Year 0 through 40+
The deadlines that decide your retirement are mostly invisible.
Continuation pay. The TSP match window. Benefits Delivery at Discharge. The Medicare Part B enrollment that TRICARE For Life depends on. Each one has a date, each one is hard to reopen, and no single office tracks all of them for you.
- Chapters
- 13
- Each one states its own year range.
- Years covered
- 0–60
- Accession through Medicare Part B.
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- None
- No account, no server, no export you did not ask for.
The index
The whole career, in order
Thirteen chapters, three phases. Read them in sequence or jump to where you actually are — every chapter states its own year range.
Phase one
Serving
Years 0–6The window where the compounding decisions are made and almost nobody is watching them.- 01AccessionEnlistment, ROTC contracting, the academy, OCS, or direct commission. Whichever door you come through, an obligation attaches on the way in — and two dates are set that never move again.Yr 0–1Read →
- 02Initial TrainingBasic training, technical school, and the first duty station. Administrative decisions made here in a hurry follow you for years, and the medical record that starts here becomes VA evidence decades later.Yr 0–1Read →
- 03First TermYears zero to four. The government match starts and is calculated pay period by pay period, the beneficiary forms outrank your will, and none of it has a deadline anyone will chase you about.Yr 0–4Read →
- 04Re-enlist or CommissionThe first real fork. Separate, re-enlist, commission from the ranks, or move between components — each attaching its own obligation, and each doing something different to your pay curve, your clock, and your earliest exit date.Yr 4–6Read →
Phase two
Deciding
Years 6–20Continuation pay, the twenty-year cliff, and the point after which staying is a calculation.- 05Mid-CareerYears six through twelve. Continuation pay arrives once and is not reoffered, the retirement decision stops being abstract, and the deployment medical record you build now is the evidence a VA claim rests on a decade later.Yr 6–12Read →
- 06Senior YearsYears twelve to twenty. Retired pay is set by the highest thirty-six months of basic pay, so promotion timing, assignment timing, and the date you stop serving become the same financial question.Yr 12–20Read →
- 07Twenty YearsRetirement eligibility. What creditable service means, how it is confirmed in writing, and why service that stops short of twenty years produces no retired pay at all.Yr 20Read →
- 08Beyond TwentyYears twenty through forty. Each additional year adds to the multiplier and usually to the High-3, and each one is paid for with a year of a second career that would have had its own salary and its own compounding.Yr 20–40Read →
Phase three
After
Years 20–60Separation, the claim, the pension, and the enrolments that quietly depend on each other.- 09TransitionThe final twenty-four months. Statutory transition deadlines, SkillBridge, terminal leave, and the VA claim window that only opens once.Yr 20–40Read →
- 10Retirement ActionsFinal out. The SBP election, the DD-214 review, healthcare enrollment, and the paperwork that is genuinely hard to undo.Yr 20–40Read →
- 11Post-RetirementRetired pay administration, the VA offset, CRDP and CRSC, the one-year appeal deadline, and the second career's effect on the whole picture.Yr 20–45Read →
- 12Later LifeAge 62, 65, and beyond. Social Security claiming, the Medicare Part B enrollment that TRICARE For Life depends on, survivor benefits, and keeping the estate current.Yr 40–60Read →