The fast-approaching ‘silver tsunami’ set to hit the Australian economy

Australia is fast approaching a ‘silver tsunami’ that will bring with it significant socio-economic challenges for the country says the Retirement Living Council (RLC), a division of the Property Council Australia. RLC Executive Director Daniel Gannon said the council is concerned about housing affordability for older Australians and the provision of enough housing options, such as retirement villages, to allow for an affordable and comfortable lifestyle after they stop working.

There are 4.2 million retirees in Australia today, and another 710,000 people intend to retire over the next five years, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Over the next two years, 226,000 people intend to retire, which is almost 100,000 more than the number of people who retired between FY21 and FY23.

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The average age at retirement among Australia’s current cohort of retirees was 56.9 years, according to the data. However, the average age that most people intend to retire is 65.4 years, which is about 18 months before they become eligible for the age pension at 67 years of age.

On average, women retire sooner than men, but they are retiring later than in previous years. In FY23, the average age at retirement among female retirees was 54.7 years, up from 54 years in FY21. Men are also retiring slightly later with their average age at retirement now 59.4 years, compared to 59.3 years in FY21. Over these two years, Queensland saw the greatest increase in its retiree population, up 32,000 to 860,000. New South Wales had the largest retiree population at 1.3 million.

The ABS said the main factor influencing someone’s decision about when to retire was financial security. In FY23, the most common reason for deciding to retire cited by 31% of those surveyed was reaching the retirement age (i.e., pension age) or becoming eligible to access their superannuation. Most Australians can’t access their superannuation until they reach their preservation age. This age varies depending on the age of birth but ranges from 55 years for those born before 1 July 1960 to 60 years for those born after 30 June 1964.

The second most common reason behind retiring was sickness, injury or disability (13 percent). The next most common was being retrenched, dismissed or not being able to find work (5 percent). In these cases, financial security may not be assured and retirement becomes more of a forced decision. Currently, the age pension is still the main source of income for most retirees, with superannuation the second most common main source of income.

Given financial security is a key concern among those nearing or at retirement age, Mr Gannon said governments needed to ensure there would be enough suitable and affordable housing options for retirees as their numbers grow. “Unfortunately, a rapidly growing number of Australians are retiring with mortgage debt while the aged pension remains the main source of income for most retirees. Units in retirement communities are priced on average 48 percent lower than median house prices in the same postcode, meaning these communities can help address retirement income challenges.”

Mr Gannon said the recent Federal Budget contained no housing plan for older Australians amid today’s housing supply and affordability crisis. “While [the increase in] Commonwealth rent assistance is welcome news for some Australians, the existing eligibility thresholds exclude the majority of people living in affordably priced retirement units,” he said.

The best financial advice many Australians are receiving right now is not coming from licensed advisers charging by the hour. It is coming through a phone screen, in the ten minutes between work and dinner, from creators who have built credibility the hard way: by being right, being transparent, and being specific in a space where vagueness has always been the easy default.

This is not a ranking by follower count. Follower count is a measure of distribution, not of quality. What follows is a ranking by substance — credentials, accuracy, community depth, and the quality of what an audience actually learns from following these accounts. The distinction matters, because the Australians acting on this content are making real financial decisions with real money.

1- Queenie Tan – Corporate Authorised Representative; Co-Founder & Director, Invest With Queenie & Billroo

There are finance influencers who talk about building wealth, and there are those who document it in real time with receipts. Queenie Tan belongs firmly in the second category. Starting from a $400-per-week income, Tan built her net worth past $1 million while publishing the actual numbers — income, savings rate, investment decisions — for an audience of more than 400,000 across platforms.

She is a Corporate Authorised Representative, co-founder of the personal finance app Billroo, and the author of a book that has become a practical reference for young Australians navigating ETFs, superannuation and property. What separates her from the crowded field of money educators is precision: she does not talk in principles when she can talk in percentages.

2- Alan Kohler – Editor-in-Chief, Eureka Report; Editor-in-Chief, InvestSMART Group; ABC News finance presenter, host of Inside Business.

If Queenie Tan represents the new wave of personal finance creators, Alan Kohler represents something the new wave will spend decades trying to build: institutional credibility that has survived multiple economic cycles. As Editor-in-Chief of the Eureka Report and InvestSMART Group, and a decades-long presence on ABC News, Kohler has spent more than thirty years making financial analysis accessible without dumbing it down.

His coverage of RBA decisions, market movements and economic policy is cited by podcasters, journalists and fund managers alike. He is not chasing virality. He does not need to.

3- Aleks Nikolic – Corporate lawyer; host, Big Swinging Stocks podcast

Most finance creators address the mechanics of money. Aleks Nikolic addresses the psychology — and that distinction explains why her following is as loyal as it is. Operating as Broke Girl Wealth across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, Nikolic covers ETFs, crypto and investment strategy, but her real differentiator is a willingness to discuss the emotional architecture of financial decision-making.

Shame around debt. Fear around market volatility. The limiting beliefs that stop people acting on what they already know. In a space where confidence is routinely performed, her candour is a genuine competitive advantage.

4- Bryce Leske & Alec Renehan – Equity Mates Media

Equity Mates did not build a following. They built a media company. What began as a podcast by two friends learning to invest has grown into Australia’s most established investing media brand, covering ASX stocks, ETFs, global markets and fund manager interviews across podcast, social and YouTube.

The longevity is the credential. Equity Mates has operated through multiple market cycles, a global pandemic, and a generational shift in how Australians engage with investing — and its audience has grown through all of it. When the hosts speak, their listeners know they have been paying attention for years.

5- The Lazy CEO – CEO & Founder, Showpo; Shark Tank Australia investor

The metric that matters most on social media is not followers — it is engagement, because engagement signals trust. Jane Lu, known as The Lazy CEO, maintains an engagement rate of approximately 1.15 per cent on Instagram, which is exceptional for a finance account of his size. Her 242,000-plus followers are not passive consumers: they ask questions, share experiences and apply what they read.

Her content focuses on business finance and wealth building, and the active comment sections are the clearest possible evidence that her audience does not merely scroll past.

6- Tash Invests – Founder, Tash Lends; Forbes Australia 30 Under 30

Tash Invests built her following on a premise that sounds simple but is rarer in practice than it should be: she publishes the actual numbers. Not approximations or ranges or anonymised case studies — her salary, her savings rate, her portfolio value, her net worth, updated and on the record.

Having bought her first property at twenty-two and grown her documented net worth past $1 million, she has become the primary reference point for young Australians trying to understand what building wealth on a moderate income genuinely looks like. The specificity is the product.

7- David Scutt – APAC Market Analyst at StoneX Group

The authority of most finance social media content rests on research and reading. David Scutt‘s authority rests on having done the job. A former Treasury Dealer at Arab Bank and the Commonwealth Bank, former ASX Business Supervisor, and former Global Markets Editor at Business Insider Australia and anchor at ausbiz TV, Scutt now brings that direct market experience to his role as APAC Market Analyst at StoneX Group, rather than relying on secondary commentary.

When he discusses foreign exchange movements or ASX dynamics, it is not because he has read about them. It is because he has traded them.

8- Meddy Demars – Investing & crypto content creator

The gap Meddy Demars fills is specific and underserviced: connecting global macroeconomic events to the practical reality of Australian investors. When the US Federal Reserve adjusts interest rates, when inflation data moves, when commodity prices shift — most Australian finance content either ignores the local implications or translates them poorly.

Demars, operating across TikTok and Instagram from Sydney, does the translation well: explaining what global conditions mean for Australian stocks, savings rates and investment portfolios in terms that are accessible without being condescending.

9- Simran Kaur – Founder, Friends That Invest

Friends That Invest is arguably the most successful community-building exercise in Australian personal finance, and Simran Kaur is the reason why. The New Zealand-based creator — whose audience is predominantly Australian — built a podcast, a book and a social media presence around a single insight: that the personal finance world was not speaking to young women, and that the consequences of that gap were significant.

The measurable cultural shift that followed — women engaging with investing concepts in communities that had not previously existed — is the kind of impact that most financial literacy programmes aim for and rarely achieve.

10- Effie Zahos – Money Editor at 9News

Effie Zahos is one of Australia’s most recognised financial commentators, appearing regularly across 9News, A Current Affair, Today and Today Extra as 9News Money Editor. Her role puts everyday money questions, from mortgage rates to cost-of-living pressures, in front of a national broadcast audience.

Before television, she spent years as editor of Money magazine, building the editorial foundation for her current commentary. She is also Director and Money Commentator at InvestSMART, an ambassador for Canstar, and a published author, with her financial advice available in print as well as on screen.

That combination, decades of editorial experience, an active broadcast presence, and a body of published work, is what makes her commentary carry weight beyond any single platform or post.

The common thread across this list is not follower count or platform presence. It is that each creator has built an audience willing to act on what they say, and for the Australians making financial decisions off the back of this content, that trust is the only thing that actually matters.

The fast-approaching ‘silver tsunami’ set to hit the Australian economy

As 710,000 Australians choose to retire in the next five years, there are serious implications for the economy on the horizon

The voices reshaping how Australians think about money — and why credibility matters more than reach.