Your pension is the number your retirement is built on, and the pay chart only shows the gross. What lands depends on your system, your years, your VA rating, your state and when you retire.
Start with how the pension is calculated, then look up your rank on the pay chart. The rest of these cover the decisions that move the number, like staying past 20, the BRS lump sum and Guard and Reserve points.
Your rank, years, VA rating and state, worked out after tax.
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Master the High-3 and BRS retirement formulas with our step-by-step guide. Includes 2026 pay tables, visual calculators, and real examples for E-5 through O-6 ranks. See exactly what your military pension will be.
Complete 2026 military retirement pay chart with the 3.8% pay raise. See monthly retired pay for every rank (E-5 to O-10) at 20, 24, 26, and 30 years of service. Includes High-3, BRS, and combined VA disability totals.
Should you retire at 20 years or stay to 30? A 2026 analysis in today's dollars, with the pension at each point, the pay you give up, TSP growth, a break-even that turns on your civilian salary, and a decision framework.
Every deposit date for military retired pay, SBP, VA disability and active duty through December 2027. Which months get two deposits, which get none, and the day the 2027 COLA first shows up.
Your pension and VA never show up on a brokerage statement, so most retirees leave them out when they compare themselves to someone who only invests. Here's how to price them as a portfolio, with tables by rank and VA rating and a case study of a retired E-8 with 100% VA.
Monthly basic pay for every grade, E-1 to O-10, at every year of service, with the 7-6-5 raise set for January 1. Projected from the official 2026 DFAS tables until DFAS publishes the 2027 tables in December, then switched over.
What a military pension pays if you retire in 2027, for E-5 to O-10 and W-1 to W-5 at 20, 24, 26 and 30 years. True High-3 averages built month by month from the pay tables, the same method that reproduces every figure on the 2026 chart, plus BRS, VA and what the 2027 raise adds.
You earned 20 good years with the Guard or Reserve, but your first pension check could be 15+ years away. How the points formula works, which benefits you can use right now, the reduced-age retirement rule that could start your pay years early, and what TRICARE costs while you wait. All 2026 numbers.
The complete 2026 pay chart from the official DFAS tables. Monthly basic pay for E-1 through O-10, warrant officers, and prior enlisted officers at every year of service, plus drill pay math and what base pay leaves out.
On August 26 the President set the 2027 raise at 7% for E-5 and below, 6% for E-6 to O-3 and 5% for O-4 and up, effective January 1 unless Congress enacts a different figure. The Senate bill still says 3.6%. What the raise does to your High-3 retirement pay, and whether to retire before or after it.
2026 is the first year BRS retirees can take the lump sum. The 50% option can reduce lifetime pension income by over $500,000. See the real math for E-7 and O-5 examples, the 6.46% discount rate, tax rules, and why most advisors say keep the annuity.
Yes, you collect both at full amounts. See 2026 benefit rates, the optimal claiming age for military retirees, how the Social Security Fairness Act helps, and the tax trap most retirees don't see coming.
Avoid these 10 costly mistakes when calculating your post-military income. Covers base pay vs total compensation, federal/state taxes, TRICARE savings, VA disability planning, BRS vs High-3, COLA growth, and more, with real 2026 dollar figures for every scenario.
Your first COLA shrinks for each quarter later you retire, and extra service usually makes up for it. What every 2026 retirement date pays once the first COLA lands, and the July 1 line that leaves retirees behind for life.
Complete breakdown of 2026 military retirement pay (a 3.8% pay table raise for new retirees, a 2.8% COLA for current ones) and VA disability rates (2.8% COLA). See real examples of how much more you'll earn in 2026, plus state tax impacts on your retirement income.
See what you take home and the civilian salary it takes to match it.
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