CalcStack — free, instant, no signup. The interactive calculator loads automatically.
Twenty years is a cliff: 50% for life, or nothing at 19.
The military pension is one of the last true pensions: legacy High-36 pays 2.5% of your high-3 base pay per year of service — 50% at 20 years, for life, with COLA. BRS pays 2.0% per year plus TSP matching. This calculator estimates the pension both ways and shows what each additional year of service is worth.
Service members at the 10–15 year mark use it to price the decision to stay: 20 years is a cliff worth 50% of base pay for life, COLA-adjusted. BRS members use it to see why the TSP match matters more than the smaller multiplier.
Legacy High-36: 2.5% × years of service × average of your highest 36 months of base pay. At 20 years that is exactly 50%; at 30 years, 75%. BRS (members joining 2018+): 2.0% per year — 40% at 20 — plus government TSP matching up to 5% and mid-career continuation pay. Base pay only: BAH and BAS are excluded.
Under either system, the pension is cliff-vested at 20 years — separating at 18 or 19 pays nothing from the pension. This is why "just two more years" is the most consequential decision in a military career. Under BRS at least your TSP and its matching are fully portable.
Yes — military retired pay receives annual cost-of-living adjustments tied to CPI, making it one of the few inflation-indexed annuities available anywhere. At 3% inflation, a $36,000 pension at 38 is worth roughly $66,000 at 58 in nominal dollars. That COLA is the hidden crown jewel of the benefit.