IsMyJobWorthIt

About IsMyJobWorthIt

Precision for the public-service community.

Federal and military pay, benefits, and retirement math — done right, sourced to primary authorities, and updated as the rules change.

Our Mission

Data-driven clarity for life-altering decisions

At IsMyJobWorthIt, we provide military service members and federal employees with the data-driven clarity they need to make life-altering career decisions. Whether you're calculating a military buyback, estimating a FERS annuity, weighing a private-sector offer against your federal benefits, or modeling the present value of 30 more years of pension and TRICARE — our tools are designed to remove the guesswork from your financial future.

Every calculator on this site is anchored to primary government sources. Every formula is reviewed when the underlying rules change. And every output is paired with the assumptions and citations behind it, so you can verify the math and trust the result.

The Expertise Behind the Data

Lead Contributor: Joel

Joel — founder of IsMyJobWorthIt

Joel founded this platform to bridge the gap between complex government regulations and actionable financial planning. He's a U.S. Air Force veteran with 8 years of military service, followed by nearly 20 years in federal law enforcement. Before his federal career, he built software and data tools at Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and ESRI. He holds an MBA with a concentration in finance and accounting.

Surname and current agency are kept off the page out of professional discretion. The credentials listed below are accurate, the math published on this site is Joel's, and every calculation links back to its primary government source.

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Subject Matter Expertise

  • ✓8 years of service in the U.S. Air Force, with first-hand exposure to the legacy High-3 retirement system, TSP allocation strategy, and TRICARE plan selection across single and family coverage scenarios.
  • ✓Nearly 20 years inside federal law enforcement — direct working knowledge of FERS Special Category Employee (SCE) provisions, the Retiree Annuity Supplement, FEHB enrollment decisions across an entire career arc, and the practical mechanics of the OPM retirement application process.
  • ✓Deep familiarity with the actuarial math underlying federal pensions: present-value modeling, COLA compounding across a 30-year retirement horizon, the trade-offs between immediate, deferred, and postponed retirement, and the sequence-of-returns risk that determines TSP withdrawal strategy.

Industry Authority

  • ✓MBA with a concentration in finance and accounting. Formal training in present-value analysis, capital budgeting, and the mechanics of pension valuation that the calculators on this site rely on.
  • ✓Prior career as a software engineer and data systems professional at Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and ESRI. Built data-driven analytical tools at scale before applying that engineering discipline to federal-benefits modeling.
  • ✓All calculator formulas are derived directly from primary sources: the OPM CSRS/FERS Handbook, the DoD Financial Management Regulation, IRS revenue procedures, and the relevant U.S. Code sections. Each citation is linked at the bottom of the calculator it informs.

The “Why”

After watching colleagues — sharp, capable people — struggle to find accurate, centralized tools for calculating the true value of their federal service, Joel built this platform to fill the gap. Government documents bury the math in PDF appendices. HR briefings gloss over the numbers in 30-minute slide decks. Most online calculators either oversimplify the formulas or paywall the parts that matter most. This site exists to give federal and military employees a single, trustworthy reference point for the most consequential financial decisions of their careers — straight answers about their own compensation, with the underlying math shown and the sources cited.

Editorial Integrity Protocol

Why trust our calculations?

In financial and retirement planning, accuracy isn't just a goal — it's a requirement. We adhere to a strict editorial integrity protocol:

1. Verified primary sources

Every calculator on this site is built using primary data from OPM.gov, DFAS.mil, and the Internal Revenue Service. Source citations appear directly under each calculator's results so you can verify the rule that produced your number.

2. Regular audits

Tables and formulas are reviewed regularly — and immediately following legislative changes (annual COLA adjustments, NDAA provisions, IRS revenue procedures, OPM regulation updates) — to ensure your estimates remain current. Automation and data triggers monitor the GS pay tables, BAH rates, military pay raise figures, and tax bracket changes the moment they post.

3. No financial conflict

We are an independent resource. We do not sell financial products, do not take referral commissions from advisors or insurance carriers, and do not run sponsored placements inside the calculators. Our only priority is providing objective data so you can advocate for your own career and retirement.

Community Focus

Hyperlocal and highly specific

We aren't just a software tool — we're a resource hub. We focus on the hyperlocal and the highly specific, from understanding North County coastal San Diego cost-of-living adjustments to navigating the long-term physical and financial pressures of a career in the public sector. If your situation is unusual — prior enlisted with a late commission, dual-status fed and Guard, divorce inside the Frozen Benefit window, or a buyback with grace-period interest — there's a calculator and an explainer for it.

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Get in touch

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Last updated: May 13, 2026  ·  Not affiliated with OPM, DoD, the IRS, or any federal agency.