It's well known that Australians between the ages of 30 and 50 don't exactly pay as much attention to their superannuation balances as those who are closer to the traditional retirement age.
On one hand, that's fair enough. If you're 30 years old, retirement probably seems like a distant pipedream. Certainly not something that's worthy of as much thought as career advancement.
But I would argue that we should all be paying our super funds some attention every once in a while, regardless of our age. Superannuation is our best shot at a comfortable, self-funded retirement, after all. And thanks to the power of compounding, the earlier we show it some love, the better off we'll be.
A few weeks ago, we took stock of what the average and median superannuation balances were for Australians aged 60, 65 and 70.
But today, we're going to check out how those numbers look for Australians aged 30, 40 and 50. It might be worth seeing how your own super fund measures up to what the average person in your age group has.
Image source: Getty Images
What's the average superannuation balance at 30, 40 and 50?
So again, we'll be using the numbers from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)'s Taxation Statistics report. This report pulled data from the 2021 financial year.
According to the ATO's data, the median super balance for Australians aged between 30 and 34 in FY21 was $38,681. That compares to an average balance of $51,400. Remember, the average statistic is more heavily influenced by outsized numbers than the median.
For someone between the ages of 40 and 44, the median balance was $91,590. That was with an average superannuation balance of $123,993.
For Australians aged between 50 and 54, we get a median figure of $137,930 and an average balance of $215,115.
These figures might not mean too much to someone who's 30 or perhaps even 40 right now. But it's well worth checking out how your own superannuation fund compares to these average and median figures.
As we covered last year, AMP has estimated the amount that a single retiree (who already owns their own home outright) will need in their superannuation nest egg to fund a comfortable retirement. Those analysts came up with a figure of $1.25 million in today's dollars. It was a lump sum of $795,000 to pay for even a modest retirement.
If you plug in the numbers for your own fund, you might find that your super balance could need a boost. That's if you're hoping to get to that rainbow's end at the conclusion of your working life.
