Our 30s and 40s can be busy years when we build a career, pay off a home and raise a family. But it’s also a time to take a closer look at your super.
investing in your 30s and 40s
Budgeting can help streamline money management
At this life stage there can be many demands on your income. It makes a household budget a valuable tool to plan ahead, manage bills, and identify areas where you can cut costs to save.
Building your super
These are also the years to add to your super. It’s a lot easier to steadily grow your super over time than to boost your super immediately prior to retirement.
One way to grow your super is through salary sacrifice. This is where part of your before-tax wage is paid to your super rather than going towards your regular pay cheque.
Or, you may prefer to make a personal super contribution of your own. These can potentially be claimed as a tax deduction.
Tax deductible personal contributions are limited to $30,000 annually. This total includes your employer’s compulsory super contributions. You can’t claim a tax deduction for superannuation contributions paid by your employer directly to your super fund, only for personal super contributions that you make to your super fund. So, if your boss contributes $15,000 to your super, your personal contributions, on which you may be able to claim a tax deduction, are limited to $15,000 in a financial year.
If you don’t make the full $30,000 contributions in a single year, you can carry forward unused contributions for up to five years as long as your super savings are below $500,0001.
Consolidate multiple super balances
Close to four million Australians have more than one super account2. This can mean doubling up on fees and insurance, which will eat into your retirement money.
This makes it important to keep all your super in one place. Please note that before you consolidate, you should ask your super provider for information about any fees or charges that may apply, or any other information about the effect this transfer may have on your benefits, such as insurance cover, before making a decision.
To check if you have super outside of Active Super, log into Member Online and click the 'Consolidate super' tab. Or, head to ATO online services via myGov.
