Getting Personal
Military benefits and Social Security?
Question: I will be receiving my Navy Reserve retirement pay when I turn age 60. I also paid into the Social Security system the entire time. Will I receive full Social Security benefits when I retire at age 65, or will that amount be reduced by the amount I am receiving from the military retirement? Bob, Lodi, CA
Answer: According to the Social Security Administration, there are 9.4 million military veterans receiving Social Security benefits. That means that almost one out of every four adult Social Security beneficiaries has served in the United States military. Veterans and their families make up almost 40% of the adult Social Security beneficiary population.
Your military pension should not reduce your Social Security payments. "You can get both Social Security benefits and military retirement," says Social Security on its website. "Generally, there is no reduction of Social Security benefits because of your military retirement benefits. You'll get your full Social Security benefit based on your earnings."
02/19/09 by Chris FarrellSearch
Looking for guidance on your personal finances? I'm taking your questions and answering one here each day. Just click on the "Ask a question" link to tell me what's on your mind.
Chris Farrell Marketplace Money personal finance guru

Categories
- Banking
- Books
- Budgeting
- Charitable giving
- Credit cards
- Credit counseling
- Credit report, credit score
- Debt
- Dollar exchange rate
- Economy
- Estate planning
- Financial planner
- Housing
- Insurance
- Investing
- Kids and money
- Mutual funds
- Other
- Paying for college
- Retirement
- Retirement savings
- 401k
- Bonds
- IRAs
- Money markets
- Mutual funds
- Savings
- Scams
- Social Security
- Taxes
- Vacation
- Work
- cars
- graduate school
Hot Topic
Latest Posts
Archives
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
sponsor
Latest Comments
- Tax-exempt bonds vs. taxable bonds (1)
- Eric Vanhove wrote: So, if there are calculators on the net, why should we be reading your blog? Geez, give us the form... [read]
- Buying a few shares (2)
- Manuel Mihalas wrote: I would recommend you minimize your trading cost as much as possible. There are many low cost tradin... [read]
- Bob wrote: I just enrolled my 17-year-old in a no-load Roth IRA that requires no minimum contribution. There a... [read]
- CDs (2)
- Mark wrote: According to this, you can withdraw all of your money penalty free after 6 days, and still get the i... [read]
- mei wrote: Can’t state enough how important the sacrifices that go into wealth creation are. Curious if anyone... [read]
- Home equity line of credit (3)
- Bruce wrote: I disagree about using a credit card unless you plan to pay it off quickly. Especially with credit ... [read]
- DJ wrote: Using a cc is not most sensible option. My financial "guru" would never recommend using a cc that yo... [read]
- Variable annuity (1)
- ann hancox wrote: I took Chris's advice and also agree, they are expensive and once fit my life style. I recently cas... [read]
sponsor


