Why We Built This
Military pay and benefits are genuinely confusing and unnecessarily complicated.
BAH rates across 40,000 ZIP codes. VA disability math where 50% + 30% somehow equals 65%. TSP rules that change based on whether you're in a combat zone. A retirement system most people don't fully understand until they're five years from hitting 20. By then it's basically too late.
All of this information is technically available. It's buried across DFAS PDFs, VA.gov pages, and JTR chapters that read like tax code. We just took the hard stuff and made it usable. Free calculators that run on official data, no account required, no personal info collected, no catch. The calculators on this website will always be free to access to everyone.
The Backstory
Dan and Ryan have been friends since the age of 14, including being college roommates at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. While they took different career paths, the mission behind MilPayTools is personal for both of them. We hope that our combined experience can uniquely provide something that military families have deserved for a very long time.
“I watched families on every base we lived on make money decisions with half the information. That always stuck with me.”
Dan Stevens
Founder
I grew up on military bases across the world, as my dad is a 20-year veteran of the Air Force. Some of the places we lived were Lajes Field in the Azores, Eielson AFB in Alaska, before ultimately retiring at Offutt AFB, in Nebraska. One thing I noticed, even as a kid, was how many families around us were basically winging it financially. Not because they were bad with money, but nobody ever sat them down and showed them the full picture.
I've spent over 20 years of my career in finance. I've worked with hundreds of military families to get VA home loans. And the same thing keeps showing up, that people just need some proper help to understand the finances involved with military service. It's time to do our part to help make that easier.
“In a career where almost nothing is predictable, your pay and benefits are the exception — but only if you understand them.”
Ryan Durand
Military Advisor
Ryan spent 20 years in the Air Force and Space Force. Eight PCS moves, a combat deployment, command of a $1.6 billion installation, and a retirement he had to figure out himself. Along the way he learned what most service members figure out too late — your pay and benefits actually follow clear rules. They just don't reward you unless you understand them.
After retiring, Ryan kept showing up for the community. He works in the defense sector and with the Overwatch Project, a veteran suicide prevention organization that trains service members and families to have the hard conversations. That same instinct — show up, be honest, actually help — is what he brings to MilPayTools.
Ryan's job here is simple: make sure everything we build actually works for the people it's meant for. That the language sounds like real military life, not a government pamphlet. That no one leaves the site more confused than when they showed up.
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