See your estimated pension, retirement withdrawals, taxes, expenses, and what could actually be left each month.
Built with CalPERS formulas as a starting point — every number is editable for any state's system. Updates instantly — nothing to submit, and your entries are saved only on this device.
Estimated monthly retirement take-home
Run your numbers below to see your estimate.
Choose whichever you actually know — the exact number, or the pieces that make it up.
Drives your multiplier and years of service below, plus every early-withdrawal rule further down.
Your gross annual pension benefit, before tax.
Your highest average annual salary. Only needed for calculating your pension from a formula, or for the IDR / PEPRA cap options below. Exclude overtime — CalPERS generally doesn't count it toward your pension, except FLSA overtime for safety members.
PEPRA cap, CA IDR, and survivor benefit — skip whichever don't apply to you.
PEPRA caps how much salary can count toward final compensation, separate from the benefit-percent cap. This limit rises with inflation each year.
Leave blank to use the 2026 cap as-is. Enter a future year and the cap is projected forward at an estimated ~2.8%/yr — the long-term historical average (actual year-to-year moves have ranged 2.4%–8.2%).
CalPERS/California-specific — other states work differently. This is a planning estimate; your actual IDR benefit and tax treatment can vary. Verify your official benefit with CalPERS and a qualified tax professional.
$0 × 50% = $0/year
Choosing to continue payments to a spouse or beneficiary after you die reduces your monthly pension. CalPERS calculates the exact reduction individually, based on both your age and your beneficiary's age — there's no single universal percentage. Enter the reduction shown on your own CalPERS retirement estimate.
Each account works differently once you draw from it — that's why they're split out.
Spending down cash you've already saved isn't income — it doesn't get taxed the way an investment withdrawal can.
Brokerage capital-gains tax is not included because cost basis was not provided. The full withdrawal is added to your cash flow without being taxed as ordinary income.
Once you separate from service, a governmental 457(b) has no age-based withdrawal penalty — unlike a 401(k). Withdrawals are still taxed as ordinary income.
Withdrawals before 59½ normally trigger a 10% penalty — unless the public-safety exception below applies to you.
Did you separate from service after the earlier of:
reaching age 50, or completing 25 years of service under this plan?
Firefighters separating from a governmental 401(k)/403(b) at age 50+, or after 25 years under this specific plan, generally owe no 10% penalty — only ordinary income tax. This doesn't apply if the money gets rolled into an IRA first. If you're not sure, verify eligibility with your plan administrator before relying on this exception.
Contributions come out tax and penalty-free anytime. Earnings withdrawn before 59½ (or before the account's 5-year mark) may still owe tax and a penalty.
A Roth employer account follows different distribution rules than a Roth IRA — that's why it's tracked separately. Qualified withdrawals are tax-free; treat non-qualified withdrawals the same as the taxable side of that plan type.
A second job, spouse's income, rental income — anything steady that's taxed as ordinary income.
Certain disability payments, some VA benefits — income that adds to your cash flow without adding to your taxable income.
The bills that don't stop when the paycheck changes.
This changes your take-home number directly, so it's not tucked away.
This only controls whether an additional state tax layer gets added on top of federal — checked adds California's real brackets, unchecked lets you add your own state's rate instead.
Leave at 0% for no-income-tax states (TX, FL, WA, NV, TN, WY, SD, AK, NH). Otherwise, enter your own state's rate — I don't have every state's bracket tables built in, so this applies as a flat rate rather than real brackets. Federal tax above still applies either way.
Estimate based on 2026 federal and 2025 California tax brackets.
This is a single blended rate for quick reference — the actual federal and state dollar amounts are shown separately in Results below. Real federal marginal brackets (official 2026 IRS figures) plus California's most recently published brackets (2025) when checked, applied to the taxable portion of your pension, plus 457(b), 401(k)/403(b), and other taxable income at ordinary rates. Any brokerage capital gains (estimated from the cost basis you provided above, none if you didn't) are taxed separately at federal long-term capital-gains rates — generally lower than ordinary rates — and shown as their own line in Results. Cash/savings draws, non-taxable other income, and Roth withdrawals aren't taxed at all, so they're excluded here. Brackets get republished annually.
Your day-one number above doesn't include this — this shows how the pension itself grows on its own.
About 96% of CalPERS retirees have a 2% contracted COLA — compounded annually, capped at the lesser of this rate or actual inflation, starting your second year of retirement. This only projects the pension itself; it doesn't inflate your expenses, so treat the table below as a separate view, not part of the main cash flow number above.
Will your money last? See your accounts year by year, including when the IRS forces withdrawals (RMDs).
A steady yearly return on your invested accounts. A planning assumption, not a guarantee.
Raises your expenses each year. Your pension's COLA grows separately.
Other steady monthly income, such as a spouse's job or Social Security. Held flat.
Your plan at a glance
Enter your numbers above and a quick read on your plan shows up here.
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Monthly take-home after expenses, by age
Assumes a steady 6% return and 3% inflation every year — real markets and prices don't move in a straight line. Because your draws above are a % of the current balance, an account tapers down rather than hitting an exact zero; "falls under $1,000" is used as the point it's effectively spent. Tax is held at your current blended rate shown above rather than modeled bracket-by-bracket going forward. Required minimum distributions (RMDs) start at age 75 under SECURE 2.0, which applies to anyone born in 1960 or later. If you were born from 1951 to 1959, yours start at 73.
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Read the newsletter →Estimated monthly retirement take-home
Run your numbers below to see your estimate.
This is a planning estimate, not financial or tax advice. The take-home figure is a day-one snapshot built from the numbers you enter plus 2026 federal and 2025 California tax brackets; it does not grow your pension or expenses over time. The Long-Term Outlook does that using steady assumed rates for investment growth, inflation, and COLA, which real markets and prices do not follow, and it holds your tax rate at today's blended rate and starts required minimum distributions at age 75 (the rule for anyone born in 1960 or later). IDR tax treatment and formula caps are simplified here and vary by system — some plans compare your formula-based service amount against the 50% floor differently. The PEPRA compensation cap is based on the actual 2026 CalPERS figures; if you enter a future retirement year, it's projected forward at an estimated ~2.8%/yr (a long-term planning assumption, not a guaranteed rate — actual year-to-year changes have historically ranged 2.4%-8.2%). Roth withdrawals are treated as tax-free once you reach 59½ without checking the 5-year rule, and before 59½ the calculator cannot separate contributions from earnings. The public-safety 401(k) exception is based on what you tell it — it doesn't verify your plan's governmental status or whether funds have been rolled to an IRA. Healthcare premium changes beyond the inflation rate you choose, Social Security, and states other than California (flat rate only) are not modeled in detail. Confirm real figures with your retirement system, plan administrator, and a qualified advisor before making a decision.