Superannuation - Young Families

Have you reviewed your super recently?

With a young family, we know your time is precious and generally divided between work, the kids and managing your home. Thinking about your super is probably the last think on your mind.

But your super is one of the most important investments for you and your family, and isn't just a "set and forget" investment.

As your needs and priorities change over time, your investment mix and asset allocation may also need to change and depending on where you are in life, you may be willing to take on more investment risk, while at other times, protecting the money you've saved will be more important.

To make sure your super is on track, get in contact with your super fund and ask them to provide you with information on your asset allocation. This way you can check you're happy with the split up of your fund across equities, fixed income and other investments

You can always contact us, we'd be happy to help

Are you aware of ways you can boost your retirement savings while reducing your tax?

With a young family, we know your time is precious and thinking about your retirement is probably the last thing on your mind.

Your super is one of the most important investments for you and your family. The earlier you start investing in your super, the more you're likely to have to achieve the retirement lifestyle you want.

Making extra contributions to your super is one of the most tax effective ways to boost your account, while reducing your tax and that means more money for you in the future.

If you're an employee, you could use some of your pre-tax salary to make additional contributions to your super, over and above the super already paid by your employer. This is known as salary sacrifice and because these super contributions are taxed at 15% this is a tax effective strategy, especially if you're on a higher marginal tax rate.

If you're self-employed and contribute to super, you may be able to claim your contributions as a tax deduction. While tax of 15% is deducted in the fund, the deduction could be used to reduce your assessable income and the amount of tax you have to pay.

Before you make salary sacrifice or personal contributions please make sure you don't exceed your contributions caps.

Contact us to help you with your contributions strategy, we'd be happy to help

Are you and your spouse making the most of your super as a couple?

Now that you've started a family, one of you may be at home looking after the kids or working part-time.

If you or your partner are working part-time, or not at all, you're not contributing as much to your super as you used to. This can have a big financial impact in your retirement savings and plans.

As a family there are several strategies you could use to make the most of your super. For example:

you may be able to claim an 18% tax offset for contributions up to $3000 made on behalf of a low or no income spouse
depending on your circumstances then the Government co-contributions or matching - 50 cents in every $1 contributed up to maximum of $500 - may apply
if you salary sacrifice or make personal concessional contributions you may be able to split these contributions into your spouse's super account and this money could be used to pay for insurance
you could also split contributions to your spouse

Do you know the benefits of consolidating your super into one account?

As your career progresses It's likely you've had more than one job, so chances are you have more than one super account.

Each time you start a new job a new super account gets opened for you. The problem with having more than one super account is that you're likely to be paying multiple fees and keeping track of your super is a little harder. Plus, you may be doubling up on things like insurance, which could be more cost-effective if you held them all in one fund.

So, by having all your super in the one place, it's easier to take control of your retirement savings and make sure your investments continue to meet your needs

The good news is that consolidating your super is simple

The first step is to find all your accounts, some of which may have been lost over many years.

You then need to decide which fund you want to consolidate your super into. It's important to consider whether it offers investment options that suit your needs, now and in the future. Also make sure you don't exit a fun that provides insurances you need without considering replacement cover.

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