Your pension has a bug – and it’s the same bug all over Europe
Pay-as-you-go pensions run on one equation, and ageing breaks it from Lisbon to Warsaw. Seven countries compared, Germany worked through.
Read// $ pension --reality-check
Pension gap check
Pick the countries you’ve worked in, or type in the number from your pension statement. Then flip from the promise to the stress test and see what it takes to close the gap. Better to find out now than at 66.
Where the numbers come from: Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026, § 35 SGB VI, OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025. Checked 2026-09. Details and links
Education, not advice. I don’t know your situation, and past returns promise nothing. Check my numbers, then make your own call. You’re a grown-up.
// how it is calculated
No black box.
- Germany: earnings points per year = your salary (capped at the contribution ceiling) ÷ average earnings. Monthly pension = points × pension value. Because the pension value follows wages, the result is roughly in today’s money.
- Other countries: the OECD publishes what share of the salary an average earner gets as a pension after a full career. The calculator takes the public part of that share and scales it with your years there. Occupational and private pensions are not included. This is a rough estimate, not your entitlement.
- Several countries: inside the EU every country pays its own part for the years you were insured there. The calculator adds the parts up.
- “What is promised” uses today’s rules. “What the budget can afford” is my stress test: it removes the share of pension spending that is paid from taxes and lets pensions rise slower than prices. It is a scenario, not a forecast. Move the sliders if you disagree.
- Capital needed = yearly gap × 25 (the 4% rule as a starting point). Monthly savings = what closes the gap by retirement age at your return after inflation.
// numbers used · checked 2026-09
| What | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Pension value (aktueller Rentenwert)1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 | 42.52 € per earnings point per month | Deutsche Rentenversicherung |
| Average earnings, provisional (vorläufiges Durchschnittsentgelt)2026 (provisional) | 51,944 € per year | Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026 (gesetze-im-internet.de) |
| Contribution assessment ceiling, pension insurance (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze)2026 | 101,400 € per year | Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung 2026 (gesetze-im-internet.de) |
| Standard retirement age (Regelaltersgrenze), born 1964 or latercurrent law, checked September 2026 | 67 years | § 35 SGB VI (gesetze-im-internet.de) |
| Pension level before tax (Sicherungsniveau vor Steuern)2026 (from 1 July 2026) | 48 % | Deutsche Rentenversicherung |
| Share of pension insurance revenue paid by federal subsidies (Bundeszuschüsse)2025 | 23.20 % | Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Rentenversicherung in Zahlen 2026, pages 9 and 20-21 (Rechnungsergebnisse); own calculation |
| Average old-age pension actually paid (Rentenzahlbetrag)pensions in payment on 31 December 2025 | 1,195 € per month | Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Rentenversicherung in Zahlen 2026, pages 34-35 |
| Pension value after inflation, 20 yearsJuly 2006 to July 2026 | 7.80 % | Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Rentenversicherung in Zahlen 2026, pages 16-17 (pension value); Statistisches Bundesamt, consumer price index 2020 = 100; own calculation |
Other countries: OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025, public pension of an average earner after a full career.
// more tools
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