Super For Every Life Stage
Maintaining your super fund is something you must think about at every stage of your life. If you are in your 20s, you must take control of it to secure a better future. During these early years of your working life you have time on your side, making it the perfect opportunity to research and choose between investment options in super funds.
Having a growth investment plan this early can make a significant difference to the super that you can get while you are working. Though they tend to be more volatile in the short term, growth assets like property and shares have larger potential for growth over the long term.
If you are in your 30s, you must make the most out of your income. During this life stage, you already have an established career making your salary and income tax much higher. Therefore, it is time to make this work for you and not against you. Sacrificing a portion of your salary can minimise your salary tax and increase your retirement fund too.
Before making a regular salary sacrifice contribution, you must check with your employer to ensure you are able to make such a contribution to your super fund. Salary sacrifice can be done via regular monthly payments or through a one-off payment that can be taken from your annual bonus. You can also consolidate your super, co-contributions and spouse contributions to boost your retirement fund.
If you are in your 40s, you must boost saving for your retirement by sacrificing an even bigger part of your salary to maximise your chances of achieving larger retirement income streams and to lessen your taxes.
In place of investing your money outside the superfund where you will be paying a high tax rate, you can devote it to your super to gain more funds that you can invest again. You can still contribute your annual bonus as a one-off payment as well as co-contributions and spouse contributions.
While you are in your 50s, you are approaching retirement age. To increase your retirement fund, you can redirect your money to your super fund via salary sacrifice or personal post-tax contributions. You can still conduct one-off payments or make use of spouse contributions or co-contributions to raise your joint retirement benefits.
Between ages 55 and 60, you can ease into retirement without sacrificing any income through the transition to retirement rule. Once you have reached your preservation agme, you can still work either full-time or part-time while supplementing your income with income from your super savings.
To reap the benefits of the transition to retirement rules, you must transfer a portion of or your entire super benefit to a non-commutable stream of income. This means that the stream of your income cannot be transferred into a lump sum payment until you permanently retire, reach the age of 65 or fulfill other condition that they may have.
Finally, your retirement funds need to last you approximately 25 years or so and therefore, you must make sure that your super benefit will last that long. Having some growth assets in your portfolio can boost your retirement fund while allowing you a continual income.
