She's On The Money - Your Superannuation Glow-Up Part 1: The $0 Tweaks That Could Change Your Retirement

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

You’ve listened to our episode about how much super you really need… but knowing your number is only half the story. The real question? How do you actually get there. Enter our Superannuation Glow-Up series. Part 1 is all about getting the right foundations in place for you and Victoria is serving up the $0 tweaks that could completely shift the trajectory of your retirement.  💸 A quick “pay check” that could expose if you’re missing money💸 The free tool that makes choosing a fund way less overwhelming💸 An account default that might be sabotaging your future wealth💸 Why even the smallest return differences are actually a really big deal💸 The clean-up move that could stop you burning money on pointless feesLISTEN TO: Your Future Self Is Begging You To Listen To This Episode (Let's Talk How Much Super You'll Really Need) LINK: Your Super Comparison Tool  Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+.And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumibangada bomi ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunadana. Hello beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people, we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast that's here to tell you whether your super is giving future freedom or coasting without a game plan yet. One of our most popular episodes this year was about how much super you should have. So today we're doing a follow-up and tackling your most asked questions. I'm Bex Syed and with me is our go-to for all things money, Victoria Devine. Hi. Hello. I'm really excited, but also I was just saying to you off air, I was like, I am exhausted today. Do you know what I'm coming at you with? Hard facts. No funny, no business.

Like I just don't have the energy for that right now, but I'm very excited, but also very tired. Yeah. So fair. I can't complain though like what a privilege to be exhausted of something I chose to do it's fulfilling but it's still you're tired your body's tired what can you do my body is not a happy camper right now she said okay you need two panadols two neurofins and you need to back it up with two coffees but but that is okay on the way I'm very excited because I love nothing more than seeing people literally care about their retirement and then getting to thrive during that period of

time because I just think that everybody deserves that now you guys absolutely loved seeing how you're super compared to other Australians, which I think is really fun because I think so many of us, we just Google it once six years ago and feel a little bit behind and then never think about it again. We actually collected the data from our own community over the last 12 months. So I thought that we could just start by sharing that. And I'm really excited about this because I feel like this data is a little bit more gritty, a little bit more comparable to like where we are as listeners. like if you think about our average listener and the average person well they're not actually the average Australian like the average Australian maybe doesn't care so much about their super

doesn't care about finance is probably not trying to put themselves in the best possible position so here's a little bit of a snapshot from our she's on the money community and I've just done by age bands so I've copied what the superannuation companies do so that you could like compare it to your super company if you wanted to later and we'll obviously use this information to create like a social tile so you can go back to it and like see it visually because it's like not the same as just having it read out to you right so if you're between 20 and 24 in the she's on the money community the average is $26,000 and then the median is $22,000 yes so just to quickly talk about why I as a stats nerd I don't know if everybody knows this but way back when I was

at university I studied statistics it's one of my minors because I am just a really big nerd I always talk about the average and then the median. I actually think that the median is a better reflection, but most people talk about the average because you go, oh, V, what's the average? It's like, well, that's good. But what happens with the average is you take every single number. So say there's like a hundred people in our sample. There's actually thousands, but say there's a hundred people. You add all of their numbers together and then you divide it by a hundred. So you're getting like the lowest of the low and then the highest of the high and what happens with that is if we're all similar probably not a big issue

but if you've got someone who has you know they're 21 and they for some reason have a heap of money in their superannuation and they've got millions and then you also have people who maybe you know have never worked a day in their life and they're in the sample so they've got zero dollars we're taking those numbers into consideration and if I asked you do you feel like that's comparable to your situation? I think you go, probably not. So the median is the number that just sits smack bang in the middle. So it's not like adding them all together and dividing them. It's going, okay, cool. If there's a hundred people, we're going to 50. Like what is that 50th number? And that is the person that's sitting in the middle of all of that. So they're not the highest of the high.

They're not the lowest of the low. That's where a lot of us probably want to see comparable numbers because we go, well, what's, you know, sitting smack bang in the middle. You know, when you think of a bell curve? It's like the bell curve number. It's like the one at the top of that. So often you will see the average is often higher than what the median is. And that's why I like to work off a median instead of an average because I think an average can not be as accurate. Anyway, that's a little bit of a statistics side note. If you're between the age of 25 and 28, the average is 43,000 and the median is 34,000. 29 and 32, average is now 94,000, whereas the median is 88,500. 33 to 37, average is 107,000. And then the median is 106,000. So we're actually getting

a bit closer with that one, but then it does dive away at 38 to 41. The average is 173,500 and the median is $155,000. And then between the ages of 42 and 46, the average is $230,000 and then the median is $200,000. But can you see why? Yes. I probably would prefer if like comparison is a thief of joy, right? Oh yeah. So like we need to also say that because here I am being like, here's some numbers to compare yourself to, but also don't compare yourself. Like we want to be on track and we want to feel like we can compare ourselves, but that's where I go, I'd probably be comparing myself to the median, not necessarily the average, usually because it's more accurate. Um, but also it makes me feel better about myself. Absolutely. As I'm

looking at this, I'm like, okay, there's some numbers that I, I think I need to get on top of some things. If you're listening to this and you're kind of like, worry, just know that that's why you're here. Uh, and we can fix this. But like, isn't that cool? Cause like the people that are listening to this show, they actually just want better for themselves. Like, even if you're like oh I don't stack up at all think about all the people that aren't even considering that and the fact that you have so much time ahead of you to like fix that or put yourself in a different position like what a position to be in exactly you've already making the right first step I mean the hardest thing is to listen to me so like you're already past it can confirm no just kidding

so what does this tell us okay so when looking at this information for our community specifically it says that the biggest jump is in your late 20s to early 30s and if you look at it superannuation balances actually almost double like they more than double and this is the magic of compound interest so you know how I'm like oh it takes time back like you know you've started your shares account and you're like investing consistently but you wouldn't have seen it just double but that starts to kick in after 10 ish years so like compound interest its power is in the long term so after 10 plus years that's where you really start to see stuff doubling yeah and if you think about late 20s you've probably had nearly 10 years of really solid contributions late 30s you know

not all of us were you know contributing for the start of our 20s so that kind of makes sense like that data makes sense and by mid 30s most people are actually hitting six figures like and that's really normal and that's really exciting. Then in your 40s, if we kind of go down the data set a little bit, the gap between average and median, it really does widen. And I pointed that out when I was reading it out, but that's literally life events. In your 40s, that's when we start to see the real impact of you taking a career break because you've had uneven contributions. So whether you took time off for yourself, whether you took time off to have kids, that's when we really start to see the difference and you saw that gap. Got you. Okay. God, that's scary. It's

really good to see that. It is, but like data is telling us a story and you know what we can do with stories? Yeah. Learn from them. Absolutely. And this is why super splitting is so important, but that's a story for another time. That's another conversation and a whole other episode we will do. Okay. So if I want to sort out my super, which I do, what's the first thing I should be doing? I think I've said it on the show before and it's not the sexiest way of putting it, but like we're going to do a hygiene check. Yep. Like we're just going to clean house, right? So that hygiene check means we log into our superannuation account. I want you to know your balance. I want you to know how many fees you're paying and whether you're comfortable

with that. I want you to have a look at whether you have insurance or not. And if you don't think about getting it, I cannot, like I cannot drive home the importance of insurances. Don't get me wrong. It's going to look different for everybody. If you're in your early twenties and you're still lucky enough to live at home you don't have any debts probably don't need a lot of insurance but if you're like me and you know I'm 34 that's terrifying and I have a kid and I have a husband and have a mortgage if I wasn't here anymore I've just lumped a whole heap of responsibility on someone who can't pay for that right so we want to make sure that that's okay and then the last thing I want you to look at in your superannuation account is your portfolio type so what's your risk

appetite are you in a balanced fund are you in a high growth fund are you in a conservative fund if so why have you done their questionnaire have you looked at how much impact that can have over the long term of not doing it because this is going to give you a really good idea of just where are you starting from because like how many of us just have our heads in the sand about super maybe you know the number because you recently did your tax return but a lot of us also have no idea yes that's so true so once we familiarize ourselves with the numbers what do we do next All right. So what I want you to do, and I have mentioned this tool a number of times on our show before, but I want you to use the Your Super Comparison Tool, which is a free tool provided

by the Australian government. So it's like not by us. It's not built by a super company. Like they're not trying to sell you anything. It's just going to do the job, right? And to get to it, you go to MyGov, you go to the ATO portal, you click super, and it will take you through to the Your Super Comparison Tool. You can also just Google it, but personally, I like going through the MyGov platform because it means you would have had to see what your balance was to begin with. Can't avoid it. And then this tool is going to line up all the MySuper products in the country and it's going to show you a few things. So it's going to show you the net returns over five and then over 10 years. It's going to show you what you'd have if you'd been in each fund with a 50k

balance. It just like shows you the differences and which funds have failed the APRA performance test. So to me, that's really important because it's kind of like a hygiene factor again. Can we just make sure we're not in a fund that failed? Like, cause then maybe I would be very, very interested in changing. I can't give you advice and say, get out of that fund. Cause if for some reason it aligns with your values, maybe you do you. But like, I know that if my fund failed the performance test, I'd be out. Ah, ah, ah. But no advice given, just read between the lines. Okay, let's go on a really quick break because it's a lot to take in. It is.

And we'll dive back in on the foot side. All right, we are back, Bec, and we are talking all things superannuation. And I feel like I have just yapped and yapped and yapped. And the thing that I like with the Your Super Comparison tool is it compares like for like options. Like I don't want you to look at different things that are being put in front of you for marketing purposes. so we know that there are a lot of other comparison websites where if you google like

compare the best supers it's very likely to show you the ones that the superannuation companies are paying for and then not show you the super companies that are doing well but haven't paid for that type of marketing so don't compare a conservative option either to like a fund with a growth option so make sure that if you are comparing we're just doing apples to apples so that's why you before went and worked out what your risk profile was because like let's pretend Bec you're a growth risk profile why are we looking at conservative options got you like just filter it by growth like be like I know I'm growth so I'm only going to look at the funds growth options and then I'm going to look at all of the funds and compare their growth options so

I'm getting apples with apples instead of going oh well you know I compared the Australian super conservative to the uni super growth like what those aren't actually comparable they're not on the same page like they're for different people and different things so if you have done your risk profile and you are conservative, we're only looking at conservative options. If you are high growth, we are only looking at high growth options. And do you know what that does? Makes your life 6 million times easier because like less options, less worry. Absolutely. Right. Statistically 6 million times easier. So I always throw these things around like where we talk about growth and conservative. So I would say the most common term in the industry when it comes to risk profile,

because it's like the default is balanced option. So you might've heard of that before where people go, oh, that's the superannuation balanced option. And that, I feel like people are attracted to the word balanced. Yeah. It feels safe, right? It does feel safe. Yeah. But it might not be reflective of your goals and your values, right? But that typically only holds, or I should say holds, not only holds, but that holds 60 to 70% growth assets. What does that mean? Yeah. Okay. Of your pie chart, which is a hundred percent, 60 to 70% will be shares. The rest will be capital stable assets, which are things like term deposits and cash and bonds. I see. Whereas if you look at a growth option, that pie chart becomes 90% shares. Yeah. And then like 10% more stable assets and

like they're different for every single option. So don't go, oh, Victoria said that a growth option would have 90%. It's actually different per superannuation company. So the way that, and I'm just using these as examples so that you don't go, what are you talking about? Like if you look at Australian super, for example, their percentages in their pie charts are very different to a uni super or a rest or a host plus. They're like, they're just very different because they all have different methodologies of ascertaining what is like the best breakdown. But on average, I would say growth options like 80 to 90% growth assets. Sure.

And if that aligns with your values, that's all we're looking at. Okay, got you. So Bec, if you came out as growth and hypothetically your growth, your returns might look higher, but that actually just might be the risk profile, not your fund doing a better job. Sure. So you might go, oh, well, I came out as conservative. And then all of a sudden I'm seeing better returns in the growth one.

Well, yeah, you're always, not always, but like the more risk you take on the higher the returns high risk high reward exactly so usually when you look at it it might go oh like the you know conservative portfolio is returning six percent on average you know the medium growth is returning like seven or eight percent and then the like high growth is nine or ten percent you go but why i want nine or ten well then maybe you need to go back to your risk profile if you don't like the six percent option you came out with so like work out what works for you sure sure okay and what next okay so boring but just understand the fees boring now boring always like it was never good and as a financial advisor I used to

have to do this for clients and I would always be like look like I didn't like doing it either because this isn't the sexy part of like super because I want to know about my growth oh yeah boring but also those also I need you to know what you're paying to make sure that you're not getting stooged and the reason that we care about these things is because it eats into your growth so like if you're paying more for something you're getting less in return or I do say often pay peanuts get monkeys but if you're paying more fees than necessary for the same return as another fund maybe you want to switch right but also I would say that most of the really big superannuation funds fees are average like I don't think I've ever seen one that I'm like oh my god like that's

so awful I would never go with that super company because their fees are astronomical right they're all going to be like semi-similar but I want you to understand them right so every single fund will charge two different types of fees on average so like please don't again bucket me but this is what usually happens in most funds so you've got admin fees and then investment fees and admin fees cover the administration of your account and then investment fees are going to be different based on your risk profile because if you're more risky we're paying more because we're investing more absolutely if you're more conservative they're like well we're not going to charge you through the notice something that you're not really using that's so nice right well yeah let's pretend it's

nice so an admin fee I would say is usually a fixed it's either weekly or monthly amount is what they will report on so it might be like your admin fee is $1.50 a week or it might be $78 a year. And then your investment fees, well, yes, but also like it just is what it is. An investment fee is usually actually a percentage of your balance. So, you know, if they say, oh, your investment fee, and I would say one of the most common is like 0.6%, you go, well, what's that mean, V? It means if you've got $100,000 in your superannuation account, you will pay $600 each year for an investment fee okay and that would extrapolate out as an ex-financial advisor is six percent good bad I don't really have an opinion but if it got close to one percent I would be

quite wary like the closer to one percent it is the more I'm like oh like what are you doing to add extra value because I'd say six percent is pretty normal in the industry like because people is like is that good is it bad and I'm like it's all relative yeah based on the value you're getting out of something right but people love numbers so if I said you know and you're looking at your investment fees you might go well it just says 0.6 what's that even mean I would say that's pretty average if it got closer to like a full one percent I'd be like well what are you paying for like that's more of a like very active managed fund fee and these fees you can kind of compare to like an ETF and they would usually be, I would say, relatively comparable. And why are they so

cheap? Because that's actually cheap for investment. It's because they're doing it en masse, right? Like they're doing it for hundreds of thousands of people in this fund. So they get to charge you a lower price point. If you went to an individual to do that, it would be much, much more expensive. Yeah. Also in the Your Super tool, it's going to show you a total annual fee. So like that's just the way they report it, but it is coming from those two fees combined. It will show you a total annual fee for that $50,000 example or that $50,000 balance, which I think is a pretty handy benchmark for each like different fund. And then, you know, just again, for context, industry funds, I would say 0.6% is pretty normal, but 0.5 to 0.8,

i would say is really normal sure between that retail funds can be often more than one percent which i would be wary of um and i'm consistently wary of because you know you might go what's the difference between 0.6 one percent victoria well over the long term really adds up thousands of dollars yeah like it's not it might be like you know we just talked about 78 a year you might go whatever like it's just coming out of my super i'm not even seeing it but from little things big things grow. We should care about this. If it's over 1%, I'm like a bit wary. I can't give advice, but like, if I'm a bit wary, what are you thinking? Exactly. Exactly. Shocking question. What comes next? So the next thing you're going to do is check APRA's annual performance test.

Now you've probably heard of APRA before. I think like that gets thrown around a lot, but what the heck is APRA? It's the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. what does that actually mean though um so they're kind of like the big dogs but they're an independent so they're an independent and they look at banks credit unions they look at building societies they look at uh insurers and most members of the superannuation industry and they supervise them okay so they make sure that they're doing the right things and basically ensuring that these institutions they maintain financial soundness is what it says on their website just making sure like if they're making money it's going to the right places making sure

that if they promise their customers something they actually do it making sure that you know they're stable and they're actually good for their consumers so APRA is for us it's not like HR at work which is actually right you know like a unionization yeah APRA is actually like holding them accountable cool so every single year opera runs like benchmarking tests on the my super products so they go all right it's comparison time big job but if your fund fails they have to write to you and say hey beck um so like they don't apologize which is rude but they will say hey we failed the test um so if they fail at one time it's a warning like an official warning two consecutive fails means that that fund's not allowed to take on any new members oh how do they

how do you fail like you just like you don't meet your requirements you don't meet your obligations you don't you're not doing what you said you were going to do you're not financially sound like i see someone imagine if that was on tinder like i just think that if people on bumble could get barred it would be a better life oh absolutely for everybody right absolutely and then every single august opera publishes this full list so like every single august i'm really ratting on people oh yeah like i'm here for the drama like don't get me wrong i have publicly said before i'm nosy i want to know like i need to know did you fail if you did judging yeah and then if your fund is underperforming because that's not very sexy a short list of alternative funds that

actually match your risk profile and show stronger long-term nets um is going to be suggested so that's kind of good. Oh my God, that's painful. The thing that I want you to do though, I cannot drive home the importance of insurance. I just can't. But before moving, I want you to check your insurance cover because sometimes you move and you go, oh, the performance is whack. I don't want to be here anymore. But you had some really good default insurance and lots of people unknowingly cancel income protection or TPD while they're rolling over and then they lose it because they can't get it in their new fund because they don't meet the criteria I see so that's where sometimes even when I was a financial advisor I would like recommend this is a hypothetical I'd

be like oh Beck I actually want you to have two super funds like that goes against a lot of the advice that I give because double fees whatever but you're going to keep like a really minimal amount of money in this first super fund that basically doesn't perform but the reason we're keeping the money there is to pay for the insurances on that account because we can't get rid of them. And then we're going to put all of our money in this better fund that is actually going to perform. So you would keep both in that instance. The best option, or I would say the safest way to do this is open the new fund first because just opening the new fund doesn't cancel your old one. We would hopefully replicate the insurance if you need it and then roll your

balance over and update your employer payroll details then. But if you can't replicate your insurance because it hasn't been accepted or they say oh like sorry we don't offer that at least you haven't burnt the bridge to begin with yeah like we can actually move super funds without deleting the other one you know what I mean like we're not telling the other one that we're already seeing someone new and that's okay cheeky okay so once I've checked performance what do I do next all right so I've jumped up and down about this but so many people and most people in Australia default to balanced but that's not always right for them they default to balance because you know when you're filling out your super forms when you get a new job it often has these little like italic

words below your superannuation choice that say balanced is the most popular option or something to that effect and like if you don't know what you're talking about which I didn't know what I was talking about when I was doing these before I was an advisor I was just like okay well I guess I'll go with that yeah it doesn't feel like a big decision in that moment right because like the biggest and hardest thing about that whole process for me was like, well, what is my TFN? How do I go and find that? Is it in my email? You know, like I'm not really thinking about it, but that makes a massive difference. So let's talk a little bit about growth versus balanced versus like a conservative account. I want you to imagine the pie chart because I feel like everyone can imagine

a pie chart, right? I love a pie chart. A hundred percent in a pie chart. Growth option. It's going to have 80 to 90% growth options. What does that mean? 80 to 90% of the money in your superannuation is going to be directly invested into shares, whether that is Australian shares or international shares, it will be different per fund. But then between 20 or 10 and 20% of that fund is going to be in more conservative assets. So it's going to maybe be sitting in cash. It might be sitting in a term deposit. It might be in a bond, but these are more conservative options. And now the thing I want you to remember is just the percentages, because I think a lot of people just assume when I say growth assets, you think it's more risky shares. It's not, it's just a higher saturation

of shares. So if we jump back down and compare it to like the balanced option, like which is the default and we look at our pie chart again, 60 to 70% are quote growth assets. So 60 to 70% of that is made up of shares. They're the same shares that are in the growth asset. You just hold more when you're growth and less when you're a balanced. So like you would just carry more cash if you're balanced and have more of a percentage of assets that aren't performing as well. And I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, but I think a lot of people assume, oh, if I go growth, the assets are more risky it's not it's exactly the same ETFs it's exactly the same shares like you know if Australian super has picked all of those shares for their portfolios well in the balanced

option you get 70% and in the growth option you get 90 do you know what I mean so it's more about well if you're investing for the future and you're like well I'm going to be in it for 30 plus years how comfortable are you and you need to ask yourself this question how comfortable are you with 30% of your portfolio just sitting in like cash and bonds that perform less like I think when you start to contextualize it people go oh growth isn't as scary and like I hate the terminology around investing because often it it seems scary right aggressive portfolio some companies yeah why do they call it that it's like that's scary I don't want exactly so we we probably aren't going to pick that just because of the naming conventions so when you go back to

a growth option um high risk like we need to really outline that the more risk you take the more returns you might get and more often than not I would see a growth portfolio being more suitable for younger members who don't touch their super for years so if you're 60 I'm probably going to be like oh I'd stick clear of that because like the market goes up and down and do we want to be part of that but when you're young you have time on your side so I would be expecting more ups and downs along the way, but better long-term compounding. Yes. So then the balanced option, we've talked about this before. This is usually the default. This is just what you fell into to begin with. And if you've never looked at your super, I can almost guarantee that this

is what you're in. Moderate volatility, moderate returns. We're not complaining. You're still getting a return. Is it what you want it to be? It's totally fine if you're risk averse. Like you might look at it and be like, V, I'm comfortable with that. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm literally not. I'm just saying, let's make sure you have the education so you can make the right decision for you. Because in retirement, it could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars of difference. But if you've got 30 plus years ahead, you might be leaving some cash on the table. Right. Okay. Okay. And like, I don't want you to leave cash on the table.

No. Then there's the conservative option. And we're going back to our pie chart again. but of that pie chart 30 to 40 percent of your money that is in your superannuation will be invested into the share market the rest is conservative options so low volatility low return I would say it's a much safer option when you're closer to retirement because your risk and reward profile actually changes over your lifetime so like right now Becca I would assume that you're probably sitting more growth just knowing you um and the closer you get to retirement you might drop back to a balanced and then you know when you're 60 or so you might go to conservative

because like it's not so much about growing your wealth once you're 60 it's more about conserving it and just like locking it in loading it in making sure that it's there for the long term so it's I would say safer if you're closer to retirement and you want to protect what you've built but it probably like and this is stereotyping again because I could never give you advice it's probably not ideal if you're like 25 and you're not going to access your super for 35 years yeah i see but the superannuation company is not going to call you up and be like hey bec we saw you picked this you sure like they're not going to do that because they're just going to go okay well that's what she picked and like what she wants exactly but you might not know what you

don't know yes um so sequencing risk kind of matters closer to retirement because being too aggressive close to retirement could mean you go into a market dip and then you have to wait another five or six years before you can actually retire and I just I don't want that for you you know and like even a one percent higher return so you might go oh well you know I'll just pick one bit like the more conservative one is like only one percent difference like who cares over 30 years Beck that's 35 percent of your superannuation balance like that that's a lot Yeah. Like that's 35% more returns that you would have. So you've kind of got to contextualize it because like 1% today, I don't care if you don't pay me 1%. 35 years later, I've lost 35%. And you

know what? If I see something that's 35% off, I'm like, that's a good deal. Absolutely. It's a big chunk of money. Right. And then I also want to talk about the power of time because we've just like touched on retirement and like maybe not picking a more aggressive option when you're closer to retirement. But if you're younger, like you've got time on your side and I can't drive that fact home any harder than I do. So for example, if you're like, let's say you're 25 and you've got a balanced portfolio right now. So you're earning, let's just say 6%. But the growth option in the same super fund. So you're not changing funds. You're just like going in and flicking over to growth. That's 7%. So like you would go, V, that's not much

of a difference, like kind of who cares. Over 35 years, as I was saying, 1% different compounds to 35% more money. So hypothetically, if you had $100,000, that's the difference of retiring with $760,000 or $1.03 million. Oh, wow. Okay. So like, we're not talking like, oh, it's just a couple of dollars like these decisions could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars for you but you didn't have to contribute any more for that sorry are we not all going into our super and just fixing it or making it reflective of what we want and I'm not saying oh go pick the growth option but like I am speaking to a community right now and individuals who you know I know you because I survey you I am in our Facebook group all the time and most people that I talk to go oh my god

I was in the balanced option and then when I finally read up on it I finally did the questionnaire I finally you know took the test on the super fund website that was free found out I was growth like the amount of times I have that conversation is crazy yes I'm also having that conversation where people will say oh well I was in balance and then I did it and I was balanced so like I don't know what you were harping on about sure well at least you know exactly right like at least you did it so risk settings actually do really really matter because the difference between one percent you might go today whatever but sorry we're in the middle of cozzy lives like we're all trying to you know cut back we're all trying to save money if you are feeling really stressed about finances

right now and the groceries are hard rents hard bills are hard do you know what you can do something for future you. You can still care about your finances. It just doesn't have to be in saving what's coming into your bank account because that's sometimes too hard. But pull your finger out. Go and fix your super. Go and fix your super. Go and fix your super. Please and thank you. And I'll give you three questions because I know you're about to try and wrap me up because I'm a super yapper. But I want you to ask yourself three questions, Bec. So I want you to ask, well how many years until I access super because I want to know or I want you to know what your preservation age is so that's not when you're quote planning to retire that's when you can

actually get your little dirty fingers on that money yeah without paying tax because like you know I could have arguments with lots of people who are like well you could access your super early yeah cool but hopefully I'm fit and healthy and don't have to right what age and it's usually the age of 67. Can I access that completely tax-free? And I want you to ask yourself right now, like Bec, zoom out. We're just going to use you as an example. What would happen if tomorrow you logged into your superannuation account and your balance had crashed 20%? I would, I would sit on it. Yeah. But like, what would happen? Would you freak out? Would you like switch to panic mode all those things but what would happen oh I don't know but like how does that impact you

financially right now right now no what does it do to your life well can you still afford your bills and your rent and stuff because does your super right now have any sway on your finances no okay so I need you to talk to yourself about that and whether if you dove into your super account and found it was down yep one yeah okay you're allowed to panic like I have said before on the show, ex-financial advisor, I talk about money all the time. If I log into my share trading platform and I find that my money is down, I get that pit in the bottom of my stomach because do you know what people hate? Losing money. Absolutely. I hate it too. But then I can zoom out and go, okay, let's look at the big picture. I still have like 30 years before I'm even retiring.

I'm meant to be looking at this like shares are on sale. I'm meant to be looking at this in a different way. And you know what? I'm not saying it's instantaneous. I'm not like, oh, I'm so silly. and then I walk off, I'm still like, I don't really like this. And I still feel yuck about it, but maybe I'm doing a little bit more research. Maybe I'm doing some Googling, but ultimately I know that my job is to sit and wait. But if that's something that you couldn't deal with, you need to have a think about that. And then the next one is what is my plan to shift later in life? Do I have one? Am I going to be growth until I am 67 or am I going to, you know, go, all right, I'm feeling really good about this right now. But if I was like 50, I probably

wouldn't want to be here. They're the times that we're starting to reflect and go, okay, cool. Like maybe I would need to revisit my risk profile at that time. But I actually kind of would love like in my perfect world, you're actually revisiting it annually. You're like kind of just doing a like finance health check. You're like, am I in the right place? It should be kind of a tick box exercise. I do it for myself. I redo the survey. I'm like, yep, what a surprise. I'm still a high growth person. But that might change over my lifetime. And the second it does, I want to make sure that my super and all of my investments are reflective of that. So those are my questions that you're asking yourself. Because I tried to count myself at just three, but there's lots of

other questions. Like, why am I even here? You know? Okay. So I feel like this is a really good place to leave it. I don't want to overwhelm people. So I agree, but I have so much to tell you. But we didn't even talk about contribution caps. We didn't even talk about like tax. Like there's just a lot to it, but I would actually prefer, you're right. I would prefer to like cut it. You ruminate on that. Go do all of these things. Do your homework. Yes. And then we'll come back and we'll talk about it. Cause I'll make another part. For a two-parter. A two-parter. Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you, VD. I love it. But also, I just want to point out, I'm not making these super episodes. And I think you guys already know this, maybe,

you know how I sometimes just tell people how to suck eggs. Apologies. But like, I'm not making these episodes because I want you to feel overwhelmed. Like I want you to have all of the tools in your toolkit so that you can create your financial future that you deserve on your own. Like these are the things that, you know, you could go see a financial advisor. but girl, you could do it yourself. Like it's not about being the smartest. It's not about like having a finance education. It's just about logging in. All of these things on these superannuation websites are written in plain English for us, but we don't know that unless we go there. Like, and I promise like, this is probably, I don't know, is this a mean thing to

say, but like in Australia, we have to operate on the idea that we are talking to the silliest person in the room yeah so like when you create content especially finance content you have to make sure that it's applicable to the person who literally has absolutely no education on it and that's the way superannuation companies create content so if you've been feeling overwhelmed because you're like I'm gonna go to the super company and it's not gonna make any sense promise you it's much easier than you think it is and like even if you just pick one thing whether that's like you're deciding to just check your your balance on the mygov app or you might pick up the phone and i say this all the time call your super fund like beck used to work at a super fund

i did when you pick up the phone to call the super fund am i talking to the ceo or someone condescending oh you're talking to us you're talking to you and like you can be like what's my balance and like you can be like let me have a look for you victoria girl like people who work at super funds have your back and like people don't take jobs at super funds if they don't want to be helpful so anyway call them because you're already paying the fees on that account as we talked about in this episode and that's paying their salaries and free advice absolutely I love that for us it is or maybe you're like wanting to take it a step further and you're like I'm going to add some extra contributions because future you deserves that you're already going

to be in a better spot right and if you haven't already my friends please hit follow tap subscribe do all the things because we've got plenty more episodes that are coming in the future that are going to put future you in the best possible position and like I was born to talk about finance you're doing god's work but also not god's work this is so self-indulgent I love it imagine just yapping about the things that you love all day that does sound gorgeous and somehow it's my job yeah that's so lucky she's blessed super so sexy anyway we'll see you next week guys bye