Pay
2026 Overseas Housing Allowance Utility Expenses Survey
The 2026 Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) Utility Expenses Survey is conducted on behalf of the Department of War and administered by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Military Compensation and Financial Readiness. The survey is designed to collect data on the utility and household maintenance costs of Service members and their families living overseas and will be used to assist in the determination of OHA Utility and Recurring Maintenance Allowance rates.
Information about OHA and how data is utilized in the OHA calculation can be found here: https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Housing-Allowance/
Survey Participants and Web Link
The survey is open to active-duty Service members living overseas that meet the following criteria:
-Renters who have received OHA for at least 6 months consecutively at their current duty station
-Renters who pay most utilities separately from their rent
-Renters who do not share rent payments with roommates or own the home for which they receive OHA
The survey is currently open through March 31, 2026, at 2400 EST. Members may access the survey at the following link:
https://www.travel.dod.mil/Allowances/Overseas-Housing-Allowance/OHA-Data-Collection-Surveys/
Participating in the Survey
Participation in this survey is voluntary; however, we encourage maximum participation. Service members’ feedback is imperative in ensuring the Department has accurate data necessary to compute OHA Utility and Recurring Maintenance Allowance rates. A Common Access Card or government computer is not required to access the survey.
This is an opportunity for the overseas military community to participate in the OHA process. The survey takes approximately 15-30 minutes to complete and only one survey per household should be completed by the person most familiar with household expenses. Members will be asked to provide information about the monthly costs of various utility and maintenance expenses they face in their current housing.
Individual responses will be treated as confidential. Only group statistics will be reported.
Thank you for your participation in this important survey.
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Delivered by Defense Finance and Accounting Service
Guest Post – The COLA Trap Review
The COLA Trap Review
Colonel Douglas Fowler graduated the Air War College in June 2020 and wrote The COLA Trap for one of his papers. He has three simple recommendations to optimize your retirement pay based on the first year COLA that influences your annual pension in following years:
Retire at the end of a fiscal quarter: 01MAR, 01JUN, 01SEP, 01DEC
Avoid retiring at the beginning of the fiscal year 01OCT
Maximize your COLA by retiring 01MAR (This means retire in FEB, retirement pay starts 01MAR)
Colonel Fowler explains how the legacy High-3 pension system is calculated using the average of the service member’s highest 36 months of base pay. Active duty pay is determined by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), while the retiree COLA is associated with inflation, and determined by the Consumer Price Index, not the NDAA. Because the COLA is calculated by an automated formula, it is possible to have a pay inversion, a concept where a service member who retires a couple months earlier than a control matched peer can earn a larger pension. This happens because the Consumer Price Index is used to determine inflation. The difference is taken between the base quarter (July-September) of the calendar year you retire and the quarter before retirement. If you retire October-December, you subtract the quarter before retirement (July-September) from your base quarter (July-September) which equals zero months difference in inflation and your COLA is zero. However if you retire January-March, you subtract the quarter before retirement (October-December of the previous year) from your base quarter (July-September of the current year), which has six months of spacing for a larger difference in inflation. This COLA formula applies to both officers and enlisted. Also note service members retiring (not medically) can only retire on the first day of the month. Colonel Fowler’s “The COLA Trap” lays out his three recommendations to optimize your military retirement.
After reading his paper, you can follow the most recent retirement COLAs here:
https://militarypay.defense.gov/Pay/Retirement/cola/
Dr. Jesse Schonau
The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy of the department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or U.S. Government.
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