Retirement - Latest Figures For a Comfortable Retirement Increases!!

The Association of Super Funds of Australia generally provide quarterly reports on the estimates of living expenses for Australians in retirement, giving us the opportunity to establish an understanding of how much we should be looking at spending in retirement.

Of course, these figures are just averages, and each couple/person will be completely different, based on their level of living expenses, the area they live in and many other factors that come into play.

Before we jump into the figures, you must understand that you should understand your own living expenses and do a deep dive into what sort of lifestyle you would like to live in retirement before looking at the average figures.

Do you want to be travelling for three to six months a year for the next ten years?

Do you just want to be at home for the majority of the time and are okay with looking after the grandchildren?

Have you got a mansion that needs a lot of upkeep? Or a smaller unit that has body corporate fees?

Have you got pets or want pets?

Have you paid off your mortgage or are you renting?

All of these things make a massive difference to living expenses as you move through retirement, so establish the life you want to live first by sitting down and having a discussion with your partner, family or Financial Adviser about the lifestyle you want in retirement. Once you have done this, look at the numbers you will need to live on for you to retire comfortably for you!

If you did the above, great work, you have now been able to establish a personally tailored expenses plan for retirement, however if you do not have the resources or expertise to do the above, that is okay, because the ASFA have done it for us.

ASFA, 2023 [1]

As you can see, there is a decent difference in the expenses for a comfortable and modest lifestyle, so let’s delve into what the main differences are and this may give you an idea about what living expenses you can expect.

**Please note, all expenses are based on the fact that you have paid off your mortgage in retirement, therefore if you have a mortgage, you will need to add this on top of the above expenses!

Expenses Per Week in Retirement- 65-85 years old

The main differences in lifestyle comes down to the ability to go on overseas holidays, as a more modest lifestyle will spend all of their holiday expenses on travelling domestically. The other major difference is expenses on health, including medications and the like, this is due to the concessions on offer for those who earn less from their superannuation, it doesn’t mean that they may be getting less services for health, it just means they are not spending as much money on health.

We can see, overall, a comfortable lifestyle may see you travelling abroad a little bit more and using your car more, but overall, the differences in expenses per week are not astronomical.

Therefore, before you decide that you are ready to retire, or maybe you see these numbers and figure that you are not ready to retire, have a long and hard discussion to figure out what sort of lifestyle you will be living in retirement.

Do you want to spend it up a bit more and travel? Do you want to enjoy the peace and quiet in a regional town and get away from the big smoke?

All questions that only you can answer!

Therefore, I recommend sitting down and spending some time talking with a professional, such as a trusted Financial Adviser, who can give you some clarity and be a sounding board for all of your dreams and vision for retirement.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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1. ASFA - https://www.superannuation.asn.au/resources/retirement-standard

The Most Important Number to Know if You Want Financial Freedom!

We all want to be able to live a life on our own terms, to be able to wake up one morning and say, '“I am going to do what I want to do today…”

Getting to the point where you can wake up, go for that two hour morning hike, or go to the gym whenever you want to, eat breakfast at your favourite café or be on a plane to your dream holiday destination, it takes knowing a certain number.

That number comes down to some simple math really, it comes down to knowing your net worth and whether your net worth can pay for your dream lifestyle (or dream expenses).

What is your net worth? You hear about Jeff Bezos having a net worth of $140 billion USD, but what exactly does that mean? Does that mean that he has $140 Billion dollars sitting in a bank account? Imagine if he had $140 Billion in cash, how many rooms would that fill up in his mansion.

No, net worth comes down to whatever you have in assets minus liabilities, meaning that whatever you own which could potentially reap monetary benefit in the future minus the debts or mortgages that you have taken out to own those assets.

A great example would be a house, you may have spent $950,000 on a new home, let’s keep it a nice round figure and forget about stamp duty, conveyancing fees etc.

You have $250,000 in cash to pay for said home and you acquire a mortgage from a bank to pay out the difference, in this case $700,000.

The asset before you signed on the dotted line was $250,000 in cash, and you had no liabilities. Now that you own your home, you now have $950,000 in assets, but you have a liability of $700,000.

In both instances, you still have a net worth of $250,000. Scenario one, you had cash only, scenario two you minus the debt/mortgage from the asset, so $950,000 - $700,000 to make a net worth of $250,000.

Now you know your net worth, you can start to create a plan around building the net worth you will need to be able to gain enough financial certainty/independence to be able to live your best life, without worry of running out of money before you die.

That is all retirement is, isn’t it? The ability to pay for your living expenses, without concern of outliving the money you have. Unfortunately, not everyone who retires actually has enough net wealth to be able to do this. Which is why knowing your number is so important, what number do you ask?

The amount of net wealth (net worth) you will need to be able to live in retirement, which takes a bit of planning and understanding of the average lifespan in Australia (the endpoint).

You have to start at the end point, when it comes to attaining or achieving any goal, you need to know what the end will look like.

How do we know how or when we will die though? Well, you don’t and who would want to know anyhow, imagine if you were told that you would die tomorrow, and you had no way to change it?

But, we can make estimations based on statistics and averages, whereby the average Australian male life expectancy right now is just over 81 years old and females are just over 85 years old. [1]

Now you know that you will most likely live until the age of 81-85, we will add on 7 years, just in case, so that if you are a male, you will most likely live until age 88 and female to the age of 92 years old.

We have the end date, not to say that it is concrete, you may live to 100 years old, but based on the stats, that is unlikely, for now…

Once we have the end, we will need to ascertain your dream life’s living expenses, how much will it cost you each month to live the life of your dreams? $5,000 per month? $10,000 per month? Maybe $20,000?

Let’s say that you have a simpler lifestyle and don’t have big plans to travel the globe and party everyday, you simply enjoy the presence of family and friends, will go on a few trips a year and just want to be able to go out once or twice a month to a nice restaurant.

Lets assume for now that the holidays will cost you $10,000 per year, gifts for children/grandchildren may come to $3,000 per year, living expenses may come to $2,200 per month (assuming that you own your home and don’t rent.) Maybe you still have children in schooling, education costs may come to $10,000 per year. Entertainment spending comes to $300 per month.

Adding all of that up, your number that you need to know before you can truly find your net wealth number that you need to attain to retire is…

$53,000 per annum or $1,019.23 per week.

You would need to be earning that much from investments/drawing down from assets per week or annually to be able to survive and that does not include inflation that continues to increase living expenses each year.

Not to mention, things can go wrong, emergencies or accidents occur and that costs money too. Therefore, you may need extra cash to fall back on, just in case.

Continuing with the example above though, we won’t include any more emergency cash bucket or include inflation etc.

Assuming that you are 50 years old, how much would you need in net wealth to survive off of $53,000 per annum? (Not including your home, I mean, you need somewhere to live.)

Based on the life expectancy averages above, a male will live another 38 years and a female another 42 years.

A male would therefore need… $2,014,000!

And a female would need $2,226,000!!

Sounds like a hefty sum of cash, but of course, that is why you would invest and make your money work for you. By investing your money and making it work for you, most couples would actually only need $402,000 to drawdown $64,000 per year, according to the Super Consumers Australia. (Assuming retirement at age 65 though, not 50 years of age) [2] I will not go into investing today, but I will touch back on investing in some future blogs again.

Therefore, in our example above, the net wealth the individual would need to be able to live in their home and live the life they want, would just be the number above plus the $950,000 from your home. For the male, the net wealth would be $2, 964,000 and for the female, it would be $3,176,000 **Again, not taking into consideration increase/decrease in home value for simplicity sake.

Now you know the number you need, you can track how far off or how close you are to attaining the goal through your net wealth.

A great way to do this is to use the money smart net worth calculator, it is a simple and easy way to calculate your net worth once a year to see how you are tracking on your way to attaining the number you need to live your best life!

Just click on the link to take you to the site - https://moneysmart.gov.au/managing-debt/net-worth-calculator [3]

By calculating your net worth once a year, you will be able to keep track of how you are doing, and by doing that, you can change behaviours to keep you on track.

As long as that net worth is increasing each year, you are on track to achieving that retirement goal and taking back control of your life fully.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

**All expenses are examples only, and do not constitute a real life scenario, so please do your own due diligence and work out your own living expenses and net wealth. Or speak to a trusted professional advisor who can help you do that as well.

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[1] - https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/life-expectancy-hits-new-high

[2] - https://www.superconsumers.com.au/retirement-targets

[3] - https://moneysmart.gov.au/managing-debt/net-worth-calculator

The Sexiest Money Topic: Part 3 (Must Read for 35-65 year olds)

A little bit late to the party, I know, normally I blog at least once a week, however I would like to ask for forgiveness to those that wait for my blog releases every week.

The last two weeks, I have had two exams that I have been studying for like crazy, one on superannuation and one on macro-economics. Not to mention, I just started a new role as a client relationship manager, whereby I will be helping an advisor to implement their client’s strategies and completing admin tasks for them.

Therefore, I hope you can understand why I have take a short and unexpected hiatus from blogging and giving you the education on the sexiest money topics ever…

Superannuation, we can all agree is not actually all that sexy or interesting for some, however, it is one of the biggest drivers and tools used to help you to achieve retirement!

However, superannuation can be super complex and there are a lot of laws and regulations that encompass the industry. Therefore, if you have not already, it is best to start at part one and part two of this little super series, if you have not already read them.

Now that you have read those, let’s begin…

Self-managed super funds (SMSF) are essentially a fund that is owned by its own members, meaning that all the members within the fund are responsible for returns, compliance and mostly to meet the sole purpose test, which all super funds are primarily made for.

(Sole purpose test is legislated under the SIS Act 1993, whereby all super funds sole purpose is to provide benefits upon meeting a condition of release, ie; upon turning 65 years old, retiring or death. Which is a core purpose, there are also minor purposes as well.)

The main reasons you would look at taking on the management of your own superannuation is if you had significant sums of money under management within your superannuation and wanted to take control of your own investment strategy, rather than rely on the strategies of bigger superannuation funds.

Another reason is if you wanted to invest your super into other alternative methods of investment, such a crypto or art/paintings, real-estate, and you would even be able to buy the premises you currently run your business out of as well, depending on whether conditions are met.

Hence, there are a heap of reasons why you may want to look into a self-managed super fund (SMSF), however there are also a heap of disadvantages as well…

Such as, the time it takes to manage and meet compliance of running your own SMSF, the risk of persecution for not meeting compliance, the do it yourself investment losses that could come with not have diversification… etc.

I would highly recommend that if you are interested in looking into self-managing your own super, you should look into acquiring the help from a trusted advisor who specialises in SMSF’s, as they will have all the up to date regulation knowledge and also which product may suit you best.

So when is a good time for you to look into a SMSF?

A general rule of thumb is if you have more than $500,000 under management within your superannuation, you may want to start looking at a SMSF. However, if you do not want the extra burden of running your own fund, but still want the extra benefits, a small APRA fund may be more beneficial. Again, best to talk through your circumstances with a trusted Financial Advisor.

Now, you may have just read all three parts of the superannuation series and gone, that is all super confusing…

Which is completely fine, super is confusing, convoluted and full of potential mis-haps if not done correctly from the start.

(And I have only gone through the very basics of superannuation, the must knows for anyone who lives and works within Australia.)

That is why it is recommended that if you are either earning a full-time wage, looking to buy a home/start a family, retiring in the next fifteen to twenty years or just want to minimise tax, you should seek out a trusted financial advisor.

You will seriously reap the rewards later down the track and it will help you to Take Back Control of your wealth, and consequently, your life at the same time.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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Disclaimer:

The information on the Take Back Control Website is intended to be general in nature and is not personal financial product advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided and the nature of the relevant financial product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. In particular, you should seek independent financial advice and read the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or other offer document prior to making an investment decision in relation to a financial product (including a decision about whether to acquire or continue to hold).

The Sexiest Money Topic: Part Two (Must Read for 25-60 year olds)

The investment that is Superannuation is probably the biggest investment you will have your whole life, other than your house. Therefore, it is really important to get it right, especially from a young age!

Within this article, it will be explained why investing in Super can be tax efficient for you, how contributions to superannuation works and I will run through a few hypotheticals that will hopefully make it easier for you to understand.

First and foremost, let’s run through how and why Superannuation is so tax efficient if you were wanting to invest in Super.

Have you ever thought about investing money in the Sharemarket? Well, what if I told you that you were already investing in the markets, you are already investing in real estate, you are already investing in term deposits and bonds. All these instruments that can help you gain wealth, but you probably have no idea what that all means. Which is ok, there is nothing really wrong with that, all you need to know is that your Superannuation fund manager is taking 10.5% of your income every year and investing it based on the investment mix you have chosen or they have. (Check out my part one blog here to learn more.)

Now you know that you are already investing, why invest in super, rather than in the Sharemarket? Put simply, investing in superannuation is more tax efficient.

The government has made it more tax efficient, so that people truly save for their retirement, as the social welfare system is the biggest government expenditure there is, therefore super was created to take the pressure off of the government budget. Hence, you will find that what you invest in super is only taxed at 15% (As long as your fund is compliant), rather than your marginal tax rate.

What does this mean?

If you earn $100,000, you get $10,500 in superannuation guarantee from your employer, which goes straight to your super fund. The tax rate on a $100,000 per annum income is 32.5% of every dollar over $45,000, which is 17.5% more than the 15% of income earned in superannuation.

If you were to invest $10,500 every year in the sharemarket, instead of super, any income earned from your shares in your portfolio (basket of companies) would be taxed at a higher rate. Let’s say your income from your portfolio is $500 per year, $162.5 of that would be taxed, whereas in your super fund, only $75 would be taxed.

That means investing in your superannuation fund means that you will actually save $87.5. Now as your investments increase, of course that figure would increase significantly as well.

There are many other ways in which your super fund can help you to minimise tax, one way is using concessional contributions.

Understanding how contributions to super works can be tricky, as there are so many laws and regulations, however you need to know the basics so you can utilise the system to your advantage, to set you up completely for when you retire.

So, what are the different types of contributions?

We have two main ways you can contribute to your super, outside of your employer transferring your super guarantee to your fund. You can do concessional contributions and non-concessional contributions to your superfund at any time.

Essentially, concessional contributions are when you can contribute up to $27,500 per year, which can be claimed as a tax deduction from your income. Now, your super guarantee is already included within this $27,500 figure, therefore, as long as you do not claim over this cap, you can reduce your income and therefore reduce your tax.

Using the $100,000 example again, of which $10,500 is already contributed through your employer. Therefore, you can contribute up to $17,000 more into your super, and when you submit an intention to claim from your super fund, you can reduce your income and therefore reduce your tax. (Do not forget that what you contribute to super, you will most likely not see until you retire.)

Your income has gone from $100,000 to 83,000, by claiming the contribution and therefore, you would be saving $5,865.

(after tax savings outside super: $24,967-$19,102 = $5865) [1]

Not to mention, the $17,000 is only taxed at 15%, which means your superannuation would be taxed $2,550 from the $17,000 contributed over the year, but that still means that you would be making an overall saving of $3,315 for the entire year (inclusive of super tax).

Now, there are also non-concessional contributions, whereby you are not claiming the contributions for tax purposes, however you are just looking to invest within super. The contributions are after tax, therefore, they have already been taxed and will not be taxed again within your superfund, other than on the income your contributions make.

All income from your investments, again, is only taxed at 15%, which I explained above, so we won’t go there again. But just to solidify why investing in super is better than outside of it, let’s run through some scenario’s together, a few hypotheticals so you can truly understand it.

We will run some scenarios for a 25 year old, a 45 year old and a 60 year old, to hopefully give everyone some great context on the tax efficiencies and how the contributions work for you!

25 year old, a comparison of investing outside of Super v.s investing in Super?

Let’s look at a new scenario and a new person, we will name her Sally, and Sally earns $65,000 per annum as an employee. Which means her Super Guarantee, of which her employer pays to her superfund is $6,825 per year.

Now Sally lives at home and doesn’t actually have many expenses, she socialises with friends, has a boyfriend and they are saving for a house currently. (Potentially could look at the First Home Super Saver Scheme, I would talk to an advisor about this before doing so though.)

Sally has $10,000 she would like to invest, but she is unsure of where to put the money. (The $10,000 is not apart of her house deposit that she is saving with her boyfriend currently, she wants to invest it for longer term savings.)

Sally is tossing up on whether to invest the $10,000 into an index fund or to contribute to her super. Let’s say for an example, the index fund has a 30 year average return of 7% per annum and her super fund has returns of 7.8% per annum, but fees of 0.8%, making the real returns exactly the same as the index fund.

Sally wants to invest the $10,000 for 30 years.

Option 1) Sally Invests into the index fund

Over 30 years, thanks to the beauty of compound interest, her return will be $66,123, minus any costs for buying the units in the fund. Giving her a total of $76,123 at the end of 30 years.

However, all the income she receives year after year is taxed at her marginal tax rate. Let’s just say she receives $300 per year from her investment, to make it super simple. $97.5 of the $300 is taxed every year, meaning that she gets taxed $2,925.

Now, I have tried to make this super simple to understand, as it can get really complicated when adding in income every year to add on top of returns. So lets just see what the total return would be if we add the $202.5 of income after tax to her returns outside of super.

Sally is sitting at a total return of $95,204.

Option 2) Sally invests in her superannuation

Now, we have already done the math, the only difference is Sally gets taxed at 15% within her super on any income, rather than the 32.5% through the marginal tax rate.

So only $45 of the $300 is taxed, now lets see how big of a difference that makes over 30 years…

Sally would have a total of $100,210 within her super fund, meaning she would have saved on tax and made returns because of it. Of course, the figures are well and truly off when it comes to the earnings, you would see the increase in income each year make a much bigger difference over 30 years. But I wanted to show you using nice simple numbers.

45 year old, coming up to retirement and unsure of how much you may need for retirement? Let’s dig in to what you should be aiming for…

First and foremost, how much do you need to retire, the numbers are all over the shop, but according to two main associations, you would need roughly $70,000 by age 67 years for couples and singles to live a modest lifestyle. Based on couples having living expenses of $39,788 per year or singles having living expenses of $27,754 per year. [2]

Of course, if you would like to live a very comfortable lifestyle, you would need $640,000 for couples and $545,000 for singles, according to the Association of Super Funds Australia. Which is a major difference from the $70,000 you need for a modest life.

The Super Consumers Australia have a bit of a different amount, whereby to live comfortably, you only need $62,000 per year in expenses for a couple. Which means you only need to save $409,000 for a couple to live fairly well, if aged 57 or below. [3]

Of course, these numbers do change yearly, therefore it pays to seek out advice where you can to make certain that you have a solid plan for retirement and everything will be fine.

60 year old, retiring in the next year to five years, what are the ways in which you can contribute to top up your super?

There are few ways in which you can truly top up your super before you retire, to make sure that you have more than enough to get you through the next 20-30, maybe even 40 years!

One of those ways is using the bring forward rules, whereby you can bring forward up to five years of concessional contributions or up to three years worth of non-concessional contributions.

The bring forward rules are complex in nature and I would truly suggest that you talk to a professional financial adviser about these rules and how you can top up your super before retirement.

Another way is the down-sizer contribution, whereby you can use the sale proceeds of a house to top up your superannuation as well. [4]

Again, before deciding to go down this track, I would highly suggest talking to an advisor before doing anything.

And finally, you can also complete co-contributions to a spouse, whereby you can contribute to your partner, who may have less super and this could make you eligible for some tax offsets.

I did not want to go into too much detail, as the closer you get to retirement, the more important it is to see a Financial Advisor and truly get a good grasp on your financial future as you move into the unknown that is retirement.

Due to regulations and laws are always changing, I would highly advise anyone to make sure they speak to a professional first before making any decisions or actions. Hence, I always suggest that you should always look out for a trusted Financial Advisor who can create a sound financial plan for your future, and for the future of your family. Someone who can be in your corner when deciding on the big decisions in life, such as marriage, kids, first home, second home, retiring etc.

I truly hope this has helped you to understand super a little bit more and why it is so much advantageous to invest in super that outside of it, when looking at tax.

For the third and final part to our superannuation blog, the next article is going to be on Self-Managed Super funds and a few more scenarios to help you truly wrap it all and understand Superannuation.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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[1] - https://www.ato.gov.au/rates/individual-income-tax-rates/

[2] - https://www.superannuation.asn.au/resources/retirement-standard

[3] - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d2828f4ce1ef00001f592bb/t/62d4b629b09b0b30b6fd9410/1658107438289/Consultative%2BReport%2BRetirement%2BSavings%2BTargets.pdf

[4] - https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/super/growing-your-super/adding-to-your-super/downsizing-contributions-into-superannuation/

Disclaimer:

The information on the Take Back Control Website is intended to be general in nature and is not personal financial product advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided and the nature of the relevant financial product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. In particular, you should seek independent financial advice and read the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or other offer document prior to making an investment decision in relation to a financial product (including a decision about whether to acquire or continue to hold).

The Sexiest Money Topic- Part One (Must read for 18-45 year olds)

Here we are, finally at the moment where we get to spend a bit of time together on what some would say is the most “boring” part of your life. Some of you may not ever even look at this until the age of 50 years old, it is just not on your radar or priority, which is ok, but you should make it so!

The most important aspect of your financial life is your superannuation and retirement, and if not planned well, can leave you with tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars less for when you do retire.

Therefore, today I am going to try and simplify superannuation for you, so that you don’t get all perplexed and overwhelmed by the staggering amount of information that you need to know when it comes to your super.

Firstly, the most important aspect of superannuation that is a need to know would be the Superannuation Guarantee or SG for short.

To understand the SG, you need to know what superannuation is first. In all essence, a super fund is a fund that manages your money and invests it based on the return you are looking for and the risk appetite you have. It is simply a vehicle to help you save and achieve higher returns to set you up for retirement, which the government put in place due to the strain on the budget for the pension system.

The government also created the SG scheme, for this very reason, whereby as of this financial year, 10.5% of your before tax take home salary goes towards your superannuation.

In fact, that rate of SG will be going up 0.5% every financial year until it hits 12% in the 2025-26 FY. For an example, if you currently earn $60,000, you are actually earning $66,500 every year, whereby your employer is contributing $6,500 (10.5%) to your superannuation.

Hence, you should be checking your super account at least every six months to make sure that you have been getting your SG from your employer, and if you are a sole trader or self-employed, you should be setting aside some of your pay every week to go towards super, which can come with nice tax incentives. (I will go through tax incentives in part two of the series)

**If your employer has not been contributing to your superannuation, you are entitled to get that back from them, with interest as well. You can call the Australian Taxation Office, who will not only help you to get your super that you are entitled to, but will also calculate the returns that you would have got in the time that your employer had not paid super as well.

Secondly, you need to have some understanding of the different types of super funds/products.

The two main super funds would be an accumulation fund, which is the most common type of fund these days, and a defined benefit fund. The difference, one is simply where you accumulate funds over your working life which is invested to grow a lump sum to draw down from at retirement, and that is the accumulation fund.

The other, the defined benefit fund, which is generally only used in the public/corporate sector of employment, is a fund whereby a formula is used, based on your average salary over the last few years before you retire, the funds you and your employer put in and the number of years you worked for an employer. Most of these funds are closed off now, due to the success of accumulation funds.

Understanding that your fund is most likely an accumulation fund is quite important, if you are unsure, it is best to speak to your employer of super fund. If you do have an accumulation fund, your employer is most likely contributing to your super through the funds My Super product.

The My Super product for most super funds is a low cost, lower risk, diversified option, however as of late we have seen that some funds My Super option has been underperforming compared to their balanced/growth options. That is why knowing the options that your super fund has available for investment, as well as the returns your fund is getting is really important. Which leads us to the third and final thing your need to know… [1]

Thirdly, you need to decide on the fund that is right for you, and knowing what funds have performed best over the long term, whether they have low fees or high and potentially whether they are ethical when it comes to their investing.

The best way to do this is to seek financial advice from a trusted advisor, they will be able to work out your objectives and create a plan that will suit for your retirement or the investment mix that suits your circumstances. Your Super fund actually gives you two free planning sessions, one of those sessions is to allow you to create an investment mix that is right for you or to get your ready for retirement, and the other is for insurance within the fund. Just call your super fund to ask for these added extras.

Another way is to utilise the “YourSuper Comparison tool,” which has been made to compare your superfund to others that are potentially performing better over the short, medium and long term.

You can check out the “YourSuper Comparison tool” here. [2]

You can of course do your own research, however, based on all the products out there, it would take hours of research and trawling through length product disclosure statements. If you have the time to spend 10-30 hours doing that, go for it, but I know most people would opt for the two options above.

Now you are equipped to ride the super train, you have everything you need to at least decide on a fund and understand that superannuation can be made simple. Of course, as you get older, understanding the complexities of superannuation is more important when entering that pre-retirement phase between the age of 45-55 years old.

Therefore, in the next article, I will be explaining the tax incentives you can get out of super, the different ways you can contribute to your own super and most importantly how you can save on tax within superannuation!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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[1] - https://moneysmart.gov.au/how-super-works/types-of-super-funds

[2]- https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/YourSuper-comparison-tool/

Disclaimer:

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