Maximize Your Benefits. Optimize Your Life.

April 23, 2026

After I posted the Military Retirement Calculator, I got the same request from at least 50 different people:

"Can you build one for federal retirement? With the buyback?"

I heard it on Facebook. On Reddit. On LinkedIn. In my DMs. A couple of my closest friends from the military are GS employees now, and when I asked them what they used to plan their retirement, the answer was always some version of: "I don't know, man. I think HR has a spreadsheet somewhere."

One of them, 10 years in Navy intel, TS/SCI, got out and landed a GS-12 last year, told me he still hadn't bought back his military time. A decade of active duty just sitting there uncredited toward his FERS pension. I asked him why. He said he didn't know how much it would cost, didn't know if it was worth it, and kept putting it off. He had no idea there was a 2-year interest-free window or that the clock was already ticking.

I ran the numbers for him. $11,814 deposit. Pays for itself in 7 months. Worth over $694,000 over his retirement. He started his SF-3108 the next week.

That conversation is why this tool exists. Not because I needed it for myself, I'm not a federal employee, but because the people who do need it don't have anything good to use. The OPM retirement estimator hasn't been meaningfully updated in years. TSP.gov shows your balance but won't project it forward with agency matching. And nothing, anywhere, shows you the ROI on buying back your military time in a way that makes the decision obvious.

So I built it. Like I do. Because if some former enlisted swine can build these things, maybe it will make the government actually care about transitioning service members and provide calculations that prepare service members for all actualities.

But I digress…

Here's what it does:

Enter your GS grade, step, and locality area. The tool pulls your salary automatically from the 2026 GS pay table, 35 locality areas included. Pick your planned retirement age and it tells you:

Enter your hire date and it auto-detects your FERS type (original FERS, RAE, or FRAE) and calculates your years of service. No manual math required.

It even includes sick leave credit, 100% of your unused sick leave hours add to your pension computation. 2,087 hours equals one additional year of service in the formula. That's real money most people don't factor in.

This is the section that's going to make some of you pick up the phone tomorrow morning.

If you served in the military before becoming a federal employee, you can "buy back" that time to count toward your FERS pension. The cost? 3% of your total military base pay, usually somewhere between $3,000 and $25,000 depending on rank and years.

The tool calculates your exact deposit cost, then shows you:

A GS-12 with 10 years of Navy service, still within the interest-free window? $11,814 deposit. Pays for itself in 7 months. Worth $694,000+ over a retirement.

That's not a typo. You pay once, and you collect more every month for the rest of your life. If you haven't filed your SF-3108 yet, this section will show you exactly what that procrastination is costing you.

The tool also warns active-duty retirees about the waiver requirement. If you receive military retired pay, you have to waive it to get credit in FERS. Reserve/Guard retirees under Chapter 1223 don't need to waive. The calculator flags this so you don't get blindsided.

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Enter your current TSP balance and contribution rate. The tool projects your balance at retirement with compound growth, shows your agency matching breakdown, and tells you what your TSP will pay you monthly in retirement using the 4% safe withdrawal rate.

But here's the part that changes behavior:

The contribution optimizer. It shows you a side-by-side table: what happens to your retirement if you increase your contribution by 1%. By 2%. By 3%. It calculates the projected balance, monthly retirement income, and the difference from your current rate.

If you're contributing 3% right now, you're leaving the full agency match on the table. The tool shows you exactly how much, in dollars, you're giving up.

It also handles the SECURE 2.0 catch-up rules: $8,000 extra at age 50+, and the new $11,250 super catch-up for ages 60-63. These are auto-calculated based on your age, no checkboxes to forget.

This is what no existing calculator does. The tool combines everything, FERS pension (after tax), TSP income, Social Security, VA disability compensation (with SMC-K and SMC-S support), and military retirement pay if you have it; into one monthly number.

It also projects your lifetime income to age 87, broken out by source, with FERS COLA starting at 62 (the "diet COLA" — capped at 2% when inflation is 2-3%) and VA COLA every year.

If you retire before 62 under MRA+30 or 60+20, the tool calculates your Special Retirement Supplement, the bridge payment that approximates your Social Security until you turn 62. And it correctly excludes military buyback years from the SRS formula, which is a detail most HR offices don't even get right.

If you’re currently in the military, plan on retiring, and then going into federal service in order to double up your pension; use the Military Retirement Calculator to get your estimate, plug that number into here to scope out your federal retirement, and you can see if it would be worth it to either stay in the military for retirement or buyback your time to get the federal retirement.

The Federal Retirement Calculator joins 8 other free tools in The Better Veteran Suite:

If you haven't bought back your military time, run the numbers. Seriously. Open the calculator, put in your rank and years, and look at the breakeven timeline. I have never seen a case where the buyback didn't pay for itself in under two years. Granted, I could only run 200+ automated simulations, whereas you all are many more, so I may have missed some cases. If I did, please hit reply and let me know.

And if you're contributing less than 5% to TSP, you are literally turning down free money from your agency. The calculator will show you exactly how much.

Hit reply if you have a federal retirement question the tool doesn't answer yet. I'm still building and I want this to be as accurate as possible.

Talk soon,

Zak

The Better Veteran is free and always will be. If anything I’ve ever shared has opened your eyes on how to take advantage of your benefits, or saved you money, and you feel so inclined to show support. You can do so here: