Retirement income planning in Australia
Build a retirement income plan around what your household expects to spend and where the money could come from. Compare super drawdowns, potential Age Pension, work and other income, then check how the balance changes across your retirement years.
How long will my super last?
How long super lasts depends on withdrawals, investment returns, fees, inflation and other income. A retirement calculator can explore those assumptions, but its projection is not a promise. Compare more than one spending and return scenario, and check the years before any Age Pension may begin.
Use the super target guide and the super drawdown guide to review the assumptions.
Income bands
Model different income targets for early pension-age years, middle retirement and later life instead of assuming one flat number forever.
Actual income
Compare target income with other income, employment income, Age Pension estimate and super drawdown pressure year by year.
Adviser-ready questions
The report is designed to show what needs checking, including assumptions, timing, tax, Centrelink treatment and drawdown choices.
Why income planning matters
Retirement income is rarely one clean number. Spending can be higher in active years, lower later, then affected again by health, family, travel, home costs or aged-care decisions.
- Separate household spending from each person’s super position
- Show when income gaps start to appear
- Flag when Age Pension assumptions need official checking
- Keep the explanation plain enough to discuss with family or an adviser
Build an income picture before creating your report.
1. Start with spending
Separate essential spending, flexible lifestyle costs and one-off goals. The report is more useful when the income target is realistic.
2. Add known income
Include employment income, investment income, super income streams and other assessable income in the years they are expected to apply. Keep cash available for spending separate from income assessed for Age Pension. Deeming may replace actual investment returns for the pension test, so do not count both in the same means-test calculation. Follow the input instructions and check complex income streams separately.
3. Check the gap
The useful output is the gap between target income and expected income, then whether super drawdown pressure looks manageable under the assumptions.
Related guides and next steps.
Use the education pages to pressure-test your assumptions, then move into the Pension Pilot report when you want the household inputs pulled into one plain-English PDF.
Official source
For an independent view of how much income you may need in retirement, see MoneySmart’s guide to working out how much you need to retire.
Apply this to your own retirement
Pension Pilot turns your super balance, spending and retirement timing into a year-by-year projection, including the years between stopping work and Age Pension age.
Start your retirement plan · See a sample report · Get the free report