Women and Super

Last Friday was International Women’s Day, so I thought it was appropriate to reference something I read in the Herald Sun from 6 March (there was no one in the lunch room to “quiz me” so I had to actually read the paper…). According to the article, a recent Canstar research report claims that stay-at-home mums miss out on $160,000 - $290,000 in superannuation savings.

Yikes, that’s a lot of money!

I’m definitely not suggesting that women who choose to stay at home with their children should now rush back to work to improve their super balance, but it does mean that somewhere along the lines you may need to address the “hole” and make sensible financial decisions to get back on track.

But what is “on track”?

Last week I mentioned that a typical rule of thumb is that you’ll probably need about 60%-80% of the annual income you earned before retirement to maintain a similar standard of living.

And if you like your statistics, the Association of Super Funds Australia (ASFA) release national figures each quarter benchmarking what most Australians need to spend to achieve a modest or a comfortable retirement.

According to the latest the ASFA Retirement Standard figures, a couple looking to achieve a comfortable retirement needs to spend $56,339 a year, while those seeking a ‘modest’ retirement lifestyle need to spend $32,555 a year. The figures for a single person are $22,585 and $41,186 respectively.

Of course, everyone’s different, but these figures can be a helpful guideline when you’re working out whether you’re likely to have a “super hole” (yep, double entendre deliberate) to fill in retirement - male or female!

Click here if you’d like to read a copy of the Herald Sun article, and click here for full details of the ASFA Retirement Standard including assumptions and their definitions of modest and comfortable.

Talk soon,

C