETS transfer to the Retired Reserve , so that when you turn 60 your pay is based on the current rate not the rate of when you would have ETS'ed. Most AD and USAR " career counselors won't have a clue or help you. Don't just ETS at the separation and transfer point insist on speaking with the USAR recruier who can have orders assigning you directly into the IRR up to 6 years. They get credit for very little work and your records go to a career group/MOS manger NCO. In the IRR this NCO can get you AD tours or Miltary schools. You can be recalled to AD from the IRR but they grab the most recently separated folks first, or you can call up and ask to be recalled.
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LTC Ray Buenteo
Let me expand. As mentioned most important are points. You need minimum of 50 points per year for a good year and minimum of 20 good years for a retirement. You will not collect retirement and medical until you are 60 years old. Here’s the good news. You get 15 points for just being a member, 48 total points for drill weekends, and 15 points for two annual training. You only need 50 pts for good year. There is also opportunities for additional training and duty with pay and points under orders or IMA. You can potentially earn up to 365 pts a year. You and family also qualify for Tri care while a member of reserve/NG at very low cost $230 month for family or $46 individual. I was active and then went reserve till I was 60. Not hard to do. Depending on your unit you can get real creative on how you want to do your drills and annual training. You also earn points for online training, meetings etc. I did completed many mandatory courses online and earned points toward retirement. I did my ILE CGSC online and earned 90+ points and never left my den. Being in the reserves is what you make of it, good or bad. You will get mobilized either home station or overseas. Depending on your job I. The unit it could be demanding. A major element to success will be communication. You need to maintain good active communications and accountability with your chain and unit. Good luck.
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No, you will not receive a pension at 20 years if you do a reserve retirement. You'll draw your retirement somewhere between 55 and 67, depending on how much you were activated during those 15 years.
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SFC (Join to see)
CPT Lawrence Cable even if you choose to retire later to draw a larger Social Security?
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CPT Lawrence Cable
SFC (Join to see) - Yes, the two systems aren't related. You draw your Military retirement and pickup Tricare when you send in your packet, which should be 90 days before your 60th Birthday. Or sooner, if you have those qualified deployments. Then you can use Tricare until you turn 65 and get Medicare and TriCare for Life. You can choose to put of Social Security until you are 70 and it doesn't effect any of that stuff.
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SPC Ginny Roper if you’re planning on getting a commission and getting into the reserves instead of going for E-7 you should strive to make 0-5/ LTC before retirement from the reserves. The difference of the points and rank achieved makes a substantial difference. Each year counts toward your points accumulation. Shooting for just 20 years could cause you to leave money on the table that upon retirement you’ll wish you stayed just a little longer. Besides in general it could take up to a year after you reach 20 years before you receive what we call your 20 year letter. You have to have that to apply for retirement when you reach age 60. Now another point I’d like to point out if you have the opportunity to go to NCO courses it’ll only help in your leadership background. If you ever had a desire to be a Drill Sergeant you can only do that as an enlisted Soldier. Lastly don’t discount going Warrant Officer. If you like working mentoring troops Warrant Officers get to serve at the Battery/ Company/ Troop level way longer than LTs and CPTs. From Senior CPT forward you’ll spend more time in staff assignments than command assignments. In the Reserves as an Officer you also have too seek and find your next assignment. It’s not like on active duty. Best of luck in your military career and thank you for serving!
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