In brief
- There's a variety of benchmarks to help Australians figure out how much superannuation to aim for.
- Experts have provided tips for figuring out which one works for your circumstances.
For Australians wondering how much they need to retire, there are many different numbers and projections to make sense of.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) benchmark guide says Australian homeowners planning a comfortable retirement should aim to have a super balance of $630,000 for an individual, or $730,000 for a couple.
A recent study from the Monash Centre for Financial Studies found retirees with more than $400,000 in super were much more likely to sustain a comfortable level of income during retirement.
Meanwhile, Super Consumers Australia (SCA) has modelled that a typical single person who owns their home will need $322,000 when they retire, while a couple would need $432,000.
And all of those figures differ from the amount that Australians think they will need, according to a recent survey by Colonial First State.
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It found the average amount Australians now believe is needed for a comfortable retirement is more than $1 million.
More than half of respondents said they worry they won't have enough money to live comfortably.
So which numbers should you pay attention to, and how do you figure out what to actually aim for?
What the different numbers mean
Different models use different methods and assumptions to arrive at their headline figures.
ASFA's benchmarks, for example, use a budget-based estimate, breaking down what someone might spend on items like private health insurance, car upkeep, leisure, travel and home maintenance, in what they've categorised as either a "comfortable" or "modest" lifestyle.
SCA uses data on the spending patterns of retirees from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to generate its targets, which are lower than ASFA's.
"Both of these approaches have got different sorts of merit," Susan Thorp, a Monash University professor of banking and finance who specialises in retirement finance, told SBS News.
While the SCA numbers reflect real spending, it's hard to determine whether people are actually happy with that lifestyle, she told SBS News.
"The 'what do people really do' number is somewhat constrained, because we really don't know whether what people are doing is what they want to do, or whether they're just managing with what they have, and they'd actually like to have more," she said.
As for the ASFA standard, the constraint there is whether the budgeted spending patterns fit with your lifestyle, she said.
The $400,000 number from Monash represents something different again.
Rather than estimating how much people need to spend in retirement, researchers looked at how likely different super balances were to sustain a comfortable income over time.
Their modelling found retirees were much less likely to exhaust their savings once balances exceeded about $400,000.
While benchmarks and figures are not a one-size-fits-all approach, they can be a helpful prompt to get people to engage with retirement planning.
"Ultimately, they're just a starting point, they're not the end point," Katrina Ellis, deputy CEO of SCA, told SBS News.
"They're not the magic number that will suit everybody, and that's why it's really important to know your own number."
The $1 million question
Colonial First State's survey data suggests Australians believe they need more than $1 million to retire comfortably.
That figure has risen substantially since its last survey, in 2025, amid cost of living pressures and growing concerns about financial security.
But Ellis said this perception of what's needed is, in many cases, misguided and can cause unnecessary alarm for Australians approaching retirement age.
"The wealth management industry as a whole has sort of contributed to these inflated numbers that are out there," she said.
"A really key thing that perhaps is not obvious to people about superannuation and retirement is that actually, your super is there to be spent.
"These million dollar numbers sort of come around when people think about just living off the earnings of their super and not touching their balance," she said."If that's what you want to do, you're going to need to have a much higher balance to just live off the earnings. But that's not actually the point of super; that's not how it's intended to work.
"You are supposed to, over your retirement, spend the earnings, but also gradually spend down your super as well."
How to figure out your number
There is a range of tools that Australians can use to estimate what they might need to retire.
The federal government's financial literacy tool, Moneysmart, has a calculator that allows users to step through how much they currently have and earn, their future lifestyle goals, and ultimately what they'll need at retirement age and how long those savings will last.
Some superannuation funds also offer tools, and Thorp said people can also generally ask their funds for guidance.
However, she warned against using artificial intelligence bots to run the numbers, noting that many of them draw information from sources outside Australia, such as the United States, which might not have the same social safety nets as Australia.
"The Age Pension is fundamentally important to the way we can think about retirement in Australia, and it protects us from a great deal of hardship when we're older," she said.
Ellis suggested people start by mapping out a budget, and assessing their lifestyle, spending, family and health needs.
She said it's also important for Australians nearing retirement to become familiar with the process and eligibility for the Age Pension.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is general in nature and is not intended as financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional to make the decisions that are right for you.
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