Retired military paydays are on the first business day of each month, unless that day falls on a weekend or holiday, then the payday is the business day prior to the weekend or holiday.
Military retirement pay is paid in arrears, which means it is paid in the month after it is earned (just like most regular paychecks.) For example, the payment made on the first of February is for the retirement month of January, and will reflect any activity (taxes, allotments, deductions) that occurred in January. Keep in mind that the payday may actually happen at the end of the month for which it is paid if the first of the following month is a weekend or holiday.
Therefore, the retired military paydays for 2016 are:
Monday, 1 February 2016
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Friday, 1 April 2016
Friday, 29 April 2016
Wednesday, 1 June 2016
Friday, 1 July 2016
Monday, 1 August 2016
Thursday, 1 September 2016
Friday, 30 September 2016
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
Thursday, 1 December 2016
Friday, 30 December 2016
Many military-friendly financial institutions deposit military retirement pay before the actual payday as a benefit to their customers (and a way to entice customers to change to them!) As a result, your retirement pay deposits may happen earlier than the actual payday. Check with your bank or credit union for more information about their deposit policies.
Keep in mind that there is no set time for pay deposits to occur, and they may happen at any time of the day. Even if your bank or credit union has a pattern of posting pay at a certain time, it may vary from month to month. Don't panic if your pay isn't deposited at the exact time that you expect.
Don't forget that military retirees have the ability to set up a myPay account to provide online access to their Retiree Account Statements 24 hours a day, seven days a week. myPay also allows you to retrieve tax statements and make changes to allotments, income tax withholding, and direct deposit bank account information. If you don't have a myPay account, or if you've forgotten the login credentials to get into the myPay system, take a little time to get yourself sorted out. It will make it much easier to manage your retirement pay account in 2016.