Half of us are worried about money in retirement. So what?

Every week another report lands or a super fund boss takes to the podium with the same message: Australians don’t feel financially secure about retirement and something needs to be done.

The question most people are really asking is simpler: what’s actually going to change, and how will all this talk help me?

This week AMP added another report to the pile, launching the inaugural Retirement Confidence Pulse, a national barometer of how Australians feel about life after work.

The result was stark: a retirement confidence score of just 50 out of 100. Half of the 2000 Australians the index spoke to are seriously worried about how they will make ends meet once the pay cheques stop.

No surprises there. Ask anyone paying $9 for a loaf of bread, watching their electricity bill spike, or helping their adult kids scrape together a rental bond, and they’ll tell you no report is necessary.

Retirement already feels impossible to plan for. People know they aren’t confident. Funds know it too. And so does the government, which has been talking about reform for years while game-changing legislation still sits on the shelf.

If Australians are to get the affordable, timely advice they keep asking for, the long-awaited financial advice reforms must finally land.

The index simply put numbers around what most households already feel in their bones: fear, and a lack of understanding about how to navigate it.

The cost of a “comfortable” retirement has jumped more than $13,000 in five years. Couples now need more than $75,000 a year; singles, more than $53,000. Women are the hardest hit, with only two in five feeling confident about their retirement funds compared with nearly three in five men. Divorced women fare even worse.

Australians in their 40s – the “sandwich generation” juggling mortgages, kids and ageing parents – are among the least confident. And single mothers are in the toughest position of all, with fewer than one in five in their 40s feeling secure.

At least younger people have time and the benefit of 12 per cent super contributions on their side. Those already facing retirement don’t. They are left to stretch modest super balances alongside a below-the-breadline age pension. More than a third of respondents over 65 told AMP they still felt insecure and worried their money wouldn’t last.

So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Credit where it’s due: AMP has put new data on the table and given us a benchmark to measure against.

And they’ve stepped up this year with new tools and products – like their Lifetime income feature to help members access more age pension, and a digital “Retirement Health Check” to give everyday Australians a clearer view of what their super can deliver.

These are the kinds of practical steps that move beyond the podium and into everyday people’s lives. And, the data is valuable, but what’s still missing is coalface action across the industry that would make retirement simpler, clearer, and more secure for real people.

To help with priorities for action we can all be focused on, I asked my own community – hundreds of thousands of Australians living this reality every day – what would actually help. The answers were strikingly consistent.

Affordable access to advice people can trust was the biggest request. Not a $5000 plan, but a human who can answer the big questions without jargon. Funds that show, in plain English, how a balance turns into a fortnightly pay cheque, and for how long.

A clearer sense of “how much is enough”. Practical retirement education that people can actually use. And simple, trustworthy lifetime income options that are easy to access and understand.

There’s also a job only the government can unlock. If Australians are to get the affordable, timely advice they keep asking for, the long-awaited financial advice reforms must finally land.

The Quality of Advice Review flagged this before the last election, but the most impactful changes are still waiting to be legislated. What’s needed are clear guardrails so funds and other regulated providers can give useful, bite-sized advice at key moments, like retirement, and let members pay for it from their super transparently.

At the same time, we need greater transparency outside the funds, so people can compare advisers on price and value without fear of hidden conflicts. Everyone says they are waiting on the reforms. Fine. It’s time for the government to finish the job so the industry can get on with helping people.

To be fair, some organisations are beginning to do retirement well, and I’ll share more about who in this column next week. Progress exists, but as APRA deputy chair Margaret Cole warned recently, it remains patchy. For most people it still feels like words, lobbying and reports about consumer fears outweigh real action.

With just 95 days left in 2025, here’s my challenge: when you release a report about retirement confidence, release a project alongside it that actually helps people understand and navigate their retirement.

That would be a great investment – and one Australians can get behind. What I want to write about next is all the fabulous retirement projects going on in this country to help people.

Bec Wilson is the author of the bestseller How to Have an Epic Retirement and the newly released Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife. She writes a weekly newsletter at epicretirement.net and hosts the Prime Time podcast.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making financial decisions.

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