Late 20s, $50k in Super - want to take control of my own super!

No for equal contributions. Everyone's money is kept track of separately.

Disbursement strategy is 25+ years away since we're in the accumulation phase, so I don't know... I'm hoping I have the problem of disbursing millions and millions of dollars - it will be a good problem to have!

 

Low fees and consistency in return. Low fees and a consistent history of them so no surprises. It had the index choices I was after, but I wanted to keep that very simple and history of returns were fairly good. Some others had more choices (like Hostplus) but I don't them for now.

I plan to revise my super every few years now, much like mortgage rates. So just needed the one that would for me in the medium term

 

Hi, the fees for self management is much higher on a small amount. A base fee is around $2500.
My costs turned out to be around $3200

So you need to have an income beyond that before you're even making any yield. On 50K, you need to make 10% p.a. before you break even.

You can start an SMSF with a property. I did that with a small commercial property with no borrowings.

I can say that in 12 years, the only benefit I got was the tax savings on cap gains on the property in my personal name.

I think you just have to remain patient until the numbers make it worthwhile. Of course, the govt will change the rules.

KY

 

Try Host Plus.....I moved my money there. Save me a motza as AMP were robbing me of $7k per year! Now the cost is more like $1800 per annum...on a 460k investment. I still have the employer provide AMP fund...but I only keep under 50k there..and move funds regularly to Host Plus.

I have invested in Balanced Fund (give access to lot of Infra investments), ETF- VGS, VAS, IOO, LIC - ARG, AFI.

I am using Host Plus like a pseudo SMSF without all the fees.

 

Complete the Choice of Fund form and close AMP and you will then have one account and one set of fees. If you have insurance in AMP you can bet its not a bargain and consider other options. Your employer cant mandate where you super goes except a small number of industry awards or Govt employees.

https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFile...R17983Superannuation_standard_choice_form.pdf

 

Employer pays for some of the fees and this is rebated..and also for the income protection and life insurance.

I have already done the research...if I keep 30k....it will be 600 per year in fees after rebates. Worth it to get the insurance and income protection for free due to employer paying this but limited to 120k income.

 

The evaluations I did came back showing the included "free" insurances were inadequate for my needs... I am now paying considerably more for my insurances (split between inside super and outside super for most effective payment method - eg my wife pays more outside super, I pay more inside, as it is more tax effective that way).

Sash, were you happy with the level of cover (and exclusions!) in you included insurance? Do you have any life/salary continuance/TPD insurance outside of super?

cheers,
Inertia.

 

Do you mind sharing how you decided on what the most tax effective way of deciding who has how much insurance within/outside super? Like you, I was under insured and we now have both of our insurances within our SMSF.

 

I did...but don't have them anymore....do it outside of super...

 

I do this as well and the best part is, you get to keep your insurer and policy the same no matter which superfund you move to and that includes SMSFs.

Fully underwritten insurance policies are miles ahead of the default group policies from superfunds. Many don't realize that the group insurance policies are equivalent to the junk health insurance policies. Yes you have insurance but does it actually cover much...

 

Basically, my wife is in a higher tax bracket, so it was more effective to have the component of insurance that is tax deductible (I believe the salary continuance bit) come out of her pre-tax income. For me it didn't matter, and I wanted more available cash now, so opted to have the insurances deducted from my super contributions as much as possible.

Cheers,
Inertia

 

The inside-outside super thing and where to put what was a struggle for me as well. Things like TPD for example, where it is not a total disability but your policy covers partial disabilities as well then if your TPD policy is inside super ONLY then it may be released to your super but the super may not release to you because you have to satisfy both definitions to get the money in your hand.

Own occupation TPD (which is party paid outside super) gives a bit more flexibility. As always, it can get quite complex and best to talk it out with your planner.

 

Income insurance in super can be problematic. Policy definitions inside and outside super may not be the same.
ASIC have a good run through here