May is a big month for the military community. It’s Military Appreciation Month, and that includes Military Spouse Appreciation Day and Mother’s Day.

Military spouses are the backbone of the military community. Now, I know I’m biased, but they keep the home fires burning and households functioning through all the transitions military life includes. They’re the constant in PCSing, military schools, deployments, childcare, careers, and more. For many different reasons, military spouses are often not working or are working in jobs that don’t have retirement savings options through their employer.

With all the transitions and un and underemployment, retirement savings for a military spouse is often put on the backburner or, worse, not even considered. On the other side, service members are often working towards a pension, contributing to the Thrift Savings Plan, and in some cases saving in individual retirement accounts.

I want to bring military spouse retirement savings top of mind in this episode. I’ll go over two ways military spouses can save for retirement.