Determine the date you first become eligible to retire.  Now determine the dates you’re eligible for 52%, 54% or 60% of your base pay.

Will your retainer be calculated from the base pay you’re receiving on your last day or will it be taken from some average over the past 3 years?  If it’s based on your last day, you may want to stay and take advantage of the 1 January raise.  Or maybe you’re eligible for a mid-year raise.  Do you want to stay for that?  Is it worth it to you for the few extra dollars?

Visit the Navy Personnel Command site for information on Pay and Benefits and an online pay calculator.

This is part of a complete step-by-step military retirement checklist. I’ll be posting weekly action steps here, so please subscribe over in the right-hand column so you’re sure to get each update.

Determine when you’ll be clear of all service obligations.  Do you owe time on station for orders or time in grade to be able to retire with your current pay grade?  How about payback for graduate school?  Did you use Tuition Assistance funding?

I’ve learned that you can get a waiver for almost everything.  It may be more important to you to have the time and pay back any money owed, rather than serve out the time obligation.  If so, use this week to investigate how to request a waiver for your particular situation.  Can you submit your request for waiver now?

This is part of a complete step-by-step military retirement checklist. I’ll be posting weekly action steps here, so please subscribe over in the right-hand column so you’re sure to get each update.

Get a professional sounding email address.  If you have an internet company that provides 2 or more email addresses, you can use your full name such as JohnDoe(at)internetcompany.com.  Please don’t use a cute or funny email address for your professional correspondence.

Another way is to register your name as a domain name on the internet. For example, register JohnDoe.com and your address can be John(at)JohnDoe.com.  One advantage of having your own domain name is that you can check your email anywhere, from any computer with internet access.  Set up a webmail account when you register your name.  The total cost of a domain plus a webmail account is less than $20 a year.  And if you move later, you won’t have to go through the pain of changing your email.

Your email address becomes one of your marketing tools.  Every time someone sees it, your name is impressed in their mind.  So they’ll be likely to remember you in the future.  Believe it or not, it’s true.

If you choose to use a free email service such as Google’s Gmail, be sure they do not add advertising to the footer of your emails.   These don’t give a serious professional impression to the receiver and may cause your email to get caught by spam filters from time to time.

This is part of a complete step-by-step military retirement checklist. I’ll be posting weekly action steps here, so please subscribe over in the right-hand column so you’re sure to get each update.