This Post is brought to
you by The Australian Tax office
Alright, I am the first to admit that anything that involves
money typically causes my eyes to glaze over and I get a little twitchy action
going on.
Any talk of tax, banking, bills and super all evoke the same
kind of response from me and I’m all Blah Blah Blah and start desperately
searching for a bucket of sand to stick my head into.
Throughout all my years of corporate slavery I never gave
much thought to my super. I mean I had a super fund and my employer put money in it for
me – what else was there to know?
The only thing I worried about when it came to my super was
whether I was supposed to actually read those big report thingies they sent me
every 6 months or so or should I use them to line the bird cage?
Before I had kids, I vaguely recall putting in a little
extra super every month on top of the standard payment my company made for me.
I didn't really do it because I was super-efficient or anything even as
remotely honorable as that. I mostly did it so I could steal a bit of extra
time ogling the hot young super guy at my work whilst I filled out the salary
sacrifice forms.
After I had kids, I went back to just the normal company
contributions as I figured I needed any extra cash I had to feed those hungry
beings that were demanding food from me at least 6 times a day. Besides
retirement was still at least 150 years away and so I thought it was better for
me to focus on putting money into the mortgage instead.
It’s only lately – now that I’m a grown up and sort of
sensible and stuff that I have realised the importance of super. I mean there isn't much point in being 80 with
a gorgeous home and then having to sell our beloved home because we are money
poor and need to eat occasionally.
Did you know that the average woman’s super payout is around
43% less then men’s? Mainly because even in this day and age, we still
typically earn less than our male counterparts and then many of us take time
out of the workforce to have babies. No work means no super being banked.
But rather than just feel ripped off by the financial difference
between men and women, I think we women owe it to ourselves to sort out what
super we do have… don’t you?
Last year after I quit my job, I was sorting out all the
money stuff and I did one of those Super
Seeker Searches. I discovered a forgotten super account from my early
twenties and it had over $10k in it.
OK so $10k isn't going to feed, clothe and
pay podiatry bills until I turn to dust, but $10k is $10k and I’m pretty sure
that’s a nice chunk of moolah for an old duck to have at her disposal.
Seriously though, as parents we focus on putting money into
savings for our kids, but we also need to put a little thought into how we are
going to support ourselves in the golden years. Unless we are totally loaded
(which I’m not) or we give birth to a mini Packer who will support us when we
are older (which I didn't) then we need stop putting our super in the too hard
basket and sort it out.
As I am now self employed, I have no hunky super guy to tell
me what to do with my money. I figure putting at least 10% of my earnings into
a super fund and then doing a yearly health check on my super at the same time
as I do my tax, will make sure I keep track of where I am at and whether I need
to make any adjustments.
This super thing - It’s really not that that hard, I just
made it more daunting in my head than it really is. But then I typically do that with anything
financial.
You can follow
this easy 5 step super check to make sure your super is sorted and to help
you do whatever you can to grow your pot so you have enough to do the things
you want to do when you finally get around to retiring.... in 150 years :)
Have you got your
super sorted or is it sitting in the too hard basket?