Playground · Resources for educators
When can I retire?
CalSTRS explains your pension with a formula and a page of tables. Here it is in normal words — plus a calculator that shows you the actual dollar amount at every retirement age, side by side.
The entire formula, in one line
Your CalSTRS pension is a lifetime monthly paycheck. It is not an account with a balance — it's a math problem with three inputs, and that's genuinely all there is to it.
Example straight from CalSTRS: 24 years of service × a 2.4% age factor × $5,500/month final compensation = $3,168 a month, for life. That's the whole thing. Every confusing table you've seen is just a lookup for the middle number.
Your numbers
Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs entirely in your browser.
Same formula either way — but if you're an administrator, a large part of your pay package probably doesn't count. Switch modes to see which parts.
Your own savings — optional
Your pension isn't the whole picture. If you have a 403(b), a 457(b), or a CalSTRS Defined Benefit Supplement balance, add them here and the calculator will show what they're worth alongside it. Leave this blank and nothing below changes.
Both percentages are yours to set. Nothing here is a forecast we're making on your behalf — the pension figures above come from published CalSTRS tables, but these two numbers are assumptions, and the answer moves a lot when they change.
Every retirement age, side by side
This is the picture the tables hide. Waiting isn't a smooth ramp — there are specific years where the number jumps.
| Retire at | Years from now | Service credit | Age factor | % of salary | Per month | Per year |
|---|
↗ marks a year where a milestone changes your formula.
The three milestones that actually move the needle
25 years of service
If you're in 2% at 60, your final compensation switches from your highest 36 months to your highest 12 months. If your pay is still climbing at the end, this is free money. (2% at 62 members never get this.)
30 years of service
The career factor: CalSTRS adds a flat 0.2% to your age factor. On a 30-year, $130k career that's roughly $650 more every month, forever. It's the single biggest cliff in the system — and again, 2% at 60 only.
The 2.4% ceiling
The age factor stops growing at 2.4% — reached at age 63 (or 61½ if the career factor already got you there). Past that point, extra years still add service credit, but each one is worth less than the year before.
If you're an administrator, read this part
Credentialed administrators — assistant principals, principals, directors, assistant superintendents, superintendents — are in the same CalSTRS plan with the same formula. There is no separate administrator pension. What changes is which parts of your pay package CalSTRS is allowed to count, and that difference is usually worth tens of thousands of dollars.
The single most expensive misunderstanding
Your pension is calculated on creditable compensation, not on your total package. A superintendent earning $230,000 in salary plus a $9,600 car allowance, a $1,800 phone stipend and a $15,000 district-paid 403(b) has a package worth $256,400 — and a pension calculated on $230,000. The extras are real money, but they are invisible to CalSTRS.
What counts and what doesn't
| Counts | Base salary on a publicly available, board-approved salary schedule |
| Counts | Pay for the extra days or months of a 12-month contract (raises your pay rate — but not your service credit, which is still capped at 1.000 per year) |
| Counts | Longevity pay and advanced-degree/doctoral stipends, if they're on the schedule and paid to everyone in your class |
| Counts | Employer-paid member contributions picked up under Ed. Code 22903/22904 |
| Counts | Your own pre-tax deferrals into a 403(b) or 457(b) — deducting from your salary doesn't shrink creditable pay |
| Doesn't | Car, vehicle, housing and uniform allowances |
| Doesn't | Cell phone and technology stipends |
| Doesn't | District-paid 403(b) / annuity / deferred comp contributions made on top of salary |
| Doesn't | Cash in lieu of health benefits |
| Doesn't | Cash-outs of unused vacation or sick leave (using the leave counts; selling it back doesn't) |
| Doesn't | Severance, and any money paid in excess of salary |
| Doesn't | Bonuses and one-time off-schedule payments — never for 2% at 62; for 2% at 60 they land in your Defined Benefit Supplement account, not your pension |
| Doesn't | Anything not documented in a publicly available written agreement. CalSTRS is explicit: no public document, not creditable. |
"Move into admin for the last few years to boost my pension" — does it work?
Mechanically, yes, and it's powerful: final compensation multiplies every year of service credit, so a teacher with 28 years who moves to a $180,000 director role raises the value of all 28 years, not just the new ones. But there are five real constraints:
- Time in the seat. 2% at 62 members must use a 36-consecutive-month window — there is no one-year option — so you need three full years at the higher rate. A 2% at 60 member with 25+ years can use any 12 consecutive months, so one year can be enough.
- The seven-year anti-spiking lookback. Under 5 CCR 27600, CalSTRS reviews increases across the seven years ending on the last day of your final compensation period. An increase that doesn't fit one of the listed safe harbors is presumed to be spiking and gets diverted out of your pension. A genuine promotion is normally fine — "increased responsibility," "pay parity with comparable positions," and "commensurate with the predecessor or successor" are all safe harbors. What gets caught is a one-off raise built for one person that vanishes from the next person's contract.
- The 2% at 62 cap. Creditable compensation is capped at $191,866 for 2026-27. A PEPRA member promoted to a $215,000 job gets nothing pensionable above that line.
- The raise has to be the base salary. If the promotion's value is mostly in allowances and district-paid retirement contributions, the pensionable increase is much smaller than the offer letter suggests.
- Watch which system you land in. Business-side roles — Chief Business Official, HR director, facilities — are generally CalPERS positions, not CalSTRS. If you take one, you have 60 days to file a Retirement System Election (form ES 0372) to stay in CalSTRS. Miss it and your highest-paid years build the wrong pension.
Rules are changing in 2027
AB 1997 takes effect July 1, 2027 and replaces this framework with a "base pay / supplemental pay" structure. It removes the paid-each-pay-period requirement for 2% at 62 members and makes some limited-term payments creditable for them. If your retirement window lands after mid-2027, re-check before you commit.
What the three numbers really mean
Service credit
One full school year of full-time work = 1.000 service credit. Part-time years count proportionally. Unused sick leave gets converted to extra service credit at retirement (usually a few tenths of a year), and it counts toward your benefit — but it does not count toward hitting the 25- and 30-year milestones above.
Age factor
This is the number the tables are for, and it's the only reason "when should I retire" is a hard question. It ticks up every single month you keep working — monthly below age 60, then in quarterly steps from 60 to the 2.4% ceiling. Retiring three months later is a real, permanent raise.
Final compensation
Not your last paycheck — your highest average salary over a set window. 36 consecutive months normally; the best 12 consecutive months if you're in 2% at 60 with 25+ years. It counts your salary and certain creditable pay, not overtime-style extras, and for 2% at 62 members there's an annual cap on how much salary can count at all — $191,866 in 2026-27.
What this calculator does not include
- Survivor options. The numbers above are the "Member-Only" benefit — the biggest monthly check, but it stops when you die. Electing an option that keeps paying a spouse or beneficiary permanently reduces your monthly amount, typically by 8–15% depending on the option and your beneficiary's age.
- Inflation adjustments. CalSTRS adds a 2% annual increase that is simple, not compounding — over a 25-year retirement it does not keep pace with real inflation. A separate state fund (the SBMA) tops up benefits that fall below roughly 85% of original purchasing power.
- Health insurance. Often the real deciding factor. If you retire before 65 you are covering the gap until Medicare, and that is a district-by-district question, not a CalSTRS one.
- Social Security. As of January 2025, the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset were repealed by the Social Security Fairness Act — so any Social Security you or your spouse earned is no longer cut because of your CalSTRS pension. If you were told years ago that your Social Security "doesn't count," that advice is now out of date.
- Taxes, your 403(b)/457, and Defined Benefit Supplement. Most members also have a DBS account funded by contributions on pay above the base — a separate lump sum or annuity on top of everything above.
Check your real numbers
The single most important input here is your service credit, and the only authoritative source is your own record. Log in at myCalSTRS.com and pull your Retirement Progress Report — it lists your service credit, your benefit structure, and your final compensation to date. If anything on it looks wrong (missing part-time years, a district that didn't report), fix it now, not at 63.
Estimates only. This calculator applies the published CalSTRS age factor tables to the numbers you enter. Real benefits depend on your verified service credit, creditable compensation, benefit structure, option election, and CalSTRS's own calculation, which controls. Rounding and unusual service histories will produce differences.
Sure Step Education is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by CalSTRS or the State of California. This page is general educational information, not tax, legal, investment, or individualized retirement advice. Verify your figures at myCalSTRS.com or with a CalSTRS benefits specialist before making a retirement decision.
Age factor tables and benefit rules per CalSTRS publications. Compensation caps verified against calstrs.com/limits for fiscal year 2026-27.