It's Really Not That Hard After All! | Life Love and Hiccups: It's Really Not That Hard After All!
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Thursday 27 March 2014

It's Really Not That Hard After All!

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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?