You probably have little desire to read a blog about retirement. I fully understand that your attention span on this topic is limited to that of a toddler who has to clean up after play. For eight years, that was exactly my problem as well. But since you are always wiser with the knowledge of hindsight, I am sharing my personal story. So that hopefully you will be wiser before I am. 

When I started out self-employed, retirement was the last thing on my mind. Retirement seemed like something for "later," and as a first-time self-employed person, later seemed very far away. But we are now over eight years down the road and suddenly later is very close. Fortunately, I have since taken care of my pension, but if I could go back in time, my pension would have been one of the first things I had taken care of. 

Retirement? I'll take care of that when...

In my early years of entrepreneurship, I didn't really think about retirement. I was in my early thirties, and life after my working life seemed very far away. Besides, I wasn't earning nearly enough to afford a pension, was I? I first had to make ample ends meet, fill a savings account, have a stable income, and only then could I start thinking about retirement.

But yes, after a certain age, getting older suddenly goes very fast. And by now I had two children. Plus a divorce behind me and, holy shit, now I was forty and still hadn't settled anything.

But it wasn't just the feeling that I was running out of time and not earning enough that stopped me....

Retirement. 

That's really one of those words where my mind spontaneously begins to wander.

Coverage. 

I don't have a clue about that either. 

Efficiency? 

It will all be. 

Honestly, I didn't really feel much like delving into this subject either. But still the feeling kept gnawing and I kept thinking: I really need to find out what it's like, pension when you're self-employed.

Seek and thou shalt find

Some things in life you can't explain. Just when I was seriously considering retirement, Vive, as a client, came my way. And what turned out? Retirement is not as complicated as it seems. Interviews with Alex, Paul, Tom and Ramses gave me an enormous amount of enthusiasm and confidence to arrange my pension with Vive. And it was super easy. I was sent a form which I could digitally sign and after downloading the app I suddenly had a retirement account. Piece of cake.

So retirement savings through Vive will make me pay less tax? Sign me up!

Before starting with Vive, I was saving for retirement through an investment account. But an important reason for opening an official retirement account with Vive anyway was the tax advantages. If you save for yourself, either through an investment account or simply through a savings account, above an accumulated capital of €57,684 (in 2025) you pay wealth tax. Whereas the amounts I invest through a retirement account are exempt from this tax. Rather than give the IRS my hard-earned and saved money, I invest it in my retirement. 

In addition, you may deduct the deposit in a retirement account that falls within your annual margin (getsie, another retirement word, luckily we wrote a blog about that here) from your taxable income. Which means you pay less income tax while simultaneously building your retirement for later. And declaring that to the IRS is all nicely done for you at Vive. So there's no extra administration either. Depositing extra on top of your annual margin doesn't yield any more, unfortunately, just too bad about the government. 

My recommendation to other freelancers

What I learned from Alex is that the duration of accumulation is more important than how much you put in. So even if you start now with €50 a month, you'll be better off in the end than if you start five years later with €250 a month. And that's my most important advice for other self-employed people. Just start now, even if you only put in €50 a month. 

This is how I started myself, with a monthly deposit of €50. The clear projections in the Vive app showed what this would yield by the time I retired. This insight was so motivating that I quickly doubled my deposit. In the app you can see your assets grow, which gives you tremendous insight into your future AND it also makes investing in retirement fun. 

And yet you are not yet so stable that you can deposit every month? Or a customer doesn't pay you on time? No problem, you can also choose not to deposit for a month. Or to deposit more each month. The flexibility you have with Vive is just great for a self-employed person. 

So, when are you going to take care of your retirement?

In retrospect, I should have started retirement investing much earlier. Fortunately, it's super easy with Vive. I'm still listing all the tips for you:

• Start now, even with a little: Even a small monthly deposit can grow significantly thanks to the power of interest-on-interest.
• Simple and quick: You can open a retirement account with Vive in just a few clicks.
• Save on taxes: No estate tax on your retirement money and your contributions are deducted from your taxable income. A nice bonus in the summer. 
• Flexible deposit: Adjust your deposit based on your financial situation-more or less, depending on what is possible each month.
• Insightful and motivating: See firsthand how your retirement pot is growing in the Vive app, which motivates you to continue saving.

If all goes well, after reading my story you will be wiser than I was. So what are you waiting for? Take care of your retirement soon! Your future self will thank you. 

This guest article was written by: Saida Boujemaaoui - freelance copywriter.