diff --git a/examples/configs/rm.yaml b/examples/configs/rm.yaml
index 756ce650b8..0395037a23 100644
--- a/examples/configs/rm.yaml
+++ b/examples/configs/rm.yaml
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ checkpointing:
   higher_is_better: false
   keep_top_k: 3
   save_period: ${rm.val_period}
+  checkpoint_must_save_by: null
 
 policy:
   model_name: "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct"
diff --git a/nemo_rl/algorithms/dpo.py b/nemo_rl/algorithms/dpo.py
index 83f367658d..b22f059f74 100644
--- a/nemo_rl/algorithms/dpo.py
+++ b/nemo_rl/algorithms/dpo.py
@@ -362,6 +362,9 @@ def validate_one_dataset(
 ):
     """Run validation on one validation dataset."""
     if val_dataloader is None:
+        assert val_dataloader is not None or master_config["dpo"]["val_period"] == 0, (
+            "val_dataloader is None, so dpo.val_period must be 0"
+        )
         print("  ⚠️ No validation dataloader provided, skipping validation")
         return
 
@@ -707,6 +710,8 @@ def dpo_train(
             current_step += 1
             total_steps += 1
 
+            if should_save_by_timeout:
+                return
             if total_steps >= master_config["dpo"]["max_num_steps"]:
                 return
 
diff --git a/nemo_rl/algorithms/grpo.py b/nemo_rl/algorithms/grpo.py
index 1b2a2ad50f..e9bc749d60 100644
--- a/nemo_rl/algorithms/grpo.py
+++ b/nemo_rl/algorithms/grpo.py
@@ -961,6 +961,8 @@ def grpo_train(
             timer.reset()
             current_step += 1
             total_steps += 1
+            if should_save_by_timeout:
+                break
             if total_steps >= max_num_steps:
                 break
 
@@ -978,6 +980,9 @@ def validate(
 ) -> tuple[dict[str, Any], dict[str, Any]]:
     """Run validation on the validation dataset."""
     if val_dataloader is None:
+        assert val_dataloader is not None or master_config["dpo"]["val_period"] == 0, (
+            "val_dataloader is None, so dpo.val_period must be 0"
+        )
         print("  ⚠️ No validation dataloader provided, skipping validation", flush=True)
         return {}, {}
 
diff --git a/nemo_rl/algorithms/rm.py b/nemo_rl/algorithms/rm.py
index 640bc0823d..ad646d0021 100644
--- a/nemo_rl/algorithms/rm.py
+++ b/nemo_rl/algorithms/rm.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
 from nemo_rl.utils.checkpoint import CheckpointingConfig, CheckpointManager
 from nemo_rl.utils.logger import Logger, LoggerConfig
 from nemo_rl.utils.nsys import maybe_gpu_profile_step
-from nemo_rl.utils.timer import Timer
+from nemo_rl.utils.timer import TimeoutChecker, Timer
 
 
 class RMSaveState(TypedDict):
@@ -305,6 +305,9 @@ def validate_one_dataset(
 ):
     """Run validation on one validation dataset."""
     if val_dataloader is None:
+        assert val_dataloader is not None or master_config["dpo"]["val_period"] == 0, (
+            "val_dataloader is None, so dpo.val_period must be 0"
+        )
         print("  ⚠️ No validation dataloader provided, skipping validation")
         return
 
@@ -426,7 +429,11 @@ def rm_train(
 ):
     # Run basic rm training
     timer = Timer()
-
+    timeout = TimeoutChecker(
+        timeout=master_config["checkpointing"]["checkpoint_must_save_by"],
+        fit_last_save_time=True,
+    )
+    timeout.start_iterations()
     if rm_save_state is None:
         rm_save_state = _default_rm_save_state()
         current_epoch = 0
@@ -512,13 +519,21 @@ def rm_train(
                     )
 
                 ## Checkpointing
+                timeout.mark_iteration()
+
                 rm_save_state["consumed_samples"] += master_config["policy"][
                     "train_global_batch_size"
                 ]
-                if master_config["checkpointing"]["enabled"] and (
+
+                should_save_by_step = (
                     is_last_step
                     or (total_steps + 1) % master_config["checkpointing"]["save_period"]
                     == 0
+                )
+                should_save_by_timeout = timeout.check_save()
+
+                if master_config["checkpointing"]["enabled"] and (
+                    should_save_by_step or should_save_by_timeout
                 ):
                     ## +1 because step is 0-indexed
                     rm_save_state["step"] = (current_step + 1) % len(train_dataloader)
@@ -615,6 +630,8 @@ def rm_train(
             current_step += 1
             total_steps += 1
 
+            if should_save_by_timeout:
+                return
             if (
                 master_config["rm"]["max_num_steps"] != -1
                 and total_steps >= master_config["rm"]["max_num_steps"]
diff --git a/nemo_rl/algorithms/sft.py b/nemo_rl/algorithms/sft.py
index 9bd69958ab..71853294d9 100644
--- a/nemo_rl/algorithms/sft.py
+++ b/nemo_rl/algorithms/sft.py
@@ -234,6 +234,9 @@ def validate(
 ):
     """Run validation on the validation dataset."""
     if val_dataloader is None:
+        assert val_dataloader is not None or master_config["dpo"]["val_period"] == 0, (
+            "val_dataloader is None, so dpo.val_period must be 0"
+        )
         print("  ⚠️ No validation dataloader provided, skipping validation")
         return
 
@@ -578,6 +581,8 @@ def sft_train(
             current_step += 1
             total_steps += 1
 
+            if should_save_by_timeout:
+                return
             if total_steps >= master_config["sft"]["max_num_steps"]:
                 return
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/algorithms/test_rm.py b/tests/unit/algorithms/test_rm.py
index a373cfc12f..8bfcabd81a 100644
--- a/tests/unit/algorithms/test_rm.py
+++ b/tests/unit/algorithms/test_rm.py
@@ -99,7 +99,11 @@ def val_iter(self):
             },
             "train_micro_batch_size": 1,
         },
-        "checkpointing": {"enabled": False},
+        "checkpointing": {
+            "enabled": False,
+            "checkpoint_must_save_by": None,
+            "save_period": 10,
+        },
     }
 
     return {