Understanding the ASFA Retirement Standard
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
A practical benchmark for planning your retirement lifestyle
When planning for retirement, one of the most common questions we hear is: 'How much do I actually need?
'The ASFA Retirement Standard helps answer this by providing a clear, research-based benchmark of what it costs to fund different retirement lifestyles in Australia.
What is the ASFA Retirement Standard?
The ASFA Retirement Standard estimates how much income retirees need to support either a modest or comfortable lifestyle. These benchmarks are updated quarterly and are based on real household spending patterns for Australians aged 65–84.
How much does retirement cost?
Comfortable lifestyle (homeowners):
- Couple: approx. $77,375 per year
- Single: approx. $54,840 per year
Modest lifestyle (homeowners):
- Couple: approx. $51,299 per year
- Single: approx. $35,503 per year
What do these lifestyles look like?
Modest: Covers basic expenses with limited discretionary spending.
Comfortable: Allows for travel, dining out, private health insurance and greater flexibility.
Why this benchmark is so useful
- Provides a clear starting point
- Translates savings into lifestyle outcomes- Helps identify any financial gap
- Anchors realistic expectations
Important limitations
The standard assumes home ownership, average health, and typical spending patterns. Individual needs may vary significantly.
How we use it in your planning
We use the ASFA Retirement Standard as a baseline and tailor strategies to your personal goals and desired lifestyle. It’s a starting point for discussions and gives a good idea of what retirement is likely to cost. Most people haven’t been retired before, so don’t really know what it’s going to cost ongoing.
Final thoughts
The ASFA Retirement Standard provides clarity and confidence when planning for retirement, helping answer the question: 'Will I be okay?'. Now let’s be real, a lot of people would like to live on more than this, especially in the early retirement years. It’s important not to use this figure as an anchor (anchoring bais) but carefully consider and understand what a rich retirement life means to you. This is much more important to understand than meeting a generic figure.
ASFA is the peak policy, research and advocacy body for Australia’s superannuation industry.
Important: This provides general information and hasn’t taken your circumstances into account. It’s important to consider your particular circumstances before deciding what’s right for you. Although the information is from sources considered reliable, we do not guarantee that it is accurate or complete. You should not rely upon it and should seek qualified advice before making any investment decision. Except where liability under any statute cannot be excluded, we do not accept any liability (whether under contract, tort or otherwise) for any resulting loss or damage of the reader or any other person. Any information provided by the author detailed above is separate and external to our business and our Licensee. Neither our business nor our Licensee takes any responsibility for any action or any service provided by the author. Any links have been provided with permission for information purposes only and will take you to external websites, which are not connected to our company in any way. Note: Our company does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy of the contents/information contained within the linked site(s) accessible from this page.
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