If you're wondering what your super balance should look like, it can help to compare with others your age. Knowing how much super you have now, means you can plan for how much more you need to grow your super.
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See average balance by age
See how your super measures up against your age group
Age Men Women ($) 18 – 24 $11,600 $10,100 25 – 34 $53,100 $40,200 35 – 44 $132,500 $88,800 45 – 49 $198,800 $126,900 50 – 54 $247,300 $152,700 55 – 60 $293,000 $192,000 61 – 65 $318,500 $260,900 Source: Rice Warner Average Balances to June 2020. People with zero superannuation are not included in average data.
Do you have enough super for retirement?
Retirement needs are different for everyone. So, when planning how much super you’ll need in the future, it pays to think about the retirement lifestyle you want.
Taking time to think about your financial future means you can better plan for what’s ahead. Our super projection calculator can help you understand more about your retirement. It shows you the factors that will impact on your future balance, including how you can help grow your super with extra super contributions.
Check how your super stacks up with our super projection calculator
Simple steps to help grow your super
If you’re not on track for the retirement you want, there are many ways you can grow your super. The more you add, the closer you could get to achieving financial freedom in retirement.
Consolidate and take control
Consolidate and take control
Tracking down and consolidating your super accounts into one super fund could save you on paying multiple fees. This means more of your hard-earned savings stay working for you in your super account. Having one account also makes your balance easier to manage, by keeping all your funds in one place1.
You can track down your other super accounts and combine them into your AustralianSuper account in minutes.
Sacrifice some of your salary
Sacrifice some of your salary
When you make extra contributions to your super through salary sacrifice, you’re adding to your super before the deduction of income tax. With the super tax rate at 15% (depending on your earnings), it can be more effective to add some of your before-tax salary to your super balance. This means you could pay less tax as well as reduce your taxable income2.
Make after-tax contributions
Make after-tax contributions
You can also contribute to your super from money that you’ve already paid tax on (such as your after-tax salary, or an inheritance)2. This could mean that you may be eligible to receive a government co-contribution, depending on your total income.
Making spouse contributions
Making spouse contributions
Adding to your partner’s super can help to grow their balance, while also allowing you to save on income tax2.
Subject to eligibility criteria, you can also roll over a portion of your annual before-tax contributions each year. This is known as ‘contribution splitting.’ It allows you to split up to 85% of your pre-tax contributions with your spouse. These can include employer contributions and salary sacrifice. Plus, you can also split any personal contributions that you have claimed a tax-deduction for. Bear in mind, the contributions that you make to their account count toward your contribution cap3.
You can also make ‘after-tax contributions’ to your spouse’s super, if eligible2. This means you could receive a potential tax offset of up to 18% for contributions of up to $3,000.
Government co-contributions
Government co-contributions
By making after-tax contributions and falling into the right total income range, you could get some extra help with your balance. If eligible, you could receive government co-contributions, paid to your super account2. The co-contribution is tax free and isn’t taxed when it’s deposited into, or withdrawn, from your super account. It can be worth up to $500 pa.
AustralianSuper: putting your best interests first
Performance
AustralianSuper is the number 1 performing super fund over 7, 10, 15 and 20 years5.
Member-first fund
AustralianSuper is a profit-to-member fund, we don’t pay profits or dividends to shareholders. This means the profits we make are for members.
Help and advice
AustralianSuper offers members free educational resources and tools, webinars and calculators, alongside a range of paid advice options from our trusted advisers.
Join now
Becoming a member of AustralianSuper is simple. You can join in less than 15 minutes.
Join today-
Important information to consider
- Before consolidating your super, ask your other super provider about any fees or charges that may apply, and other information about the effect this transfer may have on your benefits, such as insurance cover.
- Before adding to your super, consider your financial circumstances , contribution caps that may apply, and tax issues. Salary sacrifice may affect some Government benefits and employee benefits. Consider getting financial advice before deciding what’s right for you.
- For any personal deductible contributions, you need to have lodged a Notice of Intent to claim a tax deduction with the fund prior to requesting the contribution-split. You can only apply once to split contributions made to a particular super fund in a financial year.
- At retirement (aged 60 to 64), ASFA Superannuation account balances by age and gender report, October 2017.
- Investment returns are not guaranteed. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns. Returns from equivalent investment options of the ARF and STA super funds are used for periods before 1 July 2006. Top performing for the 7, 10, 15 and 20 years to 30 June 2021, based on returns for the AustralianSuper Balanced investment option compared to the SuperRatings Fund Crediting Rate Survey — SR50 Balanced (60–76) Index and the AustralianSuper Choice Income Account – Balanced investment option compared to the SuperRatings Pension Fund Crediting Rate Survey — SRP50 Balanced (60–76) Index. Returns are updated daily for all AustralianSuper investment options here.