Australian Super & Pension Glossary — Key Terms Explained

Assets that the government counts to determine your Age Pension eligibility.

This includes:
bank savings
shares
investment properties
superannuation

It also includes the resale value of your household contents and vehicles, but it does not include your principal home.

If you save $100 in the bank, at the end of the year the bank will give you $5 in interest. So, your $100 is your Principal, and the $5 is your return.

The money you gain or lose from your investments.

Your Super fund's return changes every year. We don't know the future, but we can use the past Average Return to get a good guess.

Inflation makes things more expensive over time. That means $100 last year is worth $98 this year. So, your Real Return is the money you earned from investment minus inflation.

SAPTO (Seniors and Pensioners Tax Offset) is a tax offset for eligible seniors that can reduce the amount of income tax they need to pay.

The government requires you to withdraw a minimum percentage of your super each year once you reach a certain age.

When you're working, your super is in the accumulation phase. After you reach 60 and meet the rules to access your super, you can move some or all of it into the retirement phase, also called an account-based pension. In this phase, you can take regular withdrawals from your super each year, within the rules.