How Much Super Should I Have at My Age in Australia?

Asking “how much super should I have Australia?” is a good way to check if you’re on track for retirement. There’s no single right number—it depends on the lifestyle you want and when you plan to stop work. But industry bodies and advisers often use age-based benchmarks to give you a rough target. These are usually expressed as a multiple of your current salary (for example, 1× your salary by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50). This guide explains those rules of thumb and how to use them, and how our pay calculator and retirement calculator can help you plan.

Why use age-based benchmarks?

Super benchmarks by age are useful because they scale with your earnings. Someone on $60,000 and someone on $120,000 will have different dollar targets, but both might aim for “3× salary by 40.” The idea is that if you keep hitting these multiples, you’re likely to have enough to support a similar lifestyle in retirement (often assumed to be about two-thirds of pre-retirement income). They’re a starting point, not a guarantee—your own goals might be higher or lower.

Common multiples by age

A common set of targets is: 1× your salary by age 30, 2× by 35, 3× by 40, 4× by 45, 5× by 50, 6× by 55, 7× by 60, and around 8× or more by 67 (preservation age and beyond). So if you’re 40 and earn $80,000, a rough target might be $240,000 in super. These figures assume you’ll retire around 67 and draw down for 20–25 years. If you want to retire earlier or live on more, you’d aim higher.

How employer contributions help

For 2025-26 the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) is 11.5% of your ordinary time earnings. That’s paid by your employer on top of your salary. So even if you don’t add anything extra, your super grows each year. To see how much super you’re getting from your pay, use our pay calculator: it shows the 11.5% employer contribution so you can see the total going into super. If you want to boost your balance, salary sacrifice or personal contributions can help—our salary sacrifice calculator shows the impact.

Checking if you’re on track

Compare your current super balance to the benchmark for your age (as a multiple of your current salary). If you’re behind, you might increase contributions, consolidate accounts, or check your investment option. If you’re ahead, you might still want to keep contributing for a more comfortable retirement or earlier exit. Use our retirement calculator to project your balance to retirement age with different contribution and return assumptions.

What if I’m behind?

Catching up is possible. Even small extra contributions can make a difference over time because of compound growth. Salary sacrificing from pre-tax income can be tax-effective. If you’re 55 or over, you may be able to make catch-up concessional contributions under the carry-forward rules. Our retirement calculator lets you play with extra contributions to see how they affect your projected balance. The key is to start as soon as you can—the earlier you add more, the more time compound growth has to work.