The motorcycle is carefully packed. The sun is shining, and summer is just about to shift into autumn. It’s now, as his wife’s calendar fills up with work meetings and the pace quickens at all workplaces, that Mats treats himself to a road trip down through southern Sweden to Öland. The harvest market is coming up. For those who are part-time retirees, there’s always the opportunity to plan a bonus trip.
– “I live a pleasant life and avoid job stress and everything that comes with it. I work, but only because I enjoy it, and as long as my skills are needed,” says Mats Blomkvist, 68, a job-enthusiast from Sundbyberg.
Public Pension is One Third of the Salary
Mats has a long career as a civil engineer in refrigeration technology behind him. When he talks about the Swedish pension system, it’s with a sense of disappointment: Despite having worked his entire life, his public pension consists of only one third of the monthly salary he earned at the age of 65.
Rörlig eller bunden ränta?
Det beror på hur din situation ser ut och hur du ser på risk. Båda alternativen har sina fördelar och nackdelar:
- Rörlig ränta: Det är populärt att välja rörlig ränta. Historiskt sett har den rörliga räntan ofta varit billigare över tid. Men den innebär också en viss oförutsägbarhet kring hur dina räntekostnader kommer att utvecklas.
- Bunden ränta: Att binda en del av lånet kan vara fördelaktigt, till exempel om du har små marginaler eller vill ha stabilitet och förutsägbarhet i din ekonomi.
– “I wish I had understood the importance of pension planning earlier,” says Mats. “It wasn’t until I was 55 that I realized the system didn’t live up to the expectations I had and that I needed to take control of my pension and understand how it works.”
Smart to Consolidate Movable Capital
Even though it required a considerable amount of invested time to get to this point, Mats is now satisfied with what he receives in pension each month. However, it took several meetings with different advisors before he found one he felt comfortable with; then the key was to consolidate movable capital into one place.
– “Despite that, I currently have a total of 5 different payers with 11 different pensions and insurances each month, which makes everything quite complicated. People should learn about pensions in high school,” he asserts.
Mats has chosen to withdraw his entire pension but lives as a job-enthusiast, meaning he hasn’t completely stepped away from working life. He takes on assignments but only if he wants to and to contribute to what he is most passionate about: solving the environmental impact problem of the refrigeration industry. He does this, among other things, as a teacher and speaker.
Senior Skills Are in Demand
– “I receive a full pension but have a hard time tearing myself away from work. I enjoy it, and I’m an engineer through and through. I belong to the generation in the refrigeration industry that has systematically worked on solving environmental issues, and I have accumulated a lot of experience. Three years after I graduated from the Institute of Technology in the 1980s, the alarm was raised about how freons were affecting the ozone layer. Then greenhouse gases became the major issue.”
As long as Mats sees that there is a need for his skills, he will be involved in solving the challenging environmental problem that has characterized his industry for so long.
– “It’s a matter close to my heart. Some retire, and others don’t,” he says, noting that many friends have both stopped working and put their motorcycles aside.
He himself has plenty of plans, including studying astronomy, building wooden models, and photography, along with maintaining a structure in his daily life that aligns with his wife’s work life. The fact that his wife works and has a long way to go before retirement is not an issue, Mats assures.
