What is a military retirement worth? (What would an annuity cost that would throw off the income that a taxable military retirement does?)
I wrote about this a few years ago when I started blogging. You can read the post here. I simplified the math significantly, and one observant commenter called me out on it. If you want to get more precise, there's a paper published in 2001 by William Jennings and William Reichenstein. They valued the retirement income stream as a bond equivalent. While the dollar value of that "bond" was significantly lower than my previous calculation, the total value of payments created by the retirement is difficult to argue with. Check it out for yourself and draw your own conclusion.
As for the specific payout, since there are so many variables, go straight to the source, the DFAS website. Put in your own information and the calculator will tell you how much money you'll receive. The tax column is an approximation, and the COLA inputs are an estimate, but it will give you a ballpark idea of how much you'll receive in payments.
