When men retire, they look at their retirement benefit statement and notice that their personal account balance is divided by 139 when calculating their personal account pension. Many people wonder where this number 139 comes from and why it is 139, not some other number?

The 139 in the basic pension calculation generally refers to the number of months for which the personal account pension of the basic pension insurance for workers retiring at the age of 60 is paid.

In 2005, the State Council issued the "Decision on Improving the Basic Pension Insurance System for Enterprise Employees," which redefined the calculation formula for the basic pension and introduced a table of months for the payment of personal account pensions in the pension insurance.

Since its introduction in 2005, the table of months for payment has not been changed and is still in use today, mainly including the months for payment corresponding to the retirement age from 40 to 70 years old. The maximum number of months for payment at the age of 40 is 233, at 50 it is 195, at 55 it is 170, at 60 it is 139, and at 70 it is only 56.

These values are not arbitrarily set, but are calculated using a specific calculation formula for a specific purpose.

The calculation formula for the number of months for payment uses a complex exponential calculation formula, as shown in the figure below:

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Here, M refers to the final number of months for payment that is calculated.

i refers to the investment return rate or the accounting interest rate of the personal account in the pension insurance.Yd refers to the average life expectancy of the urban population.

Yr refers to an individual's retirement age.

When calculating the retirement age payment months table in 2005, the life expectancy of the urban population in 2000, which was 75.21 years, was used. Some friends may wonder why the life expectancy of the urban population was used. In fact, at that time, our basic pension insurance for enterprise employees, also known as the basic pension insurance for urban workers, was in place. Moreover, at that time, the proportion of rural residents in our country was very large, and the urban population life expectancy was adopted to make the calculation more realistic. Of course, there have been huge changes now, and by the end of 2023, the urbanization rate in our country has reached 66.16%.

Additionally, the estimated account interest rate and investment return rate for individual accounts at that time was 4%. However, the actual account interest rate has been determined by the state since 2016 based on the social average wage and the balance of the fund. In 2016, it was as high as 8.31%, in 2017 it was 7.12%, and in 2018 it was 8.2%. Even in 2023, it was as high as 3.97%, which is much higher than the bank's deposit interest rate at the same period.

According to the logic at that time, it actually meant that the pension payment from the individual account would remain unchanged forever. In this case, by following the designated payment months, one would receive a corresponding share each month, and it would be exactly at the age of 75 that the balance of the individual account would be exhausted.

That is to say, it does not mean that a payment month number of 139 at the age of 60 means that the balance of the individual account will be exhausted after 139 months, but it will be extended to the age of 75.

However, reality is still changeable. According to the management method of the individual account of the pension insurance, if the pension increases, the withdrawal amount of the individual pension will also increase proportionally. For example, if the original individual account pension was 500 yuan, and after a 4% increase in the pension in 2024, the actual individual pension would increase by 4%, then the withdrawal amount from the individual account would become 520 yuan. In this case, especially in the previous years when the growth rate of pensions was relatively fast, some elderly people had exhausted their individual account balance just a few years after retirement.

Of course, even if the balance of the individual account of the pension insurance is zero, our retirement pension benefits will not be reduced. The统筹 account will pay the individual account pension until the insured person passes away. And it will still participate in the future pension increases.The above is the origin of the calculation of the number of months for our personal accounts in the pension insurance system. Welcome to follow Warm Heart, where we share more social security and financial knowledge with you. #The number of months for pension payment is 139, does it mean there is nothing after that?#