Retirement Calculator

The RetireCiv Retirement Calculator is built on the official formulas published by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB). It covers every major component of a federal retirement package and integrates them into a single, unified projection.

The calculator covers FERS in full, including the paths that carry CSRS service into it:

• FERS: Federal Employees Retirement System: the three-part retirement plan covering nearly all federal employees first hired after December 31, 1983. The system itself took effect January 1, 1987 (OPM RI 90-1).
• CSRS components: For FERS transferees with 5 or more years under the legacy Civil Service Retirement System, the annuity is computed as a FERS annuity with a CSRS component. CSRS Offset service is credited under FERS rules and does not count toward those five years. A career spent entirely under standalone CSRS is not modeled.
• FERS Special Provisions: Enhanced retirement rules for Law Enforcement Officers (LEO), Firefighters, and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC).

The pension, TSP and Social Security estimates and the Readiness Score are free. The full Action Plan, Social Security claiming-age timing, What-If Scenarios and the PDF report are part of the full plan.

The FERS pension is a defined-benefit annuity paid monthly for life. It is calculated using three variables: your High-3 average salary, your years of creditable service, and a multiplier determined by your age and service length at retirement. The course lesson on how your High-3 is calculated covers which pay counts.

The calculator accounts for all key pension variables:

Minimum Retirement Age (MRA) ranges from 55 to 57 depending on your year of birth. The calculator determines your MRA automatically from your date of birth and applies the correct eligibility rules. See the MRA schedule and eligibility paths for every route to an immediate pension.

Source: OPM FERS Information Center lists the official annuity formulas, eligibility rules, and retirement options.

The TSP is a tax-advantaged retirement savings account, the federal equivalent of a 401(k). RetireCiv models TSP growth, agency matching, and withdrawal projections over your entire career and retirement horizon.

• Current balance and projected growth using compound interest modeling
• Agency automatic contribution (1%) and matching contributions (up to 4%) on the first 5% contributed
• Annual IRS contribution limits with automatic catch-up contributions after age 50
• Traditional (pre-tax) and Roth (post-tax) money projected as one balance; your Roth share is reflected only in the optional tax estimate
• Fund allocation across G, F, C, S, I, and Lifecycle funds with historical return assumptions
• Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) calculations beginning at age 73 (born 1951–1959) or age 75 (born 1960 and later, per SECURE 2.0)
• Withdrawals at a set rate on the dashboard and in the PDF report: each year draws a share of your balance at retirement (the withdrawal rate in Settings, 4% by default). What-If Scenarios and Monte Carlo instead draw what your spending needs each year, after guaranteed income
• If you separate before 59½, you choose how to reach the money: the rule of 55 (age 50 for special provisions), taking the 10% early-withdrawal penalty, SEPP payments, or waiting until 59½

Source: TSP.gov covers contribution limits, fund performance, and RMD rules under SECURE 2.0.

Most FERS employees are covered by Social Security and earn benefits through their federal service. RetireCiv integrates Social Security into your full retirement picture, including the FERS Supplement. WEP and GPO were fully repealed effective January 2024. No reductions apply for current or future retirees. The lesson on claiming Social Security alongside your FERS annuity explains how claiming age fits with the rest of your income.

Sources: SSA Retirement Benefits and Social Security Fairness Act cover claiming-age tables and the 2024 WEP/GPO repeal.

The Readiness Score is a composite 0–100 metric that assesses how well-positioned you are for retirement across five scored components. It is designed to give you an at-a-glance assessment and surface the highest-impact gaps to close.

The Action Plan translates your Readiness Score into a prioritized, actionable checklist. Each recommendation is linked directly to the relevant calculator input so you can model the impact before acting. The free readiness page shows the first item in full, with the rest locked; the full checklist is part of the full plan.

• Recommendations are ranked by priority tier first (Critical, then Important, then Optimization), and by estimated score impact within each tier
• Each item is categorized as Critical, Important, or Optimization tip, and labeled with its tier
• Each item names your current state, a concrete target, and the estimated score points at stake
• Your Readiness Score updates as soon as you change the relevant input in the calculator

Certain federal occupations qualify for enhanced retirement benefits under Special Retirement Coverage (SRC). RetireCiv applies the enhanced formula when you retire under the special-provision authority. A covered officer separating under VERA or DSR is computed at the standard rate instead, and the calculator says so. The lesson on the 1.7% special-provision formula explains how it applies.

The What-If Scenarios tool lets you change one planning decision and see the result across your whole retirement. Every figure recalculates as you move a control. What-If Scenarios is part of the full plan.

• Settings you can change: retirement date and authority, TSP savings rate while working, the share of income you plan to spend, the return during retirement, Social Security claiming age, survivor benefit election, spending pattern, and your life expectancy and your spouse's. There is deliberately no withdrawal-rate control: the engine is need-based, drawing exactly the gap between spending and guaranteed income
• Retirement-date choices include your planned date, your earliest VERA date, and the shared milestone ages (your MRA, 60, 62, 65, 67, 70 for standard employees; special-provision employees get their own list of age 50 with 20 years, 25 years at any age, and the mandatory separation age, and the age-60 entry needs 20 years of service), plus any age you type
• A year-by-year chart shows which sources pay for each year, including the FERS supplement window and required minimum distributions from age 73 or 75, per your birth year
• Settings are not saved: they reset when you leave, and your entered plan is never changed. The PDF report always prints your saved plan, not the what-if projection on screen; to keep a what-if result, note its settings and re-create it

The report's Retirement Timeline lists the key dates of your plan in one table, from separation through Required Minimum Distributions, and the wizard's retirement step offers the same milestone ages (MRA, 60, 62, 65, 67, 70 for standard employees; special-provision employees see their own list) as one-click retirement dates. The milestone ages are free; the PDF report and its Timeline are part of the full plan.

Have a question about a specific calculation, found a discrepancy with your OPM estimate, or want to suggest a formula improvement? We'd love to hear from you.