Superannuation

G'day team,

Anyone doing the $3000 Spouse Contribution this year?

I've been a believer in Super for quite a few years. Until that is a couple of years ago when the stockmarket went scubadiving and took my super along for the ride. Usually (over the last say 5-6 years anyway) I have made an extra employee contribution as a Sal Sac. But more recently I have come to doubt the validity (or ability) of Super to fund my old age. Over the last 18-12 months I've started to believe that the best form of super for me is going to be made of bricks. Particularly since subscribing to this forum (Feb 03 I think).

Also, I dont trust Governments ! They do as they damm well please, when they please. The stepped retirement age was changed so that people born between 1961 and 1965 now have "official" retiring ages ranging from 56 to 60 yo. The Taxing of Super is an issue which has already been fiddled with considerably in the last 10 years and is probably going to be further ravaged after the next election (regardles who wins).

A few weeks ago I decided to reduce my super contribution (actually I eliminated it). My extra contributions did have some positive aspects, e.g. paid out of Pre-tax money which in turn put a little more in the hand each F/night. But my employer already pays a whopping 17% into the fund anyway (pity its all been invested in funds, and stocks such as AMP, HIH etc). So I figure I'm already twice as well of as the average aussies 9%.

I've also decided to STOP my Spouse's $3000 contribution. Funny - I've been contributing for 4 years and the current statement says she has $11,845. She doesn't currently work (kids) and I figure the paltry $600 or so tax rebate which was the real attraction, is minor compared to what I could have done with a $12,000 deposit on a small prop 4 years ago.

Any thoughts ???

Thanks

Pedro
 
Pedro,

I gather you have all your funds in a managed type fund.

What about a Self Managed Super Fund? You can (depending on the fund and the employer) roll over money from that fund into your own SMSF. It can be used for your own share investments if you want. You've dabbled into options trading- you may be able to use some of that money in options trading- if you are successful, increase it. Or you may want to put some into Steve's fund.

The $12,000 in Mrs Pedro's fund would have onyl been (say) $6,000 if you had kept the money instead- that would not have gone too far in deposits. And her fund has not gone as badly as most.

(I received a statement for a fund I had in England recently. I thought it was bad enough that the fund had reduced from 12,800 GBP to 9,600 GBP. But the I realised that the Aussie dollar had also increased, so in AUD, I'd lost about 35%).
 
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