I'm a financial illiterate. I started working 5 years ago and I have been using CBA's Colonial first state as my super. Realised that I'm being ripped off since the last 5 years and I don't know where to move to. Can someone suggest me a super fund that is not a rip off and I can straight away start using? I read stuff about super and everything - funds, self-management, everything goes above my head. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Looking For Superannuation Suggestion
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I've only been with AusSuper so far (I'm 20) so idk what's good or bad in the industry. What annoyed you about them?
I'd been with InSuper for years that became AustralianSuper (from 1988-2019).
AustralianSuper didn't want to listen to my instructions and transferred my Super to AUSFund without listening to me.
I then reached out to FirstState Super (to get my Super into a fund I could trust and would follow my instructions).
First State Super (now Aware Super) have been great at communicating and I'd recommend them. They have an App that works too.
You're better off choosing an Industry Superfund than any of the retail ones: https://www.industrysuper.com/
AustralianSuper and HostPlus are usually highly recommended.
That's not true. There are plenty of industry funds that perform worse than private funds.
For example Australian Super high growth (industry funds) has performed worse than Australian Ethical Australia shares (retail fund). CBUS growth (industry) has done worse than Bendigo bank high growth (retail).
Of course the best funds are all industry funds. But you can't just pick "any" industry fund and expect better returns than a retail fund.
Add to this a lot of people fall for the bs that industry funds pedal. eg Aus super's 'balanced' fund is 76.5% growth. But if you ask them property/infrastructure is defensive.
They get away with comparing more aggressive funds with less aggressive funds. Comparing apples with oranges.
https://www.australiansuper.com/investments/your-investment-…
If you're looking to understand it properly, try reading through this as a resource:
https://passiveinvestingaustralia.com/how-to-invest-your-sup…Pretty happy with Hostplus.
With UniSuper and cannot fault them. Easy to use, good options, quick call wait times and nice returns with relative low admin.
*not advice, do own research etc etc…
same here, me and my wife are also with UniSuper because uni made that when I started tutoring back then :D
I am also with unisuper and i have been very happy with them.
Hostplus here. Been with them for years never had an issue. Fees are pretty good and decent returns. Also an industry super fund so that’s always a plus.
You definitely right to get out of CFS. I was with AMP and Mercer and had a similar experience.
Been with Care Super for 20 years. They've done well, even through GFC and covid crashes. One of the best industry funds I think.
If/when you get into shares there's a Direct Share option where you can buy individual ASX shares with your super balance. Cost $10/month admin fee, regardless of value of shares, which is v reasonable.
I use Rest for the Australia Shares Indexed option. Fees seem low enough and you get the rough equivalent of a ASX VAS index fund.
HostPlus Growth Indexed.
My strong recommendation after lots of research is the Rest or host plus lowest fees index funds, and get a 70/30 international/Australia split.
Pick the Lowest cost always. Lowest fees is the biggest thing you can do to improve your super performance because ongoing fees eat into your compound returns. Do a bit of googling to see why, you'll be shocked.
Any fees you pay for "actively managed funds" are going to support the lifestyles of their highly paid staff, who generally underperform the market anyway.
Don't believe any hype about superior returns.
Incidentally I work in the super industry - not one of the highly paid however - and I would not invest in anything except host plus or rest with the index funds. These are passive funds that will always deliver the market return. Anything else is a gamble.I agree about the lowest fees, but I think the biggest thing OP can do to improve super performance is to put it in the most aggressive fund with highest growth.
You will need nerves of steel OP! About every four years you will see catastrophic losses. But in the other years, you will get superlative returns, and the overall return will far outpace "Conservative" funds.
I wish I'd understood this many years ago (I'm at pension stage now).
Also think about the insurance that is usually rolled into super. Do you need it? If you're married with kids, perhaps you do, but otherwise ditch it.
PS OP, you are not a financial illiterate, the fact that you are thinking about this already means that you are head and shoulders above your peers.those index share funds are aggressive funds with high growth
yep Rest Super passive index funds is the way to go. Same split as mine too.
Much lower fees and historical returns are on par or better than other managed funds that charge higher fees.
Why pay more for a managed fund when they cant even do better over multiple years compared to a passive fund
I found Australian Super to be one of the cheapest for fees and best performing until I switched to UniSuper which is now available to everyone.
Have a look at what insurance is being deducted out of your super too. I'm not saying to just go totally uninsured but you may not need/want all of the insurances you were default signed up to. For example, if you don't have a spouse/kids that depend on your income you may not care so much for life insurance.
Agree and sometimes insurances can overlap with one you may already have.
1) You're a financial illiterate.
2) You're with a major super company but are being "ripped off".How do you know?
I beg to differ with OP
Colonial First State is one of the best super funds around
It has reasonable fees and amazing investment flexibility.I didnt count but over 50 funds into which you can invest
including:
Aust Shares, International shares, long short funds, gold fund, bond and fixed interest, cash etc etc etc
This in addition to the usual high growth, conservative, and balanced funds.
The returns for all the fundsfor the last 1,2,3,5 and 10 years are all thier for anyone to exploreThe problem is not with CFS
The problem as OP admitted is with thier financial ignornace (by thier own admission but sorry)As a rule of thumb I suggest looking at the funds with the best returns over 3, 5 and 10 years
Hey @catgpt
Things I suggest - if you honestly have no financial idea then seriously do consider going to (and paying) a financial adviser because super is a long term investment and the difference between an OK fund and a good fund can make a serious difference. Its a good thing if you can recognise this isn't your strength and that it may be better you getting advice.
- Past performance is not a guide to future performance - but it is a good way of comparing funds and how they have performed historically.
- If you are a long way from retiring then you will probably be best with a growth or high growth fund and accepting the higher risks that come with that as if it does suffer in some years you have plenty of time to make it back up and smooth it all out. As you come closer to retiring people generally start moving it into safer funds that offer less risk but also less reward.
- Based on what you have said about yourself something self managed would not be good for you because they work best when you actively monitor and manage them making changes as needed.
Please do speak with a trusted family member at the very least if you don't go to a financial adviser.Try looking for one with lower fees. And when you do find it, if you are young then I would suggest putting it in high growth. There is this spreadsheet from reddit you can check out
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1sR0CyX8GswPiktOr…Also check out this site, really good resources but in particular read the below article.
https://passiveinvestingaustralia.com/how-to-invest-your-sup…I was with CFS and Perpetual a long time ago. I got sick of the excessive fees even when they were losing me money, so I started a SMSF.
It's the cheapest option if you DIY, but I don't think that's the right choice for you.Ironically, I've now decided that index fund ETFs are better than trying to guess which companies will outperform, so I'm back to paying fixed fees again. At least they're far lower though.
For you, I would choose the fund with the lowest fees and a good track record of accurately tracking an index.
Host plus, indexed balanced.
Not saying it is the best out there, just it's easy and does okay with low fees.
Make sure you don't get any insurance through whoever you go with that you don't want.
the new Hostplus indexed high-growth has even lower fees than indexed balanced but more aggressive in seeking growth (100%-0% vs 75%-25% in growth/defensive), obverall better choice if you are not approaching retirement.
I switched to Aware Super because AustralianSuper annoyed the crap out of me,
https://aware.com.au/member/why-choose-us/join-aware-super