{"id":622888,"date":"2026-10-07T03:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622888\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T03:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:24:15","slug":"how-almost-any-australian-can-reach-the-average-superannuation-balance-of-a-60-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622888\/","title":{"rendered":"How almost any Australian can reach the average superannuation balance of a 60-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superannuation<\/a> is a very important tool to save for retirement<\/a>, whether that’s for a 60-year-old or a 20-year-old. <\/p>\n

Superannuation offers several benefits, such as a lower tax<\/a> rate during the accumulation phase. In retirement, the tax rate can be as low as 0% (depending on the superannuation balance). <\/p>\n

Additionally, superannuation’s structure encourages long-term investing, which I think is the best way to build wealth.<\/p>\n

Everyone wants to have a good retirement, and I think reaching the current average superannuation of a 60-year-old is a good target to aim at.<\/p>\n

\"Couple<\/p>\n

Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Average superannuation balance for 60-year-olds<\/p>\n

Before talking about what Australians can do to grow their superannuation balance, let’s look at what the actual target is.<\/p>\n

According to APRA data<\/a>, the average super balance for 55 to 59-year-olds is $243,300, and for 60 to 64-year-olds it is $270,800. So, let’s say an investor wants to reach approximately $250,000.<\/p>\n

A quarter of a million dollars is a significant amount of money to boost income in retirement. It could add $10,000 of income or more, depending on the dividend yield<\/a>, rental yield, or interest rate<\/a> of the assets inside superannuation.<\/p>\n

When we look at the average superannuation balances for people aged between 25 and 29, the average balance is $28,000. That shows there’s a lot of growth to happen over the next 30 to 40 years.<\/p>\n

So, how can aspiring Aussies get to a $250,000 superannuation balance by 60?<\/p>\n

Superannuation guarantee <\/p>\n

The first and perhaps most important element of saving towards retirement is the mandatory contributions that businesses make for their staff. <\/p>\n

Businesses are currently required to pay their employees 12% of their wage into super. The required amount used to be less than 10% of wages, but now it’s 12%. <\/p>\n

Let’s imagine someone earns $50,000 per year, which is close to the minimum wage on an annualised basis. That means that person would receive $6,000 of superannuation contributions over 12 months (minus the superannuation tax of 15% on contributions). <\/p>\n

Excluding inflation<\/a> effects, that would be net contributions of $51,000 per decade. Three decades of contributions would be $153,000. Of course, over time, people may get promoted or upskill, leading to a sizeable increase in their earnings and superannuation contributions.<\/p>\n

However, plenty of readers aren’t earning just the minimum wage, so their annual superannuation contribution would be higher and help build towards $250,000 faster. For some higher earners, the superannuation guarantee contributions may be all they need to reach a large figure, perhaps beyond what the average superannuation balance of a 60-year-old is.<\/p>\n

Aussie investors can do a few things to grow their superannuation balance faster than the bare minimum. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Invest in growth assets<\/p>\n

Superannuation allows Australians to invest in a variety of assets. Over the long term, some asset classes have a better track record<\/a> than others.<\/p>\n

For me, as someone who is decades away from accessing my superannuation, I think it’s better to invest significantly (entirely, in my case) in ‘growth’ assets in superannuation. Shares are a lot more appealing to me than cash. <\/p>\n

Cash and bond<\/a> returns are significantly hampered by inflation<\/a>, so the ‘real’ return is even less attractive. <\/p>\n

I’m choosing to invest in international shares and great ASX shares in my superannuation. Ones that I believe will help grow my retirement balance by around 10% (or more) per year on average over the long term.<\/p>\n

I mentioned before that someone earning a full-time minimum wage may contribute a net figure of $51,000 per decade to their superannuation. If that $51,000 grows by 8% per year, $51,000 doubles to more than $100,000 in approximately nine years. After another nine years, that original $51,000 could be worth around $200,000. And so on.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, investing in growth assets and leaving them alone for decades can do some heavy lifting for growing a superannuation balance towards $250,000, or significantly more.<\/p>\n

Make additional contributions<\/p>\n

For people who have enough income to cover their essential spending, they can make additional salary sacrifice contributions out of their wage called reportable employer superannuation contributions (RESC), up to a certain dollar amount each year. This is a tax-efficient way to do it. It will likely need to be mentioned on the tax return. <\/p>\n

Aussies can also make annual after-tax contributions to their superannuation, up to a certain (large) dollar figure, before being subject to extra tax. According to the Australian Taxation Office<\/a>, the non-concessional contributions cap is $130,000 for FY27, up from $120,000 in FY26.<\/p>\n

There are also a number of other, smaller, things that Australians can do, such as spouse super contributions<\/a> to a low-earning spouse to boost their balance \u2013 this comes with a tax offset. <\/p>\n

It’d be a good idea to ask a financial advisor what the current limits are and what the benefits are for each of these ideas.<\/p>\n

Foolish takeaway <\/p>\n

When you combine many years of superannuation contributions and investing, I think many Australians can reach the average superannuation balance of a 60-year-old. It just takes time, compounding, and choosing the right investments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superannuation is a very important tool to save for retirement, whether that’s for a 60-year-old or a 20-year-old.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,7162,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-622888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-editors-choice","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}