Military retirement changed shape for anyone who joined on or after 1 January 2018, and every figure below was verified on 10 September 2026 against 10 USC 1409 rather than against Defense Department summaries of it. The statute is unusually direct about what happened, and reading it settles an argument that gets had constantly.
The Blended Retirement System did not add a TSP match. It bought one, and the currency was pension.
How is military retired pay calculated?
Under the general rule in 10 USC 1409, retired pay is a percentage of retired pay base, and that percentage is 2.5% multiplied by years of creditable service. Twenty years of service therefore produces 50% of high-3, and 30 years or more produces 75%.
For what the statute calls a full TSP member, paragraph (1)(A) is applied by substituting 2 for 2.5. The 30-year figure is likewise reduced, from 75% to 60%.
Of high-3 at 20 years, legacy
Of high-3 at 20 years, BRS
A year, on a $60,000 high-3
What the reduced multiplier costs
On a $60,000 high-3 and 20 years of service, legacy retired pay works out at $30,000 a year and BRS at $24,000. The difference of $6,000 a year is indexed and paid for life, which makes it far larger than the annual figure suggests over a retirement that can run 40 years or more.
Nothing about that is hidden. The statute at paragraph (4)(B) describes a serving member electing, in exchange for the reduced multipliers, to receive Thrift Savings Plan contributions. Congress wrote the trade into the text.
The TSP side of that trade is the only part you control, and where it can go depends on what a custodian accepts and charges.
See which custodians take a TSPWho is in which system
Anyone who first became a member of a uniformed service on or after 1 January 2018 is in BRS with no election required. Members serving on 31 December 2017 who had fewer than 12 years of service at that date were given the choice, and that window has closed. Everyone else remains under the legacy multiplier.
A service member who does not know which applies to them can work it out from the date they first served, and it is worth knowing before reading any comparison of the two.
Whether the TSP side makes up the difference
This is the part where the answer depends on data rather than on policy, and it is the reason the fund pages on this site exist. Replacing $6,000 a year of indexed lifetime income requires the TSP balance built from the match to generate that income and keep generating it.
What the funds returned over the last 23 years is therefore the whole question. The G Fund, where a great many service members leave the balance, returned 0.43% a year after inflation over that period, against 8.51% for the C Fund. A match invested in the first of those has a materially different chance of replacing a pension than the same match invested in the second, and the choice is made by default for anyone who never changes their allocation.
The plan’s costs are not the obstacle. The 5 funds charged 0.034% to 0.051% for 2025, which is cheaper than anything a rollover moves the balance into.
What moving the TSP balance involves
If the balance is going elsewhere, the mechanics matter. A direct rollover sends the money from the plan straight to the receiving custodian with no tax withheld, while an indirect rollover pays you first, withholding applies, and the full original amount must be redeposited inside 60 days out of your own pocket.
In a self-directed IRA holding metal, the purity rules of section 408(m) govern what bullion qualifies, it has to sit at an approved depository rather than at home, and a custodian fee plus a storage fee commonly run several hundred dollars a year whatever the balance. Combat zone contributions add a wrinkle worth checking, because a balance containing tax-exempt money needs a custodian that can track it separately.
What a self-directed IRA may hold once the balance arrives is set out on TSP to gold IRA.
Our read
The BRS debate is usually argued as though one system is better than the other. The statute makes it a trade rather than an upgrade, and whether the trade was good for any individual depends on 2 things they control and 1 they do not: how long they serve, how the TSP balance is invested, and how long they live.
For anyone reaching 20 years, the legacy system pays more. For anyone leaving before it, BRS pays something where legacy paid nothing at all, because the 20-year cliff is absolute. That is the honest summary and it is why the answer differs by person rather than by system.