Superannuation Calculator
Project your Australian super balance to retirement, after contributions tax and fees, and see the yearly income it could pay.
See where your super is heading
Employer Super Guarantee, salary sacrifice, 15% contributions tax, fees and compounding returns, projected one year at a time to your chosen retirement age.
Understanding Superannuation
The four levers that decide your balance
- Time: the single biggest factor. A dollar added at 25 has forty years to compound; the same dollar at 55 has ten.
- Contributions: the Super Guarantee is a floor, not a target. Small extra amounts early beat large ones late.
- Return: your investment option matters. A growth option is more volatile but has historically outpaced a conservative one over long horizons.
- Fees: charged on the balance every year, so they compound against you exactly as returns compound for you.
Concessional and non-concessional contributions
Concessional contributions go in before tax and are taxed at 15% inside the fund. That covers employer SG, salary sacrifice and personal contributions you claim a deduction for. They share one annual cap.
Non-concessional contributions are made from money you have already paid tax on. They are not taxed again on entry, sit under a separate and much larger cap, and are not modelled by this calculator.
If your total super balance is under the threshold set by the ATO, unused concessional cap from the previous five financial years can be carried forward and used in a single year, which is useful in a year with a capital gain or a bonus.
Why fees deserve a close look
A percentage fee is deducted from your balance every year, so its cost grows as your balance grows. The gap between a fund charging 0.85% and one charging 1.50% looks trivial on a A$50,000 balance and becomes very large on a A$1,000,000 one.
Change the fee input above by a few tenths of a percent and watch the projected balance move. That difference is the strongest argument for checking your fund's fee disclosure and for consolidating duplicate accounts, each of which charges its own administration fee and may deduct insurance premiums you are paying twice.
Turning a balance into an income
Super is generally preserved until you reach preservation age and meet a condition of release such as retiring. Most people then move the balance into an account-based pension, which pays a regular income and, in the retirement phase, is not taxed on its earnings.
Account-based pensions have legislated minimum drawdown percentages that start around 4% and step up with age, so the 5% default here is a middle-of-the-road planning figure rather than a rule. Your real income also depends on post-retirement returns, how long you live, and any Age Pension entitlement, which is means tested against your assets and income.