New data confounds ‘comfortable retirement’ expectations

As the Government considers changes to superannuation tax concessions, new data presented to the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds has revealed that many Australians are already falling below what is regarded as a comfortable retirement.

The data, compiled by the Australian Centre for Financial Studies (ACFS), also made clear that the Treasurer, Scott Morrison, needed to be careful in targeting changes to tax concessions in circumstances where the 30 per cent of income earning households were being shown to be saving vastly more than they had earned, the bottom 20 per cent were spending more.

ACFS executive director, Amy Auster, said the research, much of which was preliminary, showed that, on average, retiree household expenditure was sitting at or below the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) standard for a "modest" retirement while very few could be deemed to meet the "comfortable" standard.

Further, Auster said the data suggested it was wrong to believe that retirees' expenditure reduced as they got older, noting that there did not appear to be a decline.

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Indeed, the data showed that today's retirees were spending more than previous cohorts — something which might reflect higher levels of relative wealth.

The data confirmed that the family home and superannuation represented the largest components of wealth for retirees, but the ability of retirees to have a comfortable retirement depended on where they lived, with those living in regional areas experiencing a different outcome to those in the major cities.