Below is a real worksheet, not a mockup. Every number and every chart on this page came out of the same engine that will run yours, for one example person: an E-7 retiring at 20 years with a 70% VA rating, a spouse and two children, in California.
The same pension, taxed by different states. For this person, 40 states charge nothing at all, and moving to the worst one (Oregon) would cost about $57,632 over 20 years.
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If a pending claim or a secondary condition moved this person from 70% to 100%, that is about $27,332 a year, tax-free. The worksheet prices every step in between so you know what filing is actually worth before you spend six months on it.
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A pension is easy to underrate month to month. With cost-of-living adjustments, this one pays about $1.49M across 30 years. The worksheet lists it year by year.
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Start with the free calculator. It takes about a minute, there is no account, and nothing is saved to a server. You will see your pension, your VA total, and what your state does to it.
Run my numbers, freeThe worksheet shows the numbers. The plan says what they mean for your household. You answer a few questions about expenses, savings, spouse income, and when you plan to claim Social Security, and it writes three pages against your own figures. Here is the sample person's, in their plan's own words.
A $4,693 floor that covers 72 percent of the life you want, and a 25 year bridge with three ways across.
The remaining $1,807 a month is not a crisis, it's a planning target. It's smaller than one part-time paycheck, and part-time work is already your plan. Your spouse's $52,000 salary covers it about twice over on its own.
Two dates improve the picture on their own. The mortgage ends in 2038, dropping expenses to about $4,300 and lifting the floor to 109 percent of what's left. And at 67, the $2,600 Social Security check flips the gap into $793 a month of headroom.
Your part-time work settles into something steady you'd nearly do for free, your spouse stays at $52,000, and the household clears its $6,500 every month with room to spare. The $225,000 portfolio keeps compounding untouched.
You find part-time work within six months that covers the $1,807 gap most months. The short months come out of the $40,000 in savings, which is exactly what it's for. The pension and VA pay both carry cost-of-living adjustments, so your floor rises with inflation instead of eroding under it.
The job search takes a year, inflation runs hot, and the transmission dies the same month the water heater does. Even then, $4,693 keeps arriving every month. A full year of covering the $1,807 gap costs a little over half your $40,000 in non-TSP savings, without touching a retirement account.
Every figure in the plan is computed in code from your answers. The model writes the paragraphs around those figures and never invents a number.
Three charts is what fits on one web page. The worksheet itself runs seven sections plus the plan, built to print or hand to a spouse or an advisor:
Run the free calculator first so the worksheet has your numbers to work from. Then this builds in your browser, with a 5-day money-back guarantee and no subscription. Regenerate it any time your rank, rating, or state changes, at no extra charge.
Get the worksheet, $9Still deciding something big, like when to get out or which state to settle in? The $49 Retirement Plan runs each choice year by year to age 90 and comes with this worksheet. See a full sample plan.
Built by one person, a retired Army veteran with 22 years in who went through the transition himself. More about the numbers and where they come from.