Altersvorsorgedepot at age 55
If you start in 2027 at 55, you have 10 years until the earliest payout at 65. At 150 € a month you pay in €18,000 over that time and the state adds €5,400 in subsidies. Here is what that can grow into and what matters most at your age.
What adds up by 65
10 years of contributions, no children, no costs. Returns are assumptions, not a forecast.
- Own money
- €6,000
- Subsidy
- €2,400
- Capital at 0% a year
- €8,400
- 28.6% from subsidies
- Capital at 3% a year
- €9,724
- 24.7% from subsidies
- Capital at 5% a year
- €10,737
- 22.4% from subsidies
- Own money
- €18,000
- Subsidy
- €5,400
- Capital at 0% a year
- €23,400
- 23.1% from subsidies
- Capital at 3% a year
- €27,108
- 19.9% from subsidies
- Capital at 5% a year
- €29,947
- 18.0% from subsidies
What matters most at 55
- With 10 years, returns can matter more than the subsidy: at 5 % a year, 150 € a month would earn about €6,547, while the subsidy adds €5,400. Only the subsidy is certain. Without a guarantee, the account can also be well below what you paid in along the way.
- The child subsidy only applies while Kindergeld is paid for the child. For adult children that has often ended, so the table assumes no children.
- If you already have a Riester contract, you do not have to cancel it. You can keep it, switch it to the new subsidy or transfer the balance.
- If you stay eligible beyond 65, for example because you work until 67, you can start payouts later and keep paying in. Until 67, 150 € a month would bring €6,480 in subsidies instead of €5,400.
What that could mean per month
From 65 you choose between a lifelong annuity and a withdrawal plan that runs to at least 85. Spreading the capital from the 3 % scenario evenly over those 240 months gives about €41 a month for a 50 € contribution and about €113 for 150 €. This is deliberately rough: before tax, with no further returns during payout and without the optional lump sum of up to 30 % at the start. Payouts are fully taxed at your personal income tax rate.
Is there a maximum age?
The law sets no fixed maximum age for opening a contract. What counts is whether you are eligible in a given year. You mainly are if you pay mandatory contributions to the statutory pension insurance, are a civil servant who consents to data sharing, or are self-employed and file a tax return. For the self-employed, eligibility ends at 67. People drawing a full old-age pension are no longer directly eligible. Payouts must start by 70 at the latest, and before 65 only if you already receive a statutory old-age pension or civil service pension.
At 55 that means 10 years of contributions until the earliest payout, and at most 15 years until the latest start at 70, as long as you stay eligible.
Keep calculating and reading
Other ages
Assumptions: start in 2027, one full contribution year per year of age until 65, monthly payments, subsidy credited at each year end, eligible every year, no children, no costs. A possible extra tax benefit from the special-expenses deduction depends on your income and is not included. Not investment or tax advice.