Taking your pension early means starting your accrued occupational pension before the standard date. Your payment then becomes permanently lower, because the same pot is spread across more years.
What almost nobody explains is that you're also allowed to distribute that payment unevenly. With a high-low structure you can receive considerably more in the early years and less later, and that's precisely what you need in the period before your state pension begins.
What taking your pension early means
Your scheme has a standard start date, the reference pension age. In 2026 that sits at 68.
Under virtually every scheme you may deviate from it. Starting earlier is usually possible from a certain age, which varies by scheme. Starting later is generally allowed too.
An important distinction: this concerns only your occupational pension, the second pillar. Your state pension can't be brought forward. It begins at your state pension age and not a day sooner, whatever you arrange. That difference is the core of the problem this article addresses.
What it costs your payment
The arithmetic is simple in principle: the same pot has to last more years.
At a reference age of 68 and life expectancy to roughly 87, drawing early means this:
| Start date | Payment years | Reduction | Per year early |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age 66 | 21 | roughly 8% | roughly 3.9% |
| Age 64 | 23 | roughly 14% | roughly 3.6% |
| Age 62 | 25 | roughly 20% | roughly 3.3% |
| Age 60 | 27 | roughly 24% | roughly 3.0% |
These percentages illustrate the mechanism rather than promise an outcome. Every provider uses its own mortality tables and discount rate, so results differ by scheme. Ask for a calculation before deciding.
A second effect stacks on top and is often forgotten: if you also stop working, you accrue nothing from that moment. The two together make the difference larger than the table suggests.
The problem: your pension starts early, your state pension doesn't
Say you start your pension at sixty-two. Your state pension begins at sixty-seven.
That means five years with only your pension payment, already reduced because you drew it early. After that the state pension joins and your income jumps.
That's precisely the wrong order. You need the most income during the years without a state pension, and that's exactly when your income is lowest.
The high-low structure
Here comes the solution almost nobody explains.
You're allowed to distribute your pension payment unevenly over time. You then receive a higher amount first and a lower amount later, where the low part must be at least 75% of the high part. That ratio is often described as 100:75.
Worked through, for someone with €12,000 of pension at sixty-eight who wants to stop at sixty-two:
| Variant | From 62 to 67 | From 67 |
|---|---|---|
| Flat from 68 | nothing | €12,000 |
| Flat from 62 | €9,637 | €9,637 |
| High-low from 62 | €11,892 | €8,919 |
The high-low variant gives you €11,276 extra across the five bridge years compared with a flat payment, and costs you roughly 7% a year afterwards.
That's a good trade if those bridge years are exactly when you must cover your spending yourself. After your state pension date, a payment arrives that largely absorbs the difference.
What that saves in required wealth
Now the effect on the question that actually matters.
Someone stopping at sixty-two with €40,000 of annual spending must bridge five years to their state pension:
| Wealth required for the bridge | |
|---|---|
| Without drawing pension early | €178,073 |
| With high-low from 62 | €125,132 |
| Difference | €52,941 |
Nearly fifty-three thousand euros less of your own wealth required, through a choice within your pension scheme you were entitled to make anyway.
It isn't free money. You pay for it with a lower payment after your state pension date, and with the permanent reduction of drawing early. But it moves income into precisely the period where you need it, and in a bridge calculation that's worth a great deal.
Partial pension
The underrated middle way. You start part of your pension and keep working for the rest.
Draw 40% of your pension, say, and work three days. Your payment is only reduced on that portion, and on the days you keep working your accrual continues.
For many people this beats drawing fully early, for three reasons. The reduction touches only part of your pension. You keep accruing. And the transition from working to not working is gradual, which research suggests suits people better than a hard stop.
Whether it's available and in what increments varies by scheme. Some providers offer fixed percentages; others let you choose freely.
What the new pension system changes
The Dutch pension system is moving to a new framework. Funds are transitioning in phases, with a final deadline of 1 January 2028.
For the question of whether you can draw early, little changes: that remains possible. What does change is how your pension is determined, because under the new system you hold a personal pension pot rather than a claim to an amount.
Practically: if your fund has already transitioned, the figures on your statement look different from a few years ago. Ask your provider for a current calculation, because older projections may be out of date.
The lump sum: not yet available
You may have read about it: the option to take up to 10% of your pension in one payment at retirement.
That arrangement doesn't exist yet. Its introduction has been postponed again, from 1 July 2026 to 1 January 2029, according to the 2026 Spring Memorandum. It's now the seventh time the date has moved, because the pension sector wants to complete the transition to the new system first.
Plenty of pages online still claim it's available from 2026. Don't count on it for now, and certainly not as a load-bearing part of your plan.
When drawing early makes sense and when it doesn't
Not advice, but the questions that shape the decision.
How long is your bridge? Draw one year before your state pension and the reduction is limited and the problem small. Draw five or more years early and the permanent reduction weighs heavily, making the high-low structure more interesting.
Do you have enough of your own wealth? Anyone who can cover the bridge years from their own means needn't draw early and keeps a higher lifelong payment. Anyone who can't is trading lifelong income for access now.
How is your health? The actuarial reduction assumes average life expectancy. Anyone with reason to think they won't reach it comes out differently from the average. That's an uncomfortable consideration and it's a real one.
Are you continuing to work? With partial pension your accrual continues on the part you work, dampening both effects.
How to apply
Your pension provider arranges it, not the SVB. Contact them well in advance, because deadlines apply and choices have to be recorded.
Always ask for calculations of several variants: flat from your intended date, high-low, and partial pension. Those three produce very different income patterns, and the differences are larger than people expect.
Note too that drawing early must be arranged separately with each provider if you accrued with several employers. Mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl shows where what sits.
How Gylder fits in
Drawing early is a choice within your pension scheme. Whether that choice is necessary depends on something outside it: do you have enough wealth to cover your bridge years?
Gylder totals your wealth daily across all your accounts: bank, broker, crypto, precious metals and your property with the mortgage underneath. The bridge calculator works out how much you need at your intended stop date and saves it as a wealth target with that date attached.
You can enter what arrives from your state pension date. Choose a high-low structure and that lowers what you must bridge yourself, which shows up in the target.
Your accrued pension can't go in as wealth. Nor should it: it's a future income stream, not an asset you can draw on today.
What this doesn't tell you
Percentages differ by scheme. The reductions here illustrate the mechanism using a 2% discount rate and life expectancy to 87. Your provider uses its own tables, and the outcome may differ noticeably.
Not every scheme offers every variant. High-low and partial pension are legally possible, but whether your provider offers them and in what form varies.
The system is in transition. Funds are moving to the new framework in phases until 1 January 2028. Figures from before that switch may be out of date.
This isn't advice. Drawing early is an irreversible choice with lifelong consequences. Have your own provider calculate it, and consider independent advice for larger amounts.
Frequently asked questions
How much lower will my pension be if I draw early? Roughly 3 to 4% per year of early drawdown, plus the effect of fewer accrual years. Your provider calculates the precise reduction and it varies by scheme.
Can I bring my state pension forward too? No. It begins at your state pension age and can't be moved. Only your occupational pension can be drawn early.
What is a high-low structure? An uneven distribution of your pension payment, higher first and lower later. The low part must be at least 75% of the high part. Useful for bridging the years to your state pension.
Can I take 10% of my pension as a lump sum? Not yet. That arrangement is postponed until 1 January 2029 at the earliest.
Can I earn alongside an early pension? Yes, there's no earnings limit on your occupational pension. Your tax situation does change, so calculate what you keep net.