FinZot models 186 pension plans in full, including FERS, military retirement, CalPERS, and CalSTRS. The full list is on its own page. Pick your plan and enter your years of service so far. FinZot computes the benefit from your projected pay using your plan’s own rules.

The pension is integrated with the rest of the plan

• Payouts are ordinary income, so they change how much of your Social Security is taxable, your IRMAA tier, and your ACA subsidy before 65.
• Start the pension at 57 instead of 62 and the bracket room for Roth conversions changes. A conversion set to fill a bracket resizes each year to the room that is left.
• In a Monte Carlo run, each trial’s inflation path runs through your plan’s COLA formula. A pension whose COLA lags inflation loses purchasing power in high-inflation trials.

FERS in detail

FinZot knows each of these rules.

• The high-3. FinZot computes it from your projected salary path. If your top-earning years are already behind you, you can enter them.
• The eligibility tiers. You can retire at 62 with 5 years of service, at 60 with 20, or at your minimum retirement age (MRA) with 30. Your MRA is 55 to 57 depending on birth year. Retiring at your MRA with only 10 years, the MRA+10 option, reduces the benefit by 5% for each year you are under 62, counted by the month.
• The 1.1% multiplier. It applies at 62 with 20 years of service, and only if you are 62 at separation. Retire at 61 and turn 62 a year later and you keep the 1.0% factor.
• The Special Retirement Supplement. It pays your estimated Social Security at 62, prorated by your years of service over 40. It runs from an immediate unreduced retirement through the month you turn 62. The earnings test docks it if you keep working.
• The diet COLA. There is no COLA before 62. After that, the COLA is full CPI when inflation is under 2%, a flat 2% when inflation is between 2% and 3%, and CPI minus one point above that.
• Sick leave. Unused sick leave converts to service credit at 2,087 hours per year. FinZot counts it the way OPM does. Service plus the credit is cut to whole months. It adds to the benefit and counts toward the 20 years the 1.1% multiplier needs. It never counts toward eligibility, and a deferred retirement forfeits it.
• Survivor elections. A 10% reduction buys your spouse 50% of the unreduced annuity. A 5% reduction buys 25%.
• Contributions. FinZot takes them out of your paycheck at your cohort’s rate of 0.8%, 3.1%, or 4.4%. They are post-tax, as FERS requires.
• FEHB. Enter your premium as an expense deducted from your federal salary. FinZot takes it out before income tax and FICA while you work. In retirement you pay it after tax.

Every item on that list moves when your retirement date does. The moves are not smooth. Retire before 60 with fewer than 30 years of service and the supplement disappears.

When the annuity starts is a separate choice. Leave at 57 with 15 years of service and you have two options. Start payments now at 25% less for life, or wait until 62 for the full amount. Which one wins depends on your other income, your taxes, and how long you plan for.