Military retirement pay is one of the most generous pension benefits still available to American workers. But which system you're under matters, and the math between Legacy and BRS plays out differently depending on your situation. Here's the full comparison.
Legacy High-3: how it works
The Legacy retirement system, also called High-3, calculates your monthly retired pay as: 2.5% x years of active service x average of your highest 36 months of basic pay.
At 20 years of service, you receive 50% of your High-3 average. At 30 years, you receive 75%. The maximum is 100%, reached at 40 years.
An E-7 with a High-3 basic pay average of $5,100/month retiring at 20 years collects $2,550/month starting the day after separation, regardless of age. That's $30,600/year, immediately, for life.
Legacy members receive no TSP matching from the government. You could contribute to TSP on your own, but Uncle Sam put nothing in on your behalf.
Blended Retirement System: how it works
BRS uses a 2.0% multiplier instead of 2.5%. At 20 years: 40% of High-3 instead of 50%. The same E-7 with a $5,100/month High-3 average receives $2,040/month instead of $2,550.
That's $510/month less, or $6,120/year. The difference compounds over a long retirement.
What BRS adds in exchange:
- Automatic 1% TSP contribution from the government, regardless of what you contribute
- Government matching of your TSP contributions up to 4% (on a 5% employee contribution)
- Maximum government TSP contribution: 5% of basic pay per month
- Continuation pay: a one-time cash bonus between years 8 and 12 for members who commit to four additional years of service. Typically 2.5 times monthly basic pay for active duty, though the multiplier varies by service branch and year
The break-even analysis
Whether BRS or Legacy produces more total retirement income depends on how long you invest the TSP match and what return you earn.
The annuity gap at 20 years is $510/month. To close that gap through TSP investment, you need the accumulated TSP balance (from matching contributions over your career) to generate $510/month in portfolio withdrawals indefinitely.
At a 5% portfolio withdrawal rate, you'd need about $122,000 of accumulated TSP balance from matching contributions alone to break even. A service member who joined at 18 and contributes 5% of basic pay from day one, receiving the full 5% government match, can reasonably accumulate more than that in matching contributions by year 20, especially with compound growth.
Add the continuation pay bonus (typically $12,000 to $20,000 for an E-6 to E-7 in year 8-12 on active duty), invested over the remaining years to retirement, and BRS can outperform Legacy on a total-wealth basis if you're a disciplined TSP investor.
If you spent your TSP match each year or contributed less than 5%, BRS falls behind Legacy and stays there.
2026 basic pay reference points
For context on what the percentages mean in real dollars, here are approximate 2026 monthly basic pay rates for common retirement scenarios:
- E-7 at 20 years: approximately $5,200/month basic pay
- E-8 at 22 years: approximately $5,900/month
- O-5 at 20 years: approximately $9,800/month
- O-6 at 26 years: approximately $12,200/month
Apply 50% (Legacy) or 40% (BRS) to the High-3 average, which usually runs 2-4% below the final pay rate, to get your monthly retired pay estimate.
COLA differences
Legacy retirees receive full CPI-U cost-of-living adjustments each year. BRS retirees receive CPI-U minus 1 percentage point until age 62, at which point the full CPI-U rate is restored and the lost 1% per year is recaptured in a one-time adjustment.
This is called the "diet COLA." Over 20 years of retirement before age 62, the cumulative shortfall from diet COLA can reduce purchasing power by 8-12% compared to Legacy. At 62 the catch-up payment partially restores this, but the years of reduced purchasing power are gone.
VA disability and concurrent receipt
If you have a VA disability rating of 50% or higher, you can receive both military retirement pay and VA disability compensation under Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP). The two payments no longer offset each other. CRDP applies to both Legacy and BRS retirees.
Combat-related disabilities may qualify for Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC), which can be more beneficial for retirees with ratings below 50% in certain situations. The military calculator at PensionMath and the TSP projection tool at the TSP calculator can help you model these scenarios.