An interview with ING employee Marie-Louise Dijkstra, who was raised with a strong awareness of the future. That includes preparing for retirement. Read this article to find out how Marie-Louise handled this and what tips she has for the pension fund and for you.

Marie-Louise’s career at ING goes back a long way. As long as 20 years ago, she started looking into pension matters.

Colleagues come to me
I’m quite a businesslike person, which is why I consider pension an important topic. Many of my colleagues in their late fifties don’t feel much like looking into their pension and keep putting it off. I always try to encourage them to visit the Pension Planner. After all, it's interesting to find out what you've been working for all these years, isn’t it?

Retirement date slider
I’ve visited the Pension Planner* quite a few times already, for questions like: How much will I get from ING CDC Pensioenfonds and Pensioenfonds ING when I retire? What are my pension options? Will I be able to afford early retirement? I used the retirement date slider to find out how much pension I’d get before and after tax if I were to retire at, say, 62 or 63 years of age. You can even see the outcome by month, for example at 62 years and 7 months of age. It's interesting and fun to do!

Search on the HR website
Then came the main question: When am I actually going to retire? Early this year I decided I’d retire in October. I didn't know where to start my application for early retirement, so I first visited the HR website. But then I found out I had to contact the pension fund directly to get the form ‘Retirement starting date’. My manager had to co-sign the form. I sent the form to the pension fund, after which my application for early retirement went smoothly and quickly.

A little longer after all
I initially planned to retire in October 2020, but given today's uncertainties I changed my mind. So I’ll continue working for ING a little longer after all!

“If you're planning to retire early, check the pension fund’s website or get in touch with the Pension Desk“

Tips
I’d like to share what I've learned about applying for early retirement with my colleagues.

My tips for the pension funds**: work with ING to provide information about early retirement on the HR website. Another thing: the form says ‘Retirement starting date - permanent employment contract to be terminated (yes/no). At first I thought that was a strange question. When you retire and leave the company, your permanent contract is always terminated, isn’t it? An explanation would be useful. I entered ‘yes’ on the form.

My tips to colleagues: make sure you look into your pension well ahead of time, so you know which pension options tie in best with your situation. The Pension Planner is a very good tool to use in this process. Don’t hesitate to contact the Pension Desk if you have any questions. They help you out, send reminders if needed and point your attention to things you wouldn't have thought of yourself!

*The Pension Planner is not up-to-date for Pensioenfonds ING.

** The funds take notice of this tips to further optimise the (digital) processing regarding retirement.