The age-old debate, how much do you think you need to reach your retirement goals?
Independent consumer advocate Super Consumers Australia has updated its home-owner retirement savings targets to reflect changes in the cost of living and the Age Pension.
“Our retirement targets provide home-owning Australians with a ‘rule of thumb’ for what is needed to maintain living standards in retirement, based on actual retiree spending,” says Xavier O’Halloran, CEO of Super Consumers Australia.
“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. 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. These figures are designed to give people greater confidence to enjoy the income they’ll receive in retirement.”
“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. This means people might be closer than they think to their retirement savings goals.”
“Our targets are designed to get people more engaged with retirement planning, the next step is to get a more personalised picture of what you need to save and how to reach your goals.”
What are retirement savings targets?
Super Consumers Australia’s Retirement Savings Targets are an independent tool to help people start to work out how much they need to save for retirement. The targets offer savings goals that are based on:
- your age
- whether you are single or in a couple
- how much you want to spend when you are retired.
Based on these three things, the savings targets give you a starting point on how much to save in order to sustain your desired standard of living until age 90 – so long as you own your own home outright, or you otherwise aren’t paying rent or a mortgage.
Will you be retirement ready?
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