HOW MUCH WILL I NEED?
Members, who are planning for retirement, may want to get an idea of how much income they are likely to need to live on after they stop work.
Westpac and ASFA (The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia) together have drawn up a table for singles and couples with estimated expenses for both a basic and a more comfortable lifestyle. They review this table regularly and update the figures taking into account inflation and other factors. You can view this table by looking on the ASFA or Westpac websites.
From the ASFA website, select "Super Guru" then select "Westpac-ASFA Retirement Standard"
HOW MUCH WILL I HAVE?
Members may also want to get an idea of what their super account balance is likely to be when they retire.
To assist in this there are calculators available on various websites. All calculators are set up using a number of assumptions. If you use a calculator you should make sure you understand what those assumptions are and the effect they may have on the final lump sum.
If you use calculators on more than one website, you may find that they are not set up using the same assumptions and may give you different final lump sums.
To get a proper comparison you may prefer to put different sets of figures into the one calculator so that you are comparing like with like at the end of the exercise. One calculator can be found on the FIDO website (link correct at 14.12.09), which is the consumer website of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), a Federal Government organisation.