Your retirement,
assembled.

The knobs behind every projection. Sensible defaults; turn them and everything — charts, recommendation, taxes, the horizon — recomputes live. The math itself: How it computes.

Drives the FERS COLA-gap erosion before 62, the diet COLA after, the supplement's fade, and the "checks will read" line. Long-run CPI has averaged ~2.5%.

How far past your estimated lifespan the plan must survive. Zero plans to the median — a coin-flip of outliving the money.

Set an age (80–100) to pin the horizon and ignore the lifespan estimate entirely.

How pension wealth and the walkaway math value future guaranteed checks. Government-backed, inflation-protected income deserves a near-risk-free rate (~2%), not your portfolio growth — lower means those streams are worth more today.

Your SSA statement assumes you keep earning until FRA. Retiring early banks fewer of the top-35 years, so the tool trims the benefit accordingly — this dial sets when your earning years started.

Zero means your pay keeps pace with inflation only — right if you're topped out at step 10. Still climbing steps? ~1–1.5% is typical (each within-grade step is ~3%, on a fixed schedule); add more if a promotion is likely. The tool projects your true high-3 from it and grows your %-of-salary TSP contributions — and the agency match on them — right along with it.

Everything else here erodes with inflation, but FEHB/TRICARE premiums historically climb faster than CPI. Zero holds them flat in today's dollars — the optimistic read. ~1–2% is closer to the long-run record, and over a 30-year retirement it's the one recurring cost that quietly outgrows the rest. Compounds from your retirement age.

The frame

Everything is in today's dollars: growth and draw rates are "above inflation," so a dollar anywhere on the chart buys what a dollar buys now. One state object feeds one pure computation; every number on the page derives from it, every time anything changes.

The streams

FERS: high-3 × creditable years × multiplier (1.0%; 1.1% at 62+ with 20 years, sick leave counting per OPM BAL 18-103; 1.7% special provisions), with MRA and every eligibility path derived from your birthdate and SCD — including MRA+10 reductions (postponable to start unreduced at 60 or 62), VERA early-outs (immediate unreduced, supplement from the MRA, VSIP into savings), deferred commencement by service (30 years → MRA unreduced, 20 → 60, else 62), disability phases, and survivor election costs. Special-provision service counts covered years only, with mandatory separation flagged at 57 (ATC 56). Already retired, your OPM statement gross is taken verbatim; the annual-leave payout joins savings at separation, and court-ordered former-spouse shares come off the top of either check. The supplement uses civilian years only. No FERS COLA before 62 and the diet COLA after are modeled as real erosion at the inflation dial. Military: your DFAS gross (or high-3/BRS formula at 2.5%/2.0% per year, no 75% cap since 2007 — Reserve/Guard by points ÷ 360, pay from 60), SBP premium deducted if elected, and the sub-50% VA waiver unless CRSC; reserve and combat/war-related (Chapter 61) retired pay are exempt from the buyback waiver, so those years buy into FERS without giving up the pension. VA: the official 2026 rate tables (effective Dec 1, 2025) with the full dependent matrix — or your award letter, verbatim. Social Security: your statement's FRA figure, trimmed if you stop earning early (bend-point inversion), then SSA's exact monthly claim factors. TSP & savings: a year-by-year simulation — contributions (with IRS catch-up step-ups), growth, your draw schedule, one-time withdrawals, and RMDs forced from 73 — 75 if born 1960 or later (SECURE 2.0) — on the traditional share.

Taxes & premiums

Federal brackets with the standard deduction (including the extra 65+ amount), up-to-85% Social Security taxability via the provisional-income formula, your state's actual retirement-income treatment (or host-country treatment abroad), Medicare Part B with IRMAA tiers from 65, the 2025–28 OBBBA senior deduction (with its income phase-out), health premiums, and the 10% early-withdrawal penalty where the Rule of 55 doesn't reach. The dotted line on the income chart is the year-by-year result.

The recommendation

Set a goal and the engine walks every retirement age 40–70, requiring the goal covered in every single year to your horizon — gap years included. The horizon comes from an SSA life table (age, sex, income-adjusted; the longer-lived spouse in a household) plus a buffer. All of it is adjustable in the dials.

Verification

The math is locked by automated tests, including goldens against published OPM computation examples, SSA's exact reduction factors, the TSP match schedule, and the DFAS formula. Source is public — github.com/gideonidoru/retire. Every simplification is labeled where it applies, with the direction of its error where known.

For the full tax picture, see how taxes are figured.

Every year the tool sums your ordinary income, figures how much Social Security is taxable, subtracts your deductions, applies the 2026 brackets, then layers on Medicare and any early-withdrawal penalty. Each stream is handled the way the IRS actually treats it — the dotted line on the income chart is that result, year by year, not a flat rate.

What counts as ordinary income

Your FERS annuity and supplement, military retired pay, the traditional (non-Roth) share of each TSP draw, "other" income, a savings account you've tagged pre-tax, and your spouse's ordinary income. Never taxed: VA disability, the Roth share of TSP draws, and after-tax savings withdrawals (Roth IRA, HSA, brokerage basis). Because your Roth/traditional TSP blend evolves as you contribute, the taxable share of each draw changes over time.

Federal brackets & deductions (2026)

Seven brackets, 10% to 37% — the 12% bracket tops out at $50,400 single, $100,800 married filing jointly. You get the standard deduction ($16,100 single / $32,200 joint), the extra 65+ amount ($2,050 / $3,300) from age 65, and the 2025–2028 OBBBA senior bonus ($6,000 per 65+ filer, phasing out above $75k / $150k income).

Social Security

Up to 85% of your benefit is taxable, set by the "provisional income" formula on thresholds fixed in 1984/1993 ($25k / $34k single, $32k / $44k joint). They aren't indexed to inflation, so a rising share becomes taxable over time; the rest stays tax-free.

Medicare & IRMAA

From 65, Part B runs $202.90/mo standard, with IRMAA surcharges stacked on above the income tiers (up to ~3.4× for high incomes). It nets out of your income like a premium, and a Roth conversion or big RMD in one year can push you into a higher tier two years later.

State & abroad

Your state's actual retirement treatment: the broad retirement-income exemptions where they exist, full or partial military-retired-pay exemptions, and the handful of states that still tax some Social Security. Retiring abroad, government pensions (FERS, military) stay US-taxed under treaty, and the host-country rate applies to whatever it taxes (often TSP and Social Security).

The early-withdrawal penalty

Draw traditional TSP before 59½ without the Rule of 55 (age 55, or 50 for special provisions) and the 10% penalty rides the after-tax line. A 72(t)/SEPP schedule — a locked series of IRS-sized equal withdrawals — avoids it; not modeled, but flagged where it applies.

What's not modeled

Capital-gains and dividend tax on a taxable brokerage (savings withdrawals are treated as untaxed basis unless you tag the account pre-tax), the Net Investment Income Tax, the AMT (alternative minimum tax), and city or local income taxes. These are usually second-order for a retirement projection; where one bites, verify with a tax professional. The survivor "widow's tax trap" — refiling single on nearly the same income — is modeled; see the What if? section. Every figure here is an estimate for planning, not a filing.

What this tool is

Assembled produces estimates and observations from the numbers you enter — it is not financial, legal, tax, or investment advice, and it is not a recommendation to retire, claim, buy back service, or elect anything. Decisions of this size deserve verification against your official sources: OPM, DFAS, VA, SSA, and TSP statements, and where it matters, a professional who can see your whole picture.

Known simplifications

Every figure is in today's dollars; growth assumptions are "above inflation." Your current salary stands in for the FERS high-3 unless you set the salary-growth dial (a conservative floor). VA rates use the official 2026 tables (effective December 1, 2025). Social Security uses SSA's exact claim-age factors; pasted earnings tables use approximate wage indexing. Taxes, the buyback deposit, and CRDP/CRSC offsets are estimates, not filings — each flagged in place where it applies. Lifespan is a statistical estimate from public life tables adjusted for income; it is a planning horizon, not a prediction about you.

Privacy

Your data never leaves your device. There is no server, no account, no analytics, and no tracking — and the page carries a Content-Security-Policy, so the browser itself blocks any connection except this site and the typefaces. That is enforced, not promised; view the page source to verify. Everything you type is computed in your browser and saved only to this browser's local storage; "Start over" erases it. Exports (JSON, XLSX, PDF) are generated locally and go only where you put them. The single network request this page makes is for its typefaces from Google Fonts, which contains nothing you've entered. The downloadable single-file version makes no requests at all once saved.

Affiliation

Assembled is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to OPM, DFAS, the VA, SSA, or any government agency. Curious where the numbers come from? See How it computes.