Military Retirement Planning
Ridge & Republic Financial provides military retirement planning for servicemembers and veterans navigating the transition from military service to retirement or a second career.
Military Retirement Creates Unique Questions
Military retirement is different from a traditional retirement. After a career in the military, you may have several benefits and financial resources that need to work together.
Military retired pay can provide income for life. Your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) may represent a significant portion of your retirement savings. VA disability compensation may become another source of household income. TRICARE can change how you think about healthcare costs. The Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) creates decisions about protecting your spouse and family.
And for many military retirees, leaving active duty doesn't mean leaving the workforce. A second career can introduce a new salary, 401(k), health benefits, taxes, and another opportunity to save for retirement.
The challenge is understanding how all of these pieces fit together.
When should you use your TSP? Should you leave it in the TSP or roll it over? How much investment risk should you take when you already have military retired pay? How should VA benefits affect the plan? Should you elect SBP? When should you claim Social Security? Could Roth conversions make sense? How much do you actually need to save during a second career?
Military retirement planning means looking at these decisions together rather than treating your pension, TSP, VA benefits, Social Security, healthcare, taxes, and investments as separate problems.
Helping veterans service members answer these questions is what I do as a fiduciary financial adviser.
Adam Betzelberger
Ridge and Republic Financial
Military Retirement | TSP | Survivor Benefit Plan | VA Benefits | Military Pension
Questions i Can help You Answer
What Could I Do With My TSP?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like?
What Could I Do With My TSP? Should I leave my money in the TSP, roll it into an IRA, move it to a new employer's plan, or use some combination? How do taxes, investment options, fees, and withdrawal rules affect that decision?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like? How will military retired pay, VA disability compensation, Social Security, TSP withdrawals, investments, and income from a second career work together?
How Should I Think About the Survivor Benefit Plan?
What Will My Military Retirement Income Actually Look Like?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement?
How Should I Think About the Survivor Benefit Plan? What would happen financially if I die first? How does SBP fit with life insurance, investments, other survivor benefits, and the financial needs of my family?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement? What healthcare coverage will I have after military retirement? What costs should I plan for, and how could healthcare change as I get older?
How Will Taxes Affect My Military Retirement?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement?
How Will Taxes Affect My Military Retirement?
How Will Taxes Affect My Military Retirement? How are my different sources of income taxed? Should I consider Roth contributions or conversions? How could civilian income, military retired pay, TSP withdrawals, and Social Security affect my tax situation?
Can I Afford to Retire—or Make Work Optional?
How Will TRICARE and Healthcare Fit Into Retirement?
How Will Taxes Affect My Military Retirement?
Can I Afford to Retire—or Make Work Optional? How much income does my household actually need? How much can my investments reasonably support? What changes if I start a second career, work fewer years, or decide I don't want to work again?
Your Military Pension Is Only One Piece
The bigger question is what your pension allows the rest of your financial life to do.
A military pension is an incredibly valuable financial resource. But knowing what your retired pay will be doesn't tell you whether you're ready to retire or what you should do with the rest of your money.
You may also have a TSP, IRAs, brokerage accounts, cash, VA disability compensation, Social Security, a spouse's income, or eventually a 401(k) from a second career.
So what do you do with all of it?
Does having a pension mean you can take more risk with your investments? Or does it mean you don't need to?
How much do you need to save during a second career?
When should you start using your TSP?
When does work become optional?
How should taxes influence those decisions?
This is where the planning gets interesting. Your military pension changes the math because part of your retirement income may already be covered before you touch your investments.
My job is to look at the pension alongside your TSP, VA benefits, Social Security, investments, taxes, spending, and other resources and help you understand what all of it means for the decisions you're trying to make.
How I Approach Military Retirement Planning
Your benefits are specific to military service. Your financial questions are specific to you.
Military retirement planning starts with understanding what you're trying to figure out.
Maybe you're five years from retirement and want to know whether you're on track.
Maybe you're deciding what to do with your TSP. Maybe you're starting a second career and suddenly have a pension, VA benefits, a new salary, a new 401(k), and a completely different tax situation.
We start with the question.
From there, I look at the pieces of your financial life that matter to answering it. That may include your military retired pay, TSP, VA benefits, SBP, TRICARE, Social Security, investments, taxes, spending, insurance, and benefits from a second career.
Then we run the numbers.
Depending on the question, that could mean modeling retirement at different ages, estimating how much income your assets can support, reviewing your investments, comparing Social Security strategies, analyzing Roth conversions, or looking at how different decisions could affect your taxes over time.
Sometimes the analysis answers one question. Sometimes it uncovers three more.
The objective is to understand what your military benefits and other financial resources actually allow you to do—and give you enough information to make the decisions ahead.
Military Retirement Planning in Dayton, Ohio
The Dayton area has a large military and federal community around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Ridge & Republic Financial is based in Beavercreek, Ohio, just outside of Dayton and near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
That makes military and federal retirement planning a natural area of focus for my practice.
Many servicemembers who retire in the Dayton area aren't simply moving from a military career into traditional retirement. They may retire from the military in their 40s or 50s, begin a second career, continue contributing to retirement accounts, and eventually have several different sources of income and benefits to coordinate.
That can mean military retired pay, TSP assets, VA benefits, TRICARE, a civilian salary and 401(k), a spouse's benefits, Social Security, and other investments all becoming part of the same household financial plan.
I help military retirees and families in the Dayton and Beavercreek area—and clients I work with remotely—understand how those pieces fit together and what they mean for the financial decisions ahead.
Disclosure: Ridge & Republic Financial is an independent registered investment adviser and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Armed Forces, or Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.