Contribute to the conversation with these five facts about retirement planning

Retirement planning isn’t a new concept. Social security has always been one of Switzerland’s cornerstones, with companies establishing private funds for their employees as early as the 19th century. However, the AHV as we know it today was not introduced until 1948. From 1960 it started becoming clear that AHV funds alone were not enough for those living in retirement. As such, new AHV reforms were frequently introduced to adapt state benefits to societal growth.

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State pension provision such as the AHV is based on solidarity. This is because workers finance the pensions of those in retirement. In other words, the money that is deducted from our salaries every month goes towards paying current pensions, giving rise to solidarity between generations. You will also benefit from this later in life, because future generations will finance your pension. The AHV also fosters solidarity between rich and poor. Those who earn a higher salary pay more into the AHV than what they receive later, whereas those who earn less receive more than what they paid in.

Working until your mid-sixties is a long time – too long for many, it seems. Figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that a lot of people retire early. Half of people in Switzerland draw from their pension funds before reaching actual retirement age. What’s more, 42.6 percent of all women and 31.5 percent of all men are already retired a year before reaching statutory retirement age.

Time and again there has been talk of reforming the AHV, because one thing is clear: what employees currently pay into the AHV is no longer enough to finance what pensioners have been promised. It is therefore necessary to look for solutions to provide this funding. Various approaches are being discussed, such as making the retirement age for women the same as for men (from 64 to 65), increasing the retirement age overall, and raising VAT. However, it is still unclear which way Switzerland will go.