Last update: 17.09.2024 08:35
Your retirement assets in the pension fund are the largest financial asset for most of us.
What actually influences how much you can accumulate?
Well, how much retirement assets you can build up in your occupational pension fund essentially depends on four factors.
These are
- How much you earn (income)
- How long you have been paying in (contribution years)
- How much income your pension fund generates (return on retirement assets),
- What level of employment you have (workload)
Let’s take a look at what the experts at Credit Suisse wrote in their study “Capital or pension”. have recently discovered.
We illustrate the effects of these factors for you with three case studies.
Viktor works in retail after completing his vocational training.
He has an income of CHF 50,000, which rises to CHF 70,000 over the course of his working life.
Luisa works as a teacher at a secondary school.
Her income of 70,000 francs is likely to rise to around 100,000 francs.
Jana is a lawyer.
She earns 95,000 francs and can more than double her income to around 200,000 francs in a larger law firm.
Income: more is better
You and your employer pay annual savings contributions (so-called retirement credits) from your income into your pension fund account if you receive more than CHF 21,150 per year for this work.
The amount of the savings contribution depends on your age, your income and any non-mandatory pension fund benefits paid by your employer. You can find all the details about the pension plan and how the savings contribution is calculated in this knowledge article.
Je älter du bist, umso höher ist der Prozentsatz.
Je höher dein Einkommen ist, umso mehr Kapital wird jedes Jahr beiseite gelegt und mittels Zinseszins vermehrt.
Daher wächst dein Altersguthaben umso schneller, je höher dein Einkommen ist – denn darauf wird der Sparbeitrag berechnet.
Was du tun kannst: investiere in dein Humankapital und schau, dass dein Einkommen sich positiv entwickelt.
Das nützt nicht nur deinem Pensionkassenguthaben, sondern auch deiner Sparquote.
Contribution years: fewer years reduce your retirement assets
How much retirement savings you end up with also depends largely on how long you save.
Your savings process in the 2nd pillar begins from the age of 25: from then on, your employer deducts a portion of your salary each year as a savings contribution for your pension and makes a contribution of at least the same amount itself as long as you earn more than CHF 21,150 per year with them.
This continues for as long as you are employed and until you retire.
The following applies here: paying in for fewer years reduces your retirement assets.
This is because, on the one hand, you put less money away and, on the other, you don’t benefit from the compound interest effect on your savings.
How much you save for the 2nd pillar depends on your age.
The so-called retirement credits, i.e. the contributions from you and your employer, increase with age from 7 % to 18 % in the 55+ age group.
This means that If you stop working early, this will have a pretty severe impact on your retirement savings. because you are missing the high savings contribution of the later years.
Let’s take a look at two examples in which Viktor, Luisa and Jana are each missing 6 contribution years.
| 6 contribution years less … | Delayed entry into work (6 years missing at the beginning) |
Early retirement (6 years missing at the end) |
| … as a result of various life events… | Viktor arrives in Switzerland later as a foreigner;
Luisa takes a baby break; Jana is doing a university education; |
Viktor loses his job;
Luisa takes early retirement; Jana decides to take early retirement; |
| …have a significant impact on your retirement assets. | 8 – 10 % lower retirement assets. | 30% lower retirement assets. |
The example shows that a delayed career entry reduces the retirement assets by 8-10%, while an early exit from working life reduces the retirement assets by 30%.
Therefore, anyone who voluntarily retires earlier must think carefully about whether they can afford to do so and whether they want to.
If you have to take early retirement involuntarily, you should enquire about transitional solutions from the pension fund and look for a new job if possible. If you lack contribution years at the beginning, you should consider buying into the pension fund.
Return on retirement assets: the higher the return, the higher the retirement pension
Let’s take a look at Luisa’s example: With a 1% interest rate on her retirement assets, she will have capital of around 440,000 francs at the end of her working life.
If we convert this into a pension using a conversion rate of 5.5%, she will receive around CHF 2,000 every month.
If, on the other hand, the interest rate on the retirement assets is 4%, Luisa would receive considerably more at CHF 3,400. What can you do?
Sincerely little .
Weder die Anlagestrategie deiner Vorsorgeeinrichtung kannst du beeinflussen damit sie mehr Rendite rausholen kann, noch den Mix aus Versicherten und Rentnern deiner Vorsorgeeinrichtung.
Die einzige Option für dich: ein Jobwechsel zu einem Arbeitgeber, dessen Vorsorgeeinrichtung bisher gut gewirtschaftet und mehr verzinst hat – dann stehen zumindest die Chancen nicht schlecht, dass es so bleiben könnte.
Workload: permanent part-time work slows down wealth accumulation substantially
In simple terms, your retirement assets are made up of savings contributions and interest.
If you work part-time, there are two effects on your retirement assets: Firstly the compound interest effect ensures that your retirement savings fall disproportionately to the reduction in your level of employment.
Arbeitet Viktor im Detailhandel lebenslang zu 60% in Teilzeit, fällt sein Altersguthaben nicht ebenfalls um 40% tiefer, sondern sogar um 53% tiefer aus.
Würden Luisa und Jana lebenslang zu 60% Teilzeit arbeiten, wäre ihr Alterskapital um 52% bzw. 48% tiefer.
Aufgrund ihrer höheren Einkommen zahlen sie Jahr für Jahr mehr ein, was bei ihnen zu einem grösseren verzinslichen Kapitalstock führt als bei Viktor.
Secondly the effect of higher savings contributions in the 45+ age group means that part-time part-time work in the second half of your working life has a much greater impact on your retirement assets than part-time work in the first half of your working life. Simply because more is forced to be saved for old age in the last 20 years than in the first 20 years.
If you save less, you have less money in your coffers, which means you also get less compound interest.
Because A large part of your retirement savings is created in the second half of your working life.
So einfach ist das.
Mach den ersten Schritt zur finanziellen Unabhängigkeit
In einer Minute siehst du deine Vermögensentwicklung und dein Einkommen während der Rente.
