How much super do I need to retire?

When people ask me this question, they usually want a number. A target. Something concrete they can measure themselves against — because a number feels like control.

But after seventeen years of sitting across the desk from Australians in their fifties and sixties, I can tell you the question underneath this question is rarely about the number. It’s about something quieter. Will I be okay? Will my partner be okay? Am I going to have to keep working past the age I want to? Those are the real questions — and they don’t have a one-size lump-sum answer. So instead of a number that may or may not apply to your life, I want to teach you the things that actually determine whether you’ll be okay.

Meet Manny Tran, Director & Senior Financial Adviser at Plan My Wealth →

What “enough” actually means

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) publishes the benchmark most Australians have heard. As at late 2025, ASFA estimates a homeowner couple needs around $76,505 a year for a comfortable retirement, and a single around $54,240 a year — with suggested lump sums of roughly $690,000 for a couple and $595,000 for a single.

Those numbers give you a rough orientation, but they assume you own your home, retire at 67, and live to about 85 — on a “comfortable” lifestyle as ASFA defines it. Want overseas holidays? Your number is higher. Planning to rent? It climbs much higher. Retiring at 60 lifts it again.

But here’s the part that surprises people: if your expectations are modest, you own your home, and you’re willing to draw a part Age Pension, your number is often much lower than the headlines suggest. I’ve sat with couples convinced they needed $1.2 million who walked out understanding they were already on track with $550,000. The number isn’t the point. The fit between your money and your life is the point.

Official source: ASFA — Retirement Standard (comfortable and modest budgets, updated quarterly)

The Age Pension is doing more work than you think

This is the single most common misunderstanding I see. Australians of your generation often assume they won’t qualify for the Age Pension, or that a “only” part-pension isn’t worth thinking about. Both assumptions cost people years of unnecessary worry.

As at the September 2025 indexation, the full Age Pension pays around $31,223 a year for a single and $47,070 a year for a couple combined — including the pension and energy supplements, and indexed again every March and September. A homeowner couple can hold hundreds of thousands in super and investments outside their home and still receive a meaningful part-pension; the upper asset cut-off for a couple is currently around $1.05 million in assessable assets.

For most retirees we work with, the Age Pension ends up funding 30 to 50 per cent of their retirement income. If your lifestyle costs $75,000 a year and the pension contributes $25,000, your super only needs to fund the remaining $50,000. The mountain you thought you were climbing turns out to be a hill. This isn’t a loophole — the system was designed for super and the pension to work together.

Official source: Services Australia — Age Pension (current rates, supplements, and asset thresholds)

Your home is part of your retirement, even if you never sell it

Your family home is your single most powerful retirement asset — and not just because of what it’s worth. It does three things at once.

First, it’s exempt from the Age Pension assets test. Whether your home is worth $400,000 or $1.4 million, it doesn’t count against your pension. This is why so many “asset-rich, cash-poor” Australians qualify for more pension than they expect.

Second, it removes rent from your budget. The single biggest difference between a comfortable retirement and a stressful one today is whether you own your home outright by the time you stop working. A homeowner couple and a renter couple who both need $75,000 a year live in completely different financial universes.

Third, it’s an option in reserve. Downsizing later can release tax-effective contributions back into super — the downsizer contribution lets eligible Australians 55 and over add up to $300,000 each from the sale of their home. The Home Equity Access Scheme is there if you ever need it. You don’t have to use these. You just have them.

Official source: ATO — Downsizer super contributions

What retirement actually costs (and how it changes)

Here’s something nobody tells you in your fifties: retirement doesn’t have one cost. It has at least three phases, and they cost different amounts.

First 10–15 years · 60s & early 70sThe active phase

Your most expensive phase. You’re healthy, you have time, you travel, take up hobbies, renovate, help the kids. People often spend more in their first five years of retirement than in their last working years.

Mid-70s to early 80sThe settled phase

Travel slows. The big discretionary spending eases. Health costs start ticking up but don’t dominate yet. For most retirees, this is the cheapest phase.

80s and beyondThe supported phase

Health and care costs rise, sometimes significantly, and aged-care contributions become a possibility. Some retirees never need much support; others need a lot.

This matters because a plan that assumes a flat $75,000 a year for 30 years gives the wrong picture. A good plan front-loads the lifestyle spending, allows for the quieter middle, and reserves capacity for later. The question changes from “do I have enough for thirty years?” to “do I have enough for the next ten, with a sensible plan for what comes after?” — a far less scary question.

The thing nobody warns you about: one of you will outlive the other

This is the conversation I introduce gently with couples, because most haven’t had it. Statistically, one partner will live several years longer than the other — often more than five.

The planning consequences are significant. The survivor moves from the couple pension rate to the single rate, and the combined household pension drops by roughly a third. Many costs don’t fall to match — rates, insurance, and utility standing charges stay much the same for one person as two, and some costs rise, because jobs the other partner did (driving, repairs, gardening) now have to be paid for.

A plan that’s just adequate for both of you can become genuinely difficult for the survivor. Planning for this isn’t morbid — it’s one of the most loving things you can do. It often shapes how we structure contributions, split super between two people, think about insurance, and approach estate planning. Don’t plan for two people. Plan for two people and the survivor.

What “running out” actually looks like

The fear most pre-retirees carry — sometimes consciously, often not — is running out of money. It sits underneath the avoidance, the late-night worry, the reluctance to spend on things you’d enjoy.

Here’s what I want you to understand. For homeowner Australians with even modest super and a partial pension, “running out” almost never looks like reaching zero. It looks like a gradual narrowing of choices — the overseas trip becomes a domestic one, dinners out become less frequent, the car is kept an extra five years.

The Age Pension is the floor, and by design it doesn’t disappear. As your super draws down and your assessable assets fall, your pension entitlement actually increases — the system is built to step in more as your private savings reduce. A retiree who started with $400,000 and a part-pension is often, by their late 80s, on a near-full pension. Their lifestyle changes, but the floor holds. That doesn’t mean be careless — it means the catastrophic outcome you may quietly fear is far rarer here than the worry suggests.

The decisions that matter most in your last decade of work

If you’re 50 to 60, the decisions you make in the next ten years will shape your retirement more than anything after you stop working. These are the ones that matter most.

Contributing extra while you still earn

The Superannuation Guarantee is now 12% (since 1 July 2025). Salary-sacrifice up to the $30,000 concessional cap, or use the carry-forward rule if your balance was under $500,000 at the previous 30 June, and you can recover years of unused cap. Every dollar contributed in your fifties has fifteen-plus years to compound.

Reviewing your investment option

Many Australians sit in the MySuper default their whole working life. A 55-year-old has a different risk profile and time horizon than a 35-year-old — and a different one again from a 65-year-old. This is worth a conversation.

Consolidating thoughtfully

Multiple accounts mean duplicate fees and sometimes duplicate insurance. Consolidating can save tens of thousands over a decade — but check the insurance in each account before closing anything. Losing valuable cover by accident is one of the most painful mistakes I see.

Deciding when to actually stop

The gap between retiring at 60 and at 65 is enormous — five fewer years for your super to fund, plus five more years of compounding. Sometimes the best plan is “work two more years than you wanted to.” Sometimes it’s “you can stop now, you just didn’t realise it.”

Talking to your partner properly about all of this

I can’t count the couples where one partner has silently worried for years and the other had no idea. The conversation alone — facilitated by a third party who handles the numbers — often relieves more weight than any strategy we put in place.

When to get help

You can navigate most of this yourself if your situation is simple — one income, one super account, modest assets, comfortable with the default option, happy to retire at preservation age. For an independent, government-backed tool, use Moneysmart’s Retirement Planner (Moneysmart is ASIC’s consumer financial guidance service).

The reason to get help is rarely that the numbers are complicated. It’s that you’ve been carrying the worry alone too long, and it’s starting to affect things it shouldn’t — your sleep, your relationship, your willingness to enjoy the life you’ve worked for. When clients sit with us at Bundoora, what they’re really paying for isn’t a financial plan — it’s the chance to put the weight down. That’s the heart of our superannuation and retirement planning in Melbourne service. Sometimes the answer is “you’re fine, here’s one small change, see us in two years.” Sometimes it’s a meaningful course correction. But it’s always better than the years of not knowing.

Official tool: Moneysmart (ASIC) — Retirement Planner

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