‘Later’ costs more than you think
Making retirement feel more real through visualisation, and supporting it with automated, regular contributions, can help turn a distant goal into steady progress.
A little about Dr Tracey West
Tracey is a financial literacy expert with a PhD in household finance and over a decade of experience in financial education, teaching and research.
I’ve left paying closer attention to my superannuation until my late forties. After decades of work, I am thinking a lot more about what retirement could look like. But my inattention has come at a cost.
Looking back, it wasn’t because I didn’t care about my future. It was because retirement felt so far away that it barely felt real. Like many people in my twenties and thirties, I had other priorities that felt more immediate: building a career, managing day-to-day expenses, and enjoying life along the way. Superannuation was something I assumed I’d sort out later, when it felt more relevant.
Time is one of the most valuable ingredients in building retirement savings. Contributions made earlier have longer to grow and benefit more from compound returns and the concessional tax treatment within super.
If I had contributed an extra $20 a week from age 30 and I continue to do so diligently until I reach retirement at age 67, I could have an additional $111,000 or more in my account (assuming just 5% annual returns) 1 . Instead, I now need to contribute more over a shorter period, while other financial pressures compete for attention.
I once assumed that saving would feel easier in the future; perhaps because I’d be earning more or have more spare capacity. In practice, life rarely becomes simpler. Career changes, caregiving responsibilities, and unexpected expenses can limit the flexibility we expect to have later in life.
Why super is super easy to ignore
Superannuation plays an essential role in our retirement outcomes, yet it’s often overlooked. Research shows that people tend to feel only a weak emotional connection to their future self 2. Retirement can feel abstract and distant, which makes it harder to prioritise today. When the person benefiting from a decision feels far removed from who they are now, motivation naturally declines.
Super can also feel complex. Statements contain unfamiliar terminology, rules change over time, and it’s not always obvious how small decisions today translate into outcomes decades from now. When something feels complicated or mentally taxing, avoidance is a very human response.
Understanding this helps explain why disengagement from super is so typical. It’s not about a lack of discipline or care, but about how difficult it can be to connect today’s actions with tomorrow’s outcomes.
Making the future more tangible
For many people, engagement with super improves when retirement starts to feel more real and personal. For me, that shift came through a conversation with a family member who had recently retired. We weren’t discussing balances or investment options, but rather everyday plans: travel, volunteering, and how they wanted to spend their time. What stood out was their confidence, knowing money wasn’t a constant source of stress.
I knew then that I really needed to focus on my super if I wanted the freedom to tick off bucket-list travel destinations in retirement.
Behavioural research suggests this kind of reframing is powerful 3People are more likely to act when the future feels concrete rather than abstract. Visualising what retirement might look like (where you live, how you spend your days, and what matters most) can help bridge the gap between now and later.
Regular extra contributions can also help turn a long-term goal into a consistent habit. Automating contributions, for example, through salary sacrifice or regular after-tax payments, reduces the need for ongoing decision-making and helps us stay invested through different market conditions.
Automation can also protect us from our own good intentions. Many people plan to increase contributions “when things settle down,” but day-to-day demands often get in the way. Setting up regular contributions removes the need to make repeated decisions and reduces the risk of delaying action. Once it’s in place, it becomes part of the background, quietly working away over time.
An important reminder though… about making sure you keep your contribution limits in mind. Exceeding these limits means having to pay more tax, because any excess contributions are taxed at a higher rate.
- Concessional or before-tax contributions have a limit of $30,000 per year.
- Non-concessional or after-tax contributions have a limit of $120,000 per year.
Talking about money can make a difference, too. Sharing experiences with others (what prompted them to contribute more, what they wish they’d known earlier, or how their thinking has changed over time) can make them feel less distant and more relevant.
Acting now doesn’t require significant changes. Small, regular contributions can make a meaningful difference over time and can help make the future feel easier rather than more expensive.
1 Figures calculated via Moneysmart’s Savings goal calculator at https://moneysmart.gov.au/saving/savings-goals-calculator
2 Hershfield, H. E. (2011). Future self-continuity: How conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1235(1), 30–43.
3 Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463. Benoit, R. G., Gilbert, S. J., & Burgess, P. W. (2011). A neural mechanism mediating the impact of episodic prospection on farsighted decisions. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(18), 6771–6779.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views and opinions of Russell Investments.
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