Retirement in Australia Tips & Advice
I have been retired from full time work for many years now, but still manage to earn some part-time income from freelance writing. What this means as an Australian is that I’m reliant on my accumulated superannuation to fund me through my golden years. Although, I don’t claim to be a retirement specialist, particularly when it comes to the financial side, I’m sharing my tips and advice on what retirement in Australia looks like for me.
When Can I Retire in Australia
Currently, retirement age in Australia is 67 years of age. However, you can retire at the age of 55 years and access your superannuation as your means of income. This is basically what my ex-husband and I did in 2014 as we wanted to travel around Australia in our caravan. This was the best decision we ever made.
However, the downside of this is that you are eating into your superannuation and you can’t return to work on a full time basis once you have declared yourself as a retiree. So you need to get sound financial advice before contemplating an early retirement. Unless you have something worthwhile to take the place of work, then seriously think about the impact of retiring early.
Most Australians who retire from full-time employment access their superannuation after the age of 60 years old as their main source of income. For others, that either don’t have superannuation or have not managed to accumulate enough super, it means they are faced with the prospect of living frugally on an old age pension. For me this was not something that I wanted to do.
Old Age Pension in Australia
We are a lucky country, whereby our government takes care of the aged, the sick, the disabled, the unemployed and so on. Once an elderly person retires from their job and reaches the age of 67 years of age they can apply for a pension based on an income and assets test.
When you apply for the age pension you are issued a concession card that provides access to cheaper medicines and medical services. You also get concessions on a range of other services like electricity, car registration, rates, water and even travel concessions. This is in addition to a fortnightly payment that is calculated according to your particular financial situation.
For a single person you may still earn up to $218 per fortnight and have assets no more than $714,500, (not including your own home) to be eligible for a full or part pension.
The full pension for a single person is $1,178.70 per fortnight as of September 2025. This reduces according to the amount of assets that you own. The more you have in investments and assets the less you will receive.
This is the sad reality of being encouraged to save, accumulate assets and superannuation for your entire life, to then be told you have too much wealth to access the old age pension. Most of us have worked hard, paid our taxes and never asked for any handouts from the government. Then we are rejected because we’ve been too “money-wise”. It doesn’t seem fair to me.
How to Live Comfortably in Retirement
Living well in retirement depends on your circumstances, either financial or health wise. If you don’t have some savings or super and have to rely on the pension, then your standard of living may be diminished. If you don’t have your health, this can also cause issues with how you can enjoy your retirement fully.
My advice is to get some financial advice early and know exactly how much super and investments you need to live a comfortable life into retirement and beyond. You also want to take into consideration amounts of money you would like to spend on travel, downsizing into smaller homes/retirement villages and maybe gifting to family members.
My idea of living it up after retirement is to totally utilise all the spare time that I have whilst I’m still healthy enough to enjoy the things that I love to do. These things include travel, pursuing new sports, exercising, taking up new interests, socialising, taking long walks with my dog, spending time with kids and grandkids, taking on short courses, going out to eat at good restaurants, indulging oneself and spending time relaxing.
One of the dangers of retirement is that you may slip into leading a sedentary lifestyle and easily become despondent and bored. It is a must to take on some new challenges to take the place of your former working life. When you finally discover that you have an entire 8 hours ahead of you during the day it may be difficult to fill these hours with other pursuits.
Travel in Retirement
For a lot of Australian retirees, this is the time to travel and seek out new places either in Australia or overseas. Your time is your own once you retire and if you don’t make plans to travel then your life will become very tedious. Travel may mean anything from buying a caravan and travelling around Australia, embarking on a cruise or a month long holiday in Europe.
There is plenty of variety and choices that you can select from. Some Australians prefer to travel exclusively in their own country, and this is fine because there is plenty to see. Or they may only want to travel to countries that are closer to our Australian shores, no more than 10 hours flying time. These may include countries like Fiji, New Zealand, Bali, Vanuatu, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Other retirees throw caution to wind and decide to take off on a grand adventure to seek out new and exciting travel destinations. They have a travel bucket list and endeavour to cross off as many destinations as they can off their list. The world is their oyster and they intend on spending the kid’s inheritance seeing the world.
Ocean cruises and river cruises are also extremely popular with retirees, as once you get on the ship there is little to do. You can sit back and relax whilst everything is done for you. It’s virtually an all inclusive holiday with your only worry being which onshore excursions to take and what you want to eat for each meal.
How to Live Healthily in Retirement
Retirement is not the time to let yourself go. It is the exact opposite. You need to keep yourself fit, active and also eat a healthy balanced diet. It’s not the time to start eating sweet treats, sugary drinks, fatty foods or over indulging. Now more than ever, it is important to take care of your body and treat it like it’s your temple.
Here are some tips for how to live healthily in retirement:
1. Make exercise a daily habit by walking, going to the gym, doing yoga or pilates classes, swimming, aqua aerobics, playing sports like golf, tennis, lawn bowls or croquet. Prioritizing physical activity and unique experiences, such as exploring the underwater world with Polar Dive USA, can be a transformative way to reconnect with yourself while focusing on your overall well-being.
2. Plan and shop for healthy food choices. Get to the local farmer’s markets and purchase fresh from the farm organic fruits and vegetables. Put lean meat, fish and seafood into your weekly eating plan, but mainly eat vegetables. Cut down on processed foods and foods that don’t have any nutritional value. Only eat takeaway food occasionally. But by all means eat out and enjoy good quality foods that are now readily available.
3. Get out and socialise with other like minded people. Whether this be in the same sports group, hiking clubs, card game groups, bingo at the club, discussion groups, book clubs, or coffee meetups with the girls.
4. Start a new interest or hobby. Learn to knit or crotchet, learn how to play bridge or mah jong, making furniture, water colour painting, learn to dance, pottery classes, creative writing, computer classes, or learn new language.
5. Spend time with your kids and grandkids. This is the best way to keep young and in touch with the younger generation.
6. Plan holidays and travel to see the world. Otherwise become a tourist in your own city or town. Go to the movies, see live concerts, visit a museum or art gallery, go to the theatre, and check out festivals and markets.
Retirement is definitely a life-changing event in our lives. It is supposed to be all about taking time for ourselves and enjoying every minute of it. In a lot of ways I have found it to be very liberating and stress free. But in other ways it can be challenging when trying to sort out how to fill in the hours of the day and how to find a sense of purpose. You need to remember that “life is what you make it” and to get out there and be present.
For anyone also wanting to better understand Australian culture and lifestyle, this guide is a helpful starting point.
