There is no single right number for how much super you should have, but age-based benchmarks give you a useful sanity check. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) publishes indicative balances by age, along with a lump-sum target for a comfortable retirement, and those figures are the easiest yardstick most Australians can hold up against their own balance.
The honest version of the answer is this: the “right” number depends on the lifestyle you want, how long you will be retired, whether you own your home, and what the Age Pension adds on top. Benchmarks paper over all of that, which is exactly why they are handy for a quick gut-check and useless as a verdict on your future.
The benchmark everyone quotes: a comfortable retirement
ASFA’s Retirement Standard is the figure you will see repeated across the internet. It models two budgets, “modest” and “comfortable”, and works out the lump sum you would need at retirement to fund each, drawn down over time and topped up by the Age Pension.
For a comfortable retirement, the indicative lump sum sits in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single person, and somewhat more for a couple. These numbers assume you own your home outright and are reasonably healthy, which is a big assumption for anyone still renting in their sixties. The standard is reviewed regularly and the dollar figures move with inflation, so treat any number you read, including the one above, as a snapshot rather than a fixed law of nature. Confirm the current figures directly with ASFA before you anchor a plan to them.
A modest retirement needs far less, but it is genuinely modest: it covers the basics with little room for travel, a newer car, or the occasional splurge. Most people picturing their retirement are quietly imagining the comfortable budget, even if they have never seen the line items.
How much super should I have by age?
Working backwards from a retirement target, ASFA also publishes indicative balances at various ages. The idea is to show whether you are roughly on track to land near the comfortable figure by your mid-sixties. A separate, rougher rule of thumb ties your target super to a multiple of your salary that climbs as you age, which is handy if you would rather think in “X times what I earn” than in flat dollars.
Here is a simplified view of both ideas. The dollar figures are indicative and rounded, and the salary multiples are a popular rule of thumb rather than an official ASFA position.
| Age | Indicative balance (single, rough) | Rule-of-thumb multiple of salary |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Around $40,000 to $60,000 | About 1x |
| 40 | Around $150,000 | About 2x to 3x |
| 50 | Around $270,000 | About 4x to 5x |
| 60 | Around $450,000 | About 6x to 7x |
| 67 | Around $590,000 | About 8x to 9x |
Do not read that table as a report card. The figures are indicative only, last checked June 2026, and they assume steady contributions, a fairly typical fund and no major career breaks, which describes almost nobody perfectly. If you took time out to raise kids, studied late, arrived in Australia mid-career, or worked casually for years, your numbers will look different and that is entirely normal. Use the table to ask “am I in the right postcode?”, not “have I passed or failed?”.
Why the trajectory matters more than the number
A single balance tells you where you are. It tells you almost nothing about where you are heading, and where you are heading is the part you can actually influence. Three levers do most of the work: fees, contributions and time.
Fees are the quiet one. A difference of a single percentage point in annual fees, compounded across decades, can carve a meaningful slice off your final balance without you ever noticing it leave. It is worth knowing what your fund charges and how that compares, because this is one of the few retirement variables you can change with a phone call.
Contributions are the obvious one. The 11.5 per cent employer guarantee (rising on its legislated path, so check the current rate) does a lot of heavy lifting on its own, but voluntary contributions are where people who feel behind tend to catch up. Even small, regular extra contributions compound surprisingly hard when there are decades left to run.
Time is the lever you cannot buy back, which is why starting earlier beats almost every other move. If you are in your twenties or thirties, an unremarkable balance with thirty years ahead of it is in a far stronger position than an impressive balance with five years to go.
A modest balance with thirty years of runway beats an impressive balance with five. Time in the market is the one lever you can never buy back.
What to do if you are behind
If your balance is sitting well under the benchmark for your age, the worst response is to decide it is hopeless and look away. Most of the effective moves are unglamorous and within reach.
- Salary sacrifice. Diverting a slice of your pre-tax pay into super is one of the most efficient catch-up tools, because the contribution is generally taxed at a lower rate than your income. Our guide to salary sacrifice into super walks through how it works and the caps to watch.
- Consolidate your funds. If you have collected two or three accounts across different jobs, you may be paying duplicate fees and insurance premiums on each. Rolling them into one fund can stop that leak, though check what insurance you would lose before you merge anything.
- Model the gap. Plugging your real numbers into a superannuation calculator shows whether a modest extra contribution each month meaningfully closes the gap, or whether you need a bigger rethink. It turns a vague worry into a figure you can act on.
- Check you are getting what you are owed. It is worth confirming your employer is actually paying your super, and at the correct rate, because underpayment is more common than it should be.
To pressure-test all of this against your own situation, you can see if you are on track for retirement with a structured walkthrough rather than guesswork. Used alongside official sources, it helps translate the benchmarks into a plan that fits your income and timeline.
A note on advice and figures
This is general information, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Everyone’s situation is different, and the right number for you depends on details a benchmark cannot see. All dollar figures and thresholds here are indicative and were last checked June 2026. Rates, caps and the ASFA standard change over time, so confirm the current numbers with ASFA, the ATO or your own fund, and consider speaking to a licensed financial adviser before making decisions about your super.
The bottom line
There is no magic figure that means you are “safe”. Benchmarks from ASFA, and the salary-multiple rule of thumb, are useful for a quick check of whether you are in the right ballpark for your age, and that is all they are meant to be. What moves the needle is the trajectory: keeping fees low, contributing what you can, and giving your money time to compound. If you are behind, salary sacrifice and consolidating funds are practical first steps, and a superannuation calculator will tell you how far they get you. Check the live figures with the official source, then get on with the boring, reliable work of feeding the account and leaving it alone.