Financial Planning
Insights & Advice

Thinking about retirement? Here’s how to know if you’re truly ready financially and emotionally. Discover the 7 key signs you’re prepared for life after work.

The short answer? For most homeowners, yes, and with more room than the headlines suggest. On reasonable assumptions, a homeowning couple retiring at 67 with $1 million can spend at ASFA’s full comfortable standard of $78,998 a year and see the money last to around age 100. A single homeowner at the comfortable standard of $56,166 a year holds up even longer. Renters, early retirees and anyone planning a $100,000-a-year lifestyle face a harder equation, which we cover below.

Yes, you can retire at 55 in Australia. There is no law that prevents you from stopping work at any age. The challenge is that for most Australians (anyone born after 30 June 1964), you cannot access your superannuation until age 60, and the Age Pension does not begin until 67.

Retiring at 55 creates two income gaps you must fund independently: a 5-year gap before super access, and a 7-year gap before pension eligibility.

Most Australians who retire successfully at 55 need a total of $1.2 to $1.8 million in combined assets across super and non-super savings, depending on lifestyle, home ownership, and spending targets.

The specific number depends on how the money is structured across the three retirement phases: the gap years (55 to 59), super access (60 to 66), and pension-supported retirement (67 and beyond).

This guide covers when you can actually access your super, how much super is generally required to retire at 55, how to fund the gap years, and how to build a three-phase plan that lasts 35 or more years.

Should I keep investing after retirement? Learn why continuing to invest can help your money last longer, beat inflation, and support a comfortable retirement.