Is your super on track?

Ensuring you'll be able to meet basic living costs in retirement is an important part of securing your financial future. But do you know if you're saving enough to support your chosen lifestyle?

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia's (ASFA) Retirement Standard benchmarks the annual budget needed by Australians to fund the lifestyle they expect to live during retirement. It calculates the cost of a 'modest' or 'comfortable' retirement lifestyle based on the current cost of living, giving you a clear and realistic savings target for retirement.

ASFA's Retirement Standard is updated quarterly to reflect inflation. Since its launch in 2004, the Standard has also been revised to reflect changes in retirees' lifestyle expectations and their evolving spending patterns.

What's the difference between a modest and a comfortable lifestyle?

A modest retirement lifestyle is one that can fund basic activities, but is still considered better than the Commonwealth government's Age Pension.

A comfortable retirement lifestyle allows an older, healthy retiree to participate in a range of leisure and recreational activities. It affords the purchase of items such as household goods, private health insurance, a decent car, good clothes, a variety of electronic equipment and occasional international travel.

ASFA Retirement Standard figures

ASFA's Retirement Standard provides detailed budgets of what singles and couples would spend each year to fund their chosen lifestyle. The budgets relate to household expenditure and assume that retirees own their home.

According to ASFA, a single person aged around 65¹ living a modest lifestyle would spend around $35,503 a year, while couples would spend $51,299.

For singles and couples around the same age living a comfortable lifestyle, these amounts increase to $54,840 and $77,375 a year, respectively.

To reflect the different priorities and spending patterns of older retirees, there are separate budget guidelines for those aged around 85². For this group of retirees, a single person living a modest lifestyle would spend around $33,470 a year, while couples would spend $47,999 a year. For singles and couples around the same age living a comfortable lifestyle, these amounts increase to $52,235 and $72,093 a year, respectively.

For the full ASFA Retirement Standard report and detailed budget breakdowns, visit the ASFA website. To check out what budget you are likely to need in retirement, use the ASFA Retirement Standard Calculator.

How to grow your super

A study conducted by ASFA^¹ revealed that Australian retirees may face an income shortfall if they depend on their employer's super contributions alone. To save for a more comfortable retirement, it's important to add to your super if you can afford to.

Here are a few tips on how you can grow your super:

• Extra contributions: pay an extra portion of your before-tax or after-tax income into your super account
• Spouse contributions: grow your joint retirement savings by making a contribution to your spouse's super account. You may also receive some tax benefits
• Commonwealth Government Super Co-contribution: take advantage of a contribution from the government that could match up to 50% of your personal after-tax contributions. You need to meet certain criteria to qualify for a Super Co-contribution
• Commonwealth government low-income superannuation tax offset (LISTO): if you are a low-income earner you may be eligible for a super contribution from the Commonwealth government to help you save for retirement. Only before-tax contributions made to GESB Super accounts are eligible for the LISTO.
• Roll in: if you have accounts with other super providers, consider combining your funds into one account. You'll have only one account to look after, which will reduce your fees and help make sure your super doesn't become lost or unclaimed
• Find lost super: track down your super from previous employers. This is important to avoid your super being transferred to the Australian Taxation Office

More information

Use our Retirement planning calculator to work out how much super you are likely to have and how long it will last.

Learn more about growing your super and planning for retirement in the super and retirement sections of this website, or by registering for one of our retirement planning seminars.

1 The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), Retirement Standard, aged around 67, December quarter 2025.
2 The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), Retirement Standard, aged over 85, December quarter 2025.