Being able to maintain your current lifestyle

You've got your work well organised – after more than 30 years of employment, that’s no wonder. The world may have changed since you started, but you’re still enjoying your job. Being able to chat about the past with customers and colleagues now and then, and discussing your plans for the future. Will you be able to maintain your current lifestyle when you have retired?

How long do you intend to continue working? Have you thought about that? Say you're 62 and your retirement age is approaching. Did you always think you'd retire before that date? If so, you’ve probably checked the pension fund’s Pension Planner, so you're already aware of the consequences of early retirement. If your pension is too low, for example until your Dutch state pension (AOW) starts paying out, there are multiple ways for you to top it up. That's reassuring if you want to be able to maintain your current lifestyle.

Check what you’ve got
Once a year, you should check your Uniform Pension Overview (UPO), even if you only look briefly. How much pension have you accrued and what's the forecast for your future pension benefits? And have a look in the Planner – it's easy and gives you a clear picture of your situation. It shows you whether you should set aside extra savings or whether that won’t be necessary. It also shows you what pension options you have. Early retirement, drawing higher pension benefits the first few years and lower benefits later, or retiring on a part-time basis. And soon you’ll also be able to withdraw up to 10% of your pension as a lump sum, when the new law has been passed.

The Pension Planner is very easy to use. It also makes sense to think about what you expect in terms of expenses when you've retired. You can fill in several factors: mortgage, clothing, food…. in less than 15 minutes you’ll have a complete summary. You don't need to check every year, but it is advisable if your salary has been increased or you got a new job. When you were 20 or 25 years old, you probably weren’t the least bit worried about your pension. But once you get older, perhaps have children and grandchildren, you realise how fast time has gone by.

Apply for early retirement well in time
Make sure you know how to apply for early retirement. Will you be retiring in early 2023? We would normally inform you about all the pension options available to you about six months before the start of your retirement. However, we are postponing that until after the summer because we do not know at this point when the new pension option for lump sum withdrawal will take effect – that will depend on when the law is actually passed.