Investment Updates

Hello and welcome to Super Helpful with Aware Super, where we're going to cover off all of the things that you need to know about your superannuation and what it may mean to you and your investments.

So I'm going to start with some quick fire questions.

Do you get nervous when markets go up and down?

Kate?

As Brad Pitt says, only in the mornings.

Volatility is a normal part of investing.

And Ibby?

No — because over the long term it evens out.

What's more important to you when it comes to retirement health or money?

Health.

I think it's whatever you've got less of.

I'm with David.

It's health.

Because without your health you don't have much.

If you had to give me a headline about what's happening with my money, what would it be?

Well if you're looking for a headline it's that markets have done really well over the last quarter and more over really well over last year and that's been driven by share markets.

So if you look at a high growth option that's delivered almost 14% and if you consider our retirement options, our conservative balanced pension option, that's delivered a little over 9% also with much less volatility than we've seen in recent years.

And what are the kind of things that are impacting our performance?

Well I mentioned the share markets really been the star.

Equity markets performance have been really strong.

So we've seen ASX up almost 14% over the last year.

International shares they've been closer to 27%.

So options with higher allocation to equities they've really benefited.

So like that high growth option I mentioned before.

But of course we don't only just invest in equities, we invest in bonds, property, infrastructure, private equities to name a few.

And the point is we're really trying to build a diversified portfolio.

I mentioned shares have done really well this year but we really don't know what asset class is going to perform well next year.

So the point again is building that diversified portfolio and making sure in super you really take a long term view.

So Ibby for our members generally what could they be doing with their super?

Yeah so David shared some great news about the short term performance of our investments but super is a long term game.

It's a long term investment so it's really important that our members don't lose sight of the fact that they are going to be invested for a very long time.

The other thing to keep in mind, retirement is coming.

So whether you do something or don't at some point you're going to want to stop working.

So what I would say is start early, start thinking about your future and take action.

So Kate over to you.

Someone is right on the edge of retirement, what's the kind of things that they should be thinking about to make the most of?

Yeah I think if someone's really close to retirement like say two to three years away it's really important to know what your options are.

I mean could the stronger performance mean you could retire sooner or could you move to part-time work?

Like these are all...

That would be nice.

So these are the questions and you know we really need to work through the answers to those and we're really well set up to help our members through working through those answers.

Just recently we launched a new retiree check-in and that gives members who are you know two years away from retirement a chance to sit down with the financial advisor for 45 minutes at no extra cost.

They can talk about what sort of income, retirement income you can get, government benefits and they can also help set things up for you.

You mentioned long-term a couple of times there but I think long-term probably means different things to different people.

What do you think that means for retirees or those on the verge of retirement?

Yeah I think the long-term game is the game that we're in.

I mean for our younger members who allow us to choose what investment they're in we take calculated risks because they can benefit from the ups and the downs in the market.

That's right well you could remember I mean those downs in the markets are also an opportunity to buy good assets at cheaper prices.

And then even for retirees or anyone 55 and over they need their super growing for at least 30 to 40 years.

Yeah.

But what we do in that instance is we put the gutter guards in place you know we make sure we're managing risk but it's still growing.

So what's a we're super been doing to ensure that we're delivering these strong returns year after year for our members?

Well I mentioned that super is a long-term game and again we're really investing for our members for decades so we really focus on that long-term strategy and we've really seen that payoff.

So that high growth option I mentioned before that's delivered average annual returns of almost 9% for the last decade.

When we're investing we think about themes and trends that are emerging in the economy and their opportunities they present but also the risks that we have to manage.

So one of them for example at the moment is our digital infrastructure.

So we've been investing in data centres, fibre optic networks.

We think there's really strong tailwinds from some of those things especially as you consider the trends towards the economy more demand for data.

What can members expect looking forward and do you have any big predictions to share?

Looking forward I mean certainly this year we do think economic growth will be a little bit weaker for those countries outside the US certainly 2024 is going to be a little bit weaker than 2023.

Of course we'll keep an eye on sort of market developments and the opportunities they present.

We do expect ups and downs on the way but we'll really focus again back to that long-term strategy.

We know that's delivered for members and that's what we're focused on delivering strong long-term returns for our members retirement.

So Ibby, following on from what David and Kate have just been sharing with us where do you think our members should be thinking about and considering?

Yeah so I think one of the things that all members should do regardless of what stage they're at is jump on member online and use our my retirement planner tool.

It's a new tool that we've released it allows people to actually see how they're tracking towards retirement based on what you're doing today what sort of retirement income could you end up with.

Then what you can do is you can set some goals see what actions you need to take between now and then to make sure that you can have the retirement you're looking for.

The other thing you could do if you really want some help and advice around what you should do if you're super and thinking about your future is give us a call and book in a time to have that meeting and start discussing the earlier the better.

Now Kate, our members have heard that there are some key changes happening at the end of the financial year can you share a little bit about that?

In a win for super members the concessional contribution cap will rise from twenty seven and a half thousand to thirty thousand and our non-concessional contributions will rise from a hundred and ten thousand to a hundred and twenty thousand.

There's a bit of jargon in there Kate.

So concessional contributions just referring to the before tax contribution so that is like salary sacrifice.

Non-concessional contributions are our after-tax contributions.

Whilst you know a lot of Australians we're all going through the cost of living pressures at the moment for those closer to moving into retirement like it's a great opportunity to really get their accounts in the best shape possible to make the most of their retirement.

So I hope you found that as super helpful as I did.

If you'd like to learn a little bit more please head to our website or give us a call today.