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Cost of retirement up in June quarter
Small price rises across the board, in particular with regards to petrol, health and food, have impacted the average retirement budget significantly by driving the total cost of retirement up in the June quarter by 2% to 3% in comparison to last year.
According to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Retirement Standard, Australian retirees are now facing greater price pressures than the general population, with figures indicating that couples aged around 65 living a comfortable retirement would need to spend $63,352 per year and singles $44,818, up by 0.8% and 0.9% respectively on the previous quarter.
At the same time, over the year to June 2021, prices were up by around 2.3% for the comfortable couple budget and by 2.6% for the comfortable single budget.
Additionally, the prices of essentials also went up, namely petrol (+27.3%), hospital and medical services (+6.7%) and even basic fruit and vegetables.
“Small price rises across the board can add up to have a big impact on the average retiree budget,” ASFA’s chief executive, Dr Martin Fahy, said.
“The cost of retirement is now 2% to 3% more expensive, on average, than a year ago. It’s so important that future retirees are able to build sufficient savings over their working lives to ensure they can face retirement with financial confidence.
“Moving Australia to the 12% superannuation guarantee (SG) setting is an excellent step towards achieving this goal.”
Source: ASFA
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