She's On The Money - Your Superannuation Glow-Up Part 2: The Small Add-Ons That Could Make You a Millionaire

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

We all want a bigger super balance… but how do you actually make that happen in real life? Part 1 in our Super Glow-Up series got your foundations sorted, but part 2 is all about small things you can do to turbocharge your growth. We’re talking simple, realistic changes that add up to massive long-term results, even when life is expensive and you’re just trying to get through the week.In this ep: 💸A $25-a-week habit that could snowball into 6 figures💸How a risk setting change could double your balance over time💸A government bonus you might already be eligible for💸The pre tax contribution hack that feels illegal (but isn’t)💸Why even a 1% return difference can mean hundreds of thousands to your retirementSEE: How small changes to your super can make a big difference to your balance with the Moneysmart Superannuation Calculator.LISTEN: Your Superannuation Glow-Up Part 1: The $0 Tweaks That Could Change Your Retirement 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, wutunarana. 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 make sure you're living your best life in retirement. So you might remember our last super episode. Yeah, you cut me off. We talked so much. I did. It was just so, it was a lot to take in. And I know that whoever was listening probably thought the same. And if you didn't, I'm so sorry. And here is the second part. So we did have to split in two parts and you guys have been begging for part two. So today is the follow-up episode you've been waiting for. I'm Bexide and with me is the biggest fan of Super I've probably ever met, Victoria Devine. I love Superannuation. That's so sexy. Yeah, I think it

can be. And I feel like my energy towards Super hopefully rubs off on our community a little bit, even if it means you go what is she talking about why is she so excited about it maybe I'll just check totally like maybe I'll just have a little look see yeah what's all the hype about yeah like and then you will log into your superannuation platform after doing like what full password resets and like a code on your phone or something and you'll be like this is actually boring it's not worth it it's not worth it um but I promise it is and I've been so excited to be allowed to be let loose on episode two, because I think once you realize how much impact even very small amounts and very small tweaks can have, it stops feeling boring and something that is for older

people or something that is for future you or an issue you'll deal with later. And it starts to feel really powerful because especially like you and I are talking about it all the time, Beck, life's expensive. Yeah, absolutely. Our budgets are cooked. Absolutely. I'm talking to people in our community every single day. And that's hard. I'm not talking to you guys. I love that part, but like money is hard at the moment and none of us feel like we're getting ahead. Like we all just go, hold on. I want to start my investing journey. And that's fantastic. But you might not have any free cashflow because how the hell are groceries costing you 200 bucks a week and you're single, you know? Like I just, I really truly get it, but that's where superannuation

can make you feel quite powerful because these tweaks, not a dollar, it's not going to cost you anything. I just want you to like clean house, make sure everything's where it needs to be and that your money's growing so that future you doesn't have to worry about money in the way that current you is. And like Beck, that's kind of low key sexy. That's not going to lie. I think it's quite comforting knowing that even if you're really broke right now, there's a time in this life, hopefully we get to see it where you actually have money just waiting there for you. Exactly. And like it's slow and steady wins the race. Like I wish that I could wave a magic wand and like make it really easy for you. But the reality of money and the

reality of superannuation and the reality of honestly life is it's tiny steps in the right direction that when you look back, you go, oh my God, I've come so far, but you're not going to wake up tomorrow and be like, oh my God, you're right. I'm finally good at money. It doesn't happen like that. And I guess you're my favorite example of this, not because of superannuation, but because of investing in general yes like sorry you now have a little investment portfolio and you've never been that financially secure before totally did that happen overnight though no and the thing is too is that like I still am completely broke I don't have any savings but but you're starting to build your financial security in lots of different ways yes exactly

things and it's very empowering it's very very empowering so it does exactly it does not happen overnight. It's very small. And there's like, there's a change pie, I guess, that someone showed me recently where it's like thinking about maybe doing something is still part of the change cycle. And it's like, even thinking about it, listening to this episode, like you're halfway there. Absolutely. That's really cool. So before we jump in, can you give us a quick recap of part one? I would love to, but I'd also love for you to go and listen to that episode. If you haven't, If you have, I'm going to give you a recap. So we covered what I would call the foundations. So the base level of things that you need to understand about super. So I told you about

how you can check your balance, what my gov is, how that works, how to check and make sure that your employer is actually contributing 12% and that it's actually being paid to you, how to use, and this is one of my favorite tools, the government's your super tool to check your funds performance and the fees and whether it's aligned to your goals and values, how to set up your risk profile for your age and your goals and what that might look like and most importantly why even like 1% returns can mean 35% more money in retirement because I think so many of us are like what's the point like even if I change it and go on this you know bloody Victoria's your super tool that she keeps harping on about I'll get 1% more I can't be bothered

but like 1% until retirement is 35% more in your superannuation. Girl, that's more than a third more by literally not giving another dollar up. Yeah. You just have to change some boxes and tick some things. Like, sorry. Do it. Just do it. Sorry. Sorry. I'm not, I'm not putting up with that. That is so fair and really makes sense. Just set some time aside and I promise in 35 years, you'll thank yourself yes but you will still thank yourself yes you will exactly so we kind of just recapped what I think is the starting point and then you cut me off and said V I just think that's enough for today let's wrap it because I think you're being a little bit overwhelming and I was like always I would never say that to you if you haven't listened yet please hit pause go

back and check it out we've linked it in the show notes as well I have tried to make it as easy as possible for you. So I have obviously listened to part one because I was here. You actually created it with me. I created it with you. And I know my balance. I'm happy with my fund. I have like my portfolio set to the right risk profile and growth option, all that kind of stuff. And again, if this doesn't make sense to you, go back and listen to part one. What should I be doing next? All right. So the next step is contributions. So we're going to talk about the money that goes into your account because your employer's 12% is honestly a fantastic foundation. But if you want to put future you in the best possible position, you might be considering adding some more. You

might be adding even a small amount to make sure that like this is a game changing solution for you. Do you need to do this? I just want to preface no, because for some of us, we might go, wow, like I've actually worked from 14 years, nine months, had this whole 12% the entire time, like everything is smooth sailing. Like my projections are looking really good. V, this like small amount that I could be adding to my super would be more powerful elsewhere because I have said before, and this is just me going off on a side tangent. I personally, and this is personal, it is not financial advice. I do not contribute more to my superannuation than I have to. So like when I started my businesses, um, again, complete side note,

but I think everyone's pervy. Like you want to know about my money, right? Um, I started my businesses and I didn't take my own advice because I couldn't afford to take my own advice. So did I believe that I should be paying myself super? Yes. Did I have any cash? No, no. I actually chose to hire Jessica Ricci instead of paying myself a full wage. I think I was paying myself $38,000 because I'd done my numbers and worked out that's how much I needed to contribute to rent and bills and like that would keep food on the table and the lights on and you know I could build my business but I had no superannuation contributions either but I kept track of it and I've since paid that back to myself yeah but I don't go above and beyond that so I'm quote

on track for my age but not for what you would probably look at my financial situation I think a lot of you would be like I thought V would have a really stacked super no and that's because I've looked at all of this and been like, great, this is a fantastic foundation, but I also want access to money outside super. Cause as you know, once it goes in, it doesn't come out until you are at preservation age and that's over the age of 65. And for me, I want an investment portfolio that I can retire at 50 with. So that's where all my cash is going back. So like, am I investing? Hell yes. But am I investing more in my super? No. Do you know what? As I get older, I think I might do a bit more. I'm about to purchase a new house with my husband, hopefully, fingers crossed.

And once we work out the financials of that, so like, you know, what our actual purchase price is, what our mortgage repayments will be, I think I might consider it just to top it up early because the earlier you do it, the less contributions you need to make for the long term. So like I might add another $100 a month or something, but that's actually the same as somebody 10 years from now adding $500 a month. Yeah. Got you. I'm just going to make sure the maths works and I actually have some free cashflow that I can, you know, reallocate. But right now it feels weird. Cause I'm like in this financial limbo of not knowing what our mortgage repayments are going to be and like, you know what I mean? It's a bit, it's a bit, you know, iffy. Anyway,

that was a side note because I think that people are pervy. And I also just want to say, if you can't contribute extra, great. That's fantastic. But you're listening to this episode and you're not going to bloody turn it off because I want you to know what that means. So if you get to that financial position, you already got the knowledge, you already got the education. God, she's good. Right? So one of my reasons for loving extra contributions into superannuation, save money on tax. You guys have all just done your tax returns. I know you have because you wanted your cash back. You all want tax savings and then you don't care about super. Sit down. My God. So true. Bec, how quickly did you file your tax return to get your tax back?

Literally July 1. So why don't you care about the sexiest tax environment in the country? Yes. Literally salary sacrifice before tax contributions are taxed at only 15% instead of your full marginal tax rate. So for example, if you had a $90,000 income, your marginal tax rate is 30%. Plus you would be paying a Medicare levy. I just feel like I need to add extra context of like 2%. So every $1,000 that you sacrifice into your superannuation only gets hit with $150 worth of tax instead of $320 of tax. So your money's working harder for you, instant return. I see. Cause you're taking it out before you get your payslip. So like you got your payslip and it was in your bank account and you put it in your super come tax time, you'd get that 15% back from

the tax man. Yeah. So you'd get a better tax return. Oh, great. So it's like either now or later. Yeah. So you will get it back either way. So if you're doing it before tax, like you went to your employer and said, yo, Vicky D I want to contribute more to my super. And I go, great. No worries. How much can you say? A thousand dollars. You'd only be taxed $150 on that. Yes. And I would work all of that out for you, come out in the wash. But if you were like, Oh, I don't really know. I might need that cash for now for later. And then you're trying to make a decision on some money inside your bank account. And you're like, actually, I want to put it in my super. You would have already paid $320 on tax. Yeah. But come tax time, you would have put your hand

up and said, Hey, tax man, I actually popped some money in my super this year. And they would give you the difference back. Oh my God. Yeah. So you're not going to miss out regardless of where it goes. Cool. So I just want to quickly sum that up in case it sounds confusing. Cause I think in my brain it is a little bit. I'm very good at making it complex. Yes. Oh, that's okay. I think that's, you've, you've done a very good job at explaining it, but for salary sacrificing, I believe is the term. If you say like get paid $4,000 every month after tax, then instead you, you put a salary sacrifice, like a little bit of money towards super before that money lands in your bank account before the tax is kind of like added to that payslip. Yes. That's taxed at 15%.

Yeah. And then after, let's say you're like, I don't want to do that. You wait for your money to land in your bank account. That's after tax. And then you can put money in your super yourself. That can come back to you at tax time. So you're going to get the tax savings one way or another. Yes. Just depends which way. It just depends. And like, not all of us are in positions where we can call up our employer and make consistent contributions, but you might have gotten like some cash on the side. Like a lot of our community recently have been talking about superannuation and some of them are like, oh, well I got an inheritance or, you know, something like that. I came into a lump sum of money and I want to put a little bit into my

super because obviously I want to boost myself up. At that point you would get taxed back. So I think it's important to just know that it's okay. It'll come out in the wash, but you know, you don't get to see it until tax time and you actually do your tax and you see it on paper and and you know, it hits your account. But also the other thing I want to talk about here is government boosts. So the government does a lot to try and incentivize us to get more money into super annuation. Personally, I don't think they do the best job ever at articulating that because most of us don't know about it. I was going to say they do everything they can except for educators and let us know that this is a thing. So that's why I go and read the ATO's website and then I

call you up and I'm like, Bec, this is so sexy. Don't read it on the ADO website though. Cause as much as it makes sense, cause their website's great. Um, yeah, it's just not the most aesthetic website. Um, but if you're a listo, so that is a low income super tax offset person. So it means that you earn less than $37,000 per year. You can get refunds up to $500 of the 15% contributions tax on concessional contributions paid by you or your employer. I see. You get 500 bucks. You get 500 bucks? You can get up to 500 bucks. Oh, up to. Okay. Up to $500. And the concessional is what I'm hearing a lot. And I actually don't know the difference, like non-concessional and concessional contributions. What does that mean? Concession cards. So you know how you get

your concession card? Yeah. What do you get when you get a concession card? Discounts. So concession is a discount, non-concession, non-discount. Ah, so just say it like that. Just say it like anyway, we'll move on. If you earn $47,488 or less and put in at least $1,000 after tax, the government will chip in a co-contribution for you of $500. Oh, okay. So that's a good deal. that co-contribution gradually reduces if your income is between $47,488 and $62,488. Why is it that number? I don't know. I don't make the rules. I just report on them. And then if your partner or your spouse earns $37,000 or less, you can actually go and make a contribution to their superannuation account and claim a spouse contribution tax offset of up to $540, which I

think a lot of you are like that doesn't actually add that much but girl it's $540 of like literal free money um by doing something for future you yeah sorry it sounds like a good deal and I mean a lot of you especially and like I look at it and I go what the hell like do you know what personally I don't know anyone who currently earns $37,000 and has some extra cash to contribute to super annuation. So let's just keep it real as well. But this does work often if you're on maternity leave or if you are taking leave or you aren't working full time and your partner is a higher income earner, that is a really good strategy to just like boost your super a little bit. Money win, right? Yep, absolutely. So it's, I guess like what I want to know,

is it really worth putting more into super on top of what my employer is already paying? I guess it like kind of depends on your personal situation. And I gave you the context that I haven't done it. Yes. And I think that that's a really important piece of context because I can't tell you whether it's worth it or not, but on paper, 100%. Yeah. Like if we do the maths, the maths, maths. Yeah. And the thing I want everyone to know is it doesn't actually have to be hundreds of dollars a week to make any type of difference. We see it in our community all the time. So like I had a girl messaged me and she's like, Victoria, I, you know, I want to share this with you, but I have been putting $10 a week extra into my superannuation since I got my first job.

Cause my dad told me to, oh my God, don't know why, but like, that's just what I've always done. And like, I've boosted it up. I'm now making a hundred dollars a week as an additional contribution. Cause it's like just crept up and she hasn't noticed it. And she has like $150,000 in super now. Wow. And she's like 26. That's amazing. Right? Like just from little things, big things grow. And the power of compounding means even small regular contributions can change your retirement balance by literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like, and honestly, the sooner you start contributing, the longer and better the impact, right? Because if we look at the rule of 72, which we might do a whole podcast on, but it's basically that money doubles every

seven to 10 years. Let's take our 25 year old friend. Yep. 35. If she didn't make an additional contribution to her super 300 grand, 45, 600 grand. At the age of 45, she already has more superannuation than most women in Australia retire with. Oh my God. And that's a 45. Yeah. 55, $1.2 million back. That's insane. Like stop it. And she's going to keep contributing. so like don't get me wrong we don't all have 150 000 but like if you're just like okay cool well I can't do much but this is what I can do yeah pop off yeah absolutely you know what I mean like it's just let's do what we can do and if we can't do anything let's also not shame ourselves because we're doing the best that we can yeah so true so yes I think it is and I've got another I wrote

down another example for you using I think some more numbers because you know our community member is a good example, but I don't know her tax rate. So let's just use the medium balance from our community. So as you guys know, we always ask you questions because you're our listeners. Relying on ATO and ASIC data can be good, but I don't think it's reflective of people who care about their money as much as the average Australian. So our averages are a little bit higher because you guys are actual bosses and I love it. But the medium balance from our community for 29 to 32 year olds is about $88,500. And I'm also going to use the median Australian wage, which is about $88,400 a year. That way it's not, I don't know, some made up

number. It's where a lot of people in our audience are actually sitting right now. Like that's just what happens. So if you just stuck with your employer's 12% contributions that they have to pay you, by the time you retire at the age of 67, which is our preservation age, you'd have around $2,423,933 in superannuation. Whoa. And that is assuming a rate of return of 6.5%. Oh, so it could be more. Which I think is not a great return. Do you know what? That's a great return if you are in a balanced fund yeah but most of us don't we're not no that's not my that's not my journey it might not be your journey and it could be your journey and that's okay I just I mean I would be disappointed if my super was only returning 6.5 percent but that's a good deal

right I still want to retire with about 2.4 mil but if you had some extra cash back let's say that you had 25 a week extra instead of 2.4 million you'd end up with 2 million six hundred and nine thousand five hundred and five dollars which is about a hundred and eighty five thousand five hundred and seventy three dollars more at the time of retirement even though you only contributed about forty eight thousand dollars extra your entire working life yeah wow okay okay okay like that's like a hundred and forty thousand dollars worth of free money that is nearly a four times return on the contribution you made thanks to compounding and the amount of time in the market Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not just because you made a good investment and you like, you know, went and bought Bitcoin and you got the best return ever. Sorry, that's with a 6.5% return. Yeah. The average rate of return of the Australian market is about 9.8% at this point in time. So, like, we're just being real conservative. Totally, just in case.

And I prefer to be conservative because I prefer to under-promise, over-deliver. Yeah. But I'm telling you right now, if you do this and you retire and you're 67, you have to call me up and be like, VR, I owe you a coffee. can I ask you something that's probably it's not personal advice I think I just want I think you can ask personal advice I'll deflect it thank you so much well I think I just want

peace of mind because I and this might shock you but I'm 33 years old and that part won't shock you the fact that I'm 33 actually might because I look probably older but I have like I think I have $17,000 in my super okay do you feel like there's there's if I started right now there's chance of me to. Yeah, 100%. Why would that not? That's very comforting. Like, sorry, that's going to happen for you anyway. Okay. Because I'm quite aggressive when it comes to being your friend. Thank you. And I made you get an investment portfolio. And the next step was to cost you on your superannuation. Yes. Yes. Perfect. Okay, cool. Just small contributions. Yeah. Because think about it. If we look at your super, you are behind. Yeah. Is that the worst thing in the world?

no you're 33 sorry we've got 30 plus years before you retire I've got all the time in the world I also know that taking you as an individual and this is not meant to be offensive taking you as an individual one of the best things and again this isn't personal advice this is just an example one of the best things I can do is automate that for you yeah because I know that if you came to me and said, Victoria, how do I do it? I want to contribute $25 extra to my super every single week. I go, that's a great idea, Beck. I'm glad that you had that and came up with that idea all of your own. It wasn't financial advice. So you came up with that idea and you came to me. I could say, well, yeah, it's really easy. All you do is transfer every single

week, $25. Yeah. You're going to do that. Probably not on my own. No, no. And that's okay. So we go, what's the best strategy for Beck at this point? And for you personally, knowing you well enough, I think out of sight, out of mind is the best strategy. So what we're going to do is talk to your employer and say, Hey employer, you've got all my superannuation details. You're going to email your HR and say, I would like to contribute an additional $25 a week or a hundred dollars a month to my superannuation. Can you please set that up so that every single month before my pay comes into my account, it comes out beforehand. Totally. Make sure I have no, I can't even touch it. I love and know you very well. I know you would give me a month and you already would have

forgot that you set that up. Yeah. But it's ticking away in the background. And $25 per week after tax, like into your account. Honestly, I don't think personally you would notice it because I know your money type, because I know your spending type. It's not that you don't earn a good income. It's just, if it's in your account, you spend it. So I'm just not going to let it hit your account. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like I just took it off you already. Oh my God. Thank you V. So I think you just need to talk to yourself about what strategy is going to work here. Okay. Because there are some people that are incredibly empowered by going in every single week and updating their spreadsheet and making these manual transfers and pop off queens.

That could never be my ADHD journey. I wouldn't do it. I love it. I love the idea that I would update my spreadsheet every week. Yeah. I don't. I just go back maybe once a month and then update it quote on a weekly basis so that I've got all the information, but it takes me a lot longer because I did it every month instead of every week because I always let that stuff lapse. Of course. You just have to know yourself well enough to be honest with yourself. So are you behind? Yes. Does that matter? Absolutely not. That's cool. That is so comforting. I don't care that you're behind. I care that you're sitting in this chair. I care that you're listening to this podcast to put yourself in the best possible position. And you know what? There are lots of

people that are 33 that don't even have $17,000 in their super. So sorry, you're starting from somewhere. Exactly. And it's never too late to start. If you start right now today. I saw this lame. I don't know if it's lame. It's lame that I'm sharing it, but it wasn't a lame quote the other day. Someone said, you're not starting again. You're just starting from here. And I think that that's so much nicer than expecting that. Oh, Beck, start again. Like wipe your slate clean yeah no no no I'm just starting here yeah I just start from here oh my god that is a way better way to look at it all right sorry sorry I hope that that helped but we just have to know ourselves and our strategy and what would work best for us and the only reason I know the answer

to yours is because I know you so well yes um but other people might resonate with that and go oh my god like that's so me as well yeah like if it was in my account I'd bloody spend it but if you took it off me. Also, what's the harm in trying? What if we did that strategy for you, Bec? Because that's what you personally decided. And then you're like, well, I'm actually short of cash every single month. Yeah. So let's email HR and turn it off. Totally. And then that money hasn't gone to waste. It's still in your super. We just practiced. We just tried it. Exactly. Okay. I really like that. Thank you, V. So tell me more about the options and like the portfolios and things like that. So like I have not always been good at money, which I hope everybody knows. Like

I wasn't born a financial advisor. I was born a finance girl, but didn't want to identify as a finance girl. I should have known from the start. My dad's an accountant. I'm born on the 30th of June. Like I was in mathematics. That's so cute. I just, I was real cool at school. Anyway, I just had my head in the sand about all of that because the school system that I grew up in didn't teach us about superannuation. So how else was I supposed to know? And I personally was using a balanced portfolio for a very long time because it was just when I filled in my super forms at my first ice cream shop job. That's just what I ticked because it said it was the most common. Right. So I was like, yeah, right. And I used a balanced portfolio in that

first example, because that's where most people default to. But I also have an example of what happens if you took that exact same person and she was going to retire with 185-ish thousand dollars more anyway, and switch to a growth option. Because remember before I was like, oh, I don't know if I would accept 6.5. You might, and that's fine. But I'm just opinionated and I'm just a growth girly, right? Remember, we are only doing employer contributions. The balance option landed at them having about 2.4 mil in retirement. But if they'd chosen the growth option from age, let's call it 30 Beck, because like we're not all starting at the age of 18. And I think that we need to get rid of examples like that because most of our listeners are not 18.

Yes. We've gone through our late teens and then we went through our early twenties and then maybe we've decided we need to get our shit together because 30 is real close. So let's use that as an example same salary no extra money going in yeah so their balance could be 4.89 million dollars wow that's yeah that's more than double than double yeah that's more than double the outcome just from going in and changing her risk setting not from putting in a single dollar that's crazy and that would have taken like if you remember your password and all your login details that you can reset your password it's really annoying yeah but that would take 30 seconds yeah and we're We're not saying go in and change.

No. We're saying go and do your risk profile and like make sure that that suits you. And then if it does suit you and you find that you are a growth investor, well, why the hell are you imbalanced? Totally. You're in the wrong room, babe. You're in the wrong room. You walked into the wrong class at school.

Exactly. You got to get up and get out. Otherwise, you're not learning what you need to learn and you're not accessing what you need to access. And it's costing you. Yeah. And so that just shows how small choices can make massive impact over decades like none of this and I'm really sorry in 2025 we are all instant gratification

girlies this is long-term gratification and that's okay but you don't have to suddenly throw thousands of dollars into super sometimes it's just about checking that you're in the right investment option and making like one tiny tweak and then saying say good night and then wake up 30 years later and whoa that's so true right I have to know what if the growth option added $25 a week. So you're like making extra contributions in addition. Yes. In addition. So like, let's do the same example. We already know that that person, if they're inside the growth option at the age of 67, preservation age. It's a crazy word. Yes. But I'm trying to like drill it into you so that you understand it because that's how the government communicates

with us. Yes. So they talk about your preservation age. And if they are talking about that, that's the age at which you're able to access every single dollar in your superannuation tax-free. Yes, ma'am. Preservation. That's crazy. Because I'm so old, I need to be preserved. Exactly. So they would retire at the age of 67 with $4.89 million. Yes. Right. So then that's just base contributions. Then they're like, I really want to add $25 extra because I heard the example Beck and V were talking about. Yeah. That balance actually grows to $5.22 million. Wow. Okay. So that's an extra $330,000. But for the same contribution she made when she didn't have a high growth portfolio, she had balanced of $48,000. So over that time, you can make a

decision, right? So do you want to save your money or do you want to invest your money back? If you save your money, you'll end up with $48,000. If you invest your money over the same period of time, $330,000. Which one would you like to take home? Well, it's a hard one. Yeah. We can't give you advice, but like you make a decision for you. Right. And just to put that into perspective, the person who stayed in that balanced option with no extras. So still in balance would have about $2.42 million, which ain't anything to sneeze at. And then the person who switched to growth and then was like, Oh, I really want to do an extra $25 a week. Like that wouldn't, you know, blow my budget out. Yeah. They retire with $5.22 million. That's like a

difference of $2.8 million for the same starting balance, the same salary, only $25 a week extra. So remember those ads? You remember the Hester ads? Like, they do this and stand at the escalators and one's going up the escalator and the other's on the broken escalator? Yes. That's what we're thinking. I see. Oh my God. Okay. So it's a lot of numbers. It's a lot of numbers. But what I want you to take from this is if you take action and you put yourself in the right possible position, there's a lot more numbers in your bank account. Yes, I see. Okay. So I think this is a good time to let our brains kind of have a little rest. Let's take a second to process it. Take a really quick break. Oh, and a little sub note from me because my financial advisor or my ex-financial

advisor hat goes on. I also need to say past performance is not a reliable predictor of future performance, which has been drilled into me time and time again. Legally. Legally, because if we're going to start talking about you know performance and returns and consistent returns like girl go look at the vanguard index chart we know that people who invest consistently over a 30 plus year period of time do not lose money in the market but we also can't predict what's going to happen into the future so I don't want you being like wow I listened to this podcast and it's an absolute guarantee like I just have to put my financial advisor hat on and I'm going to take it off because we're going to talk about some like fun stuff after, but go to a break

and on the flip side, we'll dive back in and I'll be less formal. All right. Before the break, I threw a lot of numbers and a big disclaimer at you, but the key takeaway, my friend, is that tiny contributions plus the right risk option can literally add millions to your superannuation balance. That's crazy. I want to be rich. I don't know about you. That sounds like a terrible thing to say sometimes, but like, do you want to be rich too? Yeah, I think I'd like that yeah i think it'd be good like imagine not thinking before you tap your card oh my god the amount of times i have to i always transfer myself first i'm like where am i gonna take it out of now it's like i just want people to be financially comfortable yeah also sorry now we've got these

options and beck you're only 33 like we can actually plan to be rich yeah yeah sorry it's actually not beyond you that's so cool to just get rich af yeah so like let me help you do that Oh my God. Because like, then you could be your own sugar mama. That's sick. That's a good deal, right? Thank you. Also, I want to remind you that the free tool we spoke about in that first episode,

it's called how much super do I really need? That is a very, very cool tool that we're going to revisit, right? So in the government's money smart super calculator, there's like a little section where you can actually play around with adding different contribution amounts and it will actually calculate the difference. it will make to your super balance over the long-term because you might go, well, V, I can't afford an extra 25 bucks a week. And I go, yeah, like I get it. I really do. I'm just giving you

examples and want you to be excited about maybe doing this. And you go, well, I could do five bucks. Great. Great. That's somewhere to start because then maybe a couple of months later, you've got a little bit extra wiggle room and it's $7. Like we're not talking that you have to make these big grand commitments. I mean, you might turn around and be like, far out. My partner and I, we're double income, no kids. Why aren't we doing this while we're in a more luxurious position? Yeah. Good question. Yeah. But if you are hamstrung, girl, I get it. Yeah, totally. I feel like I just don't want anyone to listen to our content back and be like, wow, that wasn't for me. Yeah, totally. Like, even if you don't have extra cash, have you not got the education now?

like if your friend's like oh my god i've started saving an extra 25 bucks at your new friend um olivia's bar called bernie's queer bar which we're very excited about but it's got beautiful branding who did that oh well i could say a little non-paid graphic designer named backside i think you might get a few drinks out of that though do you reckon so a couple of soda waters yeah a couple of little cheeky soda waters but if you're at bernie's bar and your friend is like oh I've got like some stuff I've started to save I can almost guarantee you'll be like so have you thought about super or so have you been investing like these conversations are going to happen and we benefit the whole community totally you don't even have to be doing it

yourself like it might not benefit you right now because we just don't have the cash and we're relying on the free soda waters absolutely in the future it will a penny saved is a penny earned they say exactly are the rules on how much you can like add to your super each year like is there a cap or a minimum? Good question, Bec, because there are government caps on literally how much you can put into super and it changed. Your before tax contributions, like the super guarantee, salary sacrificing, or anything that you are claiming a deduction for, the cap is $30,000 a year from July 2025. Okay. That's increased, which is kind of sexy. This includes your employers, 12%. So that's where it's not like an additional 30 grand, which would be nice,

like unrelatable, but nice. So for example, if you're on like a median wage of $88,400, that's already about $10,600 that's going into your super. So that then leaves you with $19,400 worth of extra wiggle room if you want a salary sacrifice. There's also a very cool rule, which you might not care so much about when you're young, but as you get a little bit older and maybe you haven't been making the most of your caps or you're like, oh my God, what do I do? Like, you know, I've got all of this cash saved because I was being real conservative and I'm just not, you know, I wasn't ready to put it in super, but now I really want it in super. There's a really cool rule called the carry forward rule. Okay. And if your superannuation

balance is under $500,000, you can actually use easy any of your unused concessional cap space from the past five years. Really? Yeah. So if every year, like, let's go back to that $88,000 example. So your salary is 88 grand. You're making about $10,600 of contributions, just as your 12%. And you've got 19,000 left every single year. You could do 19, 19, 19, and then bring it all forward. If you had a heap of savings or you got a inheritance or came into a lump sum of money and drop it in and still only pay 15% tax. That's so good. The important thing is when you drop it in, you need to let your superannuation know that you will be claiming that on tax and that's a separate form. Yeah. Okay. Miss it, lose it. Yep. Don't get to claim

it. Okay. And that's bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just calling it out. If you're like, that's a great thing. I didn't realize I could do that. And you just dump it in your super and then you do not tell your superannuation company that you're planning on claiming that on your tax return this year. And then it passes and you haven't done your tax. There's not a lot of wiggle room. That's so mean. Yeah. Yeah. But this is huge. So this is huge for people who have had time off work or you're only starting to contribute later. Like it's like the catch up. So you know how you were saying before, V, I only have bloody $17,000 in my super. Am I behind? Yeah. Well, yes, you're behind, but hypothetically, you can also use your unused cap if you wanted to into

the future. So like we can top it up. We can work it out if we have access to cash. Now our non-concessional contributions, these are our after-tax monies that you deposit into a super account. And the cap for this is $120,000 a year, which is a lot of money, unrelatable, but like which is good to know, or up to $360,000 at once. Okay. If you trigger the carry forward rule and your balance is below the threshold. Before or after, or it doesn't matter. What do you mean? Like if you put the $360,000, for example, and then now it's over the threshold. Yep. So you can dump it in. If your income plus super contribution is over like $250,000, your concessional contributions are actually taxed at 30% instead of the 15. So that's still a better

deal. That's still a better deal. So like you're paying close to like 45% tax at that rate. So you're still getting a discount, but it's definitely not that 15%. So like that is probably why it's unrelatable. Cause like, I don't know that many people, unless I have worked with like high income earners or I've worked with, you know, people who have inheritances who are dropping in $360,000 at once. Yeah. But I've seen it. Like it happens. You're just on a non-favorable tax rate, but it's still better than the tax rate you'd pay. Totally. Still getting it. It's better than a kick in the pants, you know? Absolutely. Okay. Well, I got to tell you, it's a lot to take in, but I do want to move on to this next one because we get this question constantly. Our community

wants, they always want to know, should they be putting extra into their super or investing outside of super? I can't tell you. Sorry we can't say. I can't tell you but I think that I've given a little bit of context along the way right? Yeah it's a great question. So like I've told you what I do. Yes. And I think that might be helpful especially if you're trying to make your own decisions not because you want to copy me but because it's good to kind of crowdsource oh what are you doing Beck oh what are you doing Bea and like you just find things that you might be comfortable with or you might find things you're like I'm not comfortable with that like someone might be listening to this Beck and being like, holy shit, Victoria, did you know she doesn't

take advantage of super in the way that she could? Like that's so dumb. That's fine. Totally. Like there's actually no right or wrong when it comes to what's happening. And it really depends on your personal goals and your personal timing. So if you need, and this is just all general, just like what usually happens in financial advice land. If you need the money before you're 60 years old, that's when you should look at investing outside of super. Yes. Okay. If your goal is to purchase your first home for first home buyers, the first home super saver scheme lets you save up to $15,000 a year or a total of 50 grand through super that you can then withdraw later.

So you might want to be making those non-concessional contributions. Yeah. Okay. So that you can draw down on them later for a home deposit. I've always wondered what the benefit of that. Do you also get the interest that's paid onto this? Yeah, boy, and the 15% super. So you're like, let's say you've got your house deposit saved and like, you know, you're slowly chipping away at it and you've got 15 grand sitting there, pop it into super and then pull it out for your house. And you've got an extra 15% back on that money. So true. It's like legal money laundering. Wow. When I put it that way, it gets a little bit sexier, a little bit riskier. yeah yeah yeah um so inside superannuation you are taxed on 15 on earnings versus your marginal

tax rate outside yes in retirement phase up to two million dollars is completely tax-free my god and then outside of super like you've got more flexibility like obviously you can access it before the age of 60 but you also pay your marginal tax rate with capital gains discounts and franking credits and all of that and we try and make it make as much sense and make it as beneficial as possible. But girl, you're still paying your marginal tax, right? Absolutely. And for those who have no idea, franking credits, we have an episode about that. Yeah, we have a whole episode about franking credits. If you want a cute little like short TLDR, a franking credit is an IOU that comes with your return to say this company that I've

invested in has already paid tax on my behalf. So please don't double tax me. yes okay yep yep yep IOU that's that's connected to your share I see I see I see okay so what about insurance and super can you explain how that okay okay I'm glad you brought that up because I have been stressing balls um because so many people hopefully are like oh my god they back we're so inspired we want to go and change our super immediately but please don't do that very quickly because historically default insurance was just a given on your super so you'd like sign it when I was younger, I would sign up for a super and then I would immediately have insurances attached to that. And those insurances are like hen's teeth. They are, I'm not going to say they're

the best insurance in the entire world because like they might not be, but you didn't have to do any health check for that Beck. Yeah, true. So like, I'm going to give you a really morbid example that's going to make a lot of sense. Yes. I'm going to use you as an example because I love you, but also I think you'll find it funny. Beck loves a vape. We know Beck loves a vape, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So if I sent you down to my friends at Sky Wealth and said, do Beck's insurances, they would do your health questionnaire and you would tell them, yeah, I vape. And then the insurance company would say, okay, Beck, thanks for that information. So what we're going to do is exclude lung cancer and not cover you for lung cancer in the event

that that happens because you're personally choosing to vape and you know obviously we we just don't want to pay for that it's too much risk but we'll give you the insurance but there's this exclusion for that right the same thing could happen if you were like a keen netballer and you had a really bad knee injury and then we go and do that same health questionnaire and your insurer is going to go look you're a pretty high risk of another knee injury because you already have like basically a compromised body part so we'll cover you for everything except for your knee yeah right So they have these things called exclusions. And for a lot of us, you might go, well, I'm fit and healthy and fine. Okay, fine. Pop off queen, go get your insurances done while you are.

For some of us, we get mental health exclusions because we've been very honest about our situation and been in therapy and there's been a lot going on. But most funds, so most super funds, if we have this default insurance, girl, you could go and get lung cancer and still be covered yeah because it was default and they just gave you blanket insurance they didn't do the health questionnaire they didn't check your knee they didn't check pre-existing conditions and you know what if you have a pre-existing condition or you do something more risk averse like a vape and I'm just using that as an example because we I do not endorse vaping and I know you don't either no but like you're like I still like it that's fine that can do it you can't um but most super

funds automatically include some level of insurance. And if you go and change your super fund today, it just cancels that insurance. And the way that the legalities of the super industry and the insurance industry happens, you don't automatically get it in your new fund anymore. Yeah. Okay. So I need you to make sure that if you have income protection, if you have life insurance, or you have some type of total and permanent disability or TPD inside your super, maybe let's check if we need to keep that and at that point if you still want to keep that and move super you can I actually have two super funds for this reason so I have one superannuation fund that is my old super that has a good insurance policy for life insurance inside of it and I

actually keep I think it's like two thousand dollars in that super fund yeah just to pay the fees and make sure it never dips below and that you know I get to keep that insurance and then all of my other super is in my preferred superannuation fund. Yeah, nice. But if you didn't know, you would just go and roll over to a different fund and then miss out on something that could potentially change yours or your family's life if something bad happened. Yeah. Right. So I would say it is absolutely worth being aware about what you're, like what you've got in your super, because if you change or you consolidate funds without checking, like that insurance disappears, you can't just go back and be like, oh, hey, sorry, that was an accident. I didn't,

I didn't want that. They're going to be like, um, absolutely not. We glad you're gone. Like, they're going to be like, we've been trying to get people out of this because we didn't do the health check. And now a lot of us do. Yeah. So yeah. If you were through the gates, don't come back out without like a stamp on your wrist. Cause they're not going to let you back in the club. No. Oh my God. So you can also set up policies outside of superannuation that are tailored to you, but still have like premiums deducted from your super as well. I don't know lots of people know this that you could go do your insurances and have it paid from your super so it's not coming out of your cash flow so that way you don't lose the cash flow

but you also get the cover that you need and I guess that's where you know calling your fund or working with we've had Phil from Sky Wealth on the show before can actually help you they'll walk you through what cover you've got what you might need and I guess how to structure that to protect you without paying for extras that you don't need. And I guess that's a shameless plug for Sky Wealth basically because they're my financial advisors for my personal insurances. They did mine. They did my husband's. They've updated it since I had Harvey. They update it when I get, you know, different debt situations like, and most of my team have gone through them as well. And we actually refer a lot of people in our community there just because they do good and

they be good. And I don't know, sometimes you just want a good recommendation. You can also top up your super to cover insurance if you're like oh well I don't want it eating away at my returns fee like I want more insurance but I don't want it at the compromise of my you know retirement well you could top up your super with those additional contributions so that you get the tax savings we pay for it inside super and it's 15% instead of 30 so clever gosh he's clever yeah but also your financial advisor like if you went and saw sky wealth that just tell you how to do that properly. Absolutely. So you can call your super fund for literally anything. You ask for insurances. Yeah. You could ask them about everything. I mean, they're probably not that

good at giving life advice. They do often offer free financial advice, but it's constrained to your super fund. They can't be like, oh yeah, Beck, here's how to save for your next holiday to Thailand because you enjoyed that so much. But you could call them up and ask them to explain your options, your fees, and like your insurances in plain English. They are just people that work there and know it really well. They could also help you set up a salary sacrifice. They could also model things for you so you can get them, like get them to work. Can you give me an example of what an extra $20 a week could look like over the next decade? What about 25? What about 30? Like put them to work. They're not going to like me saying that, but you're paying super fees

so that you access this service, use the service. I just think that we should be using it. Okay. Well, I don't know about you, but my brain is full in a good way. I'm not going to lie. I think I need a cup of tea. Yeah, it might be nice. I feel like I need to just, I've been yapping. I'm so excited about this. And I guess my hope for this episode is that if you were starting to feel like you were a little bit behind, you finished this episode and you're like, oh, it's actually not that bad. Like I have a pretty clear idea of what I'm doing. I'm a very capable human being. I could totally set

this up and you're ready to take another small step in the right direction for future you. So if that happened, please go and do that. Like, yes, follow the momentum. And if you loved this episode, obviously, please hit subscribe because we've got plenty more episodes coming that are going to put future you in the best possible position and share it with your bestie so that you can both be holidaying in Europe together in retirement. Like you've got a yacht or something. I don't know. Absolutely. We'll see you guys on Friday. Bye. 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 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.