What if I don't have enough?

1. Start saving more today

If you’re relying on the money your employer puts into your super, it probably won’t be enough to maintain your current lifestyle when you finish working. But by putting extra money into your super savings now (using your own money), you can help increase your super so that when you do finish working, you’ll have enough money to live on. The more money you put in, the more money you’ll have, especially because you’ll start to earn compound interest (that’s interest on your interest). Check out Contributing more to find out how much you’ll need to save, the ways you can put money into your super and whether you might be eligible for any incentives such as the government co-contribution.

2. Choose an investment option that’s right for you

How your super is invested can make a big difference to what you get at the end of the day. What your super earns each year (the return) goes back into your super to help it grow even more. We give you eight investment options to choose from. While you can’t rely on what’s happened in the past to predict what will happen in future, investment options with higher risk have historically given higher returns than the ones that are lower risk. It’s a good idea to learn a bit about investing as well as learn more about your investment options.

3. Rollover

This is simple. If you have lots of different accounts, you pay lots of fees. If you only have one super savings account, you only pay one set of fees. So, the less fees you pay, the more money you keep in your super. And because we’re not set up to make a profit, we can keep our fees low! Why put it off any longer? Either Roll your money into the Westpac Group Plan – Defined Benefit from another fund today or roll your Westpac Group Plan money into that other fund. The important thing is to get it all together!

4. Delay retirement

If you’re getting close to retirement age, and you’ve just realised you may not have enough, don’t panic! Many people are in this position. You’ve probably paid off your mortgage (or you’re close to it) but you’ve also realised the money you have saved for retirement won’t be enough to do the things you want to do. Perhaps you should consider delaying retirement for a few more years so that you can put as much money as you can into your super. And why not? After all, your super is tax free after you reach 60 and working just a little bit longer could make all the difference to your future! Just remember, there are limits on the amount of money you can put into super and if you go over these limits you could end up getting taxed a whole lot more. Read more about these contribution limits in your Member information booklet.

5. Transition to retirement

Okay, so you’ve paid the mortgage but you don’t think you’ll have enough money for retirement. You’re so keen to finish working and you can’t possibly bear to think about another year of full time work but you need more money. What do you do? Well, instead of delaying retirement completely, you could transition into retirement. For example, you could work part time for a few years, or gradually reduce your hours over a number of years, so you can start living it up while continuing to grow your super. There are other strategies you can employ too like taking out a pension product while you still work and using the pension income to live on while you salary sacrifice most of your pay into super. Just make sure you speak to a financial adviser to work out the best option for you.