How Much Do You Need to Retire in Australia?

22 June 2026  ·  7 min read

"How much do I need to retire?" is one of those questions that sounds like it has a single answer and doesn't. The honest version is two questions in a trench coat: how much will your retirement cost each year, and how big a pile of savings does it take to fund that cost for the rest of your life. Get the first one right and the second becomes arithmetic.

The most widely used Australian reference point for the first question is the ASFA Retirement Standard, published quarterly by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. It puts dollar figures on two lifestyles — modest and comfortable — for singles and couples who own their home outright. Here's what the latest figures say, and the assumptions doing the heavy lifting underneath them.

What a comfortable and a modest retirement cost

ASFA's March quarter 2026 budgets, in today's dollars, look like this:

The gap between the two is the whole story. A modest lifestyle covers the basics — it's better than the Age Pension alone, but leaves little room for much beyond essentials. A comfortable lifestyle adds the things people picture when they imagine retirement: private health cover, a reasonable car, domestic travel, the occasional restaurant meal, and enough discretionary spending to actually enjoy the time.

Both budgets assume you own your home, are relatively healthy, and are aged between 65 and 84. They're estimates of spending, not a rule about what anyone should spend — your own number depends on your housing, your health, and the life you want to fund.

The lump sums behind those budgets

Annual spending is the input. The figure most people actually fixate on is the lump sum — the super balance you'd want at retirement to support that spending. ASFA estimates it at age 67:

The comfortable balances rose in early 2026 to $630,000 for a single and $730,000 for a couple — by ASFA's account, the first increase in three years, driven by rising living costs. The modest balances look surprisingly small for the spending they support, and there's a specific reason for that: the Age Pension.

Where the Age Pension fits

ASFA's lump sums assume you also draw a part or full Age Pension, immediately and into the future. That's why a modest retirement needs so little saved — the pension does most of the work at lower spending levels, and your savings only top it up.

For the period 20 March 2026 to 19 September 2026, the maximum Age Pension (including the pension and energy supplements) is $1,200.90 a fortnight for a single — about $31,223 a year — and $1,810.40 a fortnight for a couple, roughly $47,070 a year. Sit a modest budget next to those numbers and you can see why a small private balance closes the gap. A comfortable lifestyle, on the other hand, sits well above the pension, so a much larger balance has to carry the difference.

ASFA's lump-sum estimates also assume the money earns about 6% a year and is drawn down over a normal retirement. Change the return, the drawdown, or your pension entitlement and the required balance moves.

Why the number is really about your spending

Notice what drives everything above: not income, but what your life costs once you stop working. That's the same insight behind the FIRE approach — your target is a multiple of your annual spending, not your salary. If you've ever wondered how the "× 25" rule of thumb works and why Australia's locked-up super and Age Pension change the maths, how to calculate your FIRE number in Australia walks through it.

It also means the ASFA lump sums are a guide to a trajectory, not a pass mark. Two households with identical balances can be in very different positions depending on whether they rent or own, how much sits outside super, and what they actually spend.

What these figures don't tell you

A few honest caveats are worth keeping in view:

• They assume you own your home. Renting in retirement changes the picture substantially, because housing becomes an ongoing cost the budgets don't include.
• Super is only part of your wealth. The ASFA balances are super figures. Investments outside super, a paid-off home, and a partner's balance all change what you actually have to work with. We unpack the difference between total net worth and the part you can actually spend in net worth vs usable equity.
• Balances and benchmarks aren't the same. If you want to know whether your super is tracking toward one of these targets at your age, how much super you should have at your age lines up the averages against the benchmarks.

From a number to a trajectory

The ASFA figures give you a target to aim at. The harder, more useful question is where you sit relative to it right now, and which direction you're heading. That's the part a single benchmark can't answer — it needs your real position.

Compound is built to pull your whole financial picture into one view — super, property, shares, cash — so you can watch the distance between today and your number close over time, rather than guessing from a table. If you'd like early access, you can join the waitlist.

A retirement number isn't a finish line you cross once. It's a moving target you walk toward, and the most useful thing you can do is see clearly how far along the path you already are.

Sources: ASFA Retirement Standard, March quarter 2026 (annual budgets and lump sums for comfortable and modest lifestyles), superannuation.asn.au and Moneysmart.gov.au; Services Australia / SuperGuide, maximum Age Pension rates effective 20 March 2026 (including pension and energy supplements). All figures assume home ownership and relative good health, are in today's dollars, and rest on ASFA's stated assumptions, including a 6% assumed earning rate and receipt of the Age Pension. Figures are general benchmarks, not a measure of any individual's needs.