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National Guard & Reserves Retirement Calculator

Use our free retirement calculator to estimate your monthly and annual payments. 

Who is Eligible for National Guard/Reserve Retirement?

All active duty servicemembers and Reserve Component (RC) members are eligible for military retirement as long as they meet certain requirements. However, the eligibility for RC military retirement differs from that for active duty military retirement, so we have different calculators for each group. 

Calculate active duty military retirement pay on this page or simply click the “Active Duty” button under “Status at retirement” on this calculator.  

Across the Reserve Component, the eligibility for retirement is the same for all members. 

Members of the Reserve Component include: 

  • Air National Guard
  • Air Force Reserve
  • Army National Guard
  • Army Reserve
  • Coast Guard Reserve
  • Navy Reserve
  • Marine Corps Reserve

See our complete guide on Guard/Reserve Retirement here.

How to Qualify for Guard/Reserve Retirement

If you’re in the Reserve Component, you must earn 20 qualifying years of service to qualify for retirement. To have a qualifying year in the RC, you must earn 50 points, commonly referred to as a Good Year.  

Additionally, as part of the RC, you cannot claim retirement pay until age 60 unless you serve enough active duty time to earn an early Guard/Reserve Retirement. Since the military

How Is Guard/Reserve Retirement Pay Calculated?

Guard/Reserve retirement pay is based on a points system. The total number of retirement points earned during your career is divided by 360 to determine your equivalent years of service. This figure is then multiplied by 2.5% and your High-3 average base pay (the average of your highest 36 months of pay). The resulting percentage of your High-3 pay becomes your monthly retirement pay.

Earning Retirement Points

Reserve members earn points for various activities, such as drills, training, and active-duty service. For every day of active-duty service, you’ll receive one point. Read our detailed Guard/Reserve point guide here for a full breakdown of how to earn more retirement points. 

Each point contributes to your retirement pay calculation. To find your points statement, use the following table. 

Reserve Component BranchWhere to Find Your Points Statement
Army National GuardGo to IPPS-A Landing Page (army.mil). Select “HR Professional,” then select “View Retirement Points.” 
Air Force Reserve and Air National GuardGo to https://www.my.af.mil. Navigate to the Virtual Military Personnel Flight (vMPF), select “Self-Service Actions,” select “Personal Data,” and click “ANG/USAFR Point Credit Summary Inquiry (PCFARS).”
Army ReserveReview your “Chronicle Retirement Point Statement DA 5016” at www.hrc.army.mil. Select the “My Record” tab to review. Note: CAC card required. 
Marine Corps ReserveReview your “Career Retirement Credit Report” at https://mol.tfs.usmc.mil/mol
Navy ReserveReview your “Annual Retirement Point Record” (ARPR) at https://www.bol.navy.mil/ARPR/
Coast Guard ReserveGo to https://portal.direct-access.us. Click “My Reserve Points Statement” under the “Employee View” menu.

At retirement, the total number of accumulated points is divided by 360 to convert them into equivalent years of service. This figure is then used in the retirement pay formula, which varies depending on the military retirement plan you are eligible for. 

Other Factors That Impact Guard/Reserve Retirement Pay

Several key factors affect your retirement pay:

  • Total Points Earned: Retirement pay increases with the number of points you earn during your career.
  • High-3 Pay: Your retirement is calculated based on the average of your highest 36 months of pay.
  • Rank and Time in Service: Higher rank and longer service generally mean higher pay.
  • Retirement Plan: Your eligible retirement plan (Final Pay, High-3, or Blended Retirement System) determines how pay is calculated.
  • Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA): Annual adjustments ensure retirement pay keeps up with inflation.

Outside of the eligibility requirements and how pay is calculated, most retirement benefits are fairly similar between active duty members and members of the Guard/Reserve. To learn more about the impacts on your military retirement pay, like how to figure out your retirement plan and how taxes will affect your retirement pay, see the following links: 

Final Thoughts on Your Future Benefits

The biggest differences between active duty and Reserve military retirement come down to the points system and when you are eligible to receive retirement pay and other benefits. While active duty service gets you access to military retirement faster, aspects of active duty service may not interest you. Whereas being in the Reserves will give you access to those strong VA benefits, but also allow you the opportunity to seek professional growth in the civilian workforce sector.  

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Doug Nordman says

    Don, that form lists your military training and experience. It doesn’t verify that you have 20 good years of Reserve or Guard service and has no impact on military pensions or veteran’s benefits.

    I think you’re asking whether you qualify for a Reserve pension. You can learn more about that by contacting your final service (the Army Reserve?) at the Human Resources Command (https://hrc.army.mil/) to request a copy of your Notice Of Eligibility letter.

    You can also discuss whether your point-count records with them include your previous active duty.

    If there’s an error in your records then you could try to update the HRC database with your active-duty service, and see whether that meets the requirements for a NOE.

    If you’re asking about veteran’s benefits or a VA disability claim, that’s handled by a Veteran Service Officer. You can find them through local chapters of the American Legion, the DAV, the VFW, or even MOAA. You can find them in your area through the VA’s website:
    https://www.va.gov/vso/
    And you can also contact your state’s office of Veteran Affairs.

  2. Doug Nordman says

    Sophia,

    I’m happy to help with those numbers, although I depend on the manual calculation instead of those point charts.

    I’m going to assume that you did not deploy to a combat zone after 28 January 2008 for at least 90 days during a fiscal year. If you had, that would entitle you to start your pension three months earlier for each of those 90-day segments. If that might be an issue, though, you can read more about it at this post from my friend (and ANG officer) Ryan Guina:
    https://themilitarywallet.com/national-guard-and-reserve-early-retirement-age/

    You could wait to start your Reserve pension on 1 January 2019, but it works against you with High Three. It can work with the Final Pay pension system (it’s usually less than a 10-year payback), which is applicable to those who started active duty before 8 September 1980. However High Three averages the final 36 months of pay tables before you start your pension. If you delay the start of that pension while the older base-pay numbers are dropping out of the 36-month average, you could be missing thousands of dollars a month in pension deposits which would take decades to make up.
    https://militarypay.defense.gov/Pay/Retirement/reserve/

    When you start your Reserve pension in November 2018, the 36 month average uses 11 months from the 2018 pay tables, 12 months from the 2017 tables, 12 months from the 2016 tables, and December 2015. You probably retired awaiting pay with at least three years time in grade as an O-6 (or a waiver down to two years), so your pension is calculated from that rank.

    If your Date of Initial Entry into Military Service is 17 March 1985 then (for pay longevity purposes) your DIEMS date puts you as an O-6>30 in March 2015. I happen to know that the pay tables top out for O-6 at 30 years (it’s the same pay for O-6>32) so it’s a little easier to look up the numbers.
    https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/military-pay-charts.html

    Here’s the numbers I’m using:
    2018 O-6>32: $11,599.80
    2017 O-6>30 and O-6>32: $11,328.00 for both
    2016 O-6>30 : $11,094.90
    December 2015 O-6>30: $10,952.40

    The November 2018 High Three average is:
    [(11 x $11,599.80) + (12 x $11,328.00) + (12 x $11,094.90) + $10,952.40] / 36 = $11,322.91

    4833 points / 360 x 2.5% x $11,322.91 = $3800/month.
    (The Financial Management Regulation requires DFAS to truncate the result to the lower dollar.)
    https://www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/plan/estimate.html

    If you start your pension in January 2019 and there’s a 2.0% pay raise (which seems like a reasonable compromise on the 2.6% proposal), then your High Three average would drop December 2015 and January 2016 while adding December 2018 and January 2019’s 2% pay raise.

    The January 2019 High Three average would be:
    [($11,599.80 x 1.02) + (12 x $11,599.80) + (12 x $11,328.00) + (11 x $11,094.90) ] / 36 = $11,361.36
    and your new pension amount would be $3813/month. However you lost the entire month of December ($3800) and some days in November. Making up >$3800 at a higher pension of $13/month would take over 24 years. (It’d be an additional $126.67/day or 9.75 months per day for whatever you lost from your November birth date). Maybe you’d win that bet (it’d motivate me!) but I’m not sure it’s worth the payoff.

    Regardless of when you decide to start your pension, you can sign up for Tricare Prime or Tricare Select on your 60th birthday.

  3. David L. McDonald says

    Unfortunately I have hired a lawyer to sue the government for my benefits. Both of the elected officials I have contacted about my retirement have been dead ends. I will keep you posted on the results.

    Dave

    • Doug Nordman says

      Thanks for the update, Dave. Please let us know how the lawyer interprets the differing Title 10 sections.

  4. Doug Nordman says

    Steve, thanks for your question and my apologies for my delayed response. FINCON12 is sucking up all my brainpower this week.

    I don’t know the answer to the ID card, but it depends on whether that decision is made by the DEERS staff (who furnish the info for the ID card) or the DFAS pay system (which decides what rank is used for your retired pay).

    My guess is that if you retire before time in rank that you’d have a gray-area ID with your final rank, but when you reached age 60 then your new ID card would reflect the lower rank.

    Reaching TIG may be easier than you think. In a drawdown, the services will frequently waive their TIG requirements from three years down to two or even one. Keep an eye on your service’s Reserve personnel website or ask them about it.

    If you’re Navy then I’d join the Association of the U.S. Navy (AUSN.org) and e-mail their staff with the ID card question. Or maybe one of the other readers will chime in with the answer!

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