How much super do you need to retire comfortably in Australia? According to the latest ASFA Retirement Standard, a single person needs a lump sum of $630,000 at age 67, while a couple needs $730,000 — both figures updated in February 2026 in the first increase to the benchmark in three years. These targets assume you own your home and will receive at least a part Age Pension on top of your super.
But “comfortable” means something very specific in ASFA’s world: top private health insurance, a reliable car, regular meals out, an annual domestic holiday and an overseas trip roughly every seven years. If your idea of retirement looks different, your number will be different too. This guide breaks down the 2026 benchmarks, what comfortable and modest actually buy you, how renters fare, whether you’re on track for your age, and what to do if you’re falling short.
The 2026 ASFA benchmarks at a glance
The ASFA Retirement Standard is updated quarterly and is the most widely quoted retirement target in Australia. It describes the annual spending needed for a comfortable or modest retirement at age 65–67, then works backwards to the lump sum required to fund that spending alongside the Age Pension. Here are the June quarter 2026 figures:
| Lifestyle | Single — lump sum at 67 | Couple — lump sum at 67 | Annual spending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comfortable | $630,000 | $730,000 | Single $56,166/yr · Couple $78,998/yr |
| Modest | $110,000 | $120,000 | Single ~$35,503/yr · Couple ~$52,800/yr |
The February 2026 update lifted the comfortable targets from the previous $595,000 (single) and $690,000 (couple) — the first increase in three years, driven by the rising cost of insurance, travel, utilities and eating out. The annual spending figures at the update point were $54,840 for a single and $77,375 for a couple; by the June quarter 2026 they had edged up to $56,166 and $78,998 respectively.
One crucial assumption sits underneath every one of these numbers: you own your home outright. ASFA’s comfortable and modest standards are built for homeowners. If you’re still renting in retirement, the numbers change dramatically — more on that below.
Comfortable vs modest: what the money actually buys
The gap between $630,000 and $110,000 looks enormous until you see what each lifestyle includes. ASFA builds its budgets item by item, and the differences add up:
A comfortable retirement
- Health: top-level private health insurance with extras cover.
- Transport: a reliable, reasonably new car — replaced every few years.
- Food and lifestyle: regular dining out and takeaway, good groceries, home appliances replaced as needed, ongoing home maintenance.
- Travel: an annual domestic holiday plus an overseas trip roughly every seven years.
- Leisure: club memberships, hobbies, entertainment and gifts with room to spare.
A modest retirement
- Health: basic private health insurance only.
- Transport: a cheaper, older car.
- Food and lifestyle: cooking at home mostly, occasional takeaway, fewer dining-out occasions.
- Travel: one domestic holiday a year; overseas travel is essentially out of reach.
- Leisure: limited budget for entertainment, hobbies and gifts.
Notice how small the modest lump sums are: $110,000 for a single, $120,000 for a couple. That’s because the Age Pension does most of the heavy lifting at the modest end — the pension alone covers the bulk of a modest budget, so super only needs to top it up. At the comfortable end, your super has to generate tens of thousands of dollars of extra annual income, which is why the target jumps more than fivefold.
As a rough rule of thumb, planners often suggest you’ll need around 70% of your pre-retirement take-home pay each year to maintain your lifestyle in retirement. Earning $90,000 a year? You’d want roughly $63,000 a year in retirement — close to ASFA’s comfortable single figure of $56,166. On $120,000 a year, the 70% rule points to about $84,000 a year, which is above the comfortable benchmark and squarely in “self-funded” territory.
The renting problem: why renters need far more
ASFA’s headline numbers quietly assume the biggest housing cost — rent or a mortgage — is gone. For the growing share of Australians who expect to rent in retirement, the maths looks very different.
According to Moneysmart (updated September 2026), a single person aiming for a modest retirement while renting needs around $340,000 in super at retirement — more than triple the $110,000 modest target for a homeowner. The difference is simply rent: tens of thousands of dollars a year in housing costs that a homeowner never pays, which must be funded from the super balance for 20-plus years.
For renters targeting a comfortable lifestyle, no official ASFA figure exists — but the logic is the same. Add roughly $20,000–$30,000 a year in rent to the comfortable spending budget, and the required lump sum climbs by several hundred thousand dollars. The single most powerful retirement strategy for many Australians isn’t an investment trick at all: it’s entering retirement owning your home outright.
Are you on track? Super targets by age
Headline figures at 67 are useful, but what matters today is whether your current balance is on pace. ASFA publishes rough on-track targets for a comfortable retirement at 67. If you’re in your 40s, 50s or 60s, here’s roughly where you should be:
| Age | Approximate balance for a comfortable retirement at 67 |
|---|---|
| 30 | Early days — but every extra contribution now compounds the most |
| 40 | $150,000 – $200,000 |
| 50 | $280,000 – $370,000 |
| 60 | $450,000 – $580,000 |
| 67 | $630,000 (single) / $730,000 (couple) |
These are ranges, not pass/fail grades — your salary, contribution history, investment returns and fees all shift them. But they’re a useful gut check. Behind on the range? The compounding section below shows why acting sooner matters far more than acting bigger later. You can also plug your own numbers into a super calculator to project your balance at retirement.
One tailwind is working in everyone’s favour: the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate rose to 12% on 1 July 2025, so a full-time worker is now getting more forced saving every pay cycle than any previous generation. Combined with the national minimum wage of $26.44 an hour from 1 July 2026, even lower-paid workers are accumulating more super than before.
How compounding does the heavy lifting
The most underappreciated force in retirement saving is time. Consider a simplified illustration: a 30-year-old with an $80,000 super balance, earning $90,000 a year with 12% SG contributions ($10,800 a year), earning a 7% net annual return, with 30 years until age 60.
- Total contributions over 30 years: 30 × $10,800 = $324,000.
- Growth of the starting $80,000 at 7% for 30 years: roughly $609,000.
- Growth of the $10,800-a-year contributions at 7% for 30 years: roughly $1,020,000.
- Total at 60: around $1.6 million — before fees, tax on earnings and insurance premiums.
This is a simplified illustration — real salaries rise over time, returns vary year to year, and fees and insurance eat into the balance — but the direction is the point: money contributed in your 30s works roughly twice as hard as money contributed in your 50s, because it has twice as long to compound.
The same $80,000 growing untouched at 7% a year shows the power of time alone:
| Years of growth | Age 30 → | Balance (7% p.a., no contributions) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 40 | ~$157,000 |
| 20 | 50 | ~$310,000 |
| 30 | 60 | ~$609,000 |
That’s why the “am I on track at 50?” question is really a “what did I do at 35?” question. Small extra contributions made early — a salary sacrifice arrangement in your 30s, for example — can be worth more at retirement than much larger catch-up contributions in your 50s.
Ways to close the gap
If your balance is behind the on-track ranges, you have several levers — most of them tax-advantaged:
- Salary sacrifice: ask your employer to redirect part of your pre-tax salary into super. Contributions are taxed at 15% (or 30% for high earners) instead of your marginal rate, so it’s particularly powerful for middle and higher earners. A salary sacrifice calculator shows exactly how much extra lands in your super versus your take-home pay.
- Carry-forward concessional caps: if your super balance is under $500,000, you can use unused concessional contribution cap amounts from up to five previous years — ideal for a big catch-up contribution in a high-income year.
- Spouse contributions: contributing to a low-earning or non-working spouse’s super can earn you a tax offset of up to $540, while building the household’s combined balance toward that $730,000 couple target.
- Government co-contribution: if you’re a low or middle-income earner making after-tax contributions, the government chips in up to $500 a year — free money for doing what you should do anyway.
- Check your fund: high fees and inappropriate insurance cover quietly erode balances over decades. Comparing funds every few years is one of the highest-return hours you’ll ever spend.
Frequently asked questions
Is $500,000 enough to retire on in Australia?
It depends on your lifestyle and housing. $500,000 is well above ASFA’s modest single target ($110,000) but below the comfortable target ($630,000) — so it funds something in between, especially combined with a full or part Age Pension. If you own your home and spend moderately, $500,000 can support a pleasant retirement. If you’re renting, it’s tighter: remember that a modest renting single needs around $340,000 before lifestyle spending even starts.
Does the Age Pension count toward the ASFA targets?
Yes — the targets assume you’ll receive at least a part Age Pension (age 67) on top of your super. That’s precisely why the modest targets are so low: the pension covers most of a modest budget. If your assets are high enough to reduce or eliminate your pension, you’ll need more super than the headline figures to fund the same lifestyle.
What if I own my home outright?
Then the ASFA figures apply to you directly — they’re built for homeowners. Your home is excluded from the Age Pension assets test, which is another reason owning is so powerful: it both eliminates your biggest retirement expense and doesn’t count against your pension eligibility.
Do couples really need $730,000?
For the full ASFA “comfortable” lifestyle — top health cover, newer car, annual holidays, an overseas trip every seven years — yes, that’s the benchmark for a homeowner couple at 67 with a part pension. But couples benefit from shared costs: $730,000 is well under double the single figure of $630,000. Many couples retire comfortably on less by spending below the benchmark in some categories.
Are there other benchmarks besides ASFA’s?
Yes. Super Consumers Australia, an independent body, bases its targets on actual retiree spending data rather than a constructed budget. Their figures: a middle-spending single retiree needs about $322,000 at 65, a high spender about $891,000, and a low spender about $74,000. The middle-spending figure sits well below ASFA’s comfortable $630,000 — a reminder that “comfortable” is a defined standard, not the average retiree’s reality.
What is a good super balance for my age?
As a rough guide for a comfortable retirement at 67: $150,000–$200,000 at 40, $280,000–$370,000 at 50, and $450,000–$580,000 at 60. Below the range isn’t a disaster — extra contributions, the 12% SG rate and compounding still have time to work — but it’s a signal to act rather than wait.
The bottom line
The 2026 numbers are clear: $630,000 for a comfortable single retirement, $730,000 for a couple — assuming you own your home and get a part Age Pension. Renters need substantially more, and the modest benchmarks ($110,000/$120,000) show how much of retirement the pension system is designed to carry. Whatever your age, the two moves that matter most are starting extra contributions early enough for compounding to multiply them, and making sure you’re on track with a realistic projection of your own balance.
Run your numbers through our super calculator to see where your balance is heading, and use the salary sacrifice calculator to find out how much extra you could be adding each pay cycle — your 67-year-old self will thank you.