Military retirement calculator
Work out your military retired pay under High-3, the Blended Retirement System or Final Pay, and how much smaller it makes the pot you need to stop work for good.
Retiring under High-3 after 20 years, your retired pay before tax:
$3,000 a month
That is 2.5% x 20 years = 50% of $6,000, or $36,000 a year, rising with prices each year. It takes $900,000 off the pot you need: $600,000 instead of $1,500,000 to stop work for good at 50 on $60,000 a year.
The pot covers the $24,000 a year retired pay leaves, at a 4% withdrawal rate.
Not modeled: the BRS lump-sum option (it trades part of the pay until Social Security full retirement age, 67 if you were born in 1960 or later, for a payment worked out as the present value of that pay, which the Secretary of Defense computes), REDUX and the Career Status Bonus, disability and reserve retirement, the Survivor Benefit Plan premium, the Thrift Savings Plan, and income tax. The link carries your figures after the #, so you can save or share it. Your figures are not sent to us.
A pension in your forties changes the number
Retired pay that starts in your early forties and rises with prices does most of what a large portfolio would. Each dollar of yearly pay it covers is a dollar your savings never need to provide, which at the 4% rule is 25 dollars less in the pot.
Many people who retire from the service keep working for years. Enter the age you would stop paid work altogether: the pot you need is worked out for that age, with the retired pay already running.
Questions people ask
- Which retirement system am I in?
- It depends on when you first entered service: Final Pay before September 8, 1980, High-3 from that date, and the Blended Retirement System from January 1, 2018. Members with fewer than 12 years of service at the end of 2017 could opt into BRS during 2018. Retired pay needs at least 20 years of service.
- How is military retired pay worked out?
- A multiplier times your years of service times your retired pay base. Under High-3 and Final Pay the multiplier is 2.5% a year (50% at 20 years); under BRS it is 2% a year (40% at 20). The base is your final basic pay under Final Pay, and the average of your highest 36 months of basic pay under High-3 and BRS. This page credits at most 30 years of service; more than that can count in some cases.
- Does military retired pay go up with inflation?
- Yes. Final Pay, High-3 and BRS retired pay rise by the full rise in the Consumer Price Index each year, so this page shows it in today's money.
- What is the BRS lump sum?
- At retirement under BRS you can take 25% or 50% of the value of your retired pay up to Social Security full retirement age (67 if you were born in 1960 or later) as a lump sum. Your monthly pay is then reduced until that age and restored in full after. This page does not model it.
Sources: 10 U.S.C. §1409, 10 U.S.C. §1415, the DoD Military Compensation retirement pages and SSA on full retirement age.