StraksWhat the Pension Bridge is
Your AOW starts at your AOW age, 67 for anyone reaching it in 2026 or 2027, and most pensions through work at the scheme's own age, often 68. Stop working before then and, for a while, your savings and investments pay for everything on their own. That stretch, from the year you stop to the year your last pension starts, is the Pension Bridge.
Once every pension pays, your savings only have to cover what the pensions don't. Before that, they cover all of it. So the bridge is where most of the money goes.
Why the bridge decides most of the answer
Every year you stop earlier adds a year of full spending to the bridge, and takes away a year of saving. That's why retiring at 55 instead of 60 asks for much more than five years' spending: the bridge is longer, and you've had less time to build up the money for it.
In that example the bridge is more than three quarters of what they need.
After the bridge: a safe withdrawal rate
Once every pension pays, what's left has to last until you're 90, and nobody knows the returns that far ahead. So Straks doesn't count on the assumed return there. It uses a withdrawal rate that has held up in history, lower the longer the money has to last:
| Money has to last | Withdraw each year |
|---|---|
| Up to 30 years | 4% |
| 31 to 40 years | 3.5% |
| 41 to 50 years | 3.25% |
| More than 50 years | 3% |
The bridge itself is counted at your assumed return, after Box 3, with no margin added: it's a fixed number of years, and the money is spent as it goes.
Making the bridge shorter
There are three ways to make the bridge cheaper:
- Start a pension through work earlier. The law allows a start from 10 years before your AOW age. The pension is lower for life, but it pays during the bridge.
- Spend less during it. Each year of the bridge costs a year of spending, so every €1,000 a year less takes close to €1,000 off what you need for each year of the bridge.
- Put money where Box 3 doesn't reach. A lijfrente grows outside Box 3 and can pay out during the bridge, though the minimum payout periods make those payouts small. See Lijfrente in 2026.
The AOW age itself can't be moved: the AOW never starts early.
Questions people ask
Does the bridge end when the first pension starts, or the last?
The last. Until every pension pays, your savings still pay part of what you spend, so Straks counts the bridge up to the year the last one starts, whether that's an AOW or a pension through work.
Can you start a pension through work early to shorten the bridge?
Often. The law allows it from 10 years before your AOW age, so from 57 in 2026, and many funds now offer that. The pension is then lower for life; how much lower depends on your fund, and its planner shows it.
Can a lijfrente pay for the bridge?
Partly. Payouts that start before the year you reach AOW age have to last at least 20 years plus the years you're younger than your AOW age, so each year's payout is small. After your AOW age, shorter payouts are allowed.
Is withdrawing 4% a year safe?
For money that has to last 30 years, 4% has held up through history. For longer, lower rates are safer, which is why Straks uses down to 3% for money that has to last more than 50 years.
Sources
- SVB, "Bedragen AOW", amounts from 1 July 2026
- Rijksoverheid, "AOW-leeftijd"
- Cooley, Hubbard and Walz, "Retirement Savings: Choosing a Withdrawal Rate That Is Sustainable" (the Trinity Study), 1998
- Early Retirement Now, "The Ultimate Guide to Safe Withdrawal Rates", part 1
- Early Retirement Now, "The Ultimate Guide to Safe Withdrawal Rates", part 19
- TaxLive, "Fiscale spelregels pensioenvervroeging"
This guide explains the general rules. It isn't personal financial advice.