Navy Retirement Explained

Although navy retirement pay protocols used to be easy to comprehend, they have definitely gotten a lot more complex over the years. As though retirement alone wasn’t hard enough to take for anybody, navy retirement has quite the tendency for complication lately and unfairness.

Years ago, the navy pay system was quite easy, but as Congress thought to change it little by little, the ins and out of navy retirement became difficult. At first, the changes were small, such as moving the cost-of-living pay check from the 1st of October to 1st of January.

As time passed, however, the small changes turned into bigger changes in the navy retirement pay system and one of the important ones is that all members of the Navy and Marine Corps are regarded as “retired members” for classification reasons. A Navy or Marine Corps member with more than 30 years experience, has a warrant, or is a commissioned officer, is considered a “retired member.”

One of the most radical changes in the navy retirement pay system is the fact that enrolled Navy and Marine Corps members who have less than 30 years of experience are transferred instead to the Fleet Reserve/ Fleet Marine Corps Reserve. The pay for these members has also been changed. Today it is known as “retainer pay.”

Sadly, the military retirement system is vastly different from the average civilian retirement system and therefore is missing a lot of its benefits, such as interests and IRA. In addition, there are no special retirement savings accounts and no provision for matching funds, leaving navy retirees only with the military retirement pay.

As many companies are already working on making changes in military retirement pay system, we can only hope that the unfairness of this situation is going to be solved and that navy officers, along with military officers, who have worked hard for the country will be given the same financial privileges as common citizens and feel good, safe and looking forward to their relaxing retirement.