Super balance comparison

Your balance may currently be lower than others your age, but remember, median balances are just a guide and don’t consider your personal circumstances, retirement objectives, or whether you are on track to meet your retirement income needs.

Individual balances can vary widely for a number of reasons such as:

• Your income level
• Your employment type (full-time or part-time)
• The industry you work in
• The impact of career breaks
• Your super fund’s investment performance
• Super fund fees and charges
• If you’ve made any additional contributions.

These factors may all play a role in determining your super balance outcome.

Australian women generally retire with a lower super balance than men for a number of reasons.¹ These can include:

• Taking time out of the workforce to care for children or family
• Working part-time more often
• The gender pay gap (lower average wages than men).

As super is usually based on a percentage of income, these gaps can compound over time, resulting in less superannuation at retirement.

While legislative changes are helping to narrow this gap, there's also simple steps women can take to build their balance and improve their retirement outlook.

How much you’ll need is a tricky question – and the answer depends on things like:

• The lifestyle you want
• Your health and aged care costs
• Where you want to live and your housing costs
• Whether you keep working in retirement
• If you plan on taking an early retirement
• How long your money needs to last.

Our Retirement projection calculator can estimate your super balance and income in retirement and also help you understand how your retirement age, contributions and investment choices can make a difference.

That number’s different for everyone, but figuring out how much you'll need for the lifestyle you want is a great place to start.

There’s a few ways to work it out:

Use our Retirement lifestyle calculator

The Retirement lifestyle calculator can help you build a picture of your lifestyle in retirement and show you how much you'll need to achieve it.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Retirement Standard

ASFA provides an estimated annual budget retirees aged 65-84 would need each year to live a ‘modest’ or ‘comfortable’ lifestyle.¹

ASFA describes a ‘modest’ lifestyle as one that allows you to cover life’s basics, like groceries, bills and transport. A ‘comfortable’ lifestyle lets you pursue your hobbies, take out private health insurance, buy a reasonable car and travel.

Keep in mind, the numbers are just a rough guide. Your retirement might cost more or less depending on your lifestyle plans, health needs and whether you'll receive the Government Age Pension.

If your balance is falling short of where you want it to be, there’s a few things you could do to give it a boost:

Consider consolidating your super

Combining your super into one account could reduce fees and help you manage your account more easily. Before combining your super, consider whether you could lose any benefits, such as insurance cover, attached to your other accounts.

Review your investment options

Consider whether your investment options are still right for your financial goals.

Check your insurance cover

Review your insurance to make sure you're not paying for cover you no longer need.

Consider making extra contributions

Adding even small amounts to your super could make a significant difference to your retirement savings over time.

Contribute for your spouse

Spouse contributions or contributions splitting could boost your partner’s super if they’re not working.

Before making extra contributions, consider contribution caps, tax implications, when you can access your money, and whether it is right for your circumstances.

When comparing your super balance to others in the same age group as you, it can be more helpful to look at the median, and not the average, for a more typical representation of super balances.

The median super balance is the middle value, which means half of people have more than this amount, and half have less.

An average, on the other hand, adds up all balances and divides by the number of people. This can be skewed by a small number of very large or very small balances.

We’ve used the median because it provides a more representative picture of what people your age typically have in super.