How much money do you need to retire? There is a spate of media releases flying around on this topic, and it depends who you believe.

In the red corner we have the left-leaning Grattan Institute, who for years have been claiming that the superannuation industry is running a scare campaign to get more funds under management. Just last week Grattan Institute chief executive John Daley alleged, “the financial services industry ‘fear factory’ encourages Australians to worry unnecessarily about whether they’ll have enough money in retirement.”

The age pension might become less generous in the future. Credit:Fairfax Media

If we can believe Grattan, retirees can spend conservatively in retirement, secure in the knowledge that the age pension will always be there at its present generous levels. Based on this assumption, they are calling for no further increases in compulsory employer superannuation.

In the blue corner we have the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), which has been doing detailed modelling on the actual costs of living in retirement for years. Its findings for annual expenses are in the table below.