Here’s the average retirement balance for a 35-year-old in Australia

Australians are never too young to plan for a comfortable retirement. Although we tend to think pension And retirement planning As the domain of the over-50s, the reality is that our retirement funds require attention from the moment we start contributing our hard-earned dollars to it.

The main purpose of retirement is the power of compound interest for decades. If done correctly, this should mean that the fruits of our labor throughout our working lives will allow most of us to enjoy at least a modest and comfortable retirement by the time we reach the final third of our lives.

Because Australians’ spending tendencies in their 20s and 30s are so different, it can be difficult to know how well-balanced the average super fund might be at these ages. But thanks A new research report from the Association of Australian Superannuation Funds (ASFA)We can look at exactly what these numbers look like.

So today, let’s discuss the average retirement balance for Australians aged 35.

What is the average retirement balance at age 35 in Australia?

The ASFA report found the average super account balance for Australians aged 35 to 39 as of June 2022 was $90,822 for men and $71,686 for women.

Note that an average measurement is significantly affected by the extreme numbers in the data sample. If a 35-year-old Australian has an obscenely high balance of $5 million, that will push the average measurement up significantly. Therefore, for this type of analysis it is often better to use the median metric, which is much less affected by external numbers in a data set.

With this in mind, the report found that the average superannuation balance for those aged 35 to 39 in Australia is $70,181 for men and $54,391 for women.

For some context, the average balance between ages 30 and 24 was $39,796 for men and $34,327 for women.

By now, you may have noticed the large gender disparity between the average and median retirement balances between men and women. ASFA explains this gap as follows:

A number of factors are responsible for the fact that women have, on average, less pension money than men. One reason for this is that women are more likely to leave the paid workforce after the birth of a child.

There is also significant segmentation of the workforce; women are more likely to be employed in sectors where wages are lower on average. However, as the compulsory retirement system matures, the pension share also increases. Mandatory retirement is beneficial for both men and women, especially women.

The recent removal of the $450 per month wage threshold for compulsory retirement payment will help increase the share of employer contributions paid into women’s accounts, as approximately two-thirds of those affected by the threshold are women.

Here’s the average and median retirement balance for people aged around 35 in Australia. With these figures in mind, it might be a good time to check your super balance and see how yours are doing, especially if you’re in this age range.

Earlier this month, My silly colleague Zach reported What Australians should do If they want to be on the path to a comfortable retirement, they aim to have a retirement fund of at least $59,000 by age 30 and $156,000 by age 40. It seems that we all have a long way to go before we achieve these goals. numbers.