Planning For Your Retirement

Everyone will retire at some stage so the earlier you can start planning your super for it the better. Here are our tips for setting up your best retired life.

Step one: Understand how much you'll need

First, you need to consider the retirement you want: is it a modest life spent with family or one sailing into the sunset without a care in the world? Will you have access to other streams of incomes at that time (like property investments)? Remaining debts? Ongoing expenses (like medical or rent)? Younger people also need to consider rising life expectancy as a factor for when they predict they will retire, and for how long for they will be retired for.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) have put together a handy guide as to how much the average retiree spends on the essentials.

A modest vs comfortable lifestyle in retirement

What exactly does a 'modest' and 'comfortable' retirement look like? Take these comparisons, for example.


Modest lifestyle of a couple	Expenditure items	Comfortable lifestyle of a couple
Eat in everyday	Food	Local restaurants dining on weekends
Cask of wine	Drinks	15$ bottles of wine
Only on special	Clothing	Monthly purchase
Local areas	Leisure	Interstate holidays
Netflix	Entertainment	Going out to movies
$765	Total p/week	$1,172
$39,755	Total p/year	$60,977

Super and retirement calculator

See how much super you could have to spend in retirement and explore different ways to help boost your super balance.

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Retirement budget calculator

Use the retirement budget calculator to review what you spend now, as well as the lifestyle changes retirement brings. It only takes a few simple steps.

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Retirement Health Check

Check your super is ready to retire in just a few minutes. You’ll receive a personal report as well as ideas to get your super on track

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Tip: ASFA estimated a comfortable retirement at $39,755 p.a for a single and $60,977264 p.a for a couple (around 65 years of age).

Step three: Start your Superannuation retirement planning

Once you have the information you need, you can start to look at any lifestyle or contribution changes required to get where you want to be.

Do you need access to your cash at all times? Or are you comfortable having it tied in investments?
Do you have a low or high tolerance to risky investments?
Do you feel confident managing the fund yourself?

You may also want to consider an 'account-based pension', where you withdraw a set amount on a regular basis rather than all at once. This is so your super can continue to work for you and grow after you retire.;