Quick Answers: The Transition Questions People Actually Ask
Ten short, cited answers to the questions that come up again and again — each linking to the guide that covers it properly.
TimelineThe Military Retirement Timeline: 24 Months Out, Month by Month
Every hard deadline back-planned from your date — TAP at 365 days, the BDD window, Capstone, and the SBP decision.
Leave & payTerminal Leave vs. Sell-Back: The Real Math
The per-day value is not equal — allowances, taxes, the 60-day career cap, and SkillBridge all move the answer.
Branch checklistAir Force Retirement Checklist: Every DAFI Deadline
The myFSS window, TAPS deadlines, the SHPE window, SkillBridge via AFVEC, and the retired-grade trap — with DAFI citations.
Branch checklistSpace Force Retirement Checklist: Every SPFI and DAFI Deadline
SkillBridge runs on SPFI 36-2672, not the Air Force instruction — and its day caps differ in both directions. Plus the DAFI deadlines you do share.
Branch checklistArmy Retirement Checklist: The SFL-TAP Timeline
SFL-TAP's tiered deadlines, the AR 600-8-24 / AR 635-200 windows, AGDRB grade determination, and CSP/SkillBridge.
Survivor benefitsSBP vs. Life Insurance: Running the Break-Even
What SBP costs (6.5%), what it pays (55%, inflation-protected), when premiums actually stop, and how to compare term honestly.
Branch checklistNavy Retirement Checklist: Fleet Reserve and the NSIPS Windows
Why enlisted Sailors transfer to the Fleet Reserve instead of retiring, the MILPERSMAN submission windows by paygrade, and the PRD conflict.
Branch checklistMarine Corps Retirement Checklist: FMCR and the 14-Month Window
The FMCR transfer, MARCORSEPMAN's 14-months-to-4-months window that MCTFS enforces automatically, and CMC vs. SECNAV grade determination.
Branch checklistCoast Guard Retirement Checklist: No Fleet Reserve, and a 90-Day Pay Deadline
Why there's no Fleet Reserve, the DD 2656 to PPC-RAS at 90 days, the Coast Guard's own PDES, and the 20/30-day administrative absence.
Retired payREDUX vs. High-3 vs. BRS: Which Formula Are You Actually Under?
How to tell which system applies to you, why the 75% cap doesn't exist for post-2006 retirees, and the REDUX COLA penalty that never ends.
Retired payGuard and Reserve Retirement: Points ÷ 360, the 20-Year Letter, and Age 60
Good years decide whether you retire; points ÷ 360 decides how much. Plus the point caps, the reduced-age credit, and the gray area.
Retired payTSP on the Way Out: Match, Vesting, Limits, and What Happens After Separation
The match windows that open at 60 days and close at 26 years, two-year vesting on government money, the 2026 limits, and life after separation.
Retired payCRDP: When Retired Pay and VA Compensation Actually Stack
VA compensation normally offsets retired pay dollar for dollar. CRDP removes that offset at 50% — and that threshold is worth more than most rating increases.
Retired payDivorce and Military Retirement: USFSPA, the 10/10 Rule, and the Frozen-Benefit Rule
Why 10/10 governs direct payment rather than entitlement, what "disposable" actually excludes, and how the frozen-benefit rule caps a former spouse's share.
Retired payMonte Carlo for Military Retirement: What a Success Rate Actually Means
What a simulation's success rate really measures, why return order matters, how a COLA'd pension changes the math, and what TSP history shows.
Retired payHow to Calculate Military Retirement Pay: High-3 and BRS, Step by Step
Retired pay base times multiplier, step by step from 10 U.S.C. 1407 and 1409, with 2026 pay-table figures and a worked E-7 example.
Retired payMilitary Buyback for FERS: The Service Deposit, the Interest Clock, and the Retired-Pay Catch
What the FERS military deposit costs, when interest starts, why retired pay can block the credit, and what each bought year adds.
Retired payTSP Withdrawals Before 59½: The 10% Additional Tax, the Age-55 Exception, and the Military Catch
The 10% early-distribution tax, why leaving the military before 55 matters under the IRS's own example, TSP withdrawal choices, and RMD ages.
Survivor benefitsRCSBP: The Survivor Decision That Arrives With Your 20-Year Letter
A 90-day clock starts when the letter arrives — and doing nothing enrolls you at full coverage, irrevocably. The three options and the statute behind them.
Survivor benefitsSGLI to VGLI: The 120-Day and 240-Day Deadlines After You Separate
SGLI ends 120 days after you separate. Converting to VGLI turns on your application and first premium arriving on time, and day 240 is the health-evidence line.
TimelineSkillBridge, The Complete Guide: Eligibility, MOU Employers, Timing, and PTDY
The four eligibility gates, the 180-day window on when SkillBridge can start and what each service counts against it, and the application sequence by branch.
VA benefitsThe VA BDD Claim Timeline: The 180–90 Day Window Explained
File a VA claim before you separate — but only inside a 90-day-wide window. What to have ready before it opens, and how the separation exam feeds it.
VA benefitsVA Disability Math: Why 50 + 30 ≠ 80
The efficiency model behind the combined ratings table, the exact rounding procedure, and the bilateral factor most people never claim.
VA benefitsThe VA Home Loan Funding Fee — and the Disability Waiver Most Veterans Miss
The fee costs five figures on a typical purchase, and the statute waives it entirely for veterans receiving VA compensation — including a pre-discharge rating at closing.
VA benefitsGI Bill Chapter 33 at Separation: Tiers, the Transfer Catch, and Yellow Ribbon
The 36-month threshold, and the transfer rule that costs you four more years of service if you wait until late in a career to use it.
VA benefitsVA Mental Health Ratings: What 0, 10, 30, 50, 70 and 100 Percent Require
PTSD, depression and anxiety share one rating formula. Each level's criteria in the regulation's own words, and the evidence that speaks to them.
VA benefitsTinnitus and Hearing Loss VA Ratings: One 10% and a Two-Table Test
Tinnitus gets one 10% rating whether it's one ear or both. Hearing loss comes from two tables built on your audiogram — here's how they work.
VA benefitsIs a 0% VA Rating Worth Anything?
A 0% rating pays nothing on its own, but it isn't nothing: how it combines, how it places you for VA health care, and why it matters later.
VA benefitsVA Disability Pay Rates for 2026: The Full Table and What Changes It
The full 2026 VA compensation table, effective December 1, 2025 — veteran alone, with dependents, the added amounts — and why it has been replaced each December.
VA benefitsVA Decision Reviews: Higher-Level Review, Supplemental Claim or Board Appeal
Three lanes after a VA decision, one year to choose, one lane at a time per issue — and how staying in the chain keeps your effective date.
VA benefitsVA Effective Dates: Why the Day You File Is Worth Money
An award can't start before VA receives your claim — unless it arrives within a year of discharge. The rules, the review chain, and the other clocks.
VA benefitsPACT Act Presumptive Conditions: What the Statutes Actually List
Who counts as a covered veteran, the diseases the statute presumes, why Gulf War illness has no deadline, and the Agent Orange list — as written.
VA benefitsVA Health Care Priority Groups: What the Eight Groups Are — and What They Don't Change
Who is in each of VA's eight priority groups, why §17.36(a) names one care package for all of them, and what your group actually changes.
MedicalMedical Separation vs. Medical Retirement: The IDES Timeline Explained
The 30% rule decides between a lifetime pension and a lump sum. The timeline, the election deadline that defaults against you, and severance recoupment.
MedicalTAMP: The 180 Days of TRICARE Most Separators Don't Know They Have
180 days of TRICARE at no premium for qualifying separations — plus an extension for conditions identified during the window, and what comes after.
Leave & payInvoluntary Separation Pay: Who Gets It, and How It's Clawed Back
Six to twenty years, involuntary, fully honorable — and a written three-year Ready Reserve agreement most people never hear about until it's too late.
Leave & paySpecial Leave Accrual: Keeping Leave Above the 60-Day Cap — and When You Lose It
The statute's 30-day SLA rule versus older service printings, how protected days expire or shrink, the one-time enlisted sell-back, and terminal leave.
MedicalTRICARE After You Retire: Prime, Select and For Life Compared
What TRICARE actually costs a retiree in 2026 — by group, with the enrolment window, and why Part B is what keeps TRICARE alive at 65.
CareersTranslate Your Military Job to a Civilian Career: How the Official Crosswalk Works
How the DMDC/O*NET crosswalk links your military code to civilian occupations — and why a match describes duties, not qualifications.
CareersCivilian Certifications for Your Military Job: How to Read the Federal Data Before You Pay
What a related certification really is in CareerOneStop and DoD COOL, the hidden-record trap in the bulk data, and what to check before paying.
CareersFinding a SkillBridge Program: How to Read DoD's List (and What a Listing Is Not)
Read DoD's SkillBridge list field by field, avoid the All Services filter trap, find your service's rank cap, and weigh a HIRE Vets Medallion correctly.
CareersVeterans' Preference in Federal Hiring: 5 Points, 10 Points, and the Retiree Rule
The Title 5 rules behind 5- and 10-point preference, the retiree limitation most O-4+ retirees hit, and the separate VEOA right to compete.
Life after serviceYour Final Move After Military Service: HHG and Travel Time Limits Under the JTR
HOR, PLEAD or home of selection: where your last government move can go, and the 180-day and 3-year clocks for travel and household goods.
Life after serviceWhich States Tax Military Retirement Pay? All 50, With the Law Behind Each
All 50 states, sorted by how they treat military retired pay — none, full, conditional, partial or narrow relief — with the law behind each.
Guides are the generic version — your transition isn't. WheelsUp turns all of this into live countdowns and calculators built around your date and branch.