Every spare dollar gets a job. Give it the right job, in the right order, and time does most of the work. The result is a retirement that feels settled, not uncertain.
How people tend to feel once work stops. Those who plan ahead follow the green line: steady satisfaction, rather than a high, a slump and a slow recovery. The low line shows where a forced start, too little money or debt carried into retirement can lead. This plan is about staying on the green line.
Fill each in turn. Select a step to see why it comes where it does.
Newly bought, so leave it be. Its job is decided closer to retirement: clear its debt and keep it as income, or sell and move the proceeds into super.
See the two paths, under Build: InvestingSelect a phase to see what happens in it.
Super is the lowest-tax place to build retirement wealth. The second part of the job is keeping both accounts growing, so each of you can use your own tax-free limit.
Compare the last $1,000 taken as salary with the same $1,000 salary sacrificed into super, where it is taxed at 15%. Assumes concessional contributions at the full $32,500 cap.
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Taxable income of $241,071 before the deduction, $28,929 of employer super, and a $27,751 personal contribution claimed as a deduction to use this year's cap plus unused cap from the last five years.
The personal contribution makes no difference. It lifts B from $4,339 to $8,502, but A is smaller both times and A does not move, because the total tested stays at $270,000. The $3,000 is payable either way.
2026-27 income tax rates including the Medicare levy. General information only; confirm with an accountant against actual figures.
Each person has their own transfer balance cap: the most that can move into a tax-free retirement pension. Anything over it stays in accumulation, where earnings keep being taxed.
Projected using inflation of 2.5% to 3% a year. Both limits move in fixed steps, so the actual figures may differ.
The fix: two balances each under their own cap can put more into tax-free pensions than one balance over it.
Each year the higher marginal tax earner can ask their fund to move up to 85% of the previous year's concessional contributions into their partner's account. Nothing extra is paid in; it simply lands in the account that has more room.
Uses today's cap without indexation, so it understates the real figure. The split is made after the end of each financial year. The receiving partner must be under 60, or aged 60 to 64 and not retired, when it is made.
Money goes in before tax or after tax. Each has its own cap per person, per financial year. Limits shown are for 2026-27.
If a balance was under $500,000 on 30 June last year, unused concessional cap from the previous five years can be used now. A large balance rules this out, so it usually suits the lower marginal tax earner. Drag each year to what was actually contributed.
{{note}} The oldest unused amount is used first, and each year's amount expires after five years. Employer contributions this year count towards the total.
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Every extra dollar on the loan earns the interest rate, guaranteed and tax-free. Few investments can promise that.
Home ownership is one of the strongest predictors of financial wellbeing in retirement. Treasury’s 2026 Intergenerational Report compares retirees who own their home with those renting privately.
The comparison is between owners and renters, but the same logic applies to a mortgage. A loan still owing at retirement is a housing cost that super has to pay, just like rent. Clearing it by Year 15 lowers the spending super must fund for life, and leaves the home as a reserve for later years.
Source: Australian Government, 2026 Intergenerational Report, p. 125.A simplification: share growth is taxed only when sold, and franking credits reduce tax on dividends, so the true hurdle is a little lower. The trade-off stays the same: a guaranteed return against an uncertain one.
Enter a loan balance, the term left on the loan and any money sitting in an offset account.
Assumes the offset balance stays the same throughout and the rate does not change. Interest is charged only on the loan balance less the offset.
Shares add diversification and liquidity beside the property. Where they sit decides how much of the return you keep.
The time frame comes first. It decides how much risk the money can take.
Same investment, different owner. Choose the lower marginal tax earner's rate.
An investment bond pays up to 30% inside the bond and adds nothing to your own taxable income. Held 10 years, withdrawals are tax-free. Each year's new money can be up to 125% of the previous year's, or the 10-year clock restarts.
Anything that gets the 50% capital gains discount today, such as shares, ETFs and property held over 12 months, would instead have its cost base indexed to inflation for gains made after 1 July 2027. That puts even more weight on who holds an investment, and what it is held in.
$100,000 invested, sold for $200,000 ten years later, with inflation at 2.5% a year. Choose the owner's marginal rate.
Proposed in the 2026 Budget and not yet law, so the details may change. The example assumes the investment was bought after 1 July 2027 and ignores other income, franking credits and offsets. Personal rates include the Medicare levy. Investment bond tax can be lower than 30% after franking credits.
No one knows which market will lead over the next 15 years. Spreading money across asset types and regions means the plan does not depend on any one of them repeating its past.
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Illustrative mixes only, not a recommendation. The right mix depends on the time frame and comfort with ups and downs. A single diversified index fund can hold most of these at low cost. The investment property is already a large holding in Australian residential property, which is another reason to look beyond Australia for the rest.
The property was only just bought, and the costs of buying are already paid. There is nothing to gain by acting now. Around Year 11, it takes one of two roles.
Super pensions after 60 are tax-free and do not count as taxable income. So the rent may be the only taxable income, and each person has their own tax-free threshold.
The rent is what the property earns each year once retired, after rates, insurance, maintenance and agent fees, shown in today’s dollars. It is the same setting as on the Retire page. Tax uses 2026-27 income tax rates and the low income tax offset, assuming thresholds keep pace with inflation. Excludes the Medicare levy, which low incomes are exempt from, and the seniors offset, which raises the tax-free amount further from Age Pension age. Clearing the loan means no interest to deduct, so net rent is close to the full rent less running costs.
The capital gains rules on a future sale may change: the 2026 Budget proposes replacing the 50% discount from 1 July 2027. Gains made before then keep the current discount.
Five years to move wealth into super, lean the mix towards income and stability, and build a cash buffer, so the first years of retirement never depend on the market.
While there is a salary, growth is the better target: gains are not taxed until something is sold, so they don't add to a high tax bill. As retirement nears and money moves into super, the mix leans towards assets that pay income and swing less.
Safest on the day they retire, not before. The low-risk share rises through Consolidate and peaks at retirement, when a market fall would hit the largest balance just as withdrawals start. Retirement can last 25 to 30 years, so growth assets stay the largest part of the mix throughout. Illustrative mixes only; the Retire page mix moves with its settings.
While the caps allow, after-tax money moves from outside super into it, where earnings are taxed at 15% now and nothing in pension phase.
Set each super balance. Five years fit two bring-forward windows, in Year 11 and Year 14, as long as the balance stays under the limits.
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{{footnote}} Ignores growth between windows. Each person must be under 75. The balance that counts is the one on 30 June of the previous year.
Outside investments do three jobs in this phase: they let work wind down, they build a cash buffer, and they reduce the damage a market fall can do at the worst moment.
Fewer hours can be topped up with income from investments held outside super, which can't be touched until 60. A lower salary also means a lower marginal rate, so that investment income is taxed less.
Hold 2 to 3 years of spending in cash or similar, so a downturn never forces a sale. At $145,000 a year that is $290,000 to $435,000 in today's dollars, built up over these five years.
$1,000,000, with $60,000 taken out each year and 7% returns, except for one year with a 25% fall. Same fall, very different outcome.
The plan times the last repayment for Year 15, so there is no repayment to redirect before then.
Select a year.
Two balanced super accounts, a home with no debt, and income that lasts. All figures in today's dollars.
Over 15 years, in today's dollars. The higher marginal tax earner starts ahead but splits part of each year's contributions across, so their balance grows mainly from returns. The lower marginal tax earner catches up.
Move the spending to see the lifestyle change, and how long the money lasts.
What the spending set at the top pays for.
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Top: super and investments over time, by the older partner's age. Bottom: income each year. The solid line is what their own money provides, including rent; the dotted line adds the Age Pension once they qualify. The pension is a back-up that may change, not part of the plan.
Still spread across markets, but with a cash buffer and more bonds than in the build years. Retirement can run 30 years or more, so growth assets remain the largest part. Figures in today's dollars at the start of retirement.
How it works: spending comes from the cash, the bonds top the cash back up in good years, and the growth assets are left alone to grow for later decades. {{cashNote}} Illustrative mix only, not a recommendation.
The ten most common retirement planning mistakes, from a Natixis Investment Managers survey quoted in BDO's guide.
Returns are after fees and tax, before inflation. Wage growth, used to index the contribution caps, is set 0.75% above inflation.
The Australian Government’s 2026 Intergenerational Report sets out how Australia is expected to change over the next 40 years. Reading it against this plan raised seven things the other pages do not yet cover. They are listed in order of priority.
The plan spends the same amount each year to 95, with nothing set aside for care in the later years.
The site treats the home only as a debt to clear. Once clear, it is also the couple’s largest reserve.
Everything depends on two incomes continuing for 15 years, including one in the top bracket.
The plan assumes both stop work completely on the same day.
This site uses 2026-27 rules and announced proposals. Over 15 years, many of them will change. The report makes clear that the direction of change is towards taxing income from assets more like income from work.
Like the mortgage, a cost removed for good before retirement never has to be funded from super.
Help for family appears only as a lifestyle tier on the Retire page.