Superannuation Warehouse does not provide product specific advice. We can refer you to a Financial Planner or you are welcome to use your own Financial Planner.

We can, however, provide you with general advice. We are PS146 compliant, a Chartered Accountant in public practice, registered Tax Agent and have professional indemnity insurance in place.

The best general advice is to KEEP YOU MONEY IN YOUR POCKET. Do not squander it in fees. Think of your Superannuation as adding water to a bucket. If there are holes in the bucket, there’s no real use to quickly add a lot of water – it will just leak out again.

Saving for retirement within your Superannuation works pretty much the same way. If there’s a lot of leakage in fees and costs paid to a variety of parties, it can leave a big hole in your Super.

So if your question is how much should you contribute into Super to have enough – we can’t tell you. You have to work this out or ask a planner. What we can tell you is that the earlier you start with Superannuation the better it is. Compounding works great in Super.

Generally speaking, if you have a big Super balance, say > $1m, paying for an advisor makes sense. If your balance is less than that and you are financially literate, the best advice is to be financially frugal and conservative.

If you have put all your Superannaution contributions in a fixed term deposit the last 5 years, you would have been in a very reasonable position today. The added bonus with bank deposits is that the capital is government guaranteed.

The greater focus and transparency in fees resulted in a redesign of fees and commissions charged by Financial Planners.

One of the major reasons why there’s such an increase in SMSF’s is that individuals see the retail superannuation funds leak a lot of your money. When the markets were running at 20% per year and the retail funds had 5% in fees, you would have been happy with a 15% return. Now the markets are just even but the funds still charge a 5% fee. When individuals see their superannuation balance reduce every year, they ask questions.

When a retail fund says it cost you a dollar a week to run your fund with them its not a true statement. There’s a whole layer of fees that’s deducted before the returns are allocated to you. Only then do you pay the Dollar per week.

A good way to compare your retail fund returns is to compare against a relevant index. For example if you are invested in Australian Shares, compare the return you have against the ASX200 return for the same period. This will tell you if your retail fund did a good job in managing your money.

The test to do with your super is to add the return of the ASX200 to your SMSF and then deduct the monthly fixed fee of $39 or $79 that Superannaution Warehouse charges. Remember if there are 2 members, each member will only pay half this fee. You can then go and purchase direct shares in your SMSF resembling the ASX200.

There was a recent report on Superannuation sent to government named the Cooper report. It was found that SMSF’s outperformed retail superannuation funds. Make no mistake, it is a big responsibility to save for your retirement. But the rewards will be there if you take it seriously.

It’s time to take control and decide your own future.