Independent advocacy group Super Consumers Australia has released new data indicating how much superannuation savings a person needs in combination with the age pension to maintain their expected lifestyle in retirement.
“Our targets show a typical single needs around $310,000 in super and a couple needs around $420,000 in super when they retire to maintain their living standards through their retirement,” Super Consumers Australia chief executive Xavier O’Halloran revealed.
“Combined with income from the age pension, homeowners with this amount of super can reliably provide an annual amount of $43,000 and $62,000 until age 90.
“Most people will access the age pension at some point in retirement. When combined with earnings from super, over the long term the retirement system is designed to provide significant protection against cost-of-living increases.”
The figures have been published as a result of Super Consumers Australia updating its homeowner savings targets to reflect the current cost-of-living level and changes to the age pension.
“Our retirement targets provide homeowning Australians with a rule of thumb for what is needed to maintain living standards in retirement, based on actual retiree spending,” O’Halloran explained.
He noted the material impact the current rate of inflation is having in relation to retirement planning.
“The savings targets for 65 year olds with medium or high spending needs are respectively 10 and 15 per cent higher than last year. Positively, people with their super in a typical balanced fund would have seen their balances grow by about 13 per cent over the same time period, helping to cover the increases,” he said.
“This means people might be closer than they think to their retirement savings goals.”
He emphasised the data is being produced to encourage Australians to become more engaged with their retirement funding needs and encouraged individuals to go further to glean a more accurate picture of what their specific situation requires.