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Germany Altersvorsorgedepot (Riester Replacement) Calculator (2027)
Calculate your state subsidies (Grundzulage & Kinderzulage) and projected ETF balance under Germany's 2027 Altersvorsorgedepot.
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Project the future wealth accumulated through Germany's 2026 Frühstart-Rente, a government-funded savings account providing €10/month for children from age 6 to 18.
What is the German Frühstart-Rente?
The Frühstart-Rente (Early Start Pension) is a new pension building block introduced in Germany. The state automatically deposits €10 per month (€120 per year) into a dedicated, capital-backed investment account (Altersvorsorgedepot) for children from age 6 until they turn 18. The accumulated balance is invested in low-cost equity index funds to use the compound interest effect over decades.
Who it covers and how it is funded
While the program's long-term goal is to cover all children aged 6 to 17 residing in Germany, initial implementation is restricted to 6-year-old cohorts due to federal budget constraints. The state contributions stop once the child reaches 18, but the portfolio continues to compound and is available later for retirement or, under the Eigenheimrente rules, a first home.
What parents should actually do while the rules settle
Three practical moves cost nothing and position a family well. First, confirm whether your child's birth cohort is inside the staged rollout, coverage began with the youngest eligible ages and the Bundesfinanzministerium's FAQ tracks the expansion schedule. Second, when the depot provider choice arrives, treat it like any 60-year investment decision: a broad, physically replicating world-equity fund with the lowest running cost available, because at this horizon fee differences compound into five-figure gaps. Third, decide the top-up question as a household budget line rather than a gesture, even €25 a month of family money alongside the state's €10 more than triples the depot's trajectory, and money given to a 6-year-old's account buys more compounding years than any later gift can. The one thing NOT to do is wait for perfect clarity on payout-phase taxation before opening anything; accumulation mechanics are set, and the lost years are the expensive part.
What the numbers actually mean for you
The €10 is a lesson, not a pension
Nobody retires on €36,000, and the Frühstart-Rente was never meant to fund a retirement. Its real job is structural: it opens an investment depot in every child's name, invests it in equities by default, and locks it until retirement, building the account and the habit that German households have historically lacked. The state's €10 is the hook; the depot it creates is the point.
That reframes how to use this calculator. The government contribution is a fixed, modest floor. The interesting number is what happens when the family adds to the SAME depot, which the rules allow up to a generous annual ceiling. A depot that the state seeds and the family feeds is where the figures stop being a lesson and start being a pension. Even €25 a month of family money more than triples every value on this page, because the extra contributions ride the identical six-decade runway.
Why starting age is the whole game
Two levers set the outcome and they point the same way: an earlier start means more €10 deposits AND a longer compounding runway. A 6-year-old gets 12 years of contributions and 61 years of growth; a 12-year-old gets 6 and 55. The contribution difference is only €720, but the final-value difference is more than €21,000, because the early years compound the longest.
This is the reason the policy targets age 6, not 16. A euro invested for a child has a superpower no adult's euro has: time measured in half-centuries. The uncomfortable corollary for families is that topping up a young child's depot beats almost any later saving for that child, the same money will never again have this many compounding years in front of it.
What is settled, what is still being drafted
As of 2026 the shape is confirmed by the Bundesfinanzministerium: €10 a month for children aged 6 to 18, paid into an individual, market-invested Altersvorsorgedepot that is locked until retirement. Early implementation has been staged, so a family should confirm their child's cohort is already receiving payments rather than assuming universal coverage from day one.
The details still being finalised are exactly the ones that turn the lesson into a pension: the precise annual ceiling for private top-ups, the tax treatment of gains inside the depot, and the default fund's fee cap. Watch the fee cap in particular, over a 60-year horizon the gap between a 0.2% and a 1.0% fund is not rounding, it can quietly consume a third of the final balance. When you pick a top-up destination, cheap and broad beats clever every time at this time horizon.
Treat the government's €10 as the reason the depot exists, then make the real decision: whether to feed it. The calculator shows the floor; the family's contributions, and the fund's fees, decide everything above it. For a newborn today, a monthly standing order into this locked, equity-invested depot buys more compounding years than any later gift can, because nothing else in a German child's financial life will ever again have sixty years to run.
How the Frühstart-Rente math works
From 2026 the German state pays €10 a month into an individual retirement depot for every child aged 6 to 18, invested in the market and left untouched. The €10 matters far less than the runway: money deposited at age 6 has 61 years to compound before a normal retirement at 67.
The calculator compounds the monthly €10 to age 18, then lets that balance grow untouched at your assumed return to 67. It deliberately shows how a tiny state contribution, given six decades, turns roughly €1,440 of government money into tens of thousands of euros, the single clearest illustration of compounding in the German system.
Calculation Steps:
- Enter the child's current age (6-17) and an expected annual return.
- €10 a month is contributed until the child turns 18, so a 6-year-old receives 12 years of deposits (€1,440 total), a 12-year-old only 6 years (€720).
- Those monthly deposits compound to a balance at 18.
- From 18 to 67, no new money goes in, the age-18 balance simply compounds for 49 more years, which is where almost all the final value comes from.
Worked example
Lena is 6 when the scheme starts in 2026, and the family assumes a 6% long-run return on a broad equity ETF.
The state pays €10 a month for 12 years: €1,440 of government money, which compounds to about €2,102 by her 18th birthday.
Nobody adds another cent. That €2,102 compounds at 6% for the 49 years to age 67 and reaches about €36,519.
The state spent €1,440; Lena retires with roughly €36,500 from it, a 25-fold multiplier bought entirely with time.
Start six years late (a 12-year-old) and the same €10/month yields only about €15,000, less than half, because the six lost years were the most valuable ones. The lesson generalises to every account a family opens: at six-decade horizons, the starting year matters more than the contribution size.
Input definitions
Review the glossary of terms used in the calculation model below. Click on highlighted links to read more in-depth definitions in our financial glossary:
| Parameter | Definition & Context |
|---|---|
| Child's Current Age | Age 6 to 17. Younger means more years of €10 deposits AND more years of compounding, both compounding in your favour. |
| Expected Annual Return | The long-run return on the depot's investments. Over a 60-year horizon small differences here dominate the final figure. |
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