When will you be ready to retire?
There are two important ages you need to consider when thinking about retirement – preservation age when you are eligible to start drawing on your super and Age Pension age when you are eligible to receive the Age Pension.
Age Pension age
This is the age you qualify to receive Government Age Pension benefits. The current Age Pension age is 66.5 but this could be higher based on your date of birth as shown in the table below.
| If you were born between | You can receive the Aged Pension when you are: |
| 1 January 1954 to 30 June 1955 | 66 years |
| 1 July 1955 to 31 December 1956 | 66 years and 6 months |
| On or after 1 January 1957 | 67 years |
To be eligible to receive the Age Pension you must also meet the income and assets tests.
Preservation age
You can access your super when you reach age 65. If you are under age 65, you can also access your super if you reach preservation age and have retired from the workforce.
Your preservation age depends on the year you were born, see the table below.
| If you were born between | Your preservation age is |
| Before 1 July 1960 | 55 |
| 1 July 1960 to 30 June 1961 | 56 |
| 1 July 1961 to 30 June 1962 | 57 |
| 1 July 1962 to 30 June 1963 | 58 |
| 1 July 1963 to 30 June 1964 | 59 |
| After 30 June 1964 | 60 |
With statistics showing us that Australians are living longer than ever, chances are you could spend a very long time in retirement.
How you make your savings last as long as you do, is a key question when considering retirement.
Source: Challenger
