↓Your retirement projection↓
Balance over time
Base scenario — how your super draws down year by year
Income over time
Where your retirement income comes from each year — stacked by source
Year-by-year breakdown — base scenario
| Age | Balance | Min rate | From super | Pension | Outside super | Total/yr | Weekly | Closing |
|---|
ATO min drawdown: 55-64→4% · 65-74→5% · 75-79→6% · 80-84→7% · 85-89→9% · 90-94→11% · 95+→14% · Pension uses both assets test (lower of) and income test with deeming · All figures in today's dollars
⚠ What this calculator doesn't model
This tool projects super drawdown + age pension income only. It doesn't include:
- Rent or mortgage payments — these are part of your target income, not modelled separately (we do estimate Commonwealth Rent Assistance for non-homeowner pensioners)
- Healthcare out-of-pockets, private health insurance, and aged-care fees (can be $30k+/yr later in life)
- Medicare Levy Surcharge, SAPTO tax offset
- One-off capital needs (car replacement, home modifications)
- Income from investment property, business assets, or legacy/estate planning
Age pension rates shown are 20 March 2026 figures including supplements. Rates are reviewed twice yearly and may change with legislation. Assets test assumes you own your home (toggle Non-homeowner in the pension card if you rent). Income test uses current deeming rates of 1.25%/3.25%.
How retirement income actually fits together in Australia
Most Australian retirees fund their retirement from two sources working together: superannuation drawdown and the Age Pension. They're designed to interact. Super drawdown gives you full control over the rate and timing, but it's a finite pool. Age Pension is a means-tested government payment that fills the gap for those whose assets and income fall below the relevant thresholds.
The interaction matters because Age Pension reduces as super-funded income or assets rise. Centrelink applies two tests — the assets test and the income test — and pays whichever results in the lower pension. As at 20 March 2026, a single homeowner gets the full Age Pension if assessable assets sit below $321,500, with the rate tapering at $3 per fortnight for every $1,000 above that, cutting out entirely at $695,500. For a couple of homeowners, the full-pension threshold is $481,500 and the cutout is $1,045,500. Thresholds are different for non-homeowners.
The income test uses deeming — Centrelink assumes your financial assets earn a notional rate of return rather than counting actual income. As at March 2026, the deeming rates are 1.25% on the first $64,200 (single) or $106,200 (couple), and 3.25% above. Deemed income is added to any wage or super-stream income, and the pension reduces by 50¢ for every dollar above the free area.
Why the 30-year retirement horizon is the hard part
The average 65-year-old Australian has another 22 years of life expectancy if male, 25 if female. Planning to age 90 covers a typical retirement; planning to 95 covers most. That's a 25–30 year window, and the maths is unforgiving over that horizon.
The biggest single risk over a long retirement is sequence-of-returns risk — the order in which good and bad investment years occur. Two retirees with identical 30-year average returns can end up wildly different if one starts retirement with a few bad market years. Drawing down from a portfolio that just dropped 20% locks in losses you can't recover from, because the remaining balance is too small to bounce back even when markets recover.
The traditional countermeasure is the bucket strategy — keeping 2–3 years of spending in cash so market drops don't force you to sell growth assets at a loss. The calculator's drawdown projection uses a single average return assumption; in practice, a bucket strategy and a willingness to vary spending in down years make the projection more robust than the linear model suggests.
Reading your result
The headline figure is the combined annual income your scenario produces — super drawdown plus Age Pension, modelled year by year. Beneath it, the year-by-year breakdown shows how the two sources shift over time: as super depletes, Age Pension typically grows because lower assets means a higher entitlement.
The target income input lets you test sustainability. Set it at the ASFA Comfortable benchmark (currently $54,837/year for a single, $77,375 for a couple as at February 2026) to see whether your scenario reaches that, or set it lower to test the Modest standard ($35,915 single, $51,807 couple). The "years funded" projection tells you how long the modelled scenario sustains the target.
Where the calculator shows a shortfall, it means the combined super drawdown + Age Pension falls below your target in that year. Shortfalls in early retirement are more serious than shortfalls late on — early shortfalls eat into the principal that needs to fund the next 20+ years.
What this calculator can't do
This calc models a baseline retirement-income journey. It does not capture:
- Variable spending phases. Real retirement spending typically goes through a "go-go" phase (active travel, hobbies, ages 65–75), a "slow-go" phase (ages 75–85, spending typically drops 20–30%), and a "no-go" phase (85+, often dominated by health and aged-care costs). The calculator models a flat spending target.
- Aged-care costs. Residential aged care or home-care package fees can run from $30,000 to $90,000+ per year for the higher-care levels. The calculator doesn't separately model these because they kick in at different ages and intensities for different people.
- Tax on outside-super assets. Income from shares, term deposits, and investment property held outside super remains taxable at marginal rates with offsets. The calculator's "outside super" input is treated as a pool; the tax treatment of its growth and income isn't modelled in detail.
- Indexation timing. Pension rates index twice yearly (March and September) tied to CPI and wages. Projections use the current-rate baseline; in real years, rates will rise but so will the cost of living.
- Couple-to-single transitions. When one partner dies, the Age Pension assessment changes from couple rates to single rates, often with a significant impact on entitlement. The calculator models a single status throughout.
Common questions
What's the difference between ASFA Comfortable and ASFA Modest?
ASFA (the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia) publishes two retirement standards. Modest covers basic needs — modest car, occasional restaurant, no overseas travel, basic health insurance. Comfortable covers a good standard of living — newer car, broader entertainment, private health insurance, regular domestic and occasional overseas holidays. The Age Pension alone gets you roughly to ASFA Modest for a homeowner; ASFA Comfortable requires either super drawdown or other assets on top.
When can I actually access my super?
Two thresholds matter. The preservation age is 60 for everyone born after 1 July 1964, after which you can access super if you've retired. From age 65, you can access super whether retired or not. Between preservation age and 65, you can also access through a "transition to retirement" (TtR) arrangement that lets you start drawing while still working. Withdrawals from a taxed super fund are tax-free after 60.
Should I draw down super first or use it last?
The conventional approach is to draw down super first because earnings inside a super pension account are tax-free, but earnings in your name outside super are taxed at marginal rates with offsets. The wrinkle is the Age Pension means test — money in super counts as assessable assets the same as money in your name, so drawing it down doesn't reduce your assessable position. Couples with large super balances often benefit from advice that looks at the specific balance levels, the deeming thresholds, and the assets test taper rate together — the optimal sequence isn't always obvious.
Where to next
If you're still working and trying to size your end-of-career balance, the how much super do I need guide walks through target balances at different lifestyle levels. To test specific retirement dates against current finances, the when can I retire calculator works backwards from a target lifestyle to find the earliest viable retirement age. And to model the impact of contributing more to super now, the salary sacrifice tax benefit guide shows the marginal-rate savings.