Investing in (ASX) shares could be the ticket to building more investment cash flow than what the Age Pension can provide. We could build a portfolio capable of delivering that wealth for just the price of a daily coffee.
Currently, a good coffee could cost around $7 per cup in one of Australia's major cities, which translates into $49 per week and approximately $2,550 per year.
That doesn't sound like a lot compared to the current Age Pension of $1,100.30 per fortnight, or $28,600 annually, for a single person.
But, compounding is a great ally to assist with wealth building. Compounding can help a small number grow into a much larger figure over time as interest earns interest.
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The power of a coffee and compounding
The numbers I'm about to outline are based on what daily coffee typically would cost, but it doesn't need to be a coffee exactly, it could be another relatively small expense that is replaced. Or even just what can happen when someone regularly invests a limited amount each year. I'll base the number on someone who's currently 30 years old, with 40 years to retirement. Someone older may have less time to retirement, but more financial capability to invest bigger sums each year.
Simply putting $2,550 each year under the mattress would mean $102,000 after 40 years. That wouldn't be enough to outperform the Age Pension. Stashing money under the mattress would not mean any protection from inflation over those years.
If someone earned 4% interest during those years from a bank acount, the $102,000 would actually grow into $242,315. With a 4% interest rate, that would generate $9,692.6 of annual interest, which still doesn't match the current income from the Age Pension.
If we choose great (ASX) share investments, that could lead to very strong wealth creation.
For example, up until February 2026, the VanEck MSCI International Quality ETF (ASX: QUAL) had returned an average of 15.3% per year since its inception in October 2014.
If our daily coffee figure achieved that same return over the next 40 years – remembering that past performance is not a guarantee of future performance – then it would grow into $4.94 million. That's how powerful compounding is.
Withdrawing 4% per year from that balance would mean annual cash flow of $197,523. In my view, that's likely to be (far) more than what the Age Pension will be in 40 years from now.
I'd invest more than that
Of course, we don't know how shares will perform over the next 40 years, and it's also hard to say what inflation will do to the value of a dollar.
So, I think it'd be a wise idea to invest more than $2,500 per year into shares, if a household's finances allow.
I'm currently building my non-super share portfolio to provide a mixture of both capital growth and dividend income, with the dividends adding to my regular income from names like Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL). I like that strategy to help both my shorter-term and long-term finances.
