One quick step first

Your plan is built from your own numbers. Run the free calculator once so we have your rank, service, VA rating, and state. When your results come up, press Continue to my plan and you'll come right back here. Your purchase is saved on this device.

Open the calculator

Open your receipt link once

Plan generation checks your purchase each time it runs. Open the link in your Stripe receipt email once on this device to connect it, then come back here.

Can't find the receipt? Email militaryretirementcalc@gmail.com and we'll sort it out.

We couldn't match your receipt

The receipt saved on this device doesn't match a purchase we can find, so we can't write a plan from it yet. Open the link from your receipt email, then reload this page. If you just paid, give it a minute first.

Still stuck? Email militaryretirementcalc@gmail.com with your receipt and we'll sort it out.

Checking your purchase

We could not check which plan you bought, so this is the standard form. If your purchase includes the full plan, refresh this page in a minute.

Sample walkthrough. This shows the questions a buyer answers. Type anything you like, but the sample plan at the end is fixed and won't reflect your entries. On the real thing, your answers shape every section of the plan.

Build Your Personalized Plan

Four short steps. Your answers plus your calculator numbers become pages 8 through 10 of your worksheet: your guaranteed income floor, the bridge years before Social Security, a best, expected, and worst case outlook, and an action checklist in the order things come due.

Working from: · change

Generated a plan before, on this or another device? , free. It does not use up a generation.

Step 1 of 4 · You

How are you leaving the service?

This changes the whole plan: which income is guaranteed, when it starts, and what healthcare looks like.

Year you were born *

Spouse's birth year, if any

What healthcare will your household use?

TSP traditional balance

TSP Roth balance

Traditional and Roth are taxed differently in retirement, so the split matters. Rough is fine; your statement at tsp.gov shows both.

How is it invested?

Other savings and investments outside the TSP

Your spouse's annual income before taxes, if any

Rerun the calculator with filing status set to Married Filing Jointly, then come back. Your answers on this page are saved in this browser.

Social Security at full retirement age (monthly)

Age you plan to claim it

Pull your real estimate from ssa.gov/myaccount (two minutes). Leave it at 0 if you don't have it; the plan will note it's missing.

Expected monthly expenses in retirement *

The whole household: housing, food, insurance, kids, everything. This number drives the plan.

Itemizing is optional, but it lets your plan tell fixed costs (housing, insurance) from flexible ones (dining, subscriptions) and point out where you could realistically save. A single number works fine too. Leave any line blank.

Monthly total $0

Monthly mortgage payment, if any

Year it's paid off

The mortgage is usually the one big expense with an end date, so the plan treats it separately. Include it in your monthly expenses above too.

Work plans after the military

Anything else about the work picture? (optional)

Anything about family the plan should account for? (optional)

What matters most in the next chapter? (pick up to 6)

What worries you most? (pick up to 6)

Your answers and calculator numbers are sent to our plan-writing service once, to write these pages. We save the finished plan and the numbers behind it so you can open it again on another device (what we keep). Your purchase includes 3 versions of the plan.

Sample walkthrough. These are the questions the full plan asks, filled in for a sample family. Change anything you like and watch the preview move. The sample plan at the end is fixed and will not reflect your changes.

Build your retirement plan

Working from · change

Made a plan before, on this or another device? for free. It does not use one of your plan versions.

Your answers from your last version are already filled in, so a new version only needs what changed.

Your plan is ready on this device. Open your plan

If something has changed, you can make a new version below. Each new version uses one of the 3 included with your purchase.

Two ways to do this

This plan is for both of you. If your spouse handles the money, sit down together for it. You can switch between quick and full any time and nothing you typed is lost.

Quick versionAbout 6 minutes to answer

Your calculator numbers plus the basics. Enough to see your paths and whether the money lasts.

Full versionAbout 15 minutes to answer

Adds your house, your health coverage, the states you're weighing and your own notes.

You get the same plan either way, every page of it. The full version just has more of your own situation to work from.

Have these open if you can

Your latest LES
Your TSP statement from tsp.gov
Your Social Security estimate from ssa.gov
Your mortgage statement

After you send your answers

A written plan like this can take a planner days to send back. Yours takes 10 to 20 minutes. In that time your figures are worked out from your own numbers and every dollar amount is checked against them. Then the writing is checked before it reaches you. That checking is why it isn't instant.

Timeline
Money
Family
Options
Questions

Step 1 of 5 · Timeline

Full version ·

Your timeline

Dates and ages drive half the plan. They put your real deadlines on the calendar.

Retirement date, past or planned

Already retired? Put the day you retired. Not sure yet? Leave it blank and the plan skips the dated deadlines.

How you're leaving the service

Your birth year *

Your spouse's birth year

Your spouse's first name

One page of the plan is written to your spouse by name. Leave it blank if you'd rather not.

The state you live in *

Your calculator run has no state, and state tax changes most figures in the plan. If you live overseas, in DC or in a territory, pick Outside the 50 states.

Is your spouse on your VA disability award? *

Yes No

Your calculator figured VA pay without a spouse. If they're on your award, the plan adds them. If not, it shows what adding them would pay.

Money in and money out

Rough numbers are fine. You can run the plan again when they change.

What the household spends in a month *

Everything, mortgage or rent included. This one number drives the whole plan.

Fill in any lines you know. The total becomes your monthly spending, and the plan can tell fixed costs from ones you could trim.

Monthly total $0

Mortgage payment a month

Year it's paid off

Keep it in your spending above. The plan takes it out the year the house is paid off.

TSP traditional balance

TSP Roth balance

How your TSP is invested

Traditional IRA and old 401(k) balance

Roth IRA balance

Of your Roth IRA, how much did you put in yourself?

What you put into a Roth IRA comes back out at any age with no tax or penalty. Only the growth is taxed and penalized if you take it before 59 and a half. Not sure? Leave it blank and the plan counts the most it could cost.

Bank and brokerage savings

Your statement at tsp.gov shows both TSP balances. Add up your IRAs and any old 401(k)s. Cash, CDs and brokerage accounts go in the last box. Each kind is taxed differently and has its own age for taking money out without a penalty, so the split matters.

Your Social Security at 67, a month

Age you plan to claim it

Your spouse's Social Security at 67, a month

Age your spouse plans to claim it

Each estimate is at ssa.gov/myaccount and takes two minutes to pull. Leave a blank if you don't have it, and the plan will say what's missing.

Your family

Why we ask for each child's birth year. VA pays more each month for a child under 18, and for a child 18 to 23 who is in school. The plan uses each birth year to show the year that pay changes.

Your calculator counts . The plan can't be built without one birth year for each, so Next waits until every year fits.

Do you expect the kids to go to college or trade school?

Yes No Not sure yet

VA pay for a child can run to 23 while they're in school. It only does if you file the school form each year, and the plan tells you when.

Your calculator lists no children, so there's nothing to add for them. If that's wrong, change it in the calculator and come back. Your answers here are saved.

Health coverage the household will use

Anything about the family the numbers miss?

A parent who may move in, a child with extra needs, a spouse who wants to go back to school. Every note you write gets used in the plan.

Who plans to work after you retire?

The plan also runs a bolder and a safer version next to yours, so you can see the trade.

You

Your plan

Until age

Pay a year before tax

Your spouse

Their plan

Until the year

Pay a year before tax

Anything about work we should know?

A job offer, a field you want to move into, a business idea, and how sure each one is. The plan only counts income you put in above, so add any pay you expect there too.

States you're weighing

Pick a state

Up to five. The plan compares the tax on your whole household in each one against where you live now. Where you live now is already in your plan, so it isn't on this list.

You made your SBP choice when you retired, so the plan works from it and doesn't ask again.

SBP, where you're leaning

Full Half Decline Not sure yet

SBP keeps part of your pension coming to your spouse after you die. Taking less than full, or none, needs your spouse's signature. The plan shows the cost of each.

Test one idea of your ownOptional. The plan adds it as one more path, with its own numbers.

Test one idea the two of you keep coming back to. Change only the parts it touches. Anything you leave alone stays the same as the plan you described above.

Give it a short name

You

Your work

Until age

Pay a year before tax

Your spouse

Their work

No paycheck from

Through the year

Same job and pay as the plan above, with no paycheck in those years, both included.

Until the year

Pay a year before tax

Monthly spending

By how much a month

In today's dollars. The plan keeps it up every year to age 90.

One time costs or money coming in

Up to three. A wedding, a new roof, an inheritance, the sale of a house.

Move to another state

In the year

What do you want this plan to answer?

Ask it the way you'd ask a friend who has done this. Each question gets its own answer, worked out with your numbers. A good question names a choice and a time, like whether you can stop working at 50.

Your first question

A second question

A third question

What matters most? Pick up to four, most important first.

The plan walks through what you put first before anything else.

What do you hope retirement holds? Pick any.

Anything else about your goals?

What would make retirement feel like it worked. A date, a place, a project.

What worries you most? Pick any.

What keeps you up at night about this?

Put it in your own words. The plan answers it with your numbers.

Your answers and calculator numbers go to our plan writing service once, to write your plan. We keep the finished plan and the numbers behind it so you can open it again on another device (what we keep). Your answers are saved in this browser as you type. Once your plan is written, this browser keeps the answers you sent, your questions included, so your next version starts from them. They stay in this browser until you clear them. Your purchase includes 3 plan versions.

Once you press Write my plan, give it 10 to 20 minutes to write and check. Leave this page open. If it closes, come back here and it picks up where it left off.

Already in your plan

This deletes everything you typed here, the answers kept from your last version and your saved questions. Your finished plan stays.

Writing your plan

Analyzing your numbers...

A detailed plan usually takes two to three minutes. Keep this tab open.

Your plan is ready

It's been added to your worksheet as pages 8 through 10.

Open My Worksheet

Did this plan match your situation?

We hit a snag

Something went wrong.

Email support

Your answers are saved in this browser. Try Again keeps everything you entered.

Questions or trouble? Email militaryretirementcalc@gmail.com with your receipt and we'll get you sorted.