Home

FERS Retirement Calculator

When you enter “FERS retirement calculator” into an internet search engine, you may be overwhelmed by the results.

You may come up with a military retirement calculator (designed for computing retired military pay), a retirement savings calculator (to determine how much more you need to save each month) or even a retirement planning calculator (helps determine your retirement needs and whether your current savings plan is adequate).

If you’re a civilian federal employee, the calculator that you need is the FERS retirement calculator (Federal Employees Retirement System).

It may appear that there are many FERS retirement calculators, but in reality there are only four main FERS calculators available.

In order of preference they are:

• FedRetire Software – CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) and FERS Benefits Calculator
• FedCalc FERS Annuity Calculator
• OPM‘s Ballpark Estimate
• USGS FERS Calculator

Here’s a quick overview.

1. FedRetire CSRS and FERS Retirement Calculator

The most comprehensive FERS retirement calculator is available through FedRetire Software. It is not web-based and so must be downloaded to your computer. Even the free version is worth the time, though, because it will calculate your main FERS annuity.

Other retirement accounts, Social Security, FEGLI (Federal Life Insurance), FEHB (Federal health benefits), long-term care, TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) withdrawals, Survivor Annuity choices, FERS supplements, and taxes are included in the $300 professional version.

Because of the program’s comprehensiveness, it is not as easy to use as some other web-based calculators. Careful attention must be paid when entering information.

2. FedCalc FERS Annuity Calculator

The FedCalc FERS Annuity Calculator is great and fairly unambiguous to use.

The information you need to enter will be your basic federal retirement information, deposit and redeposit information, part time federal work history, salary history and high-3, life insurance options, estimated social security benefits, and survivor benefit options.

You will receive basic information on retirement as well as FEGLI and the FERS Supplement. If you have deposit or redeposit time, it is calculated in too. After using the free calculator, the site will ask if you want to pay for a Full Retirement Analysis Calculator.

While the free calculator is fine, the “Full Analysis” has some difficulties. Unrealistic default estimates, inability to consider taxes and enter Social Security estimates, and being privately branded to other companies make it unworthy of the upgrade.

3. OPM’s Ballpark Estimate

Avoid this misleading and confusing calculator!

Although this particular retirement income calculator tries to be effective, the problems with it can actually do you more harm than good.

There are no options for FERS Survivor benefits, the Social Security estimates are incomplete, there is no provision for FERS Supplement, the TSP calculations are limited, the impact of taxes isn’t considered at all, and the information about FERS Annuity is downright misleading.

4. USGS FERS Calculator

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) FERS retirement calculator is listed by many web sites as the most simple calculator.

However, on July 1, 2011 the USGS calculator was removed from the USGS web site and replaced with the following statement.

“The USGS Retirement calculator is no longer available. Due to changes in retirement regulations it was no longer accurate and it is not being updated.”

Although the calculator was easy to use, it had difficulties in the areas of SCD vs. RCSD (Service Computation Date vs. Retirement Service Computation Date) and Survivor Annuity options, and had no special provisions calculation.