Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor
the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello and welcome to She's on the Money. The podcast is about the bank balance of future you as much as today you do. You ever see the letters SMSF and wonder what does that stand for? But you kind of hear people talking about it and setting up their own self managed super fun and have you ever thought like, am.
I supposed to be doing that?
Well?
Honestly kind of same. I am excited and joining me today our expert in all things finance and the woman asking themselves turned to when they needed the lowdown on millennials and their superannuation. Victoria Devine.
That's such a flex, isn't it. I know that's actually it was like probably my biggest career flex that is really really cood. Oh well, as wanted my advice.
So it's like Jesus coming to you and be like, hey, what should I write in the Bible?
No it's not, but I'm not gonna correct you. I love that for us. I get asked about SMSF or self managed super all the time. You know, when you get super motivated and you're gonna do a really big DIY project, but then halfway through, you're like me deep in paint. You're standing there and you're like, why did I decide to do this? I don't know what I'm doing. I've messed so much up. I need to hire a pro, and it might now cost me a bit more because
I've made all these mistakes that need unwinding. Well that's kind of what an SMSF can feel like. Yeah, sure you get to do it all yourself, beck absolutely, but sometimes it's a lot more work than it's worth. So today I decided it was time we're going to break down why managing your own super fund It sounds great in theory, but it can often turn more into a
DIY nightmare than a dream. And I think that that is very poignant at the moment, because I've seen a lot of people in our community asking should I have an SMSF my friends set up one, or my parents set up one, or most alarming to me, someone approached me and said I could use the entire and mounting my superannuation and buy a property with it. There are red flags flying, Beck, they are flying, They're flying high.
Yes, I used to think the same thing as well. I wanted to start my own I'm like, if I have full access to my super and no one's gonna ask me questions, it's not the case.
I realized it's.
Very, very illegal.
It's very scary. I mean, it's not illegal to have access and invest on your own terms, absolutely.
Not right, but to use it for your groceriason.
Oh, no, we're not doing that, babe, Yes, absolutely not.
I thought it sounded really good, but then yes, I realized I'm not allowed to do that. But I've always wanted to know about it because it kind of sounds fancy, and like, who doesn't want more control? Should we start with what a self managed super fund actually is.
I think it sounds really glamorous. Like when I used to be a financial advisor, I'd have people come in and they would say, I really want to have a self managed super fund, and I feel like people thought that was a flex. So I used to have people come in and they would be like, well, I want to have complete control. And I'd be thinking in the back of my mind, like you do have complete control, and they'd be like, I need this, this, this, and this.
And I used to have this friend they had a self managed super fund, and they would always tell me how silly I was for having managed funds, and I'd be like, oh, okay, like you're talking to a legitimate financial advice. So do you think I haven't thought about this as an option and of all people to do it as cheap as possible, it's me Because I owned the practice. I could have had my own team set that up for me for not that much, and I
still didn't do it. So I feel like that tells you a fair bit about like how much work, how much it goes into it, work goes into it. But let's go back to basics. I suppose so a self managed superfund. It allows people to manage their own superinvestments, which is a lot deeper than having like a management
company or a superannuation company doing that for you. You do have a lot more control today, So we'll get into that a little bit later, but essentially members are then responsible for managing their own funds, their own investment strategy, their own compliance with regulations. That's on your shoulders and any admin associated with it. And SMSF it's very different from having a retail or a industry fund which are managed by proper professional trustee s, which I like that.
So approximately four percent of Australians have smsfs, so they're not that common, and they account actually for twenty eight percent of Australia's total super assets.
Wait a minute, that's like out of one hundred percent of the funds that are available that are super.
It actually makes a lot of sense. So smsfs are often associated with high net wealth individuals because of their complexity and the costs that's involved managing them. It's not something that is completely preposterous, right, Like, I'm not here
saying smsfs are a terrible idea. When I was a financial advisor, I did have clients that had very practical smsfs, like they would have oodles and I'm talking like tens of millions of dollars back of family money that was being managed through an SMSF, like they would have massive property portfolios. I had one client who had a vintage
car collection inside his SMSF. That was wild actually because complete side note, when you sell cars, if you sell them for a profit, you don't have to pay capital gains tax. So there's like a little loophole that basically only applies to the wealthy because you can't just go buy a nice little credola and hope that this happens.
Say, for example, like sold my really really ugly old no window Toyota Echo downstairs for fifty bucks.
Toyota Echo is an elite car.
It actually is an incredible car, and it's fuel.
Efficient, and because it's a Toyota, she's good.
For she's good for it. But if I sold it for fifty bucks, I would have to pay.
No, don't know whereas if you bought a house, for example, and you paid fifty bucks for it and sold it for one hundred, you would be up for capital gains tax. And that's a whole other conversation. But on cars, you don't pay that. So if you like super rich because obviously the Corolla, the Echo, it's not going to do it for us. But I have had clients who have purchased luxury and vintage cars. They might like buy an old Porsche nine to eleven and redo it and sell
it for a profit. That profit is their profit to keep. They don't pay CGT on it, right, So like little tipbit, but this client used to have vintage cars in his SMSF and you know this is not earn investing one oh one with Viba, Like it's interesting. The amount vintage car's return in comparison to the Australian share market is astronomical.
You have to be good at it. But he used to flip cars, and I remember thinking, oh my god, Like I thought this was going to be an absolute shit show because like I looked over archingly, he's an SMSF looking, what's it made up? Off cars? Far out? Okay, Like I'm going to work with his part, like what's going on? And obviously did all my research and I remember looking at it going what the hell? This guy's
a genius? Like he talked me through it, and he was really good at it, like he ultimately because it was so wealthy, he actually funded the setup of a whole work shop that he hired staff for that did it for everybody else, like it was a legit business. But he did that so that it really brought down
the cost of him fixing up his cars. He had somewhere to keep them, like anyway, whole different thing, but just really quickly, Yes, if you have cars in an SMSF, does that mean you just like the estimated value of that is what's in your SMSF or yeah, I don't forget to access an investment, it either has to provide you with an income. A car is not going to do that. He just had an asset, so in order for it to provide him in income, he had to sell the asset. So you'd have an average value of
what those cars were worth. But ultimately, a car or a house is actually only worth what the market will pay on the day that you sell it. So if you go, oh, well it's worth three hundred grand, I'm feeling safe, Well, it's only worth three hundred thousand dollars if the market is willing to pay for that, Like you'd have to find a buyer. Right, So there's a lot more strategy And that's a side note. But back to this, I feel like smsfs can be very costly.
They can be very fun. Like, don't get me wrong, I don't want this entire episode to be the's warning us. They can be fun, but in certain circumstances.
Right, So it sounds like it is a lot of work, but there are some benefits this, So what's the actual catch with smsfs then why would everyone just jump on board? If it's all about like kind of like being controlled.
You put your echo in your SMSF.
I would put my echo in my smsfal Mouthful.
Isn't it.
Yeah, it's like she sells seashells by the sea shop.
That can also go on your SMSF.
Ye can't haven't seen it, but happy to be corrected. Managing an SMSF is a lot of work. It's basically like running a tiny small business. So you're responsible for meeting all the legal obligations. You're then responsible for making sure that it is compliant with tax laws. You're responsible for making sure that your fund gets audited every single year. So like you need to pay someone an accountant to
audit your fund, and so many more. I won't say hidden costs because they're not hidden, you just probably don't know about them when you learn what an SMSF is. And this isn't obviously my opinion, but our friends at ASIK recommend that you have at least half a million dollars in super before even considering setting up an SMSF to justify the costs. Right, So if you don't have more than that and you're considering it, I would wonder why to be rude for a hot second. Is it
your ego? Do you want to be in control and you're not willing to do the research into all of the industry and super funds that you could work with that are actually aligned to your values and allow you to have a bit of a play around with the amounts of different things. Or do you have somebody in the back of your mind who's like, oh, we're a company that sets up an SMSF, accesses your superannuation, helps you invest it in property and wham maam, thank you, ma'am,
you're going to get an off the plan apartment. And I think that we need to talk about these things a little bit more because it could be all sunshine and roses like I could sell it to you now, and dodgy financial advisors, which, thankfully after the Royal Commission can't exist anymore. Dodgy financial advisors used to set them up and then work with a property developer that they'd
clipped the ticket on. Like if I said to you, Beck, oh, well, actually that financial advisor who said set up an SMSF actually is making five percent of your property purchase. Oh right, Okay, that used to happen. Yeah, So there's a lot of hesitancy in the market when it comes to talking about smsfs.
But there's also a lot of people just like me who are or were financial advisors who've just wound up more of them than we've ever set up, because we just get new clients who maybe weren't happy with their advisor, or they'd gotten a few years into their SMSF and it was not working for them. And I would then look at it and be like, who let you do
this in the first place? Oh, here's the advice I got, And you'd read the advice and you'd just be like, I knew in the back of my mind that there was probably a referral going on, and someone was clipping the ticket because otherwise it made no sense to give that advice.
Sneaky, sneaky snake.
Yeah.
So there's also the cost factor. Yeah, so back to what Acik was saying, smsfs can be really expensive to set up and they're maintain and the ATO says that the average annual cost of running an SMSF is between three and ten thousand dollars, depending on the complexity of it.
Okay, so that's not small change, that's for sure. Because here I am thinking, if you're doing it yourself, no fees, no anything.
No, so there's still fees, right, there's not no fees, And they think that that's where we need to talk about it, because even though beck Acik has said, oh well, you'd have to have a minimum of five hundred thousand dollars to consider setting one up, that's where people, I think start thinking deeply about it. Right. So, like, on average, the cost of managing funds in Australia is give or
take one percent. So like, if you've got a balance of five hundred thousand dollars in your superannuation, which must be nice, you you're probably paying at least five thousand dollars in fees already, right, and when your superstatement comes in, you're going to look at that and be like, five grand in fees for what And the answer is administration management, ongoing portfolio management. Probably some insurance is built into that.
So it's very easy to just see the bottom line and go, well, I'm spending five grand on this, why wouldn't I go spend three to ten thousand dollars on just having my own I could sell it to you if I wanted to, but I'm not going to.
So it's not really something that the average person maybe like I was gonna say you or I, but actually just I who just wants to kind of invest smarter, Like, it's probably not something that they should do. I know you can't really give personal as advice, but.
No, of course not. But you're exactly right, Like, if you don't have a huge balance, or you're not investing in really complex assets like property, there are much more simple ways for you to manage your superannuation very cost
effectively and also structure effectively. Most now traditional super funds actually allow you to pick your investment strategy, which we know because I talk about that all the time, and then they tailor it to your risk level, so you still have a lot more control than you think you do without all the admin stress. Like Beck, it is twenty twenty four right now, and even if you're listening to this in twenty twenty five, you have so much
power in superannuation. And I'll use Australian Super as an example, not as a recommendation, but as an example. Because they're a top performing fund. I feel like everyone's heard of them. They are very trusted in our industry, and I think that because of that, you automatically assume that they must
be a little bit fuddy duddy. But the reality is inside Australian Super, yes, you can pick your investment strategy and you can pick it and tailor it to your risk profile, which if you haven't is a reminder to please log in and make sure you know what those things are. But they also allow you to take some of the money inside your superannuation and pick an ETF that you like, so you can actually have so much
control and allow that portfolio to reflect your values. And if you don't know that, you don't know, and you might think that the only way to have ultimate control is to take it all out and have it in your own fund. But the reality is you can control so much. And if Australian super is not for you, maybe you want an all women super fund or you want to invest in something completely different, like there's a
super fund for everyone nowadays. Yeah, definitely find a company that aligns with your values if that's what you're looking for before you jump into Well, I have to have ultimate control and it must be all on my shoulders, right, Yeah, that's so true.
Actually I did jump into mind and I kind of like move my investments around or like mine, this feels like I'm fully you go in and check it and it's like I feel in control of this. So it does sound like a much simpler option for most of us. And I love that you can still like kind of take charge that needing to be a super fun manager yourself.
And I mean, would you call a super fun manager to fix your taps if they were broken? Beck, No, I'd call a plumber. Like I want somebody who is an expert running the show. And given it's so affordable to do, so, why aren't you just getting the expert involved?
Right?
They know what they're doing, they know what they're doing, and like it's the plumber that has a leaky tap. So like I knew that if I ever set up an SMSF myself, I'd probably let it go by the wayside, not do the right thing by it, not check everything because I'm so busy getting in everybody else's business. Don't they say the plumber always has a leaky tap, Like I don't know?
So true.
We are all about actionable tips here at Cheese on the Money, and we're going to take a really quick break and when we come back, we're going to give you the lowdown on how you can manage your super within your super fund. So don't go anywhere.
Welcome back everyone. So V what are the steps our listeners can take to stay in control of their super without getting sucked into the SMSF hype.
So first things, Verse Beck, I don't think that you'll be surprised. I want to talk about why it's important firstly be in control of your super but secondly the importance of being in control of your super, especially as a woman. Here's the thing. On average, Australian women retire with twenty eight percent less superanuation than their male counterparts, and while that is not fair and a lot of people could have some arguments about you know, oh my gosh,
like the gap doesn't exist. I will cut you, like, I'm so done with that conversation because the gap exists and I can prove it, and it's usually ignorance and people being literally rude, Like if somebody puts their hand up back and says I'm experiencing disadvantage, do you go no, you not sit down? Yeah, like what why aren't we getting behind it? Like I would much prefer to be like, oh, okay,
maybe this conversation isn't for me. I'm gonna dip out, but let everybody else have a platform to share their thoughts, feelings, beliefs.
And values absolutely because no one's experience is exact same as yours. And if it was, and everyone will be like you.
Do you know what kills me the most? Beck complete side note again and like this is me just calling people in my DMS out. I cannot stand when a woman of all people messages mean says well, I don't think this gender gap is real. I've literally not experienced it. That's not the same for everyone survivors bias.
And yeah, and also like it might not be true. They might not know that they could be being paid more even though they're being paid.
But like, even if they're like, oh, it's completely transparent, Like I am on the same salary as all of my male counterparts, and I have been since the day I graduated complete TRANSPARENCYV. Your argument is flawed. Why do you think that your experience means that everybody's experience is reflective of that? It actually drives me insane to think that you are so naive that you think because your
experience was yours must be the same for everybody else. Totally, It's how dull would the world be if that were true?
If that were true, and also, where did this conversation come from?
Then?
If it doesn't exists, there are a.
Lot better things to advocate for, yes than closing a gap.
Yes, Like I.
Am saying here, I just want the same thing and the same opportunities that are extended to my male colleagues. I'm not saying I want more or better, like Beck. If this didn't exist, there is a whole heap of stuff I could be like, oh my gosh, women, we need like three days off a week, Like I could find some stuff to come up with and a pretty convincing argument. But like closing a gap and asking for equality bare minimum, the gap isn't because we're bad at
managing money. It's mostly due to things like career breaks and having kids or unsurprisingly being paid less in the first place. Beck. And basically we see it here at Choose on the Money as the hidden tax that we pay just for being women. What a privileged But we don't have to let it stay that way, right, So I've got a few steps of how we can take back our power when it comes to our superannuation. And the first is I want you to check your superbalance.
Do you know what is in your superannuation today? I think, don't have to tell me the amount, sure, but do you know I think so that is good And most people in our community would be like, oh yes, maybe no, Like, if you're erring on the side of caution, babe, it's time to log into your superfund and just check. Just check it. It will take five minutes and you will
be a lot more financially literate. There is research out there that says when we know our numbers, we are I think it's like eighty two percent more likely to achieve financial security than when we don't know our numbers. That's very true, and that is just you knowing, not actually about doing anything or saving anything. We haven't even got to the part where I make you take actual action. Most of us don't check regularly, and I want this
to become part of your financial hygiene checklist. I want you to do it at least every quarter. Knowing your balance and how it's performing is going to put you in the best possible position. Do you need to be considering a different fund? The next is I want you to review your funds, fees and the performance that your fund has. Perfect Now, just really quickly on fees, I do want to know. I understand why superannuation companies charge fees. Yeah, but I'm struggling.
To find where fees come from. If you're managing your superfund yourself.
It's a good question to be honest, and that comes from all of the external support that you need. Okay, So where does the SMSF come from? In the first place, it needs to be established by an accountant, So setting up the structure, registering it with the ATO and ASSIC is going to cost you money. So getting that fund, it's kind of like setting up a trust. As we said before, I think I referred to an SMSF being like a small business. It's like a small business cost.
So you need to register your small business. You need to register your SMSF. You're going to need to have an accountant. Legally, if you're a small business back you could go, but I'm going to do the accounting myself. That makes sense, But in an SMSF you actually can't. You need an external auditor to perform an audit each and every single year, and that audit beck can be anywhere from three to eight thousand dollars. Oh, I see, So that's what I'm talking about. When it comes to fees.
It's not oh, you're going to save so much because you don't have the underlying management fee, Like there might be underlying management fees that then sit inside your super as well, because what would happen is, let's just get the laundry list going. You've got to register it to begin with. So charge there, You've got to pay for your annual audit every year. Great, are you an investing wizard? Like,
let's be honest, let's pretend you're following assex rules. You had a minimum of five hundred thousand dollars in your super before you decided to go and get an SMSF fantastic. You've got five hundred grand to invest. How are you investing it? Are you going to go see a financial advisor? Maybe you do right. Financial advice fees in Australia sit between three and ten thousand dollars each and every single year,
So you've got to pay for that. You've got to pay ongoing management fees for that financial advisor you for you're using them if you're smarter than the average financial advisor and you're like, well vo and a manage it myself. If you buy ETFs, you're going to have the underlying fees for owning that ETF. If you're buying direct shares, you're going to have underlying fees for brokerage and ongoing platform support.
Truly only up it does.
And that's where I go, like, this isn't as easy as you think it is. And all of these fees might slip through the cracks, And when I say that, you might not remember they're there, because like brokerage might happen and you go, will I paid fifty bucks in brokerage to make that transaction, you've already forgotten about it, you haven't accounted for it. Like these things over time add up. So we want to make sure that we're
making the right decision. And when we say I want you to review your fees for your currency branuation, I want you to look at retail and industry funds, check the fees, check the investment returns, and have a look at what am I getting the level of control that I want to make sure that you're in the right account because their fees are going to be a lot cleaner. And I'm not saying they're better or worse, but just a lot cleaner to review, yeah, because they're going to
go down the bottom of your sheet. Basically, you're paying this amount in fees, this amount of insurance, and this amount in management because more often than not, if that superannuation fund invests in a Vanguard ETF for example, they are going to pass that management fee onto you. So if Vanguard charges zero point eight percent, you are going to pay that point eight percent, But then you're also going to pay your super fund fees for them to
manage that for you. So I don't think it's a way of money you're paying someone to make sure that you're getting good returns money. In the next thing I want you to do, Beck, how many super funds do you have?
You might be shocked by this, but I used to have like four, Now I have one.
So you've console a day they're ready. That is the next hot tip. According to the ATO, about a quarter of super fund holders actually have multiple accounts, So that means basically twenty five percent of people listening right now have multiple super funds and they are paying multiple sets of fees. So we just talked about fees and how they can add up. Imagine if you had to pay
double Beck while you're there. Also, can you please check if you have any claimed super so sometimes and this is more historical because now we are better at data matching, but there's about eighteen billion dollars right now sitting Beck, Oh my god, in an account that the ATO manages, and it's lost in unclaimed superannuation that people haven't gone
and picked up. How do you find that online? So you need to do some data matching three DATO website super easy though, because the government actually doesn't want this. They can't spend it right, they want to give it back to you. That's very nice, like, yes, but it's also a legality, right, Like it's lost. It's kind of gone into lost and Found box and you can't just go and raid the lost and Found box and take
whatever you want. That's theft. So they actually want to give it back to you, so they're making it as easy as possible. But I would have a look at it. I would also urge your parents to look at it, because it's more likely that they are going to have lost super than you do because data matching. You know, you and I are a bit younger back then, they might have had different names, they might have gotten married, they might have not provided enough information on a super
fund form for it to become lost. So just maybe helping made out.
Yeah, oh my god, I'm going to Google after this, all.
Right, please do, And then we're going to assess our investment options. Right. So we spoke before about what different super funds can do, and it's a lot more powerful than it used to be. But most super funds of our different investment strategies that you can pick from, and often I would say they're labeled like high growth, balanced, or conservative, and most of you if you log into your super fund and you've done nothing until this point.
No shame, look at you doing it now. Absolutely, But I can almost guarantee that when you go in, you'll see that you're in a balanced fund. Nice, okay, right in the middle. What does that mean though? It means that you probably got your super fund forms when you've got your first job or a job that you had to sign super funds for, and you're like, I don't know what to pick, because if I said, Becky, your conservative, you'd be like, no, high growth, Oh that sounds scary.
Then they're a little box and it says balanced beside it. What one are you most comfortable ticking? If you don't have the financial literacy you deserve to make the best decisions for you.
All balanced, for sure, one.
Hundred percent, And we all did it. All of my super funds were balanced at one point. I have since changed it. Don't worry. I'm a very high growth investor. But most of you are imbalanced because it was the safest option at the time. But I can almost guarantee that if we went and did a risk profile, which we have done an entire episode on for the community, So go and we'll put the information in the show notes, but there is an entire episode on how to work
out what your risk profile is. I can almost guarantee because of age and a few other factors, and the fact that people are in the shees on the money community. They're not balanced investors. They're probably growth or high growth. They want more out of their money than just sitting a lot of it in cash. Yeah, okay, so do you know how much that costs you?
Though?
To check?
How much?
Nothing? It's free?
Oh my god.
So you can go and do this and put future you in the best possible financial position. And you could spend some money on a coffee and be like, but that coffee and did a lot for future me. Yes, that's so true, exactly right. Okay.
My next question B is how do you know how much you'll need in your super and how do you get there?
Like?
How much cash do you need? How by the time you retire?
Ideally it's a.
Good question, right. So the AFSA suggests that people will need about five hundred and ninety five thousand dollars in super savings at the age of sixty seven. Okay, but couples need six hundred and ninety thousand dollars combined. It's nice to have some clean numbers, right, it is nice. It's nice to not have somebody turn around and be like, oh well, it's up to you and your values and your morals. Like at a minimum, the AFSA has recommended
that single people need about six hundred grand in their account. Sure, So working then backwards, we need to work out our lifestyle goals. What that looks like. Maybe you want to travel around Australia and have some tinnies and you know, maybe get an old caravan and have a sick life. Or maybe you're like, we'll be Actually, I've been working in the background and I want yacht. Those two things cost very different amounts of money, and that is okay.
But that's where we then have to overlay our values and what we are trying to achieve. So I know that personally that's not going to be enough for me. So I need to do a little bit of working backwards. And if we work backwards cleanly, I work on about five percent, and I work on five percent because it's really conservative and I love to underpromise over deliver a beck of course, if I say, on average, you withdraw five percent from your retirement fund, each and every single year.
And you want an income of sixty grand in retirement, that would mean that you need an investment portfolio of one point two million dollars.
WHOA, So you.
Need to take everything that the AFSA says with a grain of salt because that's on average across Australia. And obviously there's people with really high incomes and then there's people on lower incomes and that's all fine. But I would work out, you know, out a five percent or downrate, like how much do you want If it's sixty grand, you need one point two million dollars and do some maths yourself. You can just google it if you want to as well, and work backwards. If you want eighty grand,
it's more like, have a look at that. So what do you need in super is very different, but how you get there is to me the most important part, right, So the first thing you want to do is set some goals. So working backwards, like you're already contributing to SUPER. And I'm going to use you as an example because you are a PAYG employee. So every month you get your payslip and on that pay slip, it says Beck.
Here's how much cash we put in your bank account, and Beck, here's how much cash were put in your superannuation? Sure is that amount that is being contributed enough for you? Like you did some working backwards? How much did you need to contribute each and every single month. I've spoken
about it on the podcast before. My favorite website is the money Smart website, and on that website is a compound interest calculator where you can put in the percentage amount, you can put in how much your plan on contributing, and you can play with the timeline and from that you can go, well, if I contributed five hundred dollars a month, this is how much i'd have at retirement. If I contributed ten dollars a month, this is how much extra I would have. You can play with that.
Does that mean that you need to contribute more to super right now? Not necessarily, But it means that you know that the contributions that are currently being made are either going to help you get to retirement or you might need to do some more work. And that's really helpful, might be disengaging. You might be like, oh my gosh, but isn't it good to know now? And we can make a plan instead of getting to sixty seven and going hey, Bex, so you know how you thought that
you'd just re hire? Yeah? No, Umm, I want to.
Ask really quickly. This is mainly for my mummy, who is one of those people that unfortunately didn't know about X mom ibex mom. Now, I don't imagine she'll have much or if anything. Yep, and pensions still exists, right.
Really good question if you're retiring with not enough superinnuation. Sure, the government in Australia is brilliant. There is a pension. You can apply for it. There's obviously whole heap of poops that you need to get through. You can't obviously have a massive investment portfolio, but they're no super They're going to look at your assets and they're going to work out whether you qualify for it. But it's definitely
something to look into. And I think that that is privilege of living in Australia, right, Like, I am really glad that we support our economy and I'm really glad that we support people who are aging. The other thing I want to say is superanuation only became mandatory in nineteen ninety two. Yes, so when I was born in nineteen ninety one, my mom didn't have compulsory subranuation, So
my mom in her thirties only started earning SUPER. You and I and a lot of our community have had the pleasure of you know, if I was born in ninety one and superannuation was mandatory by nineteen ninety two, by the time I was fourteen years old, in nine months, I was making supranuation. Yes, so I have a one up on my mom. Yes, so I got super from fourteen years and nine months. My mom did not, So I think that there's also this really big gap in this.
This is why the biggest demographic of people becoming homeless is women in their sixties and seventies. And it makes sense because they didn't have a lot of contributions going into superannuation. A lot of them are, you know, deciding to leave their partners. That's the number one driver behind homelessness. It's not they're bad with money, it's not that they didn't have good careers or good jobs. It's not because they've done the wrong thing. It's actually because they are
behind and that breaks my heart. But that's where I kind of want to talk about this as well and be like, Okay, cool, like you mentioned your mum, but also like, let's give that community a lot of grace as well, because they didn't have the things that we had now. Yes, of course, and I know that if I looked at your super, Beck, you would have contributions from your entire working life, like you may or may not have dipped into it during COVID and that's so fine,
but you would have been making consistent contributions. And I can almost guarantee that you're in a better place right now than your mum at her age, and that's point privilege, and I wanted to call that out, so I do apologize. But then back on track, we were talking about working
out how much money you need. If you want, you can make additional contributions and if it's right for you, have a chat to your payroll department about maybe signing up some salary sacrificing which means it comes out before tax,
which is quite sexy. And this allows you to send extra money to your superannuation directly from your pay reducing your taxable income, which we like to Then also, do you know how Beck to make a contribution to your super, Like if you say, had an extra fifty bucks and you're like, I want to put into my super V. Do you know how to do that?
It's pretty easy if you log in. They kind of make it very very clear. But I like it that if you don't even know where you're super EA is, you don't know where to start. I guess like googling is the best option. But if you have a better.
No, you are absolutely correct. So the best place to start would be the ATO website because you can log in and it will show you where everything is and you can go from there. If you've forgotten your member number, you can contact the super fund that the ATO says you've got money with and go through that process. But once you're able to log in and whatnot, transferring post taxing gum so whatever is in your bank account, if you go, I'd love that to be a super contribution.
It's a b pay like it is so simple. You could even save them as a payee so that if you were like, oh, V, I don't really know if I'm financially able to contribute more to my super, well, why don't you just set yourself up for success? Why don't you just add them as a payee on your bank account so that if ever you do decide to do that, you can then transfer the cash really quickly. Keep track of it though, because you'll claim it at tax time and you get the tax back on it.
True, that's a bit of a money with so you can claim it it's before tax. You can't claim it.
Well, you can't claim it because you wouldn't have paid tax, right, And that makes so much sense. We can't claim tax we didn't earn or didn't pay. It's a shame. I mean, people have tried, but it's not going to work. The last thing I want to say here back because I feel like I have yapped and the second you let me talk about a topic that I'm passionate about, she goes on and on. I would consider getting financial advice if you're really worried about this, so to make sure
that your super aligns with your long term goals. If you haven't done all of the stuff that I've recommended, like you haven't sat down and been like, oh, well, how much should I contribute? Like this heaps of free content on superannuation on our podcast. There's heaps of free resources floating around the internet. The money Smart website is my favorite. But if you're super stressed about it, Like, get some financial advice and ensure that your super aligns
with your long term goals. And one thing I will say is you can more often than not pay for your financial advice out of your superannuation. There you go. And I'm not saying that you should just pay for everything out of your super, but if it's advice that's putting you in the best possible position in my head, you're investing a portion of that into the advice, so you super count go further.
That's actually a really good idea. I've got a few things to share, some got hit your tricks, Okay, but I feel like that's probably enough from us, right, Yeah. I feel like it's a really good place to leave it. Do you feel satisfied?
Not yet. I really want to yap on and on about super but I feel like we should leave it there and leave some content for another day. Okay, Yeah, perfect, let's do that. Let's go have a little coffee. Absolutely, Beck. And the last thing I want to leave you with is it is not complicated, I promise. Like when you log in. Beck said it before, like, oh, my super fund's really easy to understand. You just log in They've
got everything that you need. Like, it's not hard. It's often the mental challenge of just taking a leap and actually just getting it done. But I promise future you is going to thank you and then stick to the basics. So just check your balance, review your fees, maybe consolidate your accounts, and choose an investment strategy that aligns with your value. So keep it simple, stupid like that kiss methodology.
I promise will pay dividends. And also while I'm here, I'm just going to say, don't forget to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And it also really helps our show. And it also, I don't know, Loki should help with you staying on top of your money and making confident financial decisions. So like what a better call out.
Absolutely, that's a great notification. That's why follow me you'd be rich. Yes, yes, that's a great motto. I love her to follow you.
All right, thank you, thank you, all right, have a good day. We'll catch you on Friday.
Bye, guys.
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