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

__________________________________________

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

______________________________________

[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

_________________________________________________

[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:

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 Ever Discussed… Superannuation: Intro

Yeah, Superannuation is not the sexiest of topics…

But, it is probably one of the most important topics and the vehicle to get you to retirement, and most importantly, through your retirement!

Therefore, I am going to brave the boring world of superannuation and educate you on the most important aspects of Super that is a need to know if you want to;

• Live the life you want to live in retirement (I know it is 30 years away for some of you, but I can guarantee what you do now will change your life forever when you retire)

• Minimise the tax you pay right NOW!! (Probably the main reason you should read this blog, if you don’t want to think about 30 years down the track.)

• Minimise tax on investment income.

• Feel secure when you stop working, not having to worry about paying down bills or buying gifts for loved ones, because you know you can afford to!

• Go on holidays and see the world, or if not for you, be able to do WHAT YOU WANT with little restriction on finances!

If all of the above sounds pretty amazing, or even one point of the above, you need to read the next three blog articles over the next three weeks!

We are going to go on a journey to discuss the most important investment vehicle you will ever have!

In part one, we are going to go through what Super is and do a quick intro on the types of Super accounts there are, just a beginners guide to Super and where you could potentially find some really good comparison sites for super products and what to look for in a fund!

Part two is where we start to look at the juicier stuff, whereby I will run through different contributions and how you can maximise the full affect of contributions to minimise tax and how you could potentially get free money from the government or ATO.

Who doesn’t love FREE MONEY?

Part three, we are going to go on a bit more of a detailed and deep dive, mainly into the world of Self-managed Super funds and also a few hypothetical scenarios to wrap it all up!

I know Super is boring, I know it is something you would rather not think about, but it is still your money and it is going to be the driver of your retirement, therefore the earlier you learn and understand it, the better your retirement will be!

So buckle up, or leave the seat-belts off, because we are about to partake on a journey that is not really bumpy or fun like a rollercoaster, but that is what your Super should be!!

Boring and discipline is what accounts for most success, therefore, your Super should be just that, boring and disciplined.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Did You Know that You are an Investor Already?

Most people know that they get paid superannuation, however most people do not go beyond that. They don’t see it as their money, until they get to the age of 40-50 years old, which is a HUGE mistake!

Your superannuation is YOUR Money and it is really important you understand what you are doing with your money. It can be the difference of between an extra $50,000-200,000, or more even depending on your earnings, at retirement. Which I am sure would go a long way to being able to travel the world when you retire, if that is what you want to do.

Your Superannuation is your first investment, which started as soon as you got a job. As Living in Australia and working in Australia means legally your employer must pay your superannuation guarantee.

The minimum superannuation pay for each eligible employee is 10% of their ordinary time earnings (OTE). However, it's scheduled to progressively increase to 12% by 2025. - ATO (1)

Which means 10% of your income will go towards your super every year, so if you earn $100,000 before tax, you will have roughly $10,000 contributed to your superannuation. The best part, all super contributions made up to $27,500 is taxed at a smaller rate than your wages that get paid to your bank account.

Any contributions that are made are taxed at 15%, which is a lot less than the average 32-37% of your income that gets taxed, depending on how much you earn.

You not only save money by having super, but you also can make a lot of money from the returns your fund will get for managing your money.

Of course, you want to make sure that you have the right fund and the government has even provided a great website that will compare your current fund with up to four other funds that may get you better results down the track based on previous performance.

Check out the Your Super Comparison Tool here

The above comparison tool is great, however it does have some short-comings, which are due to the fact that it doesn’t filter funds based on ESG (Environmental Social Governance), therefore you don’t know where your money is going and if its ethical. As well as the fact it only compares based off of the previous 7 years of annual returns and the annual fees.

Which, in hindsight, if you are 20 or 30 years old, you want your money in a fund that has been able to perform well for much more than just seven years.

However, the tool is a great start to seeing whether your fund is performing well or not and can give you some good insight into how other funds are performing.

The main reason as to why you should not just choose the fund that is the best-performing from the Your-Super-Tool comes down to the fact that every person’s circumstances are very different and depending on your age, you may not want the highest performing fund. Generally speaking, the higher the annual returns, the more volatile the returns can be.

If you have only six years left to retirement and you are in a very aggressive fund, that may affect you significantly if the markets were to have a down-turn.

Hence why it is always best to speak to a professional advisor and work with one to set-up your superannuation.

I believe it is especially important for when you are younger as well, when you get to about 21-29 years old, you should be essentially starting your professional/trade career.

Which means your super contributions will be much higher from your employer than it was previously. There are a whole range of things that you need to figure out due to your increased super contributions that will possibly make you a lot more money than the general fund that your super fund will put you in.

Not to mention there is insurance within super as well, whereby that eats away at your retirement savings, but it may be the only way you can afford to get life insurance, TPD (Total Permanent Disability) and Income protection. Therefore, you want to know what insurance is going to suit you the best and how you may need it to change when you have a baby, build a house etc.

But it is all really hard to figure out all by yourself, which is why using an accredited Financial Planner is the way to go!!

There are so many things that can go wrong if you choose the wrong fund, but there are a few tools at least to get you started.

I hope this has helped and that brings us to the end of our beginner investors guide.

If you have found this guide valuable, I would love it if you shared all ten blogs with friends and family. The more the merrier, as I want to see each and every one of you learn to Take Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth !

Until next time,

Take Back Control

___________________________________

References:

1. https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/paying-super-contributions/how-much-super-to-pay/