About this site
Why it exists
Most public retirement systems publish a calculator. Almost all of them require you to log in first, and every one of them covers only that system. If you are a teacher deciding whether to move from Ohio to Texas, or a spouse trying to understand how two different pensions fit together, or a federal employee weighing an early-out offer, there is nowhere to see the numbers side by side.
The plan documents themselves are public and reasonably clear, but they are long, and the rules that matter most are often buried. The Rule of 80 in Texas does not mean what most Texas teachers think it means. The twentieth year of service in NYSTRS is worth roughly double an ordinary year. In Massachusetts there is no early retirement penalty at all, because the age factor table already is the penalty. None of these are secrets. They are just hard to find.
What is here
- Eight state and federal pension systems: TRS Texas, CalSTRS, NYSTRS, PSERS Pennsylvania, STRS Ohio, MSERS Massachusetts, Florida FRS and FERS.
- Social Security, using the current year's bend points and claiming-age adjustments.
- 403(b), 401(k) and TSP projections, plus Roth IRA eligibility and a Roth versus Traditional comparison.
- A combined income tool that adds a pension, Social Security and savings into one figure.
- A side-by-side comparison of all eight pension systems on the dimensions that actually differ.
- Written guides on the things people get wrong: COLAs, vesting, final average salary, and the 2025 repeal of WEP and GPO.
How the data is maintained
Every multiplier, eligibility rule, vesting requirement and contribution rate on this site is checked against the plan’s own published material — member handbooks, summary plan descriptions, board resolutions and, where relevant, the statute itself. Each system page carries a Sources section listing exactly what was used, and a stamp showing when it was last reviewed. The current review date is September 19, 2026.
This matters more than it might sound. Public pension rules change often, and third-party summaries go stale quietly. During the most recent review we found that NYSTRS had added a new unreduced retirement age in April 2026 that its own member handbook still contradicted, and that STRS Ohio had changed its service requirement twice since 2024. A site that copied a 2024 summary would be wrong on both.
When we cannot verify something, we say so
Several plans do not publish figures we would need in order to be exact — actuarial reduction tables, mostly. A few facts we could not confirm from a primary source at all. Rather than filling the gaps with plausible guesses, those pages say plainly what is unknown and point you at who can answer it. The methodology page lists every one of them in a single place.
What this site does not do
- It does not store anything you type. Every calculation runs in your browser. There is no account and no server receiving your salary or service history.
- It is not affiliated with any government agency or retirement system. No system has reviewed, endorsed or approved anything here. All system names belong to their respective owners.
- It does not give personalised advice. A calculator does not know about your health, your spouse, your other savings or your tax position.
An honest word about limits
These are simplified models of complicated plans. A real benefit calculation involves purchased service credit, breaks in service, unused sick leave, survivor elections, disability provisions and tax withholding, and no free web tool models all of that correctly. The figures here are good for understanding how your plan works and for comparing scenarios against each other. They are not good enough to hand in a retirement application on. Before you make an irreversible decision, get an official estimate from your system. Our disclaimer spells out precisely what is left out.
Found something wrong?
Please tell us. Pension rules change and we will miss some of it. A report that names the system, the figure, and a link to the official source gets fixed fastest. The contact page has the address.
Keep reading
Methodology and sources
Every formula and constant used here, with the official source for each.
Compare all eight systems
Multipliers, vesting, COLA and Social Security coverage in one place.
Disclaimer
Exactly what these models leave out and where our numbers are approximations.
Contact
Report an error or suggest a system to add.