Retirement Plan of a Military

Retirement Plan Reflection Paper
Student’s Name
College/University
Course
Professor’s Name
Due Date
Do you expect to retire at a certain age? How much preplanning will you need to do?
I have less than five years left to reach my anticipated retirement age. Thinking about my retirement feels increasingly overwhelming. In this context, I need a high level of preplanning to ensure a seamless transition from the military to normal life. The military retirement archetype entails a government-sponsored, non-contributory, delineated benefit model that gained traction as a substantial incentive in retaining a career military labor force. The system currently incorporates monthly compensation for eligible reserve and active retirees, disability benefits for individuals not meeting the right medical fitness thresholds to serve, as well as a survivor annuity plan for the deceased retirees’ eligible survivors. I will also consider enrolling for health insurance (i.e., Tricare Select), which costs $560 annually and covers free medical services for my family and almost everything if I use a network healthcare provider (Congressional Research Service, 2022).
Do you expect to retire to a life of leisure, volunteer activity, new career, and so on?
As a transitioning military personnel, I will need to have a firm grip on what I want to do next. I expect to retire and transition to a new career in the private sector. Nevertheless, I fear I won’t be able to break into the private sector because military skills are not valuable in the civilian world. I will need to consider the services of different veteran transition groups, such as the Honor Foundation, whose primary role is to help me out with this. Many Fortune 500 companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, would want to hire veterans. I will need to use LinkedIn to build my professional profile and fill educational gaps with courses such as Management Certification, Lean Six Sigma, etc. Many of these courses are available at insignificant cost to military personnel. I will need to demonstrate a habit of continued learning and professional development on my resume to augment my chances of securing jobs in the corporate world. Nevertheless, I’m cautious not to be over-ambitious as I need to take a job that is less than what I want at the time of my retirement and a relatively low salary.
Where will you live—same family home, retirement community, part of the year in the north and part in a southern resort?
I want to live in a retirement community in Florida. Many retired military families find Florida ideal because of the high-quality healthcare, strong job market, and favorable tax regulation. Florida ranks highly regarding tax-friendliness because it exempts survivor benefit program payments and military retired pay from taxation. The state also recognizes military service in college credits and allows the preference for veterans in private hiring. In addition, the state has many veteran-owned businesses, and the cost of living is relatively affordable. Other factors that influenced my decision to stay in Florida after retirement included the significant number of veteran affairs...