Retirement for the Self-Employed
As of 2026-08-16
A senior SAP consultant billing €150,000 a year for 25 years with no additional savings retires on roughly 25–40% of that working income — the SSI and Agirc-Arrco regimes were never designed to replace an independent's income the way a salaried pension does. The single highest-leverage decision is starting PER Individuel contributions a decade earlier: €1,500/month from age 32 compounds to roughly €1.6M by 65, versus about €870,000 starting at 42 — the same monthly effort, half the capital. The PER Individuel deduction (≈10% of professional income, capped near €37,000 at the 2025 PASS) turns income-tax liability into retirement capital, but that capital stays locked until age 60. This module gives the SSI projection method, the PER contribution math, and the third-pillar liquidity plan (PEA, assurance-vie, real estate) needed to close the gap before it becomes irreversible.
What you will learn
- Calculate your realistic SSI/Agirc-Arrco projected pension and identify the annual shortfall
- Max out PER Individuel contributions within the tax deductibility ceiling each fiscal year
- Build a third pillar of invested capital (real estate, PEA, life insurance) with a documented rebalancing rule
- Model total retirement income at age 65–67, identify the under-provisioning gap, and adjust contributions annually
The Structural Under-Provisioning Problem for TNS
The pension system in France distinguishes between régimes de base and régimes complémentaires, and the TNS regime sits in both with materially different rules than the general salaried regime. Consultants affiliated with the SSI (Sécurité Sociale des Indépendants, which absorbed the former RSI in 2020) accumulate retirement points through the SSI base system. Above a certain income level, they also accumulate points in Agirc-Arrco through a complementary mechanism — but the point-conversion rates and the effective replacement ratios are significantly lower than for salaried executives.
The practical result: a senior SAP consultant who billed €150,000 per year for 25 years and built no additional retirement savings will typically receive a statutory pension of 25–40% of their previous working income at retirement age. The precise figure depends on the number of quarters validated, income levels across the career, and indexation rules at retirement. The SSI's online simulation tool (mon-compte-retraite.fr) allows you to project this today — do it now, not at 58.
Prerequisites
- Intermediate hands-on experience on SAP analytics projects
- Review core concepts first: C073, C075, C045
Outcomes
- Calculate your realistic SSI/Agirc-Arrco projected pension
- Max out PER Individuel or Madelin (tax deduction up to ~€35k/year)
- Explain the core architecture and decision points for Retirement for the Self-Employed
- Apply a repeatable implementation pattern in a 15-minute lab format
Full module available to members. The full module adds: the decision framework · the end-to-end scenario walkthrough · the KPI scorecard · the anti-patterns · the knowledge check · the diagrams.