What your pension pays

Work out the monthly pension your federal service earns, with the age reduction, sick leave credit, and survivor election each shown as its own line.

Find the highest 3 consecutive years of basic pay in your history — the single figure every FERS and CSRS annuity is computed from.

The earliest date you can retire and be paid straight away — every FERS age-and-service rule dated from your birthday and your service computation date.

Convert unused sick leave hours into the months of service credit OPM's 2,087-hour chart actually grants — including the odd days that get dropped.

The second payment OPM makes to retirees who go before 62 — your age-62 Social Security estimate prorated over a 40-year career, and what the earnings test takes back if you keep working.

The Civil Service Retirement System pension on its own tiered 1.5/1.75/2% formula — with the 80% ceiling, the sick leave credit that is allowed past it, and the CSRS Offset reduction at 62 each shown as its own line.

The 6c retirement law enforcement officers, firefighters, couriers, CBP officers and air traffic controllers earn — 1.7% of high-3 for the first 20 years, no age reduction, and what the enhanced formula is worth against the ordinary one.

What your pension does if you leave federal service before you can retire — which of the two annuities you are owed, what each commencing date pays after the 5% a year reduction, and why one path keeps your health insurance while the other ends it for good.

What a disability retirement actually pays — 60% of high-3 for the first year and 40% after, both cut by your Social Security disability benefit, with the annuity your service already earned as a floor underneath and a fresh computation at 62 that credits every year spent on the roll.

What your spouse is paid if you die — the lump sum and lifetime annuity a death in service buys with no election at all, against the survivor annuity a retirement election pays for, worked out from the same career. Their health insurance follows one of the two.

What inflation does to a pension every other calculator here treats as fixed — the FERS diet COLA, the years before 62 when no increase is paid at all and none of it is made up, and what your annuity is worth in today's dollars at 90.

How much of your pension is actually taxable, and what reaches your account. The IRS simplified method splits every payment into the contributions you already paid tax on and the rest — then federal tax, state tax and FEHB and FEGLI premiums come out of what is left.

Which day to make your last day. Ranks every candidate date on the five rules that attach money to the calendar — the commencing date that can cost you a month of pension for one extra day worked, the CSRS three-day rule FERS does not have, the first COLA in twelfths, the pay period boundary, and the leave year ceiling.

What the annual leave you never used pays when you leave federal service. The balance is projected forward over workdays and holidays rather than multiplied, so January's raise reaches only the hours that fall on and after its effective date — and the flat 22% held back is withholding, not tax.