How long will my money last in retirement?
It depends on the balance, the spending, the returns and the Age Pension. For a homeowner who turns 67 this year with $400,000 in super, spending of $40,000 or $50,000 a year lasts to 92, while $60,000 a year runs short at 84 and $70,000 at 79. The most that lasts to 92 is $51,000 a year, in today’s dollars.
Spending and how long it lasts
| Spending a year | The savings last until | Age Pension in 2027–28 |
|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | 92, the end of the plan | $26,714 |
| $50,000 | 92, the end of the plan | $27,475 |
| $60,000 | 2043–44, at 84 | $28,236 |
| $70,000 | 2038–39, at 79 | $28,893 |
Once the savings run out, the Age Pension keeps being paid: at most $32,180 a year for a single person, so spending above it can no longer be met. The more is spent early, the faster the savings fall towards the assets test’s threshold and the less the test takes off the pension, which is why the pension rises with the spending in the table. It is for 2027–28, the first full year of it.
What moves it
- The spending, and how it rises with prices.
- Returns: the projection assumes a steady 6.5% a year on super; real returns rise and fall from year to year. A planner that runs many market paths (Monte Carlo), such as ProjectionLab, shows that range, which My Runway doesn’t (My Runway and ProjectionLab compared).
- The Age Pension: from 67, under the income and assets tests, with the home not counted.
- Super’s minimum payments: a retirement pension pays out at least a share of its balance each year, from 5% at 65 to 14% from 95; what isn’t spent stays saved.
The household
Pat turns 67 in January 2027 and stops work then, owns a home in Victoria outright ($750,000, and $4,500 a year in rates, insurance and upkeep on top of the spending), and has $20,000 in the bank. The plan runs until Pat is 92.
Super earns 6.5% a year with no fees taken from it, and once it pays a retirement pension its earnings aren’t taxed. Cash in the bank earns 4.1%, and prices rise 2.5% a year; the spending rises with prices. The Age Pension is indexed to the higher of prices and wages (3% a year), so in today’s dollars it grows a little each year. Every figure is in today’s dollars (2026, at 2.5% inflation). For a household retiring this year, as here, that is also the present value ASIC’s relief for super calculators sets. Each assumption can be changed in the plan.
This household is an illustration, not a recommendation: its figures show how the rules work out for one household on these assumptions, and a household with different figures gets different answers.
The guide how much super do I need to retire? works the other way, from the super to the spending, for a couple.
See this household in My Runway (read only) →
General information only, not financial advice. It doesn’t consider your circumstances; check the figures with the source and speak to a licensed adviser before you act on them.