Published 2026-06-10
READER QUESTION: Wait! The politicians want me to work until 69. I don’t want that. Has SAF-LO pension and a regular salary. How much do I need to put aside to be able to stop working as early as possible?
/Born in 1982
FREDRIK ANSWERS: The background first. As of this year, the age limits in the pension system have been linked to a variable reference age based on longevity statistics. As life expectancy rises, the target age will rise – and thus also the age limits in the pension system.
The target age is sometimes described as a recommendation: it is how long you need to work to get an okay pension. But since it also constitutes an age limit for both tax breaks and various grants, it works in practice as a well-directed kick in the rear to make us work higher in our years.
But as I said, there is no compulsion. It is possible to stop working earlier. The minimum withdrawal age for the general pension is the target age minus three. For cohort 1982, the target age is estimated to be 69 years. In other words, today’s 44-year-olds can withdraw their income and premium pension from the age of 66 at the earliest.
Occupational pension can usually be withdrawn even earlier. But the conditions vary a lot between different agreements. For contractual pension SAF-LO for privately employed workers, the age limit is currently 55 years.
The disadvantage of an early withdrawal is that the monthly amounts will be lower. This applies to all parts of the pension, including the contribution parts. The rule of thumb is a reduction of 6-7 percentage points for each year before the target age.
If you want to stop working early, you must therefore accept a lower pension for life – or save privately to compensate for the loss of income. And then you have to be prepared to save a lot. For a middle-income earner who ends three years before the target age, the total pension is estimated to be around SEK 5,000 less before tax, every month for life.
– Previous generations could rely on shorter working lives and relatively stable pensions. It doesn’t look like that anymore. Today, a longer working life or greater personal savings is required to achieve the same financial security, says Trifa Chireh, pension economist at the insurance broker Säkra.
So how much do you have to save to be able to afford to quit a year or more before the target age?
According to Trifa Chireh’s calculations, a 40-year-old average earner who wants to stop working at the age of 66 must save approximately SEK 2,000 a month to compensate for the loss of income. The later you start saving, the higher the monthly amount required.
– It’s not about working forever, but about giving yourself freedom of choice. Those who plan in time can mitigate the effect of a higher legal age. It’s not just about saving, but about the whole – more hours worked, wage growth, having an occupational pension and smart pension withdrawals can together make a big difference.
The expert’s tips for an early retirement
Make one pension forecast on minPension.se. There you can test how different withdrawal ages affect the size of the monthly amounts.
Make sure you have service pension. On average, it accounts for 20–25 percent of the total pension. For high income earners, it can be more than half. Save the equivalent of 5 percent of your salary in a private pension savings if you do not have an occupational pension through your job.
Start monthly savings early. With really long savings periods, the interest-on-interest effect is seriously noticeable. A 44-year-old who starts saving SEK 1,500 a month in a cheap index fund this year will have more than SEK 800,000 in the account in time for his 65th birthday.
Compensate part-time work with extra pension savings. A few years of part-time work when the children are small does not affect the pension very hard, but many years of part-time work lowers the pension considerably.
Follow up the occupational pension annually and review fund selection, fees and risk level.
