How much super should I have at my age?

Whether you’re just starting out in the workforce or well into your working life, something almost everyone will want to know at some stage is whether their super balance is on track to fund a decent standard of living in retirement.

‘Have I accumulated enough super for my age or is there some catching up to do?’

Average super balances by age

When you start to think about how much super you should have, you might wonder how your balance compares to other people your age.

Statistics from March 2024 reveal the following average super balances for members of funds regulated by APRA. It excludes members of self-managed funds (SMSFs) because they are regulated by the ATO.

Age	Average balance
<25	$7,000
25–29	$22,900
30–34	$45,600
35–39	$73,600
40–44	$101,300
45–49	$130,300
50–54	$163,400
55–59	$203,500
60–64	$234,400
65–69	$263,700
70–74	$282,500

Members of SMSFs tend to have much higher balances, with the latest available averages (from June 2021) shown below.

Age	Average balance
<25	$73,539
25–34	$116,183
35–44	$206,396
45–49	$309,263
50–54	$435,698
55–59	$650,432
60–64	$951,687
65–69	$1,155,463
70–74	$1,270,681

Comparing your balance to other people your age is interesting, but the comparison alone can’t tell you whether you’re on track to achieve the retirement you want. A balance that is plenty for one person could be far too small for another because we all have different ideas about the lifestyle we want in retirement and when we plan to retire.

Target retirement income

To find out if your balance is on track, the first step is to estimate the income you want in retirement. So how do you do that?

There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer to retirement income needs – what is enough for you might seem extravagant to someone else, but we can look at some useful rules of thumb to begin answering this question.

Standardised retirement budgets