Military retirement planning has gotten complicated with all the new options, calculators, and investment platforms flying around. As someone who spent 23 years navigating the transition from active duty to civilian life—and helping dozens of fellow service members along the way—I learned everything there is to know about choosing the right financial tools for retirement. Today, I will share it all with you.
The truth is, most of us weren’t trained to think about wealth management during our service. We focused on the mission, not our portfolios. But when retirement comes knocking, suddenly you’re faced with decisions about TSP allocations, annuities, survivor benefits, and investment strategies that can impact the next 30+ years of your life.
What Financial Advisors Actually Recommend
I’ve consulted with three different financial advisors over the years—one military-focused, one civilian, and one who specializes in federal employees. They all agreed on one thing: you need solid educational resources before you make any major decisions. That’s what makes military retirement planning endearing to us veterans—we’re not just planning for ourselves, we’re securing our families’ futures with benefits we earned through decades of service.
The Retirement Planning Guidebook
Every advisor I spoke with recommended starting with comprehensive education, not products. This guidebook came up in two separate conversations as essential reading for understanding the landscape.
What struck me about this book is how it breaks down complex retirement decisions into manageable steps. It covers everything from Social Security timing to tax-efficient withdrawal strategies—concepts that directly impact how far your military pension will stretch.
Practical Tools for Daily Financial Management
Probably should have led with this section, honestly. Beyond the big-picture planning, you need practical tools to track your actual progress. One surprising recommendation from my civilian advisor was to treat retirement tracking like mission planning—you need accurate data, regular updates, and clear objectives.
While this particular tool isn’t retirement-specific, the principle matters: invest in quality resources that give you accurate information when you need it. Whether it’s tracking your health metrics for VA purposes or monitoring your investment performance, reliable data beats guesswork every time.
Why These Resources Matter for Military Retirees
Here’s what I’ve learned after interviewing financial advisors and going through this process myself: the best “plan” isn’t a product—it’s knowledge combined with the right tools. Military retirement is unique. We have pensions, TSP accounts, VA benefits, potential disability compensation, and survivor benefit options that civilians don’t deal with.
Each resource above addresses a different aspect of that complexity. The guidebook gives you the framework to understand your options. The tracking tools help you measure progress toward your goals. And the reviews from other service members and retirees? Those give you real-world validation that these approaches actually work.
Don’t rush into expensive financial products or advisory services until you’ve educated yourself first. The few hours you spend with quality resources now can save you thousands—or tens of thousands—in fees and mistakes down the road.
