At the author’s request, two counseling questions were added after the financial answer: what the difference would buy, and whether the decision can be reversed later.
Goals panel (“Does the difference change your plans?”). The after-tax present-value difference is expressed as years of household spending, children’s college, debt payoff, and a second home. College uses College Board 2025–26 average full budgets ($30,990 public in-state; $65,470 private nonprofit). Household spending defaults to $120,000, a labeled planning assumption. The panel also separates timing: extra civilian cash before 20 versus the after-tax pension from the retirement age, with the savings that would produce the same gross income at a 4% initial withdrawal rate (Bengen, 1994). The page advises using the panel before deciding, not only afterward to confirm a choice.
Exit panel (“Can you change your mind later?”). For each year from the decision point to 20, the page shows whether the physician is free to leave and the after-tax present value of staying until then and leaving, compared with leaving now. Locks come from the current obligation, 4-year retention-bonus agreements (renewed or single), and BRS continuation pay (4 years from the 12th year, concurrent with other obligations, per MCCareer 2020; to be confirmed with BUMED Special Pays). The decision point itself is always open. An optional later civilian salary and start year (for example, after a Navy fellowship) applies only to exits at or after that year.
Not modeled: fellowship pay or GME payback, 2- and 3-year bonus rates, investment returns on the difference, and any pay cut for leaving before 20. The headline, the four paths, and the break-even chart are unchanged. A proposed paper insert is in capabilities/economic-research/opportunity-cost-military-primary-care/paper/revision-17-proposed-insert-goals-and-reversibility.md; the paper PDF is unchanged.