Last Article Update 12.08.2026
Your income during retirement is one of the most important factors for your future financial well-being. That's why George FIT places pension planning at the heart of your financial health assessment. Here, we explain how pension forecasts work, how to interpret the George FIT status indicators, and how to make the most of the tips and insights related to retirement income and pension planning.
Financial health is essential. Without it, financial difficulties can arise quickly. At the same time, it isn't always easy to understand what financial health actually means.
Erste Bank and Sparkasse define financial health as follows:
Financial health means being able to meet your current and ongoing financial obligations, feeling confident about your financial future, and making choices that allow you to enjoy life.
This definition forms the foundation of George FIT.
You can find more information and additional details here.
Of course, financial health also depends on your individual circumstances, such as your age, family situation, and many other factors. George FIT helps you keep track of the key pillars of financial health and your current financial fitness:
Have you ever heard of the pension gap? The challenge is that, even under the best circumstances, the state pension you receive in Austria will generally amount to only around 70% of your final employment income.
If you rely solely on the state pension, you can expect a significant reduction in your income during later life. To reduce or even close this gap, additional pension provision is essential:
Together with the state pension, company and private pensions form the well-known three-pillar pension system in Austria. If all three pillars apply to you and are well established, you have a good chance of reducing or even closing your pension gap.
A comprehensive approach across all three pillars is therefore an important foundation for your income in later life and, ultimately, for your financial health during your pension.
Pension planning is complex – and for good reason. Countless personal factors and life events make it difficult to predict your future pension income with certainty.
This is where George FIT can help. In the "Pension" section, George helps you make the most of the three pillars of the Austrian pension system – state, company/occupational and private – where they apply to you. The aim is to help you reduce or even avoid a pension gap.
Rather than acting as a simple "what-if" calculator that models different scenarios for each pension pillar, George FIT takes a different approach. George starts by asking how much income you would like to have during your pension.
Based on your target income, George FIT calculates the potential impact of your current situation and identifies options that may help you achieve your income goal and maintain your financial health throughout your pension.
As a first step, George needs some information about your state pension. He will ask you for:
Based on this information, George can estimate your future state pension. This calculation is simplified and provided without guarantee. It serves as the foundation for all further pension calculations within George FIT.
The calculations performed by George FIT are, of course, much more complex than they may appear. Here's what you should know about them.
George FIT provides a simplified estimate of your state pension. As a result, GEorge can only estimate the approximate level of pension provision you may need.
The calculation is based on assumptions about future economic developments taken from the report of the Austrian Commission for Long-Term Pension Security. Depending on how far away your planned pension start date is, these projections may cover many years and are therefore subject to uncertainty.
Your pension insurance provider can provide information about your actual contribution history and your expected state pension.
We recommend reviewing your pension provision every two years.
All results are estimates and provided without guarantee.
The pension planning calculator is based on the key provisions of the current Austrian legislation governing pensions (ASVG, GSVG, BSVG and APG) as well as wage and income tax regulations (as of 1 January 2014). Any future changes to statutory pension legislation or benefits are not reflected in the model.
The calculation starts with your income in the selected reference year.
Assuming continuous employment, George FIT estimates your past and future income by applying the expected development of Austria's median income. Your years of insurance are entered as a whole number of years.
For pension calculations under the 2003 pension reform (for people born before 1955) and for the calculation of the initial pension account credit (for people born after 1955 who have insurance periods before 1 January 2005), an assessment basis is calculated.
This assessment basis is determined using the pensionable income earned during a defined assessment period. Starting from your income in the selected reference year and assuming continuous employment, George FIT estimates your past and future income based on the projected development of Austria's median income.
George FIT calculates your state pension based on your monthly net income, assuming that you receive 14 salary payments per year.
Based on your monthly net income, George FIT estimates your monthly gross income.
The calculation takes into account employee social insurance contributions, including health insurance, pension insurance, accident insurance, unemployment insurance, housing subsidy contributions and the Chamber of Labour levy. Applicable tax credits are also considered after income tax has been calculated.
This allows George FIT to simulate your state pension account and estimate your future state pension.
Taking into account your age, gender and insurance history up to the month before the calculation date, George FIT determines your earliest eligible pension age and estimates the corresponding pension benefits, including:
You can adjust your preferred pension start age within the eligible corridor pension range of 60 to 69 years.
More information, including the current status of your state pension account, is available on the website of the Austrian Social Insurance Institution.
Starting with your income in the selected reference year, George FIT projects your future income under the assumption of continuous employment. The projection is based on the expected development of Austria's median income.
Your current income is increased by at least the average inflation rate of the past ten years.
You can also choose an additional average annual salary increase to reflect expected career progression.
In the next step, George asks what percentage of your expected final employment income you would like to receive as net pension income.
Set your target pension income according to your personal needs and preferences. Your target pension income cannot be lower than your estimated state pension.
If your desired pension income is higher than your expected state pension, you will need additional pension provision.
George shows you how much additional pension income you would need to supplement your estimated state pension and reach your target income.
You can also choose your preferred payout period. The payout period defines how long you would like to receive your additional pension income. You can choose between two options:
Based on all of this information, George calculates the total amount you would need to accumulate before your pension starts in order to achieve your target income. This amount is known as the target pension capital.
Based on your target pension income and the selected payout period, George calculates the target pension capital you would need to have accumulated by the time your pension starts.
The payout period begins when you start receiving your pension and covers the entire period during which you receive the agreed pension payments. For this calculation, George assumes that your pension capital earns a net annual return of 2% throughout the payout period. This assumption affects the amount of your monthly pension payments.
In this step, you can tell George FIT whether you have already made arrangements for your private pension.
To do this, you can assign your existing savings or investments (such as insurance-based investment products, securities portfolios, investment savings plans, savings accounts or building society savings accounts) to your private pension.
George FIT will then include these selected assets in all subsequent pension calculations.
Please note that products assigned to your private pension are not excluded from the Reserves section and therefore do not affect your Reserves status.
As a result, George may recommend investing excess liquidity even though some of these funds are also allocated to your private pension.
If you follow this recommendation and transfer money from your savings account to an investment product, the amount currently allocated to your private pension will decrease.
You can change the allocation of your products to your private pension at any time to reflect any shift of assets from your reserves to investments.
If you also have a company pension through a pension fund, you can add this information as well.
Based on all the information you have provided, George FIT calculates whether you need to save for your private pension and, if so, how much you should save each month to build up sufficient pension capital before your pension starts.
This forms the core of your Pension overview in George FIT.
The recommended monthly savings amount shows how much you would need to save to achieve your pension income goal.
George FIT uses the following assumptions by default:
The recommended monthly savings amount is an estimate based on your current circumstances. It indicates how much you may need to save to help close, at least in part, the projected pension gap.
Finally, you can choose between different scenarios for your private pension.
George FIT projects your pension savings from today until your pension starts. The products you have assigned to your private pension are projected using net return assumptions (after estimated taxes and fees).
You can choose from three scenarios:
These results are estimates and are not guaranteed. Actual outcomes may differ due to market movements, employer decisions, fees, taxes, inflation, or changes in legislation.
Depending on how well you are progressing towards your pension goals, George FIT displays your current status, along with a brief explanation and more detailed information.
You are considered FIT (Green status) under the following conditions:
You receive a Yellow status under the following conditions:
You receive a Red status under the following conditions:
If you have already started receiving your pension, George FIT simply displays the following message:
"You have reached pension age. Enjoy your time."
This status is shown regardless of whether you achieved your pension income goal.
Please do not interpret the assessments and insights provided by George as value judgements. They are intended to help you better understand your financial situation so that you can make your own informed decisions.