Get clued up about your super before retiring

Get clued up about your super before retiring | Industry Super Australia: Retirement ready | The Guardian
Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Close dialogue 1 / 1
Next image
Previous image
Toggle caption
Skip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Search jobs
Sign in
Eur
Europe edition
UK edition
US edition
Australia edition
International edition
The Guardian - Back to home
The Guardian
News
Opinion
Sport
Culture
Lifestyle
Show more
Hide expanded menu
News
View all News
World news
UK news
Climate crisis
Ukraine
Environment
Science
Global development
Football
Tech
Business
Obituaries
Opinion
View all Opinion
The Guardian view
Columnists
Cartoons
Opinion videos
Letters
Sport
View all Sport
Football
Cricket
Rugby union
Tennis
Cycling
F1
Golf
US sports
Culture
View all Culture
Books
Music
TV & radio
Art & design
Film
Games
Classical
Stage
Lifestyle
View all Lifestyle
Fashion
Food
Recipes
Love & sex
Health & fitness
Home & garden
Women
Men
Family
Travel
Money
Search input
google-search
Search
Support us
Print subscriptions
Search jobs
Holidays
Digital Archive
Guardian Licensing
Live events
About Us
The Guardian app
Video
Podcasts
Pictures
Newsletters
Today's paper
Inside the Guardian
Guardian Weekly
Crosswords
Wordiply
Corrections
Tips
Search input
google-search
Search
Search jobs
Holidays
Digital Archive
Guardian Licensing
Live events
About Us
Paid content
About
Paid content is paid for and controlled by an advertiser and produced by the Guardian Labs team.
Learn more
View image in fullscreen
Industry Super Australia: Retirement ready
Get clued up about your super before retiring
Dreaming of life after work? Here’s what the experts want you to know about super before retirement.
Paid for by
About this content
Mon 20 Apr 2026 10.06 CEST Last modified on Tue 5 May 2026 07.40 CEST
Share
In 2024-25, 156,000 new retirees joined the Australians already enjoying their post-work years, bringing the total number of retirees up to 4.5 million.
For those still looking forward to retirement, there’s plenty to think about, such as what hobbies to take up, where to travel, and which bucket list items to tick off first. Before the retirement party, though, it’s also important to do some planning around superannuation. There’s a lot more to super than just turning 65 and cashing out.
So what should future retirees learn about their super before finishing work? The first point to know is that there’s plenty of advice available. We turned to the super fund expert Andrew Jewell, the executive manager of financial advice and education with First Super . With his expertise, here are five more things you should know about your super before retiring.
An illustrated graphic indication the following stat: In 2024-25, 156,000 people aged 45 years and over retired, with an average age of 63.8 years.
Estimate how much super you’ll need to retire
Retirement, like working life, looks different for all of us. With everyone having such varying lifestyles, plans and expenses, it’s hard to generalise about how much super people will need when they retire.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) offers a guide , suggesting how much retirees would need for “modest” and “comfortable” retirements. This can be helpful, but you can get more accurate figures, Jewell says, by using retirement calculators or super health checks.
“They take the person’s superannuation situation now, with their partner, where applicable, and they project that out and say: if you’re this age and you want this level of income, this is how long your super is going to last,” Jewell says. Many calculators and health checks also factor in the age pension.
An illustrated graphic prompting: Use a retirement calculator to help you arrive at an estimate.
Use a retirement calculator to help you arrive at an estimate.
Understand how a transition to retirement strategy works
Transition to retirement (TTR) is a way to access your super before retirement. It becomes an option after you’ve hit the preservation age of 60 (for people born on or after 1 July 1964). Pre-retirees can use a TTR pension as a tax-free income stream – either to work less and earn the same, or to boost their regular earnings, or as a way to supplement their wages while they also salary sacrifice to increase their super balance. Jewell says many people are also using TTR pensions to pay off debt before they retire.
“Most members want to retire debt free, and people are retiring with debt more and more nowadays,” Jewell says. “If people are considering using the TTR strategy for that particular approach, it’s best to get some financial advice around it.”
Whichever TTR strategy you like the look of, Jewell says it’s best to run your idea by a professional, or use a free online tool, such as the ISA TTR calculator . “A lot of people like the idea [of TTR], but it comes down to a basic question: how much do I open the account with, and if appropriate, how much do I contribute back into my super account?” Jewell says. “And that’s where advice comes into play.”
An illustrated graph animates behind the heads of a cartoon couple looking at a computer together.
Get into the numbers: taxes and pay
Tax isn’t just something to think about during our working lives; it can affect us in retirement, too. Depending on where you are in your retirement journey and how you intend to retire and draw down your super, there are plenty of potential tax scenarios.
“Our members are quite surprised to learn that once they’ve moved into the [superannuation] pension account, the earnings are tax free,” Jewell says.
“The other one they really don’t necessarily give consideration to is that the age pension is taxable income.”
Jewell also points out that super taken as a lump sum and put into a bank savings account can trigger income tax even in retirement due to interest earnings, and that people may be eligible for the seniors and pensioners tax offset , which can reduce their income tax. As always, the key to navigating the complexity is to speak with a professional.
Research your options for combining super and the age pension
Super and the age pension aren’t mutually exclusive; they’re designed to work together. But working out how to combine them to get the best result can be complicated. Centrelink uses assets and income tests to calculate how much age pension you are entitled to, and your super (as an asset, or as income) is factored in to those tests. To get the most out of the age pension while still drawing super, take a look at tools such as the ISA age pension calculator , and tap into the experience of industry experts.
“It’s about getting your head around the income test and the asset test,” Jewell says of combining super and the age pension. “If people want advice on their age pension only, we refer a lot of our members to Centrelink and get them to talk to a financial information services officer. It’s a free service.”
You don’t have to figure it out alone – seek super financial advice
From online super calculators to Centrelink and super fund experts, there’s a huge range of resources out there to help you understand your super. If you have questions or concerns about super and retirement, Jewell says those resources are worth leaning on, even if you don’t think you have a high enough balance.
“People think they’ve got to have a large amount of money, like a million dollars, before they get financial advice,” Jewell says. “They don’t realise $100,000 is enough.”
Get your head around retirement at retiringbasics.com today.
The information provided in this article is of a general nature only and does not constitute financial or other advice. It is important to consider personal objectives, financial situations or particular needs when making financial decisions.
Explore more on these topics
Industry Super Australia: Retirement ready
advertisement features
Share
Reuse this content
News
Opinion
Sport
Culture
Lifestyle
Original reporting and incisive analy…

Text scraped from the landing page for research purposes. © respective owners. This text is sourced from the advertiser's public landing page; for removal, contact dmca@luba.media.