Retirement Planning
Australia 2026 — Are You On Track?

ASFA's Retirement Standard targets are approximately $595,000 (single) and $690,000 (couple) for a Comfortable retirement at 67 — assuming you also receive at least part of the Age Pension. For a Modest standard the targets are about $100,000 (single) and $80,000 (couple), relying more on the Age Pension. The 4% rule (25× target spending) gives roughly $1.3M for a $52K Comfortable single income without Age Pension assistance — Age Pension entitlement materially lowers what super alone has to cover.

A common benchmark from AustralianSuper and other major funds is to have 0.5× your annual salary in super by 30, 1.5× by 40, 3× by 50, 6× by 60, and 8× by 67. So if you earn $80,000 at 40, having around $120,000 in super tracks. The calculator above projects your specific balance forward — pair with the milestone benchmarks for a fuller picture.

From 1 July 2024, preservation age is 60 for everyone (regardless of birth year). At preservation age, you can access super tax-free if you have permanently retired or are over 65. Between preservation age and 65, you can also use Transition to Retirement (TTR) to draw an income stream from super while still working — useful for either reducing hours or sacrificing more pre-tax income while replacing the drop from your TTR pension.

Age Pension eligibility is 67 for everyone born on or after 1 January 1957. Maximum payment is approximately $30,000/year (single) or $45,000/year (couple combined), indexed twice yearly. Both an assets test and an income test apply — whichever test produces the lower payment is the one that counts. Full pension cuts out around $695,500 in assets (single homeowner) or $1,045,500 (couple combined homeowner).

Full Age Pension: assets up to roughly $314,000 (single homeowner) or $470,000 (couple combined homeowner). Above that, the payment reduces by $3 per fortnight per $1,000 of assessable assets. Your principal home is exempt from the assets test. Super is fully assessable once you reach Age Pension age. Investments, cars, household contents at market value, and overseas property all count. Higher thresholds apply to non-homeowners (because they need more wealth to fund equivalent housing costs).

Super is your own accumulated retirement savings (taxed in accumulation, mostly tax-free at retirement). Age Pension is a means-tested government payment funded from general tax revenue. They interact: a higher super balance reduces Age Pension entitlement through the assets and income tests, but the marginal trade-off is favourable — roughly 70¢ of pension lost per $1 of super income produced means super wealth still nets you more total income than relying on the Age Pension alone.

The 4% rule comes from US data (Bengen 1994, Trinity 1998) and assumes a 50–75% equity allocation. Australian researchers have suggested a starting safe rate of 3.5–4.2% given Australian valuations, lower bond yields, and the absence of the same Social Security inflation hedge — though Age Pension entitlement creates a similar income floor at 67 for most Australians. A common adjustment: use 4% on the portion of spending not covered by expected Age Pension; use the income-test-aware sustainable rate for the supplemented portion.

Salary sacrifice contributions are taxed at 15% in super (instead of your marginal rate up to 47% including Medicare levy). For most working Australians on income above $45,000, salary-sacrificing $100 pre-tax results in $85 in super vs $66 in hand — a meaningful boost. The concessional contributions cap is $30,000/year (2024–25), inclusive of Super Guarantee. The catch-up rule lets you carry forward unused cap room for 5 years if your total super balance is below $500,000.

Between preservation age (60) and full retirement, you can start a TTR pension from your super — drawing 4–10% of the pension balance per year. The earnings on the TTR pension are taxed at 15% (the same as accumulation, unlike full retirement pensions which are tax-free). TTR is most powerful when paired with salary sacrifice: you reduce working hours or replace lost income, and the salary-sacrifice savings recycle into super at a tax-advantaged rate.

No. Richify is a personal-finance education, tracking, and projection tool. It does not provide financial product advice or tax advice and is not authorised by ASIC to provide personal financial advice. The readiness calculator produces an illustrative projection based on the figures you enter and simplified assumptions — not a forecast or guarantee. Verify your circumstances with an AFSL-holder licensed financial adviser or registered tax agent.