What the model assumes about Australia

This page collects every Australia-specific number the model starts from: when the state pension begins and how it behaves, what healthcare and long-term care cost, what a retired household spends, and how tax is worked out. The planner prefills each of them, and you can change any of them during setup. Amounts are in AUD at today's prices, and the same data files drive the simulation itself, so a figure you read here is the figure your plan runs on.

The state pension

Starts at 67. The planner uses this both as your default retirement age and as the start age of your state pension.

Source: Services Australia (2026). See it.

With inflation, plus 0.8 points a year. Australia's Age Pension is raised twice a year in line with living costs, and the law also keeps it above a set share of average wages. Because wages usually grow faster than prices, the pension has tended to rise a little ahead of inflation.

Source: Department of Social Services (2026). See it.

What a surviving partner keeps: 33% of the deceased's pension. The Age Pension has no survivor payment. The widowed partner simply moves from the couple rate to the higher single rate, so household pension income falls to about two thirds of what the couple received.

Source: Services Australia (2026). See it.

How the simulation pays and raises pensions: the income section of the technical reference. What changes at the first death: the couples section.

Healthcare

A$2,365 a year for each person, at 65. Health spending outside long-term care: visits, medicines, glasses, dental work and any premiums you pay yourself. The planner starts from this figure and moves it as you age. The source published A$1,634. The published figure averages all adult ages, so we scaled it up to what someone at 65 spends.

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2025). See it.

How the model ages this figure: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Long-term care

A$71,639 a year out of your own pocket if you need residential care. Costs are split between the public system and you, by type of cost.

Source: Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (2026). See it.

The model does not add the whole charge on top of your budget: the groceries, and for renters the housing, that a care home replaces are credited back. How the care model works.

What a retired household spends

A$2,552 + A$993/mo for one person, A$3,452 + A$1,496/mo for a couple. Essential spending plus everything-else spending, each month, excluding housing and healthcare, which the planner asks about separately. The prefills come from ASFA Retirement Standard, Comfortable lifestyle, homeowners aged 65-84, March quarter 2026.

Source: ASFA Retirement Standard, Comfortable lifestyle, homeowners aged 65-84, March quarter 2026 (2026). See it.

What each budget covers and how spending changes with age: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Tax

The model recalculates your tax bill for every simulated year, using Australia's own scales, allowances and thresholds for the 2026 tax year, last read on 2026-07-29. The answers are checked against their rate data. Couples are assessed together where the rules allow it.

How Australia taxes a retirement plan lists every figure, the tax office page each one came from, and everything the model does not do there.

Everything we read

Every publication behind the pension, care, healthcare and budget figures above. The tax page carries its own references, one per figure.