Retirement Planning Calculators

How Much Do You Actually Need to Retire Comfortably in Australia?

The number most people hear is $1 million. The honest answer is: it depends — on your lifestyle, whether you own your home, what age you retire, and whether you'll qualify for any age pension. Here's a practical breakdown.

ASFA comfortable vs modest retirement

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) publishes quarterly benchmarks for retirement living standards. As of 2025, a comfortable retirement for a couple costs around $73,000/year and requires approximately $690,000 in super at age 67. A modest retirement (above the pension level but limited lifestyle) costs around $46,500/year for a couple. Singles need more relative to couples — roughly $52,000/year for comfortable, requiring around $595,000 in super. These figures assume you own your home outright. Renters need significantly more to cover rent in retirement.

Use the Retirement Savings calculator to project whether your current trajectory gets you to your target number, and the Super Balance Growth calculator to model different contribution and return scenarios.

Preservation age — when can you actually touch your super?

You can't access your super just because you feel like retiring. The preservation age depends on your birth year: born before 1 July 1964, your preservation age is 60. If you were born on or after 1 July 1964, it's 60. Wait — it's now 60 for everyone born before 1 July 1964. For those born after that date, the preservation age is still 60 as of the 2025 rules. The real access milestone is reaching preservation age AND meeting a condition of release — most commonly retiring or turning 65. You can also access super early under specific hardship conditions, but these are strictly defined by the ATO.

Transition to Retirement (TTR) — how it works

Once you reach preservation age (60), you can start a Transition to Retirement Income Stream (TRIS) even if you keep working. You can draw down up to 10% of the balance annually. This lets you reduce your working hours while supplementing income from super, OR continue full-time work while drawing from super and salary sacrificing more in — effectively boosting your net super balance through the tax advantages. A TTR strategy requires careful modelling — get advice from a licensed financial adviser before starting one, as the tax treatment changed significantly in 2017 and the benefits depend heavily on your personal tax position.

The Age Pension — what you might be entitled to

The Age Pension is available from age 67 (for both men and women born after 1 January 1957). As of 2025, the maximum full pension is around $1,116/fortnight for singles and $1,682/fortnight for couples combined. Whether you qualify depends on the income test AND the assets test — whichever reduces your pension the most is the one that applies. The assets test excludes your primary residence, which is why home ownership dramatically changes retirement outcomes. A couple with $850,000 in combined super and no other assets would receive a part pension under current thresholds. Use the Super Comparison calculator to assess different fund options as your balance grows.

Salary sacrificing in your final working years

If you're within 10 years of retirement and have capacity to increase contributions, salary sacrifice is one of the most effective tools available. Contributions into super are taxed at 15% instead of your marginal rate. If you're on $120,000 and marginal rate of 34.5%, every extra $10,000 into super instead of as take-home pay saves you $1,950 in tax. The concessional (before-tax) contributions cap is $30,000/year including employer contributions. The carry-forward rule lets you use unused concessional cap from the previous five years if your balance is below $500,000 — this can be powerful in the years before retirement.

For a readable deep dive into preparing for retirement, The Retirement Puzzle by Bruce Brammall is Australian-specific and practical without being patronising.

Downsizer contributions — boosting super from your home

From age 55, if you sell a home you've owned for at least 10 years, you can contribute up to $300,000 per person ($600,000 per couple) into super as a downsizer contribution. This sits outside the normal contribution caps and is not subject to the total super balance limits that normally cut off non-concessional contributions. It's one of the few remaining large lump sum super entry points for people with most of their wealth tied up in property. The contribution must be made within 90 days of settlement. Talk to your super fund and a financial adviser before selling.