Many Australians—both working and retired—have super. In terms of household wealth*, super is the largest asset many people have outside of their main residence.
From a retirement perspective, when looking to partially or fully fund your retirement lifestyle from your super, it’s important to understand your options—and their appropriateness to your personal circumstances.
The options available to you can include taking your super as a lump sum, retirement income stream, or as a combination of both. Many people choose to take their super as a retirement income stream (such as an account-based pension), and also take a small amount of their super as a lump sum, either once or every so often.
For many people, taking a small amount of super as a lump sum can often be to pay for a holiday, buy a new motor vehicle, clear an outstanding debt, or pay for a home renovation/improvement.
In this animation, we illustrate super lump sum withdrawals from a retirement planning perspective.
*Australian Government, Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2019). Household Income and Wealth, Australia.