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Retirement planning

Most of us want to enjoy a comfortable retirement, free of financial worries. One of the keys to achieving this is to plan for it. Consider the following:

How much should you be saving for comfortable retirement?

How much you will need to save for a retirement depends on:

Your lifestyle, general health and financial commitments.
If you plan to use some of your super to pay off a mortgage, buy a new car, or take a holiday.
If you plan to save for future care in old age.
Superannuation experts tell us that at least 12–15% of a person’s salary needs to be saved for 40 years to receive a comfortable retirement income. Click here to find out more.

How much income will you need to cover living expenses in comfortable retirement?

The Government sets the age pension on the minimum amount required to survive. However, the amount of income you will need in retirement depends on your lifestyle, general health and financial commitments.

Retirement living standards research has been developed to provide detailed budgets for both a modest and a more comfortable lifestyle in retirement. Click here to find out how much you may need.

Our budget calculator shows you how much income you spend to cover your living expenses.

What options do you have for your super?

There are a number of options for your current super account when you permanently retire after your preservation age:

Leave it where it is – recent changes to super now allow you to leave your super in a fund like First State Super until you die – there is no compulsory cashing of super.
Cash it in and take your money out of the super system altogether.
Roll it over into a First State Super Retirement Income Stream or Transition to Retirement Income Stream (or another fund's income stream or annuity).
Do any combination of the above.

What about the age pension?

It is possible in some circumstances to receive a Government Age Pension and other Centrelink benefits as well as income from a First State Super income stream.

Centrelink and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs have two tests to determine your eligibility for benefits – the income test and the assets test. You will only be entitled to receive Government benefits if your assets and your income are below the test levels. Income Streams do not qualify for an exemption from either test.

For further information call Centrelink Financial Information Services on 13 23 00 or visit http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/dhs/centrelink. Centrelink provides this service free of charge.