You’ve probably heard the term “High-3” more times than you can count. Most people know it’s important. But what does it actually mean for your retirement income?
Your High-3 is the average of your highest-paid consecutive 36 months of basic pay. It’s one of the key factors used to calculate your pension under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).
The formula looks like this:
High-3 × Years of Service × Multiplier (typically 1% or 1.1%)
As a federal employee, your high-3 can contribute to a guaranteed income in retirement; however, many federal employees make the mistake of relying only on their high-3 to fund their retirement.
What It Does:
What It Doesn’t Do:
In most cases, your pension replaces a portion, but not all of your income.
Even with a strong High-3, your pension may only replace 30–40% of your working income, depending on your years of service.
That means your retirement income relies heavily on:
Why This Matters
If you’re in your 30s, 40s, or early 50s, you still have time to:
Waiting until the last few years before retirement often limits your ability to adjust.
Your High-3 is one of the most important components of your federal pension.
But it’s not the full story.
Understanding what it really means, and how it fits into your overall retirement income, is what separates a confident retirement from an uncertain one.
Because at the end of the day, retirement isn’t about maximizing a formula.
It’s about creating a reliable income.
This is one of the most common areas of confusion we break down in our federal employee benefits workshops.
If you’ve never seen how your High-3, TSP, and Social Security work together to create income, this is exactly where clarity makes the biggest difference.
The earlier you understand it, the more options you have to improve it.
Join one of our workshops here.