How much super do I need to retire at 60, 65 or 67?

The super needed at retirement depends on when withdrawals start, what the household spends, whether it owns its home and whether an Age Pension later helps. A balance benchmark for somebody still working answers a different question. Our super targets by age post compares milestones while saving; this article estimates a starting balance at retirement at three possible ages.

There is no universal target. The main comparison below holds one single homeowner's spending constant to isolate the effect of retirement age. Later sections show what changes for a couple and why a renter needs a separate budget. All modelled balances are in today's dollars.

What annual spending should the balance support?

The ASFA Retirement Standard detailed tables give these annual budgets for retirees aged 65–84 in the June quarter 2026. They are spending benchmarks, not required super balances. The renter budgets cover a modest lifestyle and include private rent after Rent Assistance in ASFA's assumptions. A renter who cannot receive that assistance, or whose rent differs, needs to adjust the spending input.

ASFA does not publish a comfortable renter budget in this table. The homeowner budgets assume a home owned outright, so a mortgage payment would need to be added separately. Using the 65–84 budget at age 60, and keeping it constant to age 92, are simplifying choices in this article. ASFA publishes different budgets for homeowners over 85; the model does not switch spending to that older age band. The Super Drawdown Calculator lets you enter a different annual amount and compare it without an Age Pension.

Why ASFA's lump sums are different

ASFA also gives age-67 lump-sum estimates. These allow for the Age Pension (a part pension in the comfortable case) and ASFA's own return, inflation and drawdown assumptions. Its homeowner estimates were revised in February 2026 rather than recalculated with every quarterly spending budget. Do not read them as the site's age-60 or age-65 results.

ASFA's renter lump sums are useful independent benchmarks. The site's retirement-income engine does not add Rent Assistance, while ASFA's renter budget is stated after that assistance. This article therefore does not claim an engine-modelled starting balance for a renter. A renter can use the Age Pension Calculator for an indicative means-test position and test their actual gross spending in the drawdown tool.

Estimated starting balance at 60, 65 and 67

The table uses ASFA's $56,166 comfortable single-homeowner annual budget. For each age, the site's retirement-income engine searches starting balances in $10,000 steps for the first that funds that spending to age 92. It reruns the Age Pension income and assets tests as the balance changes. The super-only column uses the site's drawdown engine for the same spending and horizon but excludes a pension. The starting balance is assumed available at the stated retirement age; there is no modelled saving or growth before that age. There are no other assessable assets, savings or income.

These estimates are not intended to be relied on for a decision about a financial product; consider obtaining advice from someone who holds an Australian Financial Services Licence before making a financial decision.

What the projection assumes

The model uses a 4.9% annual net investment return, the conservative option in Moneysmart's published calculator assumptions, and 2.5% retirement-phase inflation for today's-dollar spending under ASIC RG 276.188. The engines apply these as a 2.34% real return (1.049 divided by 1.025, minus 1). “Conservative” is Moneysmart's option label, not a floor on returns. The engine assumes a steady return and spending path. Real returns fluctuate, can be negative and can hurt more when poor years arrive early in retirement.

The projection ends at age 92, consistent with the default endpoint ASIC describes for covered retirement forecasts in RG 276.143–147. It is a model horizon, not a life-expectancy prediction or a guarantee that money will last beyond that age. If projecting a balance forward before retirement, today's-dollar super amounts use ASIC's 3.7% accumulation-phase wage-inflation deflator, rather than the retirement-phase rate. This article starts at retirement and does not project that accumulation period.

Current Age Pension payment rates and means-test thresholds are held constant in today's dollars to avoid assuming a future wage-growth path. RG 276.194 suggests growing payment rates with wages and thresholds with prices. The flat-real payment assumption therefore understates future pension if payment rates outpace prices, pushing the pension column toward higher starting balances, the cautious side. Moneysmart's 4.9% is net of investment fees and tax, but the engine deducts no administration fee, and a fund's administration fees would raise the balances needed. Actual law, indexation, investment returns, fees, tax, housing costs, health spending and lifespan may differ. The model includes the applicable minimum account-based pension withdrawal and moves any unspent excess outside super as savings, where it still counts in the means tests. These are screening results, not ASFA figures or recommended targets.

When can you access super at each age?

ATO access guidance and Schedule 1 of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 separate preservation age from a condition of release. For people born after 30 June 1964, preservation age is 60. Reaching it alone does not give unrestricted access while continuing to work.

At 60, retirement can release preserved benefits without a cashing restriction. A person who continues to work may be eligible for a transition-to-retirement income stream, but that has cashing restrictions under Schedule 1. At 65, attaining that age is itself an unrestricted condition of release. At 67, the same age-65 super access rule still applies; 67 is the separate Age Pension eligibility age, subject to residence and means tests. You do not have to withdraw all super merely because you can access it, subject to your fund's rules.

The gap explains much of the table. At 60, there are 7 years before Age Pension eligibility. At 65, there are 2 years before Age Pension eligibility. At 67, there are 0 years before Age Pension eligibility, but eligibility does not mean a full pension. Compare retiring at 60 with $500,000 and retiring at 67 with $500,000 in the retire-at tool. Its published point pages do not include age 65; use the hub for nearby scenarios.

How does the Age Pension change the target?

A part pension can grow as super falls

Services Australia counts super in the assets test once its owner reaches Age Pension age and generally applies deeming in the income test. For an account-based pension, the amount actually withdrawn is generally not the deemed income used for that income test; income-stream assessment has exceptions for older products. Services Australia applies both tests and the lower payment rate governs. A balance may produce a part pension at first, then a larger pension after drawdown. Other assets, a partner's circumstances and other income can change that path.

The current assets-test full-pension limits and part-pension cut-offs are different for owners and non-homeowners. These are assessable assets, not a recommended amount of super; the principal home is generally excluded. The income test can reduce payment even when assets sit below the free area.

The full-pension free areas took effect on 1 July 2026, as the DSS historical table records; the listed part-pension cut-offs apply from 20 September 2026 under Services Australia's assets test. Services Australia says the cut-off can be higher if Rent Assistance is paid, and different rules can apply to some households. These figures do not establish an exact pension without the income test. Near a standard cut-off, a small positive calculated pension is lifted to the minimum Pension Supplement plus Energy Supplement: $61.60 a fortnight for a single person or $92.80 combined for a couple in the engine's fortnightly-payment case. It does not turn a nil pension into an entitlement.

Worked example: a single homeowner at 67

Consider one person aged 67 with $500,000 in super, no other assessable assets, savings or income, a home owned outright and the $56,166 annual spending target. At the current Age Pension rates, the site's engine gives an opening $19,154 annual part pension. The assets test is the limiting test in this case. The initial spending gap is funded from super. The retirement-income engine assesses the pension again each year on the changing balance, so that opening payment cannot simply be multiplied by the years to age 92.

The super-only drawdown tool deliberately leaves out the Age Pension. The pension-aware age-67 scenario illustrates why the two views differ. Neither includes this person's actual household costs or unknown future rule changes.

Worked example: a couple at 67

Now consider two partners both aged 67, living together in a home they own outright, with $750,000 combined in super, no other assessable assets, savings or income and ASFA's $78,998 comfortable-couple annual spending target. Using the same pension and retirement-income engines, their opening combined annual part pension is $28,938 at the current rates. The first year's spending gap is $50,060, funded from super in this model. That is a household result: it is not twice the single-person result. The engine reruns the combined means tests as the balance changes.

The example assumes both partners have reached Age Pension age. If one is younger, Services Australia's treatment of that partner's super depends on whether it remains in accumulation or has become an income stream; this simple same-age example does not model that distinction. A couple's own spending and other assets may also be unlike ASFA's benchmark.

How much must an account-based pension pay each year?

An account-based pension has a statutory minimum withdrawal, which is not the same as a recommended spending rate. Schedule 7 of the SIS Regulations sets the percentage from the beneficiary's age and account balance, normally at 1 July. The site already stores these bands in its retirement-income engine.

If a pension starts partway through a financial year, Schedule 7 generally prorates the first year's minimum; a start on or after 1 June requires no payment for that financial year. Money withdrawn above the spending need does not disappear: the site's model moves it to outside-super savings, which remain assessable for the Age Pension. A minimum withdrawal is not a requirement to spend that amount.

Is a super income stream taxed after 60?

For an ordinary account-based income stream from a taxed super fund, the tax-free component and the taxed element of the taxable component are generally not assessable to the recipient from age 60. The ATO's super income stream tax tables distinguish those components from an untaxed element, which remains assessable and may attract a tax offset. Certain capped defined-benefit streams have an additional income-cap rule. The type of fund and stream therefore matters; “all super pensions are tax-free after 60” would be wrong.

Tax treatment and Age Pension assessment are separate. A payment that is not assessable for income tax can still sit in an account balance that Services Australia assesses as an asset and deems for Age Pension. The worked examples use the site's general account-based model, not a defined-benefit or legacy income stream.

How can you test a more realistic target?

Start with household spending, then include housing debt, rent not covered by assistance, other financial assets and income. Test several starting balances and returns rather than only the central table's steady return. A longer horizon than age 92 or unusually high health and care costs will change the answer. The Super Drawdown Calculator isolates spending and return sensitivity; the Age Pension Calculator checks a current means-test estimate. The figures here are a way to frame those scenarios, not a personal retirement plan.