We're relying on the age pension, and saving
The main source of income for most of us in retirement, reports the ABS from its retirement data, is the government age pension. The maximum fortnightly pension rate, including supplements, is slightly more than $1000 for singles and $1600 for couples.
Superannuation is a close second for retired men, with 30% relying on it as their main source of income. For women, 17% principally depend on their superannuation, while “36% of retired women relied on their partner’s income to meet their living costs”, reported the ABS.
A basic fear that many of us have, that we’ll run out of money once we stop working, isn’t true. Not only do we overestimate how much we need to have in superannuation for a comfortable retirement, but we’re dying with around 90 per cent of the assets we began retirement with, because we’re living on the income from those assets and leaving the assets themselves intact.
We’re reducing spending so much, the government stated in a recent retirement paper, that retirees actually reduce their standard of living. In fact, so much money is left in their estate that by 2060 it is projected one third of all the money paid out of superannuation will be a part of a bequest, that is, it will go straight to the beneficiaries you’ve chosen (if you’ve set up a binding nomination).