Help & support
When it comes to your financial fitness, it is vital to regularly review and understand how your superannuation is invested.
Taking care of future you should be one of your main goals when it comes to managing your money, and nurturing your superannuation is key.
The earlier you start, the better off you’re likely to be.
Here are five actions you can take to make sure your super money is working for you.
Check your balance
Most super funds have online portals where you can easily check your balance and see how your money is being invested. It’s worth finding your details so you can log in and check.
If you have multiple super accounts, consider consolidating, if possible, to avoid paying multiple fees. Take into account any insurance cover you may lose by doing so.
To track down any lost super accounts you may have forgotten about, search online via your MyGov account, ring 13 28 65 or follow the Tax Office’s instructions.
Once you know your balance, head over to the MoneySmart Retirement Planner and get a sense of what sort of retirement income you are on course to receive.
Check your fund’s performance
The government’s ‘YourSuper’ tool helps you to compare the performance of your super fund’s default ‘My Super’ account, a type of super account which represents over 60% of all super accounts in Australia.
You can input your age and super balance for a personalised comparison of annual returns and fees charged by different funds.
Funds are assessed regularly as either ‘performing’ or ‘underperforming’, or ‘not assessed’ if they’ve been established for less than five years.
If you are unhappy with your fund’s performance, investigate options for switching your super.
Read your fees statement
Log into your own super account and tally up the dollar amount of fees you have been charged over the last financial year. You should be able to download a PDF statement showing all your fees. If you can’t find it, ring your super fund.
Fees can be charged as both fixed dollar amounts, such as account fees, and charged as a percentage of your total balance.
A good rule of thumb is that your total annual fees should be less than 1% of your total balance. If your fees are closer to 0.5%, you can be confident you are in a relatively low fee fund.
Check your asset allocation
Your money in super is invested on your behalf by your super fund in a range of different assets, such as shares.
You will likely be invested in one of the following: a ‘conservative’, ‘balanced’, ‘growth’ or ‘high growth’ investment strategy. Conservative and balanced accounts have a higher proportion of your money invested in lower risk, lower return assets, like cash and fixed interest. Growth and high growth accounts will have a higher proportion invested in more volatile, but historically higher return, assets, like shares.
You get to choose your asset allocation and it is important you consider what is best for your age. The younger you are, the more time you have to ride out potential market fluctuations and potentially go for growth.
The closer you are to retirement and drawing down on your super, the more you might want to consider a more conservative asset allocation. You super fund can help you to conduct a ‘risk appetite’ survey to see where you are at.
Check your contributions
It is well worth checking that your employer is making the correct amount of contributions to your super on your behalf. The current minimum is 11.5% of your pre-tax salary, rising to 12% from 1 July 2025
It is also worth logging into your MyGov account and navigating to Tax Office’s super section where you can see any unused concessional caps you have left over. Most Australians can put up to $30,000 each year into super and pay a relatively low tax rate of just 15 cents in the dollar, as opposed to their marginal tax rate.
If you are looking to top up your super and your balance is under $500,000, you can also take advantage of any unused contribution cap amounts from the previous five years. If you are unsure, speak to your super fund, your accountant or a financial advisor.
Super is your hard-earned money, and it is well worth a bit of time invested to make sure it is set up in a way that will ensure your returns compound over time.
Future you will be glad you did.
Congratulations, you’ve completed this lesson!
Next lesson: 5.4 Protect – Wills and inheritances: Passing on your wealth