Federal Retirement, in Plain English
Start with your numbers.
The free FERS calculator estimates your pension, supplement, and eligibility — Regular FERS and Special Provisions — with the formula shown.
Open the free FERS calculator$Your FERS Pension
How your basic annuity is actually computed — the formula, your high-3, the multipliers, and service credit.
- How your FERS pension is calculatedStart here
- What is your high-3, and what counts as basic pay?
- Does your overtime count toward your high-3?
- The 1.1% multiplier: the age 62 + 20-year bonus
- Unused sick leave credit: the 2,087-hour rule
- Military buyback: add your service years to your pension
- FERS COLAs: the diet COLA and the age-62 freeze
◷Eligibility & Timing
When you can go, what an early-out changes, and how to pick a retirement date worth thousands.
+The FERS Supplement
The bridge payment that fills the gap to age 62 — who gets it, and how working can shrink it.
✓Process & Filing
Getting your application through OPM cleanly — and surviving the processing backlog financially.
+Healthcare & Insurance
FEHB into retirement, the five-year rule, FEGLI, and Medicare coordination — the irreversible elections.
- Keeping FEHB in retirement: the five-year ruleStart here
- FEHB and Medicare at 65: should you take Part B?
- FEGLI in retirement: the five-year rule and the 75% reduction
- The FEGLI cliff: why Option B gets expensive after 50
- The FERS survivor annuity: protecting your spouse's income and FEHB
- Retiring at 50: the 15-year FEHB gap before Medicare
TYour TSP
Withdrawals, the age rules, Roth vs. traditional, and whether to keep your money in the TSP at all.
★Special Provisions
Law enforcement, firefighters, and ATC — enhanced computation, early eligibility, mandatory retirement, and the supplement exemption.
≡Retirement Income
Your three income streams — pension, Social Security, and TSP — and how to sequence them into a steady paycheck.
Want your own numbers, not general rules?
The FedRetireCheck Readiness Report compares your retirement scenarios side by side, with every figure cited to the governing rule.
Get the $49 report