Posted on Mar 12, 2014
America has a retirement crisis at hand, how will affect the military?
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With our country's debt, less savings, and static income, what can we do to fix the issue? The article series below has some insight. Thankfully the military has a pension, but is it enough? Some retired military I know work a GS job for another pension and maybe even a civilian job after that to triple dip! But not all are that lucky. Will the military have to cut back its retirement benefits?
America's Retirement Crisis and What to Do About It!
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Retirement
Benefits
Retirement Benefits
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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I just saw the cover of the latest Army Times and it looks like the Military Retirement could get smaller. I have not had the opportunity to read the article but it should be interesting to see what will happen to our retirement.
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LTC David S. Chang, ChFC®, CLU®
yes it would, i wonder how that will affect people joining the military!
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CPT (Join to see)
My guess is that changes, if any, would only affect new recruits as stated by the CSA at multiple events. I do agree it'd be interesting to see where it goes.
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LTC (Join to see)
It is probably time for a change, but it has to be part of a larger effort to examine what it is we want/need the military to do. Constitutionally, we are not supposed to have a standing Army. If we do have a standing Army if needs to be stationed where it can be effective in a world of instant communication (for example, the Army is useless in dealing with events in the Crimea because it takes months to get them in position with the appropriate logistical tail). Forward stationing of Army units makes even more sense if we are moving to regionally aligned units. Then there is the procurement system, which is seriously broke ... oh, sorry, you were only talking about retirement. My bag.
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"A nation that cannot afford to take care of its veterans cannot afford to go to war". I understand that America is having a retirement crisis. I get it. The world is changing. We are living longer. That just means that the military needs to adjust how it defends it interests with more old people in the populace. If America still wants an all-volunteer military, it will need to find a way to be able to afford its military members and its veterans. I would be fine with an overhaul to military retirement, but career military (in their second enlistment or beyond initial service commitment as an officer) should be grandfathered into the current retirement plan, with some who were caught in the middle of the change given the option to pick one retirement plan or the other.<div><br></div><div>Some good ideas I have read include moving to a hybrid 401k-like system plus a points method for retirement. The points would be worth more during deployments and special duties, and 401k-like kickers/matching would be greater during those deployments. I would also pull back all the overseas assignments and make them all temporary duties or deployments, and incentive those overseas assignments with extra points and 401k-like matching. I have even seen ideas for making it a requirement for all civil servants to have been former military (except by exception for some positions).</div><div><br></div><div>All of these ideas together would make it more affordable for the nation to keep its all-volunteer military, and it could give military members more control over their careers.</div>
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