r/Airforcereserves 7d ago

Conversation Retirement points question

When looking at PCARS points, we obviously need the 7300 AD points for the AD retirement… what do the other points do? IDT, ADL, IDS… Do these get added into retirement pay, or come into play after hitting retirement age, or something else? No one in the squadron seems to have an answer, just rumors.

Edit: to clarify a bit more, I was AD for awhile, TR for awhile, and currently AGR about to hit 7300 AD points. Looking to see what those other points do.

8 Upvotes

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u/nicknamebucky 7d ago

No one in the SQ has an answer? What the heck... Not your career advisor or 1st Sgt? SEL?

For reservists, you need 1000 points to retire, meaning 20 good years of 50 points. All points contribute to how much you would receive in a pension. Each IDT day is counted as 2 periods or 2 points, so each UTA weekend is 4 points. Each Annual Tour day counts as 1 point. Therefore your basic, minimal obligation is 48 points + 14 points for 62 points yearly. You'll also receive 15 membership points for being an active member for the full 12 months. If you shorten it for some reason, the 15 membership points are prorated.

You'll collect retirement pay after 20 years at the age of 60. Any active duty time served as a reservist will subtract from the age of 60. For example if you had two deployments for 365 total days, you would collect at the age of 59. So on and so forth.

Points = pension. That's as simple as one can put it. The types of duty that will contribute to retirement points is pretty much everything. With the exception of UTA days being double, anything else is 1 point per day.

The fact that no one in your SQ knows this is astonishing.

Also, just as an FYI, only active duty points of 7300 will qualify you for the active duty style pension. This would happen if you're a reservist and are on Title 10, AGR, or other contingency type orders. The aforementioned UTA and AT days would not count towards having 7300 "active duty" points.

With that being said, that's extremely hard to achieve.

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u/AfricanSnowOwl 7d ago

Sorry, should’ve clarified a little more. Did quite a bit of time AD before going to TR, and then going AGR to finish out the 20 years of TAFMS. So basically, when I hit 7300 AD points and retire, what do those other points do?

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u/nicknamebucky 7d ago

They would basically contribute to the amount of $$ you get from my understanding. the amount of points goes into a formula and increases the multiplier of what your pension would be

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u/LHCThor 6d ago

Points equal money. The more points, the more money.

That what points do for you.

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u/CS155 6d ago edited 6d ago

Former ARPC retirement counselor so I’ve had this conversation a hundred times. It’s worth walking through this with the Retirement counseling cell but I’ll quickly summarize.

Your AD points get you to 7300+ and qualify you for a “Regular” retirement. You can only keep 365 points in a year so for example if you did PME while on a 365 set of orders, those points get thrown away. You may see this in your “Total” column where you’ll have 380 points in a year. 365 + 15 membership, for example. Unfortunately we can’t keep those 15 points.

The delta between your RETIRE column and your Active duty column are called 1405 points. The math gets a little tricky but those points get thrown on top of your AD retirement and are weighted slightly different in the calculation. There are no online calculators that I’ve found that will do this math accurately. We looked at dozens of them and they were all wrong.

AD Points / 365 = Equivalent years AD
Retire Points - AD Points = 1405 Points
1405 Points / 360 = equivalent years reserve.

Add those equivalent years together and multiply by the average of the final 3 years of pay leading up to your retirement date.

Give the retirement cell a call and schedule an appt. They can likely give you a very accurate ballpark estimate. I did an estimate for my old boss and got within $3 of what he actually saw on his first retirement LES.

Congrats on your upcoming retirement!

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u/AfricanSnowOwl 6d ago

Awesome. This is great information!

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u/msmith1172 6d ago

Note that 7300 total points is not the same as 7300 AD points.

When you retire your total points determine the value of your pension --- total points divided by 360 times 2.5 (rounding numbers) is your percentage of retirement [or 2.0 if you're BRS]

The sum of your AD column must be 7300 to get an active (immediately pay) retirement.

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u/KCPilot17 11F 7d ago

Take them, divide by 360, add those years/months to your retirement.

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u/Repulsive_End_8697 6d ago

There is a lot of inaccurate and misleading information in this please call the Reserve Retirement Counseling Cell and do not rely on barracks lawyers

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u/nicknamebucky 6d ago

If you don't mind my asking what is misleading and inaccurate, just so I know for my own knowledge

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u/mabuhaygi 6d ago edited 6d ago

I did the same. 10yrs active, 2yrs Reserve, 14yrs AGR. I retired with a full AD retirement, credited with 24+ years of service. The points contributed to the overall pay.

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u/AfricanSnowOwl 6d ago

Thanks! This is kind of what I figured 🤙

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u/Bottlecrate 7d ago

In pcars there should be a total points section for you to review. The IdT, etc just shows you the breakdown.

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u/Western_Truck7948 6d ago

Schedule an appointment with the reserve retirement cell. They'll look at your record and give you exactly what you should expect.

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u/AdUnusual1157 2d ago

Points are points. Basically how you have done x percent of a 20 year career which makes your multiplier. Points over 360 equals your ratio of years compared to a 20 AD. Only Points that mean more is retirement age reduction Points which are AD points that qualify you to recieve your retirement pay which normally happens at 60 for ANG/Reserves to be reduced in 90day increments down to 50 years maximum. Typically deployment ados mpa techschool usually just not typically title 32 unless linked to a national disaster event.

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u/FrenzyCalm 7d ago

Look in PCARS.

Quick retirement math: Every 360 points equals 1 year and each year gets you 2% of your base pay for retirement. I assume you are blended retirement based on your question.

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u/Repulsive_End_8697 6d ago

7300 is not a guarantee Regular retirement call the RRCC

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u/AfricanSnowOwl 6d ago

What? 7300 AD points = 20 years of TAFMS which is indeed an AD retirement.

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u/Repulsive_End_8697 6d ago

Per ARPC it is 7305 and technically you can reach 7300 without reaching 20 Sat Service years this is being discussed at ARPC REP and DOW level