Guard and Reserve retirement calculator: from your points to your pay

You earn one point for each day of active service, one for each drill, and 15 a year for membership. Inactive points are capped at 130 a year, and active days add on top, up to 365 or 366 in a year. A good year is one with at least 50 points. A year under 50 still adds its points to your total, but it does not count toward your 20. 10 U.S.C. 12732 and 12733.

Your points divided by 360 are your years of credit. Each year is worth 2.5% of your retired pay base, or 2.0% under the Blended Retirement System, and the result is rounded down to the dollar. DFAS: estimate your pay and 10 U.S.C. 12739.

Most members use High-36, the average of the 36 months before retired pay begins. Members who entered before September 8, 1980 use Final Pay. In the Retired Reserve, both use the pay rates in effect when your retired pay starts, even if you stopped drilling years before, so this page's 2026 figures are today's dollars. DoD: military retirement.

This one costs people money. The Army's guide says a member who moves to the Retired Reserve keeps earning longevity credit while waiting for pay. A former member who takes a discharge stops earning it on the date of discharge. Check this with your branch before you choose. Army Reserve retirement planning guide.

Each aggregate of 90 days of qualifying active duty after January 28, 2008 lowers your age by three months, counted within a fiscal year, or across two consecutive fiscal years after September 30, 2014. It never goes below 50, and not every kind of orders counts. Your branch tracks your reduced age and should tell you. 10 U.S.C. 12731.

Your Notice of Eligibility should reach you within a year of finishing your 20 years. Retired pay is not automatic. The Army's guide says to apply as early as nine months and no later than three months before you are eligible. A Future Retiree myPay account keeps your address current. DFAS: gray area retirees.

Reserve Component SBP is its own election, offered with your Notice of Eligibility. TRICARE Retired Reserve costs $645.90 a month for the member or $1,548.30 for the family in 2026, and at 60, Prime or Select opens to you and your family. DFAS: Reserve Component SBP and TRICARE costs.

Your branch decides your points, your eligibility, and your application, and DFAS pays it. This is an estimate from the figures you enter, in today's dollars. It does not know your points record, and it does not model cost-of-living raises, taxes, SBP, or a VA waiver. Nothing here is personal advice. See Full disclosures.