1 month ago
8
Opinion
January 31, 2026 — 5:03am
There’s a moment every January that’s oddly predictable for most of us. The kids go back to school if you have them. The diary refills with meetings, appointments and general chaos. Work cranks back up to full pace.
And somewhere between ironing work clothes, packing lunchboxes, fighting traffic and clearing the holiday backlog in your inbox, a quiet but persistent thought starts tapping you on the shoulder: how long do I really have to keep doing this?
For some people, the next step is to start running the numbers. How much super do I have? How much do I actually need? How far away can retirement be, really? For others, there’s no numbers moment at all. They resign themselves to the belief that it’s simply too many years to bother counting, and do nothing.
Whichever type of person you are, if this question is even crossing your mind, it’s worth paying attention.
Because no matter how much you have, or don’t have, or how hard you work, almost everyone can take early steps to get better control over their ability to choose how and when they retire, rather than simply waiting for a distant age or magic number to arrive. And there are some practical steps that can help.
Before getting into what those steps look like, it’s worth recognising something important. If this question has been nagging at you lately, you’re not being anxious or ungrateful. You’re being completely normal. In fact, January is when more Australians think about retirement than almost any other time of year.
Super fund HESTA sees it clearly in its own data. Engagement with its digital retirement planning tools jumps by more than 40 per cent in late January and early February, just as school holidays end and work routines snap back into place. Google searches tell the same story, with spikes in questions like “how much do I need to retire” appearing at the same points in the year.
HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey says January is a classic trigger moment. “After enjoying quality time with family and friends over the festive season, many Australians start looking ahead and asking one simple question: when can I retire?” she says.
That rings true. A break from the usual pace of work has a way of sharpening our perspective, reminding us what life feels like without the constant rush. When that contrast disappears, it’s natural to wonder how long life is meant to feel so tightly packed in.
For many people, that question isn’t really about retiring tomorrow. It’s about control and having more say over how work fits into their life, rather than the other way around.
The first step is simply understanding what you already have, and what that actually gets you.
What you should ask instead
The problem is that “When can I retire?” is a blunt question. It treats retirement as a single finish line in life, rather than a series of gradual decisions made incrementally, ideally with financial confidence over time. It frames the goal as “stopping”, rather than adjusting, reshaping or transitioning our lives into a new phase.
What many people should really be asking is something more useful: how to regain a sense of control, how to decide what is enough, and how to build a life that allows for real choices well before paid work dries up.
That’s where practical steps matter. Not grand plans or dramatic changes, but small, deliberate actions that build flexibility over time. The first step is simply understanding what you already have, and what that actually gets you.
For most Australians, that starts with learning a little about their superannuation and appreciating what it can do when it’s used well. Rather than treating it as an abstract balance to worry about later, it’s worth seeing super as a system that will shape the choices available to you over time.
Most retirement-ready super funds now offer good retirement calculators that make this easier than it once was. With a few minutes and a log-in, you can see your current balance, explore what level of income it might translate into in retirement, see how much age pension you might get alongside it, and test how small changes now, like adding a $10 or $50 salary sacrifice, could affect the outcome over time.
Blakey makes the point that engaging with super works best when it’s done calmly, not reactively. January, she says, is often a better moment than periods of market stress, when many people first think to check their super because they’re thinking clearly about the year ahead rather than responding to headlines.
“For those that can afford to, putting extra aside now can make a huge difference at retirement. Our modelling shows $10 a week extra could amount to tens of thousands of dollars at retirement for someone in their forties and hundreds of thousands for someone just joining the workforce,” she said.
What do you want your life to look like?
The second step is to think about how you want life to look over the years ahead.
Once you have a clearer sense of what you have and how it might support you, the task isn’t to squeeze more out of every dollar in your budget or rush towards an exit in burnout. It’s to start envisioning the shape of the life you want over the years and decades ahead, and how work, money and time might fit together.
This is a type of consideration that only people with some financial stability can afford to have. That, in itself, is a reminder that doing the work to understand your position is worthwhile.
For many people, that doesn’t mean stopping work early or making dramatic changes. It means asking more practical questions about how work might evolve.
What would life look like with fewer days, or more flexibility in when and how you work? If your current role is tiring you out, are there different types of work you might prefer in the later stages of life, and is it worth thinking about retraining sooner rather than later?
This kind of thinking isn’t short-term or exhausting. It’s not about maximising or hacking your way out of work. It’s about using the information you have to gradually and deliberately widen the range of options available to you.
Start now
The third step is not leaving everything until the last minute. Making small adjustments earlier in life can allow for far more choice later on.
That often starts with the unglamorous basics. Taking a clear look at your budget to check that you are indeed living within your means and socking away some savings, even if they are small each week.
Reducing or clearing debt as soon as it’s affordable to do so, and focusing hard on getting your mortgage into manageable shape. Thinking ahead about housing decisions, including whether a well-timed downsizing move could clear debt and free up capital.
For some people, that capital can then be redirected into superannuation, including through the downsizer contribution, which allows up to $300,000 per person to be added to super after selling a home.
None of these decisions need to be rushed, and they won’t suit everyone. But made earlier rather than later, they can materially change how much flexibility you have over work, income and lifestyle in the years ahead.
So as January comes to a close, this is a good moment to use that nagging question constructively. Not to chase a retirement date, but to spend some time understanding your numbers and what they actually allow for.
Done well, that means next January doesn’t arrive with the same nagging uncertainty. Instead of asking “When can I retire?“, you have a clearer sense of your options. When part-time work becomes possible. How flexible you can afford to be. And, eventually, when you could stop altogether, if you chose to.
That quiet confidence matters. Knowing you have choices changes how you approach work, money and life long before retirement itself comes into view.
Bec Wilson is 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 any financial decisions.
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