Whats happening with your super fund

My super is down 10k in the last 6 months alone. I am with ING by the way in the aggressive plan.

 

I wish I was down by a measly $10K .

I am down nearly 11% this FY .

 

Is that because of global equities? ASX is down 500 points too

 

I think he means ‘only 10k’ because he has a massive balance

 

Don't you lose money on changing the structure too often?

 

I don’t know about a massive balance but it did drop nearly $30K last week .

 

Just comparing EoFY 17/18 to present:

Down about 6% including post June contributions - industry fund in high growth option.

 

Pretty good, i moved all of mine to cash in June 18 in preparation for the correction.

 

I bought two properties in my smsf in Launceston (Invermay).
One around 9 years ago, the other around 5 years ago.

I am now finally seeing some substantial gains, after many years of stagnation.
So my super is looking good, finally !

 

Mine got smacked as well..aggressive option..
Negative returns happen more frequently in aggressive plans.
It's all about patience and having the resolve to stick it out Nd have a longer term view.
When these move, they move very substantially. The loss making years get quickly eaten up just as quickly as the loss was made.
If you have time, I'd put more in and buy more aggressive options as the retuns will far outpace the losses when they move.
Having said that...it may be that 2019 will also be a dud year...

 

Down 4.1% with 100% Balanced.

Could've been worse.... I find having it all in Balanced offers relatively good growth & quite a good backstop to market falls compared to High Growth.

 

The risk profile should reflect your life stage - aggressive when younger to more defensive (supposedly) the closer to retirement.

I believe that we'll be a long time retired so exposure to growth assets is still a requirement for quite a while.

Consideration of three buckets (or strategies) - cash for immediately recognised needs (0-3 years expenses), mid-term requirements (3-10 years) and long term (10+ years). For many, the 10+ timeframe is the mid-70's so will be when you need to use more of your super.

 

We have been gradually reducing the risk level of our super over the last few months, only one switch to go before we are 100% cash.

Returns are still in the black (only just) but keeping a close eye on things.

However, we are retired so preservation of capital is our primary consideration.
Marg

 

We are in the same boat.

But it is hard to preserve capital if one is all cash earning say 2% interest, one has to pay oneself a pension of 4% (soon to be 5%) and with Australia’s inflation rate running at 2.1%.

My sister went all cash after the GFC and stayed there ever since. I feel she made the wrong decision as her capital is dwindling away.

We have employed a different strategy:- have 3 x years pension in cash, then some funds in cash stable products and the rest (the majority) in growth asserts (direct shares/LICs/managed funds).

So far, the interest/dividends having been topping up our cash reserves after our pension payments. So our cash has not started to dwindle (yet).

Our growth assets have taken a hit over the last 12 months (down 9.53%), their dividends (at 4.34%) are greater than our pension payments.

But, over the last 5 years (including this bad year), their value has increased 4.91% pa and the dividends have been 5.20%. Far better than cash and inflation over that period.

We believe we have sufficient cash including future dividends to fund our pension for at least the next 5 years (probably more) before we would need to top up our cash reserves from growth assets sale.

Everyone has to do what they feel is best for them. I know I couldn’t follow my sister’s path.

 

I went 100% cash in Oct......glad I made the decision...i lost about 3%....in the last 2 months the market has come off 7%.

I plan to dollar cost average into the market sometime after Q1 2019......i reckon we will see the All Ordinaries Index at just under 5000...so some ways to go....

 

Pretty much even, as I moved it all into 100% cash in June 2018.

Started moving it back into growth units at the rate of 6% on the 15th of every month starting in November so might start to lose a little if there are any more significant major falls. (target is 28% cash and 72% growth units)

My super is in Vision Super, an Industry Super Scheme which doesn't charge to change investment categories and does the transfer the same day.

 

The bank shares dividends are very juicy at the moment. But my feeling is that they will fall further - for example , NAB could go down close to $20 - at that price, an almost 10% yield + franking credits.
Due your due diligence, this is not a recommendation.

 

Enjoying this discussion. As a retiree I am trying to conserve capital - after making a few bad choices earlier.I would encourage people to have a look at the Unlisted Commercial Property options in their super funds as the unit prices have been increasing (well the three in Hostplus have anyway). Infrastructure is also doing well.

No way of knowing if these options will continue to grow at around 10% pa, but if they do they may be better than bank shares - without the volatility. I am reluctant to get back into any options containing shares at present, but I guess the Balanced Fund will appeal when the market settles a bit.