02 Sep 2010 20:32:

Hi MexMaya

 

Forgot to mention that the 400 or so euros is probably the maximum contribution only after the age of 50.  Before this age you can contribute a lot more, depending on earnings to contribution ratio of course.    The minimum of about 200 or so euros doesn´t change much, only the maximum.  This is to stop autonomas just ´buying´ a pension in the latter years when the calculations are so important.

However, if you are a politician you only need to contribute for 7 years to get a nice fat pension!!!

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02 Sep 2010 20:22:

The banks are being really stingy about granting mortgages nowadays.  But if your son can find a property he likes from the stock of repossessed properties that the banks have at the moment it´s a different story.  In some cases they will grant a 100% mortgage!

The main banks have websites listing the properties for sale.

Sometimes the bank will ask for a guarantor.  Try to avoid being a guarantor at all costs.  A lot of people imagine that the guarantor is the last response if payments fall behind, but here the guarantor is the first response!  The banks go after the secure and easiest method of obtaining money owed, be it for a house or car etc.  They don´t waste time chasing the non-payer, instead they quickly go after the guarantor - and they will enforce the conditions, even if it means leaving a grandmother homeless in the streets as has happened in the past.  Even if the grandmother said she really didn´t understand the implications of being a guarantor etc.

The banks have no mercy!

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02 Sep 2010 18:37:

What will happen is that they will calculate it on the contributions you make yourself as an autonomo. 

Some autonomos make only the legal minimum contributions necessary, then hike them up to the maximum for the last 15 years before retirement age.  From 50 onwards if you intend to retire at 65.  This could be a bit dodgy now as it is very likely that the period of calculation for contributions will change to a 20 year period.  So the period to look at is from 45 onwards.

The one good point is that being an autonomo you yourself can decide how much you want to contribute - it is not just based on your earnings.  In theory you could earn a relatively low salary, but decide to make quite high contributions for a good pension.  There is a maximum you can contribute each month and a maximum pension you can receive each month.  Unless you are a fat cat politician!

However, it should be ´within reason´ - if you only declare your earnings as 100 euros each month and then make the maximum contributions it could redflag Hacienda!!!!  So you would need to be prepared to be able to explain how you are able to do this without them digging around for black money.

I´m not sure what the maximum autonomo contributions are at the moment - perhaps around 400 euros per month for 2010?

Hope this helps. 

Would like to say that I´m new to this website and have found that it´s a really friendly informative site!

 

 

 

 

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02 Sep 2010 18:11:

Sorry - meant to say all the people who are asking how their contributions will affect their future pensions.  Not everybody who is reading this forum!

 

 

 

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02 Sep 2010 17:28:

Don´t know if this helps - but as I understand it you need 35 years contributions to qualify for a full Spanish state pension, including contributions made in EU countries. 

The amount of pension you will receive depends on the contributions made during the last 15 years before the minimum retirement age (at present 65, early retirement possible with appropriate reductions from 60).  Men and women have the same retirement age. This favours people in civil service type jobs who have good pay scales and so receive higher salaries, with higher contributions paid, during the latter part of their working life.  It does not favour the poor souls who lose their jobs in their 50´s with little hope of getting well paid work again before retirement.  So they are talking about making the calcuation period for the amount of  the pension to be received over the last 20 years.  I think this is fairer to everybody.

Unlike some other countries at present the pension you receive here is more or less earnings related.  The 15 years is not a minimum period of employment but the period over which they look at the contributions made to calculate the amount of your pension. 

Therefore, the pensions here are usually higher than English pensions.  Private pension schemes are not common at all here, but that will change in the future as the government feel they cannot afford  to offer such ´generous´ pensions forever!  They also plan to raise the retirement age to 67. 

The basic non-contributive pension is rather low at only 399 euros per month.

However, I´m not sure what happens if you do not have the full 15 years of Spanish contributions necessary for the calculation, but mainly contributions in other EU countries during this time!  It seems you might have to take separate pensions from separate countries in this situation?

This pension theme is a really interesting point to get clarified, as it´s going to affect us all one day!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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