Superannuation Calculator Australia: Project Your Super to Retirement

How your super grows

Superannuation builds in two ways: the money paid in, and the growth it earns. Your employer pays the Super Guarantee, currently 12% of your salary, into your fund, and that money is invested and compounds over your working life. Because you have decades until retirement, most of the final balance for a younger worker comes from investment growth, not the contributions themselves, which is why starting early matters so much.

This calculator projects your balance forward to your retirement age using the 12% Super Guarantee, a 15% contributions tax on before-tax money going in, and net investment returns matched to ASIC’s MoneySmart. It shows the result in today’s dollars by default, so the number means something in money you understand now, rather than an inflated future figure.

Adding extra: before-tax vs after-tax

You can add to your employer’s 12% in two ways. Before-tax (salary sacrifice) contributions come out of your pay before income tax, so they are taxed at just 15% going in, which is lower than most people’s marginal rate. After-tax contributions come from money you’ve already been taxed on, so they aren’t taxed again inside the fund. There’s a yearly cap on before-tax contributions ($32,500 for 2026-27, up from $30,000 in 2025-26), and the calculator flags when you go over it.

Super projection to retirement

A super projection calculator takes what you have now and rolls it forward to your retirement age, year by year. Each year it adds the 12% Super Guarantee on your salary, takes off the 15% contributions tax, applies a net investment return, then discounts the running balance back to today’s dollars so the final figure means something in money you understand now. Small changes compound: a slightly higher return, a few extra years, or a modest salary-sacrifice top-up can move the projected balance a long way, which is why it’s worth testing a few scenarios rather than trusting a single number.

A projection is an estimate, not a promise. Real returns vary year to year, fees differ between funds, and the rules can change, so use the result to see whether you’re roughly on track and to compare choices, not as a guaranteed retirement figure.

Frequently asked questions