A pension expert warns about the most common mistake when calculating early retirement

Alfonso Muñoz, a Social Security official and disseminator specialized in pensions, has explained the requirements that workers who want to take advantage of early retirement must meet and has warned of one of the most common errors when calculating the age at which they can retire.

"Many people believe that it is enough to subtract two or four years from the age of 65, but this does not work like that," says Muñoz. As he explains, before calculating how much the retirement can be brought forward, we must "calculate what our ordinary retirement age is", since this is not necessarily 65 years for all workers.

In 2026, those who can prove at least 38 years and three months of contributions can retire ordinarily at age 65. Those who do not reach that period must wait until they are 66 years and ten months. Starting from that ordinary age corresponding to each worker is where the possible advance retirement should be calculated.

"Early retirement is always calculated with the ordinary age as a reference," Muñoz insists. Once that age is established, you must check which type of early retirement corresponds and whether its requirements are met. "We could advance our retirement two years in the voluntary modality and four years in the case of the involuntary modality," explains the official.

In the first case, voluntary early retirement requires, among other conditions, proof of a minimum of 35 years of contributions. "If we collect those 35 years of contributions we will be able to advance our retirement two years before our ordinary age," he indicates.

Therefore, having 35 years of contributions does not mean being able to retire at 63 years of age. If the worker's ordinary age is 65, he or she may advance his voluntary retirement until he is 63 if he meets the rest of the requirements. However, if your ordinary age is, for example, 66 years and ten months, the maximum advance of two years must be calculated taking that age as a reference.

Furthermore, accessing retirement earlier generally implies a reduction in the benefit. "All early retirements are associated with reducing coefficients, that is, penalties on the amount of the pension," explains Muñoz. The percentage depends, among other factors, on the months in which the withdrawal is brought forward and the total period of contributions.

The official has already warned on other occasions that choosing the specific moment can have a considerable impact on what is charged. "Never apply for retirement two years before the legal age if you do not know the economic consequences," he advised in another of his explanations about this modality.

In another example, Muñoz analyzes the case of a worker with 38 years of contributions and a regulatory base of 2,000 euros. If you advance the withdrawal by 24 months, he explains, a 21% penalty would be applied in that case, which would reduce the pension by 420 euros per month. If you wait four months and retire 20 months before your ordinary age, the penalty would drop to 11%.