Working out how much superannuation you need to retire comfortably at 60 is one of the harder questions in personal finance.
The answer is that it depends on your circumstances.
But there are useful benchmarks to work from and retiring at 60 rather than 67 is a key priority for many Australians.
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What the superannuation benchmarks say
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia publishes a quarterly Retirement Standard.
For the March quarter of 2026, the Retirement Standard estimates a comfortable lifestyle needs a lump sum of $630,000 for a single person and $730,000 for a couple.
A comfortable standard covers private health insurance, a reasonable car, household goods and holidays.
Those figures assume you own your home outright and retire at 67, living to roughly 85.
ASFA also assumes a part Age Pension does some of the heavy lifting once assets fall below the relevant thresholds, which means the published figures already build in government support that an early retiree will not receive for years.
Why retiring at 60 changes the superannuation maths
Preservation age is now 60 for everyone born on or after 1 July 1964.
As a result, 60 is the earliest most people can access their superannuation, and only once they have actually retired.
The Age Pension, by contrast, does not begin until 67.
That leaves a seven-year window funded entirely from your own savings.
You also give up seven years of contributions and compounding.
A rough illustration helps here: seven extra years of drawing roughly $56,000 annually adds close to $400,000 in nominal terms.
Investment returns over that period reduce the shortfall, though not to zero.
On that basis, a single person retiring at 60 might reasonably target somewhere between $900,000 and $1 million.
A couple would be looking at meaningfully more again.
These are illustrations rather than forecasts, and individual circumstances vary enormously depending on home ownership, health costs, investment returns and whether any income continues in early retirement.
Where that money might be invested
A 60-year-old still has a long investment horizon.
The money may need to last 25 years or more.
That argues against shifting everything into cash on day one, though holding the first year or two of spending in something stable protects you from being forced to sell shares into a falling market.
To provide a few examples of return-generating long-term investments, the iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV) provides exposure to large American companies.
Likewise, the Vanguard Diversified High Growth Index ETF (ASX: VDHG) bundles Australian and global shares into a single holding.
For investors looking for domestic income and returns, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) should remain a core position in many portfolios thanks to its fully franked dividends.
Franking credits are particularly valuable inside superannuation, where the tax rate is low in accumulation and nil in pension phase, meaning excess credits can be refunded rather than offsetting tax owed.
Foolish takeaway
The gap between the Retirement Standard benchmark and reality is wide for most Australians.
Median balances for those aged 60 to 64 sit well below these targets, and averages flatter the picture because a handful of very large accounts drag the mean upwards.
However, that does not make retiring at 60 impossible.
It usually means the plan needs savings outside superannuation as well, to bridge the years before the Age Pension arrives.
