Yes, this is a reserves pension. I entered the Navy in 1974, completed 4 years AD followed by 18 years active reserve. (Only 16 of the 18 reserve years were qualifying.)
Oboy, keep in mind that many of today's staff at DFAS and COMNAVRESFOR may not have even been alive when you joined the Navy. You might have to explain to them what "Final Pay" is.
You should be hearing from CNRF (or whatever we're calling it now) around April or May to check your pension amount, start date, and SBP decision. I recommend you try to jump the gun and start them on it now.
Seriously, you should be ready to fax over a copy of one of your 1974 LESs proving that you were on active duty back then. Your Date of Initial Entry into Military Service (DIEMS) data may have been mis-transcribed when the pay systems went joint in the late 1990s. It would be a bonus if you could put your hands on all your DD-214s and LESs. You would be a sweepstakes winner if you could lay your hands on your "Statement of Service for Navy Reserve Retirement" point-count summary sheet.
Hopefully you also have your Notice of Eligibility letter (letting you know that you reached those 20 good years) and your Reserve Retirement Order and Transfer Authorization to Retired Reserve Status (telling you that you're officially a gray-area retiree).
When using the "Final Pay" calculater should I enter 22 or 20 years? When I look at the pay scale for 2012, should I be looking at the over 18 or over 20 years column? I turn 60 at the end of November, so excellent tip on asking DFAS for estimates beginning Dec 2012 and Jan 2013.
Um, neither. You need to calculate your point count.
You get one point for every day of active duty (including leap years!) and one point for every drill (which means some drill weekends got two points/day). Hypothetically your DD-214s will have your individual point counts on them, as will your annual summaries. Or you could just look at the number at the bottom of your Statement of Service.
You're retiring as a Reservist under Final Pay:
Estimate Your Pay
Divide your grand total career point count by 360 (because pay is based on 30-day months) and multiply by 2.5% to come up with your service multiplier. For example, 2134 points / 360 * 2.5% = 14.82%. That's your service percent multiplier, just as an active-duty retirement at 20 years would be 50%.
Now you need your pay scale. If you "retired awaiting pay", then your pay scale is on the 2012 pay table at the
maximum longevity for that rank. (
OSD Military Compensation (militarypay.defense.gov)) If you "resigned" instead of "retired awaiting pay" then your pay scale is the one in effect in the year you filed for retirement (1996?). 99.9% of Reservists did RAP because of the accrual benefit of using the age-60 pay table and the longevity. Of course for the last 16 years you've been subject to a total force mobilization, but that's the risk you took for the accrued benefit.
So take a look at page 2 of the 2012 pay table at
http://www.dfas.mil/dms/dfas/militarymembers/pdf/MilPayTable2012.pdf . If you retired as an O-6, there are pay longevity raises at 20 years of service, 22 years, 24 years, 26 years, and 30 years. It tops out at 30. If you retired as an O-6 awaiting pay then you'd choose the maximum pay of that rank-- in this case O-6>30 or $10,557.30/month. If you retired as an O-5 then it'd be $8446.20. At E-7 it'd be $4815.90.
Whatever max pay you find for that rank, multiply it by 14.82% and round down to the nearest dollar. That's your monthly pension. For O-6 it'd be $10,557.30 * .1482 = $1564/month.
The last number I saw for a 2013 pay raise was 1.7%. Waiting a month to use the 2013 pay tables would cost you a month of retired pay (let's call it $1000) but would boost your pension by 1.7%. (This is only an effect on us Final Pay pensioners.) So you'd earn an extra $17/month for the rest of your life, and the payback on the foregone $1000 would be just under five years.
That DFAS website will get you a phone number and an e-mail link. It's tax time, so you might want to try e-mail.
More general info at this post:
Retiring from the Reserves and National Guard | Military Retirement & Financial Independence
I think my husband will agree that we should decline the SBP. (Ironic that I earned the opportunity to enroll in the SBP yet he, according to law, is the one who decides if I can decline it.)
This depends on what you decided to do when you filed for retirement back in the 1990s.
If you elected SBP back then, the DoD wants you to pay for some of it. (Their logic is that you had SBP coverage during your gray-area years, so they want some payment to make up for their risk-- even though you're still alive.) You may be told that you have to cough up two years' SBP payments from your Reserve pension for your gray-area coverage.
If you declined SBP back then (or if you elected the option for it to start at age 60) the DoD may let you off the hook and you won't owe them any money for gray-area coverage. You have the option to re-elect SBP or decline it again. From what you've described, I'd prefer to have the 6.5% extra money now rather than to insure my spouse with yet another annuity after I'm gone. He, of course, may feel differently. Spouse and I [-]tested our love[/-] declined each other's SBP on our pensions. Well, technically she declined mine in 2002, and I intend to decline hers again in 2022. As far as she knows.
I know it's a one time opportunity to elect this benefit, so I need be sure of my decision.
To be excruciatingly correct: if you decline SBP at retirement, then the only way to enroll would be during an open enrollment period. There've been four of them over roughly the last 30 years. If you choose SBP at retirement, then you have a window between months 25-36 to change your mind and cancel the coverage. After that you're stuck, unless you divorce your spouse or they die.
The Reserve Component Survivor Benefit Plan | Military Retirement & Financial Independence
More SBP details | Military Retirement & Financial Independence
I'll bet you're wondering how I got so smart on this. It's not just because my spouse is a gray-area Reservist and Deserat wrote much of the book's Reserves chapter. I cheated: spouse has a lifetime subscription to the Association of the United States Navy (what used to be the Navy Reserve Association).
I recommend you sign up for a year's subscription at
Home - Association of the United States Navy
Read their entire website, read every issue of their magazine, and in 12 months decide whether you want to keep on subscribing. If you sign up right now then you'll have access to all their website tools for Reserve planning, including the latest on when you'll hear from CNRF and DFAS and calculators and more details of that deferral decision. For a fee, AUSN will even review your record and tell you how much you'll be getting and what steps to take before Nov.
Oh.....I understand now!! I've got so much to learn about TRICARE. Thanks for sharing that.
If you're anywhere near a military base, they should have a military treatment facility with a Tricare ombudsman. You can call or visit them for more info. Another option would be e-mailing or calling the Tricare contractor for your area of the U.S.
martyb, thank you for that invaluable bit of information!
Once FEHB is suspended, sounds like the only way to switch back to FEHB is if other coverage (in our case TRICARE) is no longer available
Suspension of FEHB Coverage to Use TRICARE, Medicare/Medicaid, or Certain State Sponsored Medical Assistance Plans TRICARE will always be available so how does that work?
Since my husband will switch to my insurance plan (until I turn 60 and we both pick up TRICARE) why not suspend FEHB immediately upon his retirement?
thanks again
Tricare may always be in effect, but it may not be accepted by any doctors in your area. I'd call that "not available" but you'd probably have to debate that with FEHB.