CalSTRS 2% at 60 vs 2% at 62

There is no single right answer — it depends on your beneficiary's age, your beneficiary's expected income without your pension, and your own life expectancy. The 100% survivor option costs roughly 12.25% of your monthly check but guarantees your beneficiary the same payment for life. The 50% survivor option costs roughly 6.5% and continues half. The unmodified option pays the most but ends at your death. Run all four side by side in the calculator's survivor selector.

CalSTRS (California State Teachers' Retirement System) covers certificated K-12 teachers, community college instructors, and some administrators. CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System) covers state, school, and local public agency employees. Teachers may have benefits from both systems depending on their career.

COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) is an annual increase to your pension benefit, typically capped at 2% for CalPERS and CalSTRS. If inflation exceeds the COLA cap, your purchasing power gradually decreases over time. Our COLA projection chart shows this effect.

If long-run inflation runs at 3% but your COLA is capped at 2%, your real purchasing power falls by about 1% per year. Over 20 years that compounds to roughly 18% of lost purchasing power; over 30 years, roughly 26%. The COLA projection chart on this site shows the exact spread between nominal and inflation-adjusted dollars for your specific starting benefit.

CalPERS benefit factors increase at quarter-year increments. Retiring three months later (e.g., at 55.25 vs 55.00) can raise your benefit factor by a small but non-trivial amount. Multiplied across your full years of service and decades of retirement, this can amount to thousands of dollars. The free CalPERS calculator on this site shows your exact factor at any quarter-year age.

Service credit is the years (and partial years) you have worked under a CalPERS or CalSTRS covered position. One year of full-time employment equals one year of service credit. Part-time employees earn proportional service credit.