Need Super - any hints?

Hi All,

Being self employed I have never bothered about Super, but am now thinking it might be wise to help reduce my tax bill, and considering I also want to invest in long term shares/ETF/LIC's it seems to make sense.

I currently have pretty much zero balance in Super, and hubby has to be in the government one so SMSF isn't an option at this point so I just want something as close to SMSF as possible, but not.

Any pointers? I'd considered something like ING Living Super, but have heard their fees are really high.

 

I would stay as far as possible from commercial products as possible. They tend to drain and drag financial performance in long term.

A lot of industry super funds provide ability to use your money as you wish (like buying ETF/ Shares/ LIC etc).

 

If it was me I would be looking at opening an account in the same super fund as your husband.
Generally industry funds have much better performance than retail funds.
I also like the idea someone else is worrying about the investments rather than me.
Property investment was always something additional to super. I have seen some people become really unstuck managing SMSFs as their only retirement funding.

 

I've got ING Living Super and I wouldn't necessarily call the fees high - just more than they used to be. The website doesn't perform on some devices though. But other than that, it's reasonably good to use and I like that I have control to buy a variety of stocks in my super.

 

Vanguard index fund.

 

You will need poppa advice on smurfs however you need to consider minimum balance to make your smurf viable, can you stump up $200-300k each car a non-concessional contribution?

As @Noobieboy points out, an industry fund may be a good first step eg Sunsuper, host+ etc if they have a quasi smurf option.

Even though hour husbands super is with a govt provider, he may be able to roll over/transfer some out to another fund.

 

Go am industry super fund. I'm in CBUS, it has had over 9% returns over the last 20 years. If I was older I would sell everything and just dump it in there. Set and forget.

 

I did this in effect with the sunsuper index options (believe they use vanguard for their indexes). Get them a few points cheaper than actually buying the ETF, no brokerage or need to do periodic purchases and other fees are much lower. Just set your asset allocation and forget.

industry high growth options are cheap and set and forget, a brief look around you should be able to spot the better ones.

What ever you do remember super is a long game so durability over the long term matters.

 

Ideal Passive Income Portfolio for Retirement - advice from forum experts May be of help?

 

I would but hubbys is in a government fund and quite frankly I’m a little distrustful that they’ll keep their fingers out of it...

 

Just on this, check the PDS of your husband's super for their fees and costs. There's nothing stopping him from rolling over part of the balance to a different fund (unless he's on an old DBS with CSS or PSS, then continue to milk that bad boy for as long as possible! There's guys I work with that are only 2 years away from retirement and will pocket six figures per annum for the rest of their life.)

 

Ha I wish! Definitely not defined benefits.

I’ll check if we can roll over - thank you!

 

+1 for Industry super fund like others have suggested... I use Australian Super. It has performed well over the years & has fees on the lower side of the scale....

Do a Super comparison on Canstar.... well worth the quick insight!

 

Have a read of this: Linky, latest fund performance

 

What you don't see in that link are comparative fees.... do a quick compare on Canstar between the top performer Care Super & something like Australian Super and you'll see a significant difference. It's not just about the return.... as what's quoted are "gross" not "net" returns.

 

Funny that, they don't do it out of a sense of public good, these are not for profit funds. Look at the for profit sector and these fees pale into insignificance. BTW for profit funds don't even rank in the top 10 performing funds.

 

IMHO, there isn’t any investment that is “set and forget”.

Super is the money that is going to fund one’s retirement. Why would anyone set and forget .

I believe we should all monitor/manage our Super investments and ensure they are performing as per our expectations. And especially if one has handed over one’s money to someone else.

How many people on PC hand over control of their IPs to a PM and “set and forget”?

Probably none. We all monitor/manage the PM. We should do the same with our Super investments and any other investment.

@Jess Peletier, I can’t help with where to place your Super funds as we have a SMSF. Which I look at nearly every business day and formally measure/track performance at the end of every Quarter. We are retired (for nearly 8 years now); it is that important to us .

 

Tinkering is likely to worsen your outcome vs a well selected allocation.
Monitoring is work and the fluctuations stress many people. Yet it is unproductive input.

 

Totally agree BUT I didn’t say tinkering .

I find all investments involve work and sometimes stress BUT we have found it all worth it.

We retired a lot earlier than expected and with more money than planned .

Even after more than 7 years in retirement, we still don’t treat any of our investments, including Super, as “set and forget”.