You can leave work before a pension begins only if money available in the intervening years covers the gap. This retirement bridge calculator tests that period month by month. It keeps immediately accessible assets separate from savings that unlock later.
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Calculate your retirement bridge
Enter balances at the age you stop work, expressed in today's purchasing power. This tests only the period before pension income begins.
Your inputs stay on this page. They are not saved or sent to a server.
Example result using the inputs shown above.
€157,115 of accessible starting money is needed for this bridge.
The entered assets cover the bridge under these assumptions. This does not test whether income and assets last after the pension starts.
- Monthly gap after other income
- €2,000
- Extra accessible money needed at the start
- €0
- Accessible balance when pension starts
- €54,139
- Still locked at the end
- €0
See the figures over time
| Age | Accessible balance | Locked balance |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | €200,000 | €100,000 |
| 56 | €179,667 | €101,961 |
| 57 | €158,936 | €103,960 |
| 58 | €137,798 | €105,998 |
| 59 | €116,246 | €108,077 |
| 60 | €204,467 | €0 |
| 61 | €184,222 | €0 |
| 62 | €163,580 | €0 |
| 63 | €142,534 | €0 |
| 64 | €121,074 | €0 |
| 65 | €99,194 | €0 |
| 66 | €76,885 | €0 |
| 67 | €54,139 | €0 |
What changes under different assumptions?
- 2% nominal return
- €188,000 accessible starting money needed
- 4% nominal return
- €157,115 accessible starting money needed
- 6% nominal return
- €131,048 accessible starting money needed
Calculation assumptions and limits
All results are in today's purchasing power. Spending and other net income stay constant in real terms. Withdrawals happen at the start of each month, followed by growth. Both asset pools earn the same constant real return. Taxes are a flat effective withdrawal rate. No later pension adequacy, eligibility, market volatility or benefits are calculated.
Example: stopping at 55, pension income from 67
Suppose spending is €2,500 a month and other take-home income is €500. Investments must provide €2,000 a month for 12 years. With no investment return, no inflation and no withdrawal tax, the bridge needs €288,000 if no additional money becomes available.
Now add €100,000 that becomes fully accessible at 60. The first five years still require €120,000 of accessible starting money. The later seven years need €168,000, of which the newly available €100,000 can fund part. The required accessible starting balance falls to €188,000.
A larger locked account does not remove the first five years’ funding requirement. If you had only €100,000 accessible at 55, some bills would be unfunded before age 60 even if the later account held €1 million. This is why a single total-wealth figure cannot answer the bridge question.
The calculation, step by step
The calculator begins at your chosen stop-work age. Enter expected balances at that age, expressed in today’s purchasing power. If you are 40 and plan to stop at 55, it does not assume that today’s balances will still be the same at 55; you need a savings forecast to estimate that starting snapshot.
Subtract other net income from spending. A negative gap becomes zero; surplus income is not accumulated in this focused drawdown model.
If you enter an effective withdrawal tax, divide the net gap by one minus that rate. The rate applies to the whole withdrawal as a simplifying assumption.
Convert nominal return and inflation into a real monthly growth rate: ((1 + annual return) ÷ (1 + inflation)) raised to 1/12, minus one.
Release the separate locked balance at the entered access age. Withdraw at the start of each month, then apply growth to the balances left.
Work backwards from the end of the bridge to find the accessible opening balance required without borrowing against money available later.
The sensitivity rows repeat the calculation with nominal returns two percentage points lower and higher. They illustrate dependence on the return assumption; they are not a range of statistical confidence.
Account access and tax need their own checks
The illustration assumes a locked balance becomes fully available at a specified age. Real pensions and accounts may instead pay an annuity, restrict lump sums, impose penalties or have other conditions. Use actual account terms and your provider’s statement.
The effective withdrawal-tax field is not a capital-gains-tax field. Selling €1,000 of investments does not necessarily create €1,000 of taxable gain. Choose an effective rate appropriate to the cash being drawn, or compare several rates. The full household plan needs more detail than a single percentage.
The pension start is the end of this test
Covering the bridge does not establish that the years after it are funded. Pension income may be less than spending, and a large amount of the portfolio may already have been used. Run the forecast beyond pension age and include later healthcare, housing and other costs.
Use the early retirement guide for the full spending target, then explore market simulations for uneven returns. For German plans, the
German FIRE guide
separates employment, statutory pension eligibility, tax and health-insurance questions.
Zenarios connects those phases in the monthly retirement forecast. This page provides a focused illustration with explicit assumptions; it does not calculate legal eligibility or certify that retirement is affordable.
Common questions
What is a retirement bridge?
A retirement bridge is the period between leaving work and receiving later pension or other income. This calculator estimates the accessible starting assets needed to cover that period under constant spending, income, return and inflation assumptions. It does not assess the years after the pension starts.
Can locked retirement savings cover the bridge?
Only once the account permits access. This illustration grows a separate locked balance until the access age you enter, then makes it fully available. It does not assume borrowing against future access, and does not calculate legal eligibility, annuity-only payouts or account-specific penalties.
Are the balances at today's age or my stop-work age?
Enter projected balances at the age you plan to stop working, expressed in today's purchasing power. This calculator starts there; it does not project your savings between today and that age.
Explore Zenarios
See the Zenarios financial planning features, explore life scenarios and financial decisions, or read about how Zenarios calculates your forecast and how your financial data stays private.
Try Zenarios in your browserWritten by the maker of Zenarios, a software engineer. These guides explain planning concepts and the product; they are not a personalized financial recommendation. Illustrative calculations are not results from your plan.