Five steps towards a more confident retirement

Small steps today could make a big difference to how you feel about retirement.

For many Australians, the answer isn't particularly reassuring.

Retirement can feel like a distant and complicated goal, particularly when you're balancing more immediate priorities such as mortgage repayments, household expenses and the rising cost of living.

But Vanguard's How Australia Retires 2026 research suggests building retirement confidence doesn't necessarily require having everything figured out today.

In fact, our analysis identified five actions associated with a meaningful uplift in retirement confidence: building a retirement plan, improving financial literacy, understanding superannuation and the Age Pension, making voluntary super contributions, and engaging with super at least every six months.

To illustrate the potential impact, let's meet Alex.

Meet Alex

Alex is 38, married and works full-time in healthcare, earning around $90,000 a year. They own a home with a mortgage, have $70,000 in super and another $35,000 in personal investments.

But Alex isn't particularly engaged with retirement.

They have some gaps in their financial literacy, don't fully understand Australia's retirement system, have never made a voluntary super contribution and check their super less than once a year. Most importantly, they don't have a clear retirement plan.

Based on Vanguard's survey findings, someone with Alex's characteristics has a 21% probability of having high retirement confidence and a 25% probability of having low confidence.

Now imagine Alex takes five relatively straightforward actions. According to Vanguard's modelling, Alex's probability of high retirement confidence would triple, while Alex's probability of low confidence would fall significantly.

Alex is a hypothetical person and this example is illustrative only and is based on the factors stated. It should not be taken to contain personal financial advice.

So, what are those five actions – and how can you put them into practice?

1. Build a retirement plan

A retirement plan doesn't need to begin with a complicated spreadsheet or knowing exactly how much money you'll need decades from now.

It can start with something much simpler: thinking about where you are today, what you'd like retirement to look like and what might need to happen to get there.

That's important because our research found a strong association between planning and confidence. Among Australians who know exactly what they need for retirement and how to achieve it, 75% report high retirement confidence. That compares with just 4% of people with no retirement plan.

A useful starting point is to ask yourself a few questions.

• When would you ideally like to retire?

• Where will you live?

• Will you still have a mortgage?

• How much income might you need for essentials as well as things such as travel, hobbies and healthcare?

You don't need all the answers immediately. Retirement planning is an ongoing process, and simply starting to think through these questions may help identify the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

2. Improve your financial literacy

You don't need to become an investment expert to make more informed financial decisions.

Financial literacy can develop gradually through reading, research, conversations and experience. Vanguard's research found that financial literacy and retirement knowledge are jointly associated with higher levels of retirement confidence.

One area where knowledge remains surprisingly low is super access. Just 38% of Australians correctly identified when they can access their super savings, so understanding the rules around your own super could be a good place to start.

From there, you could explore how inflation and compound returns affect your money over time; the benefits of diversification and the relationship between risk and return; the fees you're paying on your super; and how the Age Pension and Australia's broader retirement system operate.

3. Understand how super and the Age Pension work

Your retirement income may come from several places, which makes understanding Australia's retirement system another important piece of the puzzle.

Start by learning how your super is invested, what fees you're paying and how your savings may eventually be converted into retirement income.

It's also worth understanding how the Age Pension works and how it could interact with your super and other savings.

You don't need to master the entire system overnight. The goal is to gradually build enough knowledge to understand the decisions that may shape your retirement.

4. Consider making extra super contributions

Nearly one in two Australians surveyed by Vanguard had never made a voluntary contribution to their super.

For those in a position to do so, additional contributions may be another way to engage with retirement savings.

Depending on your circumstances, this could include salary sacrifice or personal deductible contributions. Before contributing, it's important to understand the contribution rules and limits that apply to you.

You can also log into your ATO online account to review your total super balance, contribution history and available contribution caps.

The key isn't about making a large contribution today. It's understanding the options available and considering whether additional contributions fit your circumstances and longer-term goals.

5. Check in with your super regularly

Engaging with your super doesn't mean watching your balance every day or continually switching investments.

Instead, Vanguard's research points to engaging with your super at least every six months as one of the five actions associated with higher retirement confidence.

A regular check-in can be relatively simple. Log into your super account and:

• Review your balance and recent contributions.

• Check your employer contributions are arriving correctly.

• Review how your money is invested and your fund's returns, and check whether your investment option aligns with your risk tolerance and investment timeframe.

• Check the fees you're paying and your insurance arrangements.

Your annual member statement provides another opportunity to review your contributions, investment returns, fees and insurance cover.

You don't need to solve for retirement today

Perhaps the most encouraging finding from Alex's story is that none of the five actions requires knowing exactly what retirement will look like decades in advance. Instead, they're about becoming more engaged with your financial future.

Vanguard's research suggests these actions, taken together, are associated with a substantial difference in retirement confidence. And the earlier you start, the more flexibility you may have to adjust along the way.

By: Vanguard Australia | 2026 | vanguard.com.au