Military Retirement Calculator

Multiplier times retirement base. The multiplier is your years of creditable service times a percentage set by your retirement system — 2.5% a year under Final Pay and High-36, 2.0% under the Blended Retirement System. The base is your final month's basic pay under Final Pay, and the average of your highest 36 months of basic pay under every later system. So 20 years under High-36 gives 50% of the high-36 average, and 20 years under BRS gives 40%. The multiplier is capped at 75%.

It is decided by the date you entered service, not by choice. Entered before 8 September 1980: Final Pay. Between 8 September 1980 and 31 December 2017: High-36, unless you actively elected CSB/REDUX in exchange for a $30,000 career status bonus, which was only available to those entering on or after 1 August 1986 and closed on 31 December 2017. Entered on or after 1 January 2018: the Blended Retirement System, automatically.

The multiplier and what comes alongside it. High-36 (often written High-3) pays 2.5% per year of service, so 50.0% at 20 years. BRS pays 2.0%, so 40.0% at 20 years — a fifth less pension. In exchange BRS adds government automatic and matching contributions to your Thrift Savings Plan of up to 5% of basic pay, which High-36 members do not receive, and it vests after two years rather than requiring 20. BRS therefore pays something to the majority who leave before 20 years, where High-36 paid nothing at all.

No. Retired pay is calculated on basic pay only. BAH, BAS and every special or incentive pay are excluded from the retirement base, which is why retired pay is a smaller share of total compensation than the multiplier alone suggests. Someone whose take-home was heavily weighted towards a high-BAH duty station sees the largest drop at retirement.

Yes, federally. Military retired pay is taxable income and is reported on a Form 1099-R. What is not taxable is VA disability compensation, which is a separate payment and excluded from gross income — service members who waive a portion of retired pay to receive VA compensation convert that portion from taxable to non-taxable. States differ substantially: a number exempt military retired pay entirely, and several have moved to full exemption in recent years, so check your state of residence.

It uses a different comparison. Rather than years of service alone, a disability retirement is generally computed both ways — on the disability percentage assigned and on the ordinary years-of-service formula — with the more favourable result applying, and the disability-based figure carries its own ceiling. Because the assigned percentage and the interaction with VA compensation drive the outcome, and both are individual, this calculator does not model it. DFAS and your service's disability evaluation system hold the authoritative figures.

Yes, through an annual cost-of-living adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index, so the pension keeps pace with inflation rather than being frozen at the retirement-day figure. CSB/REDUX was the exception: it used a reduced COLA and applied a one-time catch-up recomputation at age 62, which is part of why the $30,000 bonus was frequently a poor trade over a full retirement.

CSB/REDUX paid a $30,000 career status bonus at the 15-year point in exchange for a reduced pension: 40.0% at 20 years against High-36's 50.0%, rising 3.5% a year afterwards so the two converge at 30 years. Over a long retirement the reduced multiplier and reduced COLA typically cost far more than the bonus was worth, which is the general consensus and why the election was allowed to lapse at the end of 2017. It still matters to anyone who took it.