Can I keep working while drawing an early pension?

Yes. The earnings limits for early old-age pensions were abolished on 1 January 2023. You can draw the reduced pension and earn without limit alongside it, which has made claiming at 63 while working part-time a real design option rather than a trap.

Do the deductions end when I reach 67?

No. The 0.3 percent per month is permanent, for life, and carries into a later survivor's pension. This is the single most repeated misunderstanding in every discussion of the topic.

How do I find out how many insurance years I actually have?

Request an account clarification (Kontenklärung) from Deutsche Rentenversicherung, ideally years before you need it. School periods, child-raising, unemployment and time abroad each have their own counting rules, and missing months are far easier to document at 50 than at 64.

Does unemployment just before retirement count toward the 45 years?

Mostly no: periods of unemployment benefit in the last two years before the pension are excluded from the 45-year count, unless they resulted from the employer's insolvency or full closure. Plans built on bridging the last two years on unemployment benefit into the deduction-free pension usually fail on exactly this rule.

What happens to my health insurance if I stop working before the pension starts?

You continue as a voluntary member of public health insurance and pay contributions yourself, on your income including investment income. Whether you later qualify for the favorable pensioners' health insurance depends on having been publicly insured for 90 percent of the second half of your working life, a condition worth checking before, not after, any plan involving years abroad or private insurance (Section 5(1) No. 11 SGB V).

Can you retire early in Germany, and what does each year cost?

Yes, you can retire before Germany's standard retirement age, and the system will even tell you the price: 0.3 percent of your pension, permanently, for every month. The real question is which of three doors you qualify for, and whether the years in between are funded.

Yes, you can retire before Germany's standard retirement age, and the system will even tell you the price: 0.3 percent of your pension, permanently, for every month you claim early. The real question is not whether early retirement is allowed but which of three doors you qualify for, and whether the years between stopping work and claiming the pension are funded. Here is how the three doors work and how to think about the price tag.

This article is information, not financial or legal advice. Rules described are as of 2026.

The baseline: 67

For everyone born in 1964 or later, the standard retirement age (Regelaltersgrenze) is 67 (Section 35 SGB VI). Claim at 67 and you receive the full pension your points have earned. Every door below is defined relative to this line.

Door one: 35 insurance years, from 63, with deductions

With at least 35 years of insurance time (contributions, child-raising years and certain credited periods all count), you can claim from age 63 as a long-term insured person (Section 36 SGB VI). The deduction is 0.3 percent per month of early claiming. Claiming at 63 instead of 67 means 48 months early, a permanent reduction of 14.4 percent, on top of the points you stop earning by not working those years. The deduction never expires: it applies for the rest of your life and reduces a later survivor's pension too (Section 77 SGB VI).

Door two: 45 insurance years, two years early, no deductions

With 45 years, the door for the especially long-term insured opens two years before your standard age, so at 65 for those born 1964 or later, with no deduction at all (Section 38 SGB VI). The catch is the 45-year count itself: it is strict about which periods count, and years of unemployment benefit shortly before retirement mostly do not (Section 51(3a) SGB VI). People who started working at 18 can reach it; people who started at 27 after university generally cannot.

Door three: buying off the deduction

From age 50, you can make special payments (Ausgleichszahlungen, Section 187a SGB VI) that offset the deduction of a planned early retirement. You are effectively buying pension points at a price the insurer calculates for you on request. Two features explain why high earners look at this: the payments are deductible as retirement provision expenses within the annual limits (Section 10 EStG), and you keep the option, not the obligation, to retire early. If you later work to 67 anyway, the extra points simply raise your pension. Whether the implied return beats investing the same money privately depends on your tax rate, lifespan and the alternative investment; that comparison deserves real numbers rather than folklore.

The years nobody funds for you

Suppose you stop working at 60 and claim at 63. The pension system is silent about those three years: no salary, no pension, and you still need health insurance, which as a voluntary member costs a percentage of your income including investment income. These bridge years, not the deduction, are where most early retirement plans quietly fail. The bridge must come from savings, a payout from an occupational pension, a working partner, or part-time work, and every month of bridge consumes capital that then never compounds for the rest of your retirement.

What the price tag looks like as one number

The honest comparison for retiring at 63 versus 67 has four moving parts: the permanent 14.4 percent deduction, the roughly four years of points you never earn, the four extra years the pension must fund, and the bridge capital if you stop working even earlier. A percentage on a webpage cannot weigh those for your household; a simulation can. Miravel compares your possible claiming ages side by side, including the lifetime value of each, and the household projection carries the choice through the decades, with the assumptions labelled.

Sources

Sections 35, 36, 38, 51, 77, 187a SGB VI: gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_6
Deutsche Rentenversicherung, early retirement and special payments: deutsche-rentenversicherung.de
Section 10 EStG (retirement provision deductibility): gesetze-im-internet.de/estg

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep working while drawing an early pension?: Yes. The earnings limits for early old-age pensions were abolished on 1 January 2023. You can draw the reduced pension and earn without limit alongside it, which has made claiming at 63 while working part-time a real design option rather than a trap.
Do the deductions end when I reach 67?: No. The 0.3 percent per month is permanent, for life, and carries into a later survivor's pension. This is the single most repeated misunderstanding in every discussion of the topic.
How do I find out how many insurance years I actually have?: Request an account clarification (Kontenklärung) from Deutsche Rentenversicherung, ideally years before you need it. School periods, child-raising, unemployment and time abroad each have their own counting rules, and missing months are far easier to document at 50 than at 64.
Does unemployment just before retirement count toward the 45 years?: Mostly no: periods of unemployment benefit in the last two years before the pension are excluded from the 45-year count, unless they resulted from the employer's insolvency or full closure. Plans built on bridging the last two years on unemployment benefit into the deduction-free pension usually fail on exactly this rule.
What happens to my health insurance if I stop working before the pension starts?: You continue as a voluntary member of public health insurance and pay contributions yourself, on your income including investment income. Whether you later qualify for the favorable pensioners' health insurance depends on having been publicly insured for 90 percent of the second half of your working life, a condition worth checking before, not after, any plan involving years abroad or private insurance (Section 5(1) No. 11 SGB V).

Miravel shows you each of the three doors with your own numbers: the deduction, the missing points, the bridge years and the pension across the decades. Your data stays in your browser. Start free now.