The Short Version
According to ASFA’s updated Retirement Standard, a single homeowner needs approximately $630,000 in super to retire comfortably at 67. A couple needs around $730,000.
Most Australians retire with significantly less than this. The average balance at retirement is around $400,000 for men and $350,000 for women.
The gap between where most people end up and where they need to be is not fixed. Small changes made earlier in your working life make a huge difference.
If you have no idea where you stand right now, that is the first thing worth fixing.
How Much Super Do You Actually Need to Retire in Australia
Most women I speak to have a vague sense that their super probably isn’t where it should be. What they don’t have is a number. They haven’t done the sums, haven’t looked at the projections, and if they’re honest, they’ve been quietly hoping the whole thing would sort itself out. I get it. I spent years doing exactly the same thing, and I was an accountant.
The problem with not having a number is that you can’t measure whether you’re on track, and you can’t make useful decisions without something to aim at. So let’s start there.
What ‘Comfortable’ Actually Means
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, or ASFA, publishes what it calls the Retirement Standard, which is a regularly updated estimate of what Australians actually need in retirement. Their most recent figures, updated in late 2025, set the benchmark for a comfortable retirement at $630,000 for a single homeowner and $730,000 for a couple.
It’s worth being clear about what comfortable means in this context, because it’s not lavish. ASFA describes it as covering daily essentials, some home maintenance, dining out occasionally, a reasonable car, private health insurance, and one modest holiday a year. It presumes you own your home outright and that you’ll draw a partial Age Pension on top of your super income. It’s a decent life. It is not a life of abundance.
A modest retirement, one step down from comfortable, provides an annual income of around $35,000 a year for a single person and around $51,000 a year for a couple. This puts you slightly above what the Age Pension alone provides, but not by much. For most women, this is not the retirement they’re hoping for.
Where Most Australians Actually End Up
Here is the part that tends to hit hard. According to ASFA data and Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2025, the average super balance at retirement, for people aged 60 to 64, is approximately $400,000 to $420,000 for men and $350,000 to $360,000 for women. That’s already well short of the comfortable retirement benchmark for a single person, and the gap for women is wider still.
Around one in four Australians over 60 have less than $200,000 in super. Many of them will rely almost entirely on the Age Pension, which currently pays around $29,000 to $44,000 a year depending on circumstances. That is enough to live on, carefully. It is not enough to feel financially free.
I’m not sharing these numbers to frighten you. I’m sharing them because the gap between where most people end up and where the benchmark sits is not a gap that’s impossible to close, especially if you’re reading this while you still have time on your side. Small, consistent actions made in your 40s look very different by your 60s. That is not motivational fluff. That is just how compounding works.
What ASFA’s Benchmark by Age Looks Like
ASFA also publishes recommended super balances by age, which gives you a more useful measure than the retirement target alone. These are the figures for someone aiming for a comfortable retirement at 67, based on 2025 data.
| Age | Recommended Balance |
|---|---|
| Age 30 | Approximately $66,500 |
| Age 40 | Approximately $168,000 |
| Age 50 | Approximately $296,000 |
| Age 67 | Approximately $630,000 (single) or $730,000 (couple) |
Source: ASFA Retirement Standard (updated Q4 2025) and ASFA Super Balance Detective calculator. Figures are in today’s dollars. Assumes home ownership with no mortgage at retirement.
These are benchmarks, not verdicts. If you’re 40 and nowhere near $168,000, that is not a reason to give up on retirement planning. It’s a reason to start making different decisions now rather than waiting until the decade before retirement to pay attention.
What these numbers do is give you something to work with. They make the vague concern concrete. And once it’s concrete, you can actually do something about it.
Why Women Are More Likely to Fall Short
If you’re a woman reading this, there is a reasonable chance your super balance is lower than the average figures above suggest it should be. This is not accidental, and it is not because women are worse with money. It is structural.
Women in Australia retire with around 23 percent less super than men on average, according to ASFA. The gap in median balances for women and men aged 60 to 64 was around $53,000 as of 2024, according to the Australian Government’s Status of Women Report Card. The reasons are interconnected: a gender pay gap that still sits around 12 percent nationally, higher rates of part-time and casual work, and career breaks for caregiving that can remove years of employer contributions entirely.
The 12 percent superannuation guarantee only accumulates when you’re being paid. Every year spent out of the workforce, or working fewer hours, is a year your super isn’t growing, and the compounding effect of that loss stretches decades into the future. A two-year career break at 32 is not just two years of missed contributions. It’s two years of contributions that would have compounded for 35 more years before retirement.
One thing I do want to flag here: from 1 July 2025, the government started paying super on the Paid Parental Leave scheme for the first time. If you have a baby born or adopted on or after that date and you’re receiving government parental leave pay, a super contribution of 12 percent goes in on top of it. It won’t close the gap on its own, but it’s a meaningful step, and it’s worth knowing about if it applies to you.
This is not meant to be alarming. It’s meant to be honest, because the women who come to me in their 50s wishing they’d paid attention sooner are not unusual. They’re the majority.
The Age Pension: Safety Net, Not Retirement Plan
A lot of people carry a quiet assumption that the Age Pension will fill the gaps. It might. But it’s worth understanding what it actually provides. The current full Age Pension is approximately $29,000 per year for a single person and around $44,000 for a couple. To qualify, your assets and income must fall below certain thresholds, which means the Age Pension was designed as a safety net, not as a primary retirement income.
Relying on it as your main source of income in retirement is possible. It just means very careful budgeting for potentially 25 or 30 years. Given that Australian women now live to an average age of around 85, that’s a long time to be managing on a tight income.
The point isn’t that the Age Pension is bad. The point is that having your own super, even a modest amount above the benchmark, gives you choice. It gives you the ability to repair the roof without anxiety, to fly to see your grandchildren, to say yes to things without doing the maths three times first.
What Actually Moves the Needle
There are a few levers that genuinely make a meaningful difference to super outcomes, and most of them don’t require a lot of money upfront.
Salary sacrifice
This is where you ask your employer to divert a portion of your pre-tax salary directly into your super, above the standard 12 percent employer contribution. Because the contribution comes from pre-tax income, you’re effectively paying 15 percent tax on that money instead of your marginal income tax rate, which for most people is somewhere between 32 and 47 percent. The saving is real, and over a long timeframe it compounds significantly.
The number I come back to again and again with clients is $20 a week. Because salary sacrifice contributions are taxed at just 15 percent rather than your marginal income tax rate, that $20 actually costs you around $13 out of your take-home pay. Started at 18 and maintained until retirement, that $20 a week becomes approximately $367,000 in additional super. I used this with my own sons when they started their first jobs, and they’ll be very glad for it when they’re in their 60s.
Consolidate lost super
The ATO estimates that billions of dollars in super is sitting in inactive accounts across Australia. If you’ve changed jobs over the years and never merged your accounts, there’s a reasonable chance you have super scattered across two or three funds, each one charging fees. Combining them into a single account through myGov takes about 20 minutes, though before you consolidate, always check whether any of your existing super accounts hold insurance policies. Closing an account means losing the insurance attached to it, so it is worth reviewing coverage before you make any moves.
Check your investment option
Most Australians are in their fund’s default investment option, which is usually a balanced fund. Depending on your age and risk tolerance, a growth or high-growth option might be more appropriate, particularly if you’re decades away from retirement. A difference of even one percent in annual returns compounded over 25 years makes a very significant difference to your final balance.
Top up when you can
End of financial year contributions, inheritance, bonuses, even tax refunds can all be added to super as personal after-tax contributions. If your income is under $62,488, you may also be eligible for the government co-contribution, which adds up to $500 to your super when you put in $1,000 of your own money. This is genuinely free money that most eligible women never claim.
A change coming in 2026 worth knowing about now
There is also a change coming in 2026 that I think every woman in casual or part-time work needs to know about. From 1 July 2026, employers will be legally required to pay your super at the same time as your wages, within seven days of each payday. Right now they only have to pay quarterly, which means your contributions can sit unpaid for months at a time and you’re missing out on compounding growth. For women on irregular or lower-paid work, that delay adds up to thousands of dollars by retirement. If that’s you, it’s worth checking now that your employer is paying your super correctly. The rules around enforcement tighten significantly from mid-2026.
Where to Start if You’ve Never Really Looked
If you’ve read this far and realised you have no idea how much super you have, that’s actually a better position than it sounds, because at least now you know that you need to find out.
Step one is to log in to myGov, link your ATO account, and look at your super balances. It takes ten minutes. From there, you’ll be able to see how much you have, how many accounts you have, and which fund your money is sitting in and what fees you are being charged. That’s your starting point.
What you do next depends on your age, your income, your situation, and your goals. There’s no single right answer that applies to everyone. What I do know is that the women who get to their 60s feeling genuinely calm about their finances are not the ones who were born lucky. They’re the ones who got informed early enough to do something about it.
If you’re ready to go deeper, My Money Makeover is Jen’s 7-module online program that takes you from awareness to a calm, practical money system — including a full module on superannuation in plain English.
Limitations: This article contains general information about superannuation in Australia. It does not account for individual circumstances, including employment history, income, investment choices, fund performance, or plans to retire at an age other than 67. Superannuation rules, benchmarks, and government schemes can change. For guidance specific to your situation, speaking with a qualified financial adviser is worth considering.
Disclaimer: This article contains general financial information only and is not personal financial advice. Your financial situation is unique. Before making any financial decisions, please consider whether this information is appropriate for your circumstances and seek advice from a qualified financial professional if needed.
Sources
- ASFA Retirement Standard, Q4 2025. Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. superannuation.asn.au
- ASFA Research: An Update on Superannuation Account Balances, September 2024. superannuation.asn.au
- Australian Government Status of Women Report Card 2024. genderequality.gov.au
- Wealthlab Financial Planners: How Much Money Do Most People Retire With in Australia? 2026 Update. wealthlab.com.au
- AustralianSuper: How Much Super Should You Have. australiansuper.com
- MoneySmart, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). moneysmart.gov.au
- AustralianSuper: Superannuation Changes — July 2025 Updates. australiansuper.com
- Australian Government Treasury Ministers: New Legislation Passes to Ensure Super is Paid on Time, November 2025. ministers.treasury.gov.au
