Retirement is one of the biggest financial questions you will ever answer — and yet most people avoid thinking seriously about it for years, sometimes decades. The question isn't just 'how much do I need?' It's also 'when?' And the only way to answer 'when' with any confidence is to work through it systematically.
This guide gives you that system. Seven steps. By the end, you won't just have a rough number — you'll understand which levers move your retirement age and how to pull them.
Step 1: Define What Retirement Actually Means to You
Before any numbers, you need a definition. Retirement doesn't have to mean stopping work entirely at 67. For many people it means:
- Working part-time on their own terms
- Pursuing paid work they love rather than work they need
- Stopping paid work completely and living off savings and investments
- A gradual step-down over several years
Your definition shapes everything that follows. A full stop at 55 looks very different to a gentle wind-down at 62. Be specific: what does your retirement day actually look like, and how does your week change?
Step 2: Work Out What You'll Actually Spend in Retirement
The single biggest variable in retirement planning isn't your savings rate or your investment returns — it's what you plan to spend. Yet most calculators default to '70% of your pre-retirement income,' which is a guess dressed up as a formula.
Your actual retirement spending depends on your life. Consider:
- Housing costs — will your mortgage be paid off? Do you plan to downsize?
- Travel — is this when you plan to see the world, or are you a homebody?
- Health — factor in that healthcare costs tend to rise with age
- Lifestyle — gym, dining, hobbies, grandchildren, gifts
- What drops away — commuting, work clothing, perhaps a second car
The most useful exercise is to sketch a monthly budget for your retirement life as it actually looks — not as a percentage of your current salary.
Step 3: Take Stock of Everything You Own
Most retirement planning focuses narrowly on pensions. But your full picture includes much more:
- Pensions — both your balance today and ongoing contributions
- Investment properties — current value and the equity you hold
- Share portfolios and managed funds outside of pensions
- A business — if you own one, its eventual sale may be a significant retirement asset
- Cash and term deposits
- Any other savings or assets you expect to convert to income
The total picture of what you own — not just pensions — is what funds your retirement. Missing even one significant asset from your model will give you a distorted retirement date.
Step 4: Account for What You Still Owe
Liabilities are just as important as assets — and they're almost universally ignored by free retirement calculators. If you have a mortgage with 12 years left, that's 12 years of payments that compete directly with retirement savings. The same applies to:
- Investment property loans
- Student debt (for many this can run for years)
- Car finance or personal loans you expect to carry for some time
A simple test: if someone asked you 'what's your net position?', you'd subtract your debts from your assets. Your retirement model should do the same.
Step 5: Set Realistic Growth Assumptions for Each Asset
A common mistake is applying a single growth rate to all your wealth. But different assets grow differently:
- Pensions in a balanced fund might average 6–7% over the long term
- An investment property in a growth corridor might outperform that — or underperform, depending on the market
- Cash and term deposits grow at a fraction of the rate of equities
Using one number for everything distorts your true retirement date. A property worth $800,000 growing at 4% behaves very differently over 15 years than a share portfolio worth $800,000 growing at 8%.
Step 6: Find Your ExitAge — Then Pull the Levers
Once you have all of the above in place, you have a working model. Your first ExitAge is the output — the age at which your assets can sustainably fund your retirement spend.
But this is where it gets interesting. The real power of good retirement modelling is understanding what moves that number:
- What if you increased your pension contributions by $300 per month?
- What if you reduced your planned retirement spend by $8,000 per year?
- What if you sold the investment property at 60 instead of holding it?
- What if you worked two more years?
Each of these is a lever. And each lever moves your ExitAge — sometimes dramatically. The goal isn't to find one magic answer; it's to understand the shape of your situation so you can make smart choices.
Step 7: Revisit It When Life Changes
Retirement planning isn't a one-time event. Life changes — and your model should too. The moments that most warrant revisiting your plan include:
- A significant pay rise or change in employment
- Buying or selling property
- Having children (or children becoming financially independent)
- Receiving an inheritance
- A major change in your spending expectations
- Approaching the point where retirement feels genuinely close
A retirement plan that was accurate at 35 may be quite wrong at 42 — not because you did anything wrong, but because life happened. The best approach is to treat your retirement model as a living document, not a one-off calculation.
Ready to Find Your ExitAge?
You now have the framework. The next step is to plug in your actual numbers and see where you stand. ExitAge is built around exactly these seven steps — and it gives you the flexibility to model your real life, not a textbook average.
The earlier you know your ExitAge, the more time you have to change it.