Author: Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE
How to Easily Figure Out the Dollar Value of Staying In vs Getting Out of the Military
Here is a table from the 2019 Statistical Report on the Military Retirement System:
Just by looking at this table, you can very easily learn a few things including:
- The dollar value of staying in for 20+ years and receiving a retirement pension.
- The incremental value of staying on active duty for additional years once you are retirement eligible.
The Dollar Value of a Military Pension
Let’s say you are an O-4 who has the option of resigning/separating at the 12 year mark. You think if you stayed in until 20 years you could make O-5, but you’re not sure just how valuable that military pension really is. You can figure that out by looking at the table above, and you can see that a 20 year O-5 pension has a dollar value of $1,458,837. You can reduce this value by about 20% ($1,167,070) if your are in the Blended Retirement System and would only get 80% of the full pension. That is what you’d be giving up by getting out at the 12 year mark as an O-4 and not staying in long enough to get the pension.
The Value of Staying Additional Years Once You are Retirement Eligible
Let’s say you are a 20 year O-5 who is weighing an extra 4 year commitment, and you think you could make it to O-6 if you stayed until 24. What is the dollar value of sticking around when it comes to your retirement pension?
We already mentioned that a 20 year O-5 pension was worth $1,458,837. If you stayed in another 4 years and made O-6 the value of your pension would have increased by $526,879 to $1,985,716, an average of $131,720 per extra year you stuck it out.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot of factors to consider when you are making the decision to stay in or get out, but by looking at the table above you can pretty easily quantify dollars values associated with:
- Staying in for 20+ years and receiving a retirement pension.
- The incremental value of staying on active duty for additional years once you are retirement eligible.
SG Conversation with ADM (ret.) Stavridis, 1100 on 15 January 2021
Good morning all,
I hope this message finds you well today. And I hope you can assist in spreading word about an event the SG will be having tomorrow that is open to all BUMED personnel.
Tomorrow at 1100 the Surgeon General will be speaking with ADM (ret.) James Stavridis on Facebook Live as part of the “Conversations with the Authors” Series. The topic of conversation will be Stavridis’s books “Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character” and “Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans” and their application to Navy Medicine. As a Facebook Live event this will be open to the Enterprise and we encourage all BUMED personnel to watch on the BUMED Facebook site.
A flyer about the event is here:
A link to the previous installment of the series (Dr. Muhammad Zaman, author of “Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens” can be accessed through the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI2EYhtatJU).
Thank you.
Very Respectfully,
André
André B. Sobocinski
Historian/Publications Mgr.
Communications Directorate (M09B7)
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED)
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Day 1 Messages from the New SG, RADM Gillingham
Esteemed Shipmates,
I am honored and privileged to serve as your 39th Surgeon General of the Navy. Attached you will see an outline of my priorities, and the course that we will sail together. Take a moment to review and discuss this information with your Shipmates, reflecting on how YOUR actions contribute to maritime superiority. As a high reliability organization, your active engagement and feedback will be critically important to our continued success. More detailed guidance will be forthcoming. As always, thank you for everything you do for our warfighters and their families.
I look forward to seeing you in the fleet!
SG Sends
Here also is a video from the SG:
Military Times – DoD SkillBridge: The best military transition program you didn’t know existed
I know physicians who have used this program:
Medical Corps Career Development Board Assistant Program Manager
The Corps Chiefs office is soliciting applications for the CDB Assistant Program Manager, working closely with the CDB Program Manager and Medical Corps Career Planner to coordinate and compile CDB data and best practices from the enterprise. The successful candidate will be LCDR or above with excellent organizational abilities and significant enterprise experience in both hospital and operational settings. Interested candidates should submit a letter of intent, CV, BIO, Officer Summary Record (OSR), Performance Summary Record (PSR) and command endorsement to CAPT Miguel Gutierrez (contact in the global). Applications are due NLT 29 January 2021. The current program policy is here:
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 
