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<\/p>\nOnce you reach your late-60s, your superannuation should be at the forefront of your mind. After all, retirement is only around the corner. <\/p>\n
By this point in your life, you should know exactly how much superannuation you have and what you need to be able to have the type of retirement you want. <\/p>\n
Here’s a breakdown of the average superannuation balance of Aussies aged 66. How does yours compare?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
What is the average superannuation balance at age 66 in Australia? <\/p>\n
According to Rest Super<\/a>, the average superannuation balance for Australian men aged 65-69 is $448,518, and for women it is $392,274. <\/p>\n If your superannuation balance is on track with the rest of the population, that’s great news. But it doesn’t mean you have enough to live the retirement lifestyle you want.\u00a0 <\/p>\n But, how much superannuation do I need to have at age 66? <\/p>\n According to the latest ASFA Retirement Standard<\/a>, the benchmark for a comfortable retirement<\/a> has just climbed higher.<\/a><\/p>\n Australians now need $54,840 a year, or $77,375 a year for a couple.<\/p>\n To support that level of spending, ASFA estimates you’ll need a super balance of roughly $630,000 as a single and $730,000 as a couple by the age of 67.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The figures also assume you own your home outright and that you’re receiving the age pension.<\/p>\n In fact, in order to reach that number, ASFA calculates that at the age of 66, for a comfortable retirement, Australians should have a current superannuation balance close to $618,500.<\/p>\n That’s significantly higher than the average balances for Australians aged 65-69.<\/p>\n Why is the average Australian so far behind on their super? <\/p>\n Unfortunately, there are a multitude of reasons.<\/p>\n It’s possible to access your super early in very limited circumstances, including to pay certain expenses on compassionate grounds, as well as terminal illness, incapacity, and severe financial hardship. <\/p>\n For example, there was an uptick in Aussies accessing their super early in the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by soaring living costs, sky-high inflation, and widespread lockdowns that caused significant income losses.<\/p>\n Between 20 April 2020 and 31 December 2020 alone, the ATO received 4.78 million applications for early-release of superannuation, totalling $39.2 billion. <\/p>\n Whatever the reason for accessing your superannuation early, removing funds severely affects long-term compounding growth and lowers balances in the long term.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the same time, economic uncertainty and high cost-of-living also mean that individuals have severely curbed the amount of voluntary contributions going into super fund accounts.\u00a0 <\/p>\n High fees and poor performance also eat into retirement savings. Meanwhile, sticking with an underperforming fund or default option is a mistake<\/a> that can cost your super balance over time.<\/p>\n Default superannuation investment options are generally designed to benefit a range of investors, but what is considered balanced for one person might not apply to the next.<\/p>\n Growth assets on the S&P\/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) might be more appropriate for Aussies with time to ride out any market fluctuations, but those closer to retirement might be more suited to stable assets that can weather a last-minute share market crash<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once you reach your late-60s, your superannuation should be at the forefront of your mind. After all, retirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,2277,268,85,46,266,267],"class_list":["post-342601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-editors-choice","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}