29 guides4 in depthupdated
Each guide answers one question with the agency’s own rule or table, works it through on real numbers drawn to scale, and lists its sources with the date they were read.
Basic pay, BAH, BAS, deployment pays and bonuses: how each table works, which column or rate applies to you, and what changed this year — every number from the paying agency’s own table, with its date.
Calculators
In-depth guide · Pay
E-5 over 4: $3,946.80 basic; $6,229.75 to $8,398.75 a month with BAH and BAS
2026 basic pay by grade and years, plus the proposed 2027 raise: 7/6/5% in the budget or 3.6% by formula, with no defense bill enacted as of October 16, 2026.
Guide · Pay
E-5 with dependents: $1,806 at Fort Bragg/Pope, NC to $3,975 in San Diego, CA
How DoD sets 2026 BAH by ZIP, grade and dependents, why rates rose 4.2% on average, how rate protection works, and the Abilene mid-year increase.
Guide · Pay
E-5 RC/T with dependents $1,403.70 vs $2,430 locality in Norfolk/Portsmouth
BAH types 2026 by grade: E-5 partial BAH $8.70, BAH-DIFF $380.10, RC/T $1,052.70 or $1,403.70, with vs without dependents, and the 31-day Reserve rule.
Guide · Pay
$476.95 enlisted, $328.48 officer, $953.90 BAS II
BAS 2026 rates: $476.95 a month enlisted, $328.48 for officers and warrant officers, BAS II $953.90, up 2.4% from 2025, and when BAS II applies.
Guide · Pay
A full month of HFP, FSA and HDP-L adds $850.00
What a 2026 deployment adds: HFP $450 or IDP $275 ($9.16 a day) from Oct. 1 ($225 before), the $300 family separation allowance and hardship duty pay.
Guide · Pay
Up to $75,000 to enlist; $50,000 a year to reenlist
The legal ceilings on military bonuses: $75,000 to enlist, $50,000 a year to reenlist ($15,000 reserve), officer caps, repayment, and who sets your amount.
Guide · Pay
Drill pay is 1/30 of monthly basic pay per period of at least two hours. See the 2026 DFAS enlisted cells, a four-drill weekend and 14 days of annual training.
Guide · Pay
Officers exclude up to $11,616.90 a month in 2026
How the combat zone tax exclusion works: one day counts the month, enlisted pay is fully excluded, and officers are capped — $11,616.90 a month with HFP.
VA math, the rate table, dependents, the bilateral factor and back pay, shown step by step on example numbers. VA decides ratings and payments; free help from an accredited representative is linked on every VA page.
Calculators
In-depth guide · VA
50%, 30%, 20% → 65 → 72 → 70%
Why 50% + 30% + 20% is a 70% VA rating, how Table I and rounding work, and what the December 1, 2025 rates pay with a spouse or children.
Guide · VA
DFAS example: $800 retired pay waived → paid in full with CRDP at 50%
CRDP vs CRSC for military retirees with a VA rating: who is eligible, how each is paid and taxed, why you can’t have both, and the January open season.
Guide · VA
Social Security announced a 3.6% COLA on October 14, 2026. What that does and doesn’t settle for VA compensation and military retired pay on December 1.
Guide · VA
20/20/20/20 on all four limbs → 59 + 5.9 → 65 → 70%
How the VA bilateral factor in 38 CFR 4.26 works: when it applies, how the extra 10% is added and rounded, and seven worked examples with the final rating.
Guide · VA
How VA back pay is built: the effective date under 38 CFR 3.400, the first payment month under 3.31, December 1 rate steps and what can reduce it.
Guide · VA
70%: $1,808.45 alone → $2,207.45 with spouse and a child in school
What raises a VA disability payment besides the rating: dependents at 30% and up, children in school, TDIU at the 100% rate and SMC-K, with worked amounts.
The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps fitness tests and body-composition rules: which table applies, how scores are read from it and what changed in 2025 and 2026.
In-depth guide · Fitness
15:00 run, 50 push-ups, 2:30 plank, 0.50 ratio → 82.0, Satisfactory
Air Force PFRA 2026, for record since July 1: 2-mile run or HAMR 50 points, waist-to-height 20 (0.49 = 20.0), strength and core 15 each; pass: 75 + minimums.
In-depth guide · Fitness
Age 24: 71 + 74 + 74 + 70 + 93 = 382, passes both standards
How the AFT is scored from the June 2025 tables, general vs combat standard, the 24 combat specialties, and what 60, 80 or 100 points take.
Guide · Fitness
What Army Directive 2026-07 says about the Combat Field Test: the seven events, the 30-minute line, who takes it, the retest rules and the April 2027 date.
Guide · Fitness
Minimum and top-score values for each Marine Corps PFT and CFT event by age band and sex under MCO 6100.13A CH-5, with the 150 and 210-point lines.
Guide · Fitness
39.5 in waist / 72 in: Army 0.548 meets, Navy meets, Marine Corps over, Air Force 15.0
2026 waist-to-height rules: Army under 0.55, Air Force points, Navy 0.5499 and Marine Corps 0.52, plus how each service measures and rounds, with examples.
Guide · Fitness
100 / 85 / 80 averages 88.33 — between two levels
How the Navy PRT and the Marine Corps PFT and CFT are scored in 2026: levels and points, passing rules, worked examples and the new combat-arms standards.
Guide · Fitness
The Navy’s Guide-5A raw scores for push-ups, forearm plank and the 1.5-mile run, by age band and sex, at four levels from Probationary to Outstanding-High.
High-3 and the Blended Retirement System, the lump sum, Guard and Reserve points, the retired-pay COLA and the TSP limits — the formulas in the law, worked on example numbers.
Calculators
Guide · Retirement
E-7 at 20, pay from July 2027: 25% ≈ $97,039.15, 50% ≈ $194,078.30 at 6.60%
How the BRS lump sum works: 25% or 50% of retired pay to full retirement age, discounted at 6.46% (2026) or 6.60% (2027), with an E-7 worked example.
Guide · Retirement
6,500 points ÷ 360 = 18.06 years → $2,709 a month on a $6,000 base
Reserve retirement points in plain numbers: 50-point good years, the 130-point cap, points ÷ 360 × 2.5% or 2.0% × High-36. Example: 6,500 points = 18.06 years.
Guide · Retirement
E-7 at 20: High-3 $3,059 vs BRS $2,447 a month
High-3 pays 2.5% a year of service, BRS 2.0%: 50% vs 40% of the High-36 at 20 years. An E-7 at 20: $3,059 vs $2,447 a month, and what BRS adds in the TSP.
Guide · Retirement
2.8% on December 1, 2025: $3,059 → $3,144
The 2027 military retiree COLA takes effect December 1, 2026 and is first paid December 31. Social Security’s COLA is 3.6%; how retired pay follows it.
Guide · Retirement
E-5 at 5%: $197.34 from you + $197.34 from the service a month
The 2026 TSP limits for service members ($24,500, catch-ups, $72,000 with combat-zone pay), the new Roth catch-up rule and how BRS matching adds up.
What a permanent change of station pays — dislocation allowance, mileage and travel days — and what the Post-9/11 GI Bill® pays at a school, from the agencies’ own rate tables.
Guide · PCS & school
E-5 with dependents, 2,800 miles from August 1: $4,206.02
What a 2026 PCS move pays: dislocation allowance by grade, MALT at $0.205 or $0.235 a mile from July 1, travel days by distance, and how a PPM is paid.
Guide · PCS & school
San Diego, private, full time: 100% → $30,908.34 + $3,975.00/mo + $1,000.00
What the Post-9/11 GI Bill pays from August 1, 2026: tiers, the $30,908.34 private-school cap, housing from BAH by school ZIP, books and MGIB-AD rates.
Guide · PCS & school
Side by side: how the Post-9/11 and Montgomery Active Duty GI Bill pay tuition, housing and books in 2026–27, with examples and the refund limit.