Compare leaving now, retiring at your MRA, at 60, at 62, and retiring then working elsewhere, side by side. Covers MRA+10, the FERS supplement earnings test, FEHB, COLAs, the TSP age-55/age-50 rule, and LEO, firefighter and ATC special provisions.
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Used in the scenarios below and in the double-dip comparison. Grows at your raise assumption.
Fund returns are average annual returns since each fund's inception, as of Dec 31, 2025 (TSP fund pages, tsp.gov). Past returns don't guarantee future returns. Picking the C Fund's history doesn't make the next 20 years agree.
Gross, before income tax and survivor reduction. Federal pay, pension, supplement and outside pay, in nominal dollars. TSP withdrawals are not included.
High-3 × years × multiplier. Regular FERS: 1%, or 1.1% if you separate at 62 or later with 20+ years. Special provision: 1.7% for the first 20 years, 1% after. Unused sick leave (2,087 hours = 1 year) adds to the computation for immediate annuities only.
Retire at your MRA with 10 to 29 years and the annuity is reduced 5% per year under 62, unless you're 60 with 20 years when it starts. Leave before your MRA with 5+ years and you get a deferred annuity: high-3 frozen, no supplement, no FEHB. This calculator starts deferred annuities at the earliest unreduced age (MRA with 30, 60 with 20, otherwise 62) and shows the reduced MRA start separately.
Paid to immediate, unreduced retirees under 62 (not MRA+10 or deferred): your estimated Social Security at 62 × FERS years ÷ 40. Reduced $1 for $2 above the exempt amount ($24,480 in 2026, grown 3% a year here). Special-provision retirees aren't tested until their MRA. Simplification: the test is applied to the same year's earnings; OPM uses the prior year's.
Eligible at 50 with 20 years or any age with 25; mandatory separation at 57 (or 20 years if later) for LEOs and firefighters, 56 for ATCs. COLAs start right away. The TSP 10% penalty doesn't apply after separating in or after the year you turn 50 or with 25 years of service.
Survivor reduction (10% for a full survivor annuity), income tax, FEGLI, military buybacks, part-time service, the diet-COLA cap (enter your own COLA), the first COLA's proration, Social Security itself after 62, and TSP withdrawals.
Related reading: Quit at 45 with 20 years · How much is your FERS pension worth if you leave early? · Retire at your MRA and take a new job? · Roll over your TSP or keep it? · FERS pension calculation
Regular FERS: an immediate unreduced annuity at your MRA (55 to 57) with 30 years, 60 with 20, or 62 with 5. At your MRA with 10 to 29 years you can retire under MRA+10, reduced 5% for each year under 62 unless you postpone the start. Leave before that with 5+ years and you get a deferred annuity.
5/12 of 1% for each month you are under 62 when the annuity starts (5% a year). No reduction if you are 60 with 20 years at the start date. You can postpone the start to shrink or avoid it and still keep FEHB eligibility.
The supplement is reduced $1 for every $2 of wages or self-employment income above Social Security's annual exempt amount ($24,480 for 2026). The pension itself doesn't count. Special-provision retirees are exempt until they reach their MRA.
Age 50 with 20 years of covered service, or any age with 25. The pension is 1.7% of the high-3 for the first 20 years and 1% after that, with COLAs from the start.
Regular FERS retirees: no, COLAs start at 62. Special-provision, disability, and survivor annuitants get them from the start (5 U.S.C. 8462(c)(3)).
Only with an immediate (or postponed MRA+10) annuity and FEHB coverage for the 5 years before you retire, or since first eligible. A deferred annuity does not let you re-enroll.