Why Australian super calculators give different answers

Last updated: 20 October 2026

A real example

On 19 October 2026 we entered the same person into MoneySmart, Rest, AustralianSuper and OnTrack: age 30, salary $80,000, current super $50,000, retiring at 67, 12% employer super and no extra contributions. Every result is in today’s dollars. Where a calculator let us, we set fees and insurance to zero and matched the investment return.

Rest and AustralianSuper don’t allow a 7% return, so we compared them at 6.5% instead. Rest’s return field is before tax. Its published tables list the High option as 6.81% before tax and 6.5% after tax, and we checked that with a growth-only test (no salary, no fees): a balance grew at about 6.5% a year after tax at that setting.

A snapshot from 19 October 2026. Calculators change their assumptions, so you may get different results today.

OnTrack came out about 3% below MoneySmart, 1.3% below Rest and 0.9% above AustralianSuper. We repeated the test for a 45-year-old on $120,000 with $250,000 in super, and a 55-year-old on $90,000 with $400,000 retiring at 65. The pattern held: OnTrack was within about 1.5% of Rest and AustralianSuper, and about 3% below MoneySmart.

Some of the difference to MoneySmart may come from timing conventions. MoneySmart states that it assumes income and outgoings arrive mid-year, while OnTrack projects monthly from today. We can’t see inside any of these calculators, so we haven’t pinned down the exact cause.

Seven things that move the answer

1. Today’s dollars or future dollars. This is the biggest source of confusion. The same projection can show $2,763,184 or $720,437, depending on whether it’s measured in the dollars of 2063 or of today. See super in today’s dollars.

2. The investment return. Small changes compound. For the 30-year-old above, OnTrack gives $720,437 at 7% and $570,954 at 6%: one percentage point is worth about 20%. Check whether the return is before or after investment fees and tax, because calculators differ.

3. Fees and insurance. Some calculators deduct default fees and insurance premiums. When we left AustralianSuper’s default $600 a year insurance on, the balance fell from $634,896 to $603,556, almost 5% lower. OnTrack assumes investment fees and tax are already reflected in the return you choose. Administration fees and insurance aren’t deducted separately, so real outcomes may be lower.

4. Timing conventions. Calculators differ in when they assume money arrives: monthly, mid-year or at year-end, for example. MoneySmart states that it assumes income and outgoings arrive mid-year. OnTrack counts contributions monthly from today. Choices like these can move the answer by a percent or two.

5. Pay and contribution growth. Most calculators grow your salary each year, and employer super grows with it. Rules differ for extra contributions: some raise them with wages and some keep them the same. OnTrack keeps the extra amounts you enter the same every year, because most people don’t increase theirs automatically.

6. What’s left out. Tax on earnings, the Age Pension, Division 293, minimum pension drawdowns and other assets are included in some calculators and not others. OnTrack doesn’t deduct administration fees or insurance separately, and leaves out the Age Pension and any separate tax on earnings (investment fees and tax are assumed to be already reflected in the return you choose). The full list is under “What isn’t included” in the calculator’s “View the details”.

7. How long retirement lasts. This affects the income figure rather than the balance. ASIC’s standard for calculators is to assume income lasts to age 92, or five years after it starts if that’s later. A calculator using a longer horizon will show a lower yearly income from the same balance.

How to compare two calculators fairly

1. Use exactly the same age, salary, balance and retirement age.
2. Check both show today’s dollars (or both show future dollars).
3. Match the investment return, and note whether it’s before or after investment fees and tax.
4. Switch off or zero default fees and insurance where you can, or note them.
5. Check the inflation and wage growth assumptions. Many Australian calculators use 3.7% wage growth and 2.5% inflation, but not all do.
6. If the results still differ by a few percent, that’s normal. A gap of 20% or more usually means a setting is different.

The calculators we used: MoneySmart, Rest’s Super Modeller and AustralianSuper’s Super Projection Calculator.

Where OnTrack sits

OnTrack is deliberately simple. It uses the standard ASIC assumptions for today’s dollars (3.7% wage growth before retirement, 2.5% inflation after), a single net return that you choose, and monthly contributions from today. OnTrack assumes investment fees and tax are already reflected in the return you choose. Administration fees and insurance aren’t deducted separately, so real outcomes may be lower. All of this is listed under “View the details” on the results page, and you can change the main assumptions.