Military Retirement Calculator

Monthly Retired Pay is your High-3 Average Base Pay multiplied by a Retirement Multiplier, which is Years of Service times a per-year percentage set by your Retirement System -- 2.5% per year under the Legacy High-3 system, or 2.0% per year under the newer Blended Retirement System (BRS), which applies to most who joined after 2018. Both systems are capped at the same statutory maximum of 75% of retired pay base under federal law, though BRS's lower 2.0%-per-year rate means it takes 37.5 years of service to reach that ceiling instead of Legacy's 30 years -- 60% at 30 years is simply where a full BRS career naturally lands, not a separate legal limit. High-3 Average Base Pay and Years of Service both move Monthly Retired Pay by nearly identical proportions for an equivalent percentage change, since they multiply together directly with no third factor competing for influence. Pay Grade at Retirement is not used in this calculation at all -- it's collected for your own reference only, since High-3 Average Base Pay is what you supply directly.

BRS members additionally accumulate Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) growth: Current TSP Balance compounds forward at an assumed 7% annual return for however many more Years Until Retirement you specify, with an annual government match added under BRS before each year's growth is applied -- Legacy High-3 does not receive any TSP match, since only BRS includes it. BRS members who reach 12 years of service also see BRS Continuation Pay, a one-time bonus modeled here as 2.5x High-3 Average Base Pay -- real DoD continuation pay is actually paid between 8-12 years and the exact multiplier varies by branch and year group, so treat this figure as illustrative. Total Retirement Value adds a simple, undiscounted sum -- Annual Retired Pay times a flat 20 years, plus your projected TSP balance -- with no time-value-of-money discounting applied and BRS Continuation Pay not included in that total (see the separate BRS Continuation Pay figure above). These figures use current statutory multipliers and caps, which are set by law and have been stable for years, but High-3 Average Base Pay and your Current TSP Balance are your own personal figures that only you can supply accurately.