Explore a transition to retirement strategy using Industry Super’s TTR calculator

This video demonstrates how to use Industry Super Funds’ Transition to Retirement (TTR) calculator to model three scenarios available to people aged 60 to 64:

1. Keep working and grow your super, using tax-free pension income to replace the take-home pay you give up through salary sacrifice
2. Reduce your work hours and use pension income to top up your reduced salary
3. Draw extra income from your super while continuing to work the same hours

The calculator asks for very little information (age, salary and super balance) and lets you edit key assumptions, including investment returns, fees, wage inflation, insurance premiums and employer contributions.

Its output has some important limitations:

• It won’t model contributions above the annual concessional cap, so it ignores the carry-forward rule, which can allow larger salary sacrifice amounts if your total super balance was under $500,000 at 30 June
• It models one strategy at a time. You can’t combine reduced work hours with salary sacrifice, for example, even though these strategies often work together
• The first scenario assumes you’re not currently making any super contributions, so it may not reflect your position if you already salary sacrifice
• All three scenarios assume you want to keep your take-home pay exactly the same. There’s no option to model contributing more and living on less
• Projections stop at age 65, which is when a TTR pension converts to a retirement phase pension, so your final balance may be understated if you plan to work longer