I found my 年金定期便！
Another year, another pension update. Nothing new, just some new numbers and a chance for people who haven’t really thought about their nenkin before to make sure they understand it.
You can see the Pension Update 2017 here (this post explains a lot of the format etc.), the Pension Update 2018 here, and the Pension Update 2019 here.
So here is my nenkin teikibin for this year:
The key figures are highlighted as follows: 1.) total amount contributed so far (this includes employer contributions from kosei nenkin and public servant nenkin), 2.) number of months contributed (you need 120 to receive a pension and 480 for a full pension), and 3.) my projected pension based on contributions so far.
As you can see I have paid in just over 8 million yen over a period of 238 months and stand to receive 958,000 yen a year as a pension if I stopped paying in now.
Of course I am likely to continue paying for at least another 17 years (maybe more), and I am planning to delay receiving my pension in order to receive a larger amount.
The true value of the government pension is that you can receive it for as long as you are alive, so it provides you with a minimum income even if you become unable to work (or manage your investments!). It also provides diversification as it is not affected by stock market movements, etc.
Of course, the state pension is unlikely to allow you to live the kind of life you want or are used to, so it is important to also save and invest money on top of this. The Japanese government estimates the average couple will need 20m yen in savings to help pay for retirement.
Check out some of the resources on the site or ask in the forum if you are not sure how to save and invest your way to 20 million 😉
Since I’m receiving mine, maybe I should awaken the truth of what one does get. Not sure how to post a picture of it here, but maybe I can send you and email with it and you can post it for me.
But not to hold any one back with surprises here, my Japanese pension is about 25,500 yen ever 2 months and the reality of it is that I was paying I think 14,800 yen per month at the age of 59. I think I entered the pension system when I was paying 10,200 yen per month years ago.
Of course there is more to this story ( was I in a Japanese prison ) ? Speaking on a joking level I was in an economically speaking prison here in Japan all these working years.
Sure, that would be very useful for our readers I think. Please cover up any identifying information (name, nenkin number) and send it to info@retirejapan.info 🙂
Hi Ben
Thanks. I’ ll cover up the info. But I should mention that the govt. also took out more deductions for it. I’ll ask question when I post it.
sorry but your above address does not work.
I haven’t forgotten. Just my camera Nikon S70 doesn’t work on windows 10 to upload the pictures that I’ll send you.
Please send me another email address. I thought I might have to buy a new camera, but hopefully I’m going to try to use my phone and see if that works and be able to send it to you after I hear from you.
Oh, I see how your info@ now works. OK
I’ll see about getting it posted soon. Maybe write a new ( this is how it is for some people when they retire on nenkin here in Japan )
Yen 25.500 every 2 months?
What did you do (or better: what didn’t you do)?
Ben’s “numbers” look more like the ones I got last year (maybe it looks even better this year). Maybe it’s this “years ago” thing? Would definitely like to hear (or see) more, too!
Thanks for the service you do for us in explaining these 定期便. I have a November birthday and just got mine and compared it to one from a few years ago. This year the 定期便 had a little bar graph showing what the benefit (+42%) would be for starting the pension at age 70 vs age 65.
I compared this pension statement which is after 280 months of contributions to one from a few years ago at 244 months. The difference in total payments from me was large (over 2,400,000 yen) but the increase in yearly pension at age 65 was only 3,500 yen/year. That seems very small and suggests to me that they use some form of “breakpoints” (at least that’s the term used in the US regarding how Social Security calculates the benefit) so that contributions above certain levels make less of an impact.
Have you noticed anything similar?
I have only really been paying attention for the last four years! Mine seems to have gone up a fair amount compared to last year, so it seems I haven’t hit any breakpoints yet… Of course, there is a chance they made a mistake with your calculation -it’s happened before 🙁
thanks for the information, can you explain the different between receive a pension to a full pension? ” you need 120 to receive a pension and 480 for a full pension”
Sure. Until you have paid in 120 months, you will not receive any pension. So if you pay in 119 months, you will not get a pension.
Once you have paid in 120 months, you will receive a pension. To get a full pension, you need to pay 480 months. If you pay less than this, the amount of pension you receive will be reduced proportionally. So if you have only paid 120 months, your pension would be just 1/4 of the full amount.
hi Ben,
Thanks for this post. Just got mine and the lay-out looks quite similar except that my sheet does not have any info about #3) 年金額！Any idea where I can find out about 3.) my projected pension based on contributions so far?
Tom
Kokumin nenkin is easy to calculate (480 months of contributions gets you 65,000 yen a month, and is reduced proportionally if you don’t make all the payments). Kosei nenkin is more complicated to calculate.
I believe they only start giving you projected payouts once you have enough accumulated to get a pension (120 months or more). You can call the national nenkin phone line for more info: https://www.nenkin.go.jp/section/tel/index.html