StraksWhat Straks works out
Straks works out your budget once you retire, and the earliest age you could stop working. It goes year by year until you're 90, or until the younger of you is 90 if you have a partner. It counts Box 1 tax (tax on income from work, pensions and your home) and Box 3 tax (tax on savings and investments).
You can see every step: each year, each pension and each withdrawal from your savings. All amounts are in today's euros: adjusted for inflation, so each amount is what that money buys today.
How the plan works
Straks splits your life into three stretches:
- Until you stop working, your net salaries pay for what you spend. What's left goes into savings and investments.
- From when you stop until your last pension starts, your savings pay for everything. This stretch is the Pension Bridge, and Straks sets aside enough savings to cover all of it.
- Once your last pension has started, your AOW and pensions pay what they can. Your savings pay the rest, at the withdrawal rate (how much of your savings you take out each year), until you're 90.
The results show first what your budget could be if you retire at the age you chose. Then they show the earliest age you could stop working and still have your budget.
The example household
This guide follows one made-up household through the calculator. The two partners are 36 and 34, with net salaries (after tax) of €4,104 and €3,641 a month. They have €30,000 in savings, €110,000 in investments, and a home worth €540,000 with a €420,000 mortgage until 2054. They spend €50,000 a year now, and want a budget of €48,000 a year once they retire, in today's euros.
Straks works out your plan with the same calculation. Change any of your numbers and every step updates.
The assumptions Straks makes
Each assumption applies to every year of the plan, unless its row says otherwise.
| What | What Straks uses | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Inflation | 2% a year. Amounts are in today's euros, so inflation only matters for the mortgage, whose payments are fixed in euros | European Central Bank, 2% target |
| Investments | The return you enter, above inflation. The example uses 5% a year, every year. Markets go up and down, so the withdrawal rate is set cautiously | You enter it |
| Savings | No return above inflation: cash isn't assumed to grow faster than prices | Straks estimate |
| Salaries | Keep up with inflation, with no raises on top unless you enter them. Raises you enter stop at age 45, unless you choose another age. Dutch pay data shows raises slow to under 1% a year after 40, and pay is highest between 40 and 55, so 45 sits in between | You enter it; CPB, raises by age; CBS, pay by age |
| Spending | What you spend now stays the same, in today's euros, until you retire. From then on, your budget once retired applies | You enter it |
| AOW age | 67, unless you enter another age. It depends on your date of birth: 67 if you were born from 1 March 1957 to 31 December 1960, and 67 and 3 months if you were born from 1 January 1961 to 30 September 1964 | SVB, AOW pension age, version 1 October 2026 |
| AOW amount | €21,203 a year if you live alone, or €14,571 each if you live with a partner. Before tax, including holiday pay (vakantiegeld), from 1 July 2026 | SVB, Bedragen AOW |
| AOW for years abroad | 2% less for each year you didn't live in the Netherlands, out of the 50 years before your AOW age | Rijksoverheid, AOW for people who moved here later |
| Pension through work | Entered before tax, from the age it starts. Until you enter your own start age, Straks uses 68 | Your pension fund, on mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl |
| Tax on pensions and AOW | Taxed together, with the 2026 Box 1 brackets, tax credits and a health insurance contribution of 4.85%, for every year ahead | Belastingdienst, 2026 tax rates; SVB |
| Box 3 | The 2026 rules for every year ahead: a tax of 36% on an assumed return, with €59,357 per person tax-free. Fiscal partners get two tax-free amounts | Belastingdienst, Box 3 for 2026 |
| Box 3 change | Not included. The government plans to tax actual returns from 1 January 2028, but the Eerste Kamer (Senate) hasn't voted on the bill | Rijksoverheid; Eerste Kamer, 30 June 2026 |
| Children | €11,000 a year per child, from birth until they turn 18, also after you retire | Nibud, Wat kost een kind? |
| One-off expenses | Paid from savings in the year they happen. If that's the year you retire or later, the money is set aside when you retire, after Box 3 tax | Straks |
| Home | Never sold, and never used to pay for your retirement. Its value grows 1.5% a year above inflation, which only changes what you own | CBS house prices; Straks estimate |
| Mortgage | An annuity mortgage: the same payment every month, paid off by the end. Straks starts at 3.74% interest a year. Interest is deducted at 37.56%, the 2026 maximum. The eigenwoningforfait (the amount added to your income for owning a home) is left out | Belastingdienst, the 2026 deduction rate |
| Lijfrente | A lijfrente (pillar 3: your own pension savings, with tax back now) at a low-cost bank costs 0.4% a year | Straks estimate |
| Withdrawal rate | How much of your savings you take out each year: 4% if the money must last up to 30 years, 3.5% up to 40, 3.25% up to 50, and 3% for longer | Straks estimate |
| How long the money lasts | Until you're 90, or until the younger of you is 90 | Straks |
Why the estimate is cautious
The withdrawal rate is lower for longer plans, because a longer plan has to survive more years of falling markets. The investment return is a number to plan with, not a forecast. Real returns change from year to year, and a good average can hide a bad run at the wrong time. In the results, "What would change it?" lets you try a lower return or higher spending without changing your numbers.
What Straks leaves out
Straks doesn't include toeslagen (benefits that depend on your income), such as childcare benefit, which goes up when your income goes down. It doesn't include the partner's pension (partnerpensioen) a fund pays when one of you dies. It also leaves out the planned Box 3 change, so the 2026 rules apply for every year. The Box 3 guide explains the rules and the change in more detail.
Use your own numbers
Your AOW and when it starts are on Mijn SVB, the site of the agency that pays the AOW. Your pensions through work are on mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl, which lists every pension through work you've built. Enter those amounts in place of ours wherever you have them, and each step updates. The tax rules and AOW amounts change each January and July, so this guide says when it was last checked.
Questions people ask
Is this financial advice?
No. Straks applies the assumptions on this page to the numbers you enter and shows each step. The results are estimates, not personal financial advice.
Which year's tax rules does it use?
The 2026 rules, for every year ahead. The Box 1 brackets, tax credits and Box 3 rates stay at their 2026 values, so the calculator doesn't show the planned Box 3 change.
Why does it use today's euros?
So you can compare every amount with what things cost now. Salaries, spending and returns are adjusted for inflation, so €48,000 a year in 2050 buys what €48,000 buys today.
Where do the starting numbers come from?
From the sources in the table and at the end of this guide. The AOW amounts and ages come from the SVB, the tax rules from the Belastingdienst, and the rest from CBS, Nibud, the European Central Bank and our own estimates.
Sources
- SVB, "AOW pension age", version 1 October 2026
- SVB, "Bedragen AOW", amounts from 1 July 2026
- Rijksoverheid, "Krijg ik AOW als ik later in Nederland ben komen wonen?"
- Belastingdienst, "Voorlopige aanslag 2026: gebruikte tarieven en heffingskortingen"
- Belastingdienst, "Berekening box 3 inkomen 2026"
- Belastingdienst, "Minder aftrek voor uw eigen woning als u een hoog inkomen hebt"
- Rijksoverheid, "Plannen werkelijk rendement box 3"
- European Central Bank, "Harmonised index of consumer prices", the 2% inflation target
- CBS, "De arbeidsmarkt in cijfers 2025: lonen en loonkosten"
- CPB, "De incidentele loongroei onder de loep", raises by age 2007–2018
- Nibud, "Wat kost een kind?"
- Straks's own estimates, for the rows marked "Straks estimate". How we set and check them is in "How we write the guides".
This guide explains the general rules. It isn't personal financial advice.