Navy Retirement
Retirement is really never an easy time for anyone, and when you are retiring from the Navy, there are many differences when compared to regular retirement. One of the biggest issues involved with navy is navy pay. This is because this particular pay system used to be easy to understand but now has definitely gained in complexity. The Navy Pay System Basically, during the draw-down, Congress decided that the military pay was too simple, and so they decided to change it to their liking. First they started off with relatively small changes, some which were so small in fact that they were hardly noticeable, such as the moving of the annual Cost-of-Living allowance to January 1st from October 1st. However, they quickly began making more serious changes to the Navy pay system, and there are a few alterations in particular that are important to know about. For one, for all Navy and Marine Corps members, you are considered as being ‘retired members’ for classification purposes if you are enlisted members with over 30 years of experience or if you have a warrant or are commissioned officers. Another of the most drastic changes to the Navy pay system is

that now enlisted Navy and Marine Corps members who have any less than 30 years of experience are instead transferred to the Fleet Reserve/ Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, and their pay is also altered, now known as being ‘retainer pay’. It is important to understand that military pay is incredibly different and unlike regular, civilian pay systems, namely because there is no ‘vesting’ in the military system. There are no special or particular savings accounts, no matching funds provision, and certainly no interest, and so really a lot of the perks and advantages that are offered to civilians are not viable for retirees of the military. This is obviously incredibly unfortunate, not to mention unfair, and presently there are already many companies and organizations in the works who are striving towards making a change in this regards. After all, those people who have served in the Navy or any other area of the military not only deserve to receive the same benefits as ordinary civilians, but if anything, even more. They have done their duty and put in their time to serving their country, and they should be able to feel safe, secure and comfortable when it comes time for them to retire.