Super’s ages and stages: what you need to know

Access, contributions and strategies have become more flexible in recent years, and there are key ages and stages that, if planned correctly, can save thousands of dollars.

As more Australians head into their 60s saddled with home loans or wanting to enjoy a semi-retired lifestyle with part-time work and travel, there are more reasons to use super strategically.

Catapult Wealth director Tony Catt said more people were seeking financial flexibility in their 60s and 70s, and planning for this should start from age 50.

“I think people’s situations have evolved and they’re using the rules a lot more than they used to,” he said.

“They’re working longer and they’re changing jobs later in life.”

There are significant potential strategy differences between the super preservation age of 60, unrestricted super at 65, the pension age of 67 and the maximum age for making voluntary super contributions of 75.

Age 60

If you’re approaching 60 and are confused about the super rules, you’re not alone.

MLC head of technical services Jenneke Mills said “the rules relating to accessing super still generate a lot of questions”.

One of the quirkiest rules is the super system’s definition of “retirement”, which means ceasing an employment arrangement – a job – after turning 60.

“Simply ceasing an arrangement is enough and it doesn’t matter whether or not you intend to work again in the future, or indeed whether you have a second job,” Ms Mills said.

“For example, a person who works for two employers on a part-time basis and ceases employment with one of these employers when they are aged 60 or over has retired for super purposes. In this case, the person can access the amount they have saved in super up to that point in time.”

Shadforth Financial Group private wealth adviser Finn Dorney said accessing super at 60 was not automatic and people needed to meet a condition of release, such as ceasing an employment arrangement or starting a transition to retirement pension.

“These conditions are based on legislation and do not always line up with what people expect retirement to mean,” he said.

Age 65

MLC’s Ms Mills said once you turned 65, your super automatically became “unrestricted non-preserved, whether or not you’ve retired”.

Mr Dorney said the rules at age 65 were “very clear”, with super fully accessible regardless of your work situation, making it an important milestone.

He said this meant that in the lead-up to 65 there was often more strategy involved.

“A common approach is starting a transition-to-retirement income stream, which lets you draw an income from super while still working,” he said. “Others may plan carefully around when to leave a job so that they can trigger full access after age 60.”

Mr Dorney said super strategies could be powerful when combined with tax planning and Centrelink strategies, such as aligning super withdrawals with eligibility for the age pension, which started at 67 for people who qualified.

“Super after 60 is really about timing and intent. Small differences such as which job you leave, when you start a pension, or how you structure contributions can make a big impact,” he said.

“On top of that you need to consider the transfer balance cap, tax treatment of pensions, and age pension rules. The system is complex but also generous if managed properly.”

Before turning 75

Seniors wanting to voluntarily top up their super – perhaps through asset sales – should understand the annual caps of $30,000 for tax-deductible and $120,000 for non-deductible contributions, and when they could be made.

“The general rule is that once you reach 75 you can no longer make most voluntary contributions,” Mr Dorney said.

“There are exceptions. Employer contributions can continue and downsizer contributions, which allow up to $300,000 per person from the sale of a home, have no age limit.”

Catapult Wealth’s Mr Catt said not understanding the age 75 cut-off for contributions was a trap, and another was “pulling money out of super and then not being able to get it back in”, because of contribution caps.

Financialadvisor.com.au director James Gerrard said the popular superannuation recontribution strategy, which reduced tax payable on super death benefits inherited by non-dependent children, also must be employed before age 75.

“The only way you can put money into super at age 75 is via compulsory super contributions if you have an employer or, otherwise, by making a $300,000 downsizer contribution if you sell your home.”

Living cost crunch

JBS Financial Strategists chief executive Jenny Brown said some clients were retiring earlier and turning their super into tax-free pensions, “then also making concessional contributions and non-concessional contributions, then basically rebooting the pension”.

“We’ve also got the cost of living, which seems to have affected a lot more people than what the government wants to acknowledge,” she said.

“We are finding more people are turning their super into transition-to-retirement and accessing up to 10 per cent of their account balance to top up their income. This comes with caution – the more you take out now, the less you’ve got when you retire, so it’s fraught with danger that you won’t have anything and will have to rely on the age pension.”

Figures released last week by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia show the cost of a comfortable retirement has jumped more than $13,000 a year in just five years, from $61,909 a year for a couple in June 2020 to $75,319 in June 2025.

MLC’s Ms Mills said cost-of-living pressure was “still a real thing for many approaching retirement”.

“The number of people still paying down debt in retirement significantly increased compared to decades gone by,” she said.

Ms Mills said there were no issues with people returning to paid employment after they had started accessing their super.

 This article first appeared in The Australian as What experts say you must know about accessing super after 60