# Where has my super gone?



## knocker (26 July 2009)

Just looked at my australian balance and it shed about 10K in the last year? Where did it go?


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## sammy84 (26 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*

Is that a serious quesion>


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## knocker (26 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



sammy84 said:


> Is that a serious quesion>




Well yes. Why?


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## cutz (26 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



knocker said:


> Just looked at my australian balance and it shed about 10K in the last year? Where did it go?




Wow knocker,

If it only shed 10K you're doing really well.


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## sammy84 (26 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



cutz said:


> Wow knocker,
> 
> If it only shed 10K you're doing really well.




Not if his balance was 11K prior


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## knocker (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



sammy84 said:


> Not if his balance was 11K prior



Well actually it was only 50k but now 40


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## Bafana (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*

Seems u did OK. The question is, is it gonna come back or are we gonna have to build it up again through work?


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## tech/a (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



> Where has my supa gone?




The 10K hasnt gone somewhere else.
Only the value has altered.


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## gav (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



knocker said:


> Just looked at my australian balance and it shed about 10K in the last year? Where did it go?




To Trembling Hand's trading account


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## Prospector (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*

I'm with Sammy.  Was that really a serious question?

To be followed by another one.:  In this case, is that a 20% 'loss' from the previous year?

That is the figure you should be using, not the actual $$ amount.  I reckon many Super Funds are down 20% this year.  Lots of shocks when the letters are opened.  I havent got the accountant figures yet but my SMSF is down around 15% from last year.


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## beamstas (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*

My super increased, beat that


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## overit (27 July 2009)

You must be the victim of some kind of crime because according to my colleagues in 2007, super never goes down, so you would be mad not to pump all your money into it.


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## awg (27 July 2009)

knocker said:


> Just looked at my australian balance and it shed about 10K in the last year? Where did it go?





Should be a fairly easy exercise to check your super report, it will tell you the asset class allocation percentages..ie Oz shares, International shares, cash, property etc.

that gives you a basis to check its performance using index data for those capital classes.

Asset allocation and benchmarking performance is something I spend time on.

My SMSF is up slightly for 08-09, so I have stopped beating myself up since the release of figures showing that similar retail and industry Super schemes are well down.

deciding what to benchmark yourself against and measuring it is tricky.

My aim when joining ASF, as identified in my first post, was to self-manage, and be ahead of like super funds after fees and tax, I have well and truly achieved that.

Improving my alpha and beta is an ongoing work in progress


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## awg (27 July 2009)

just watching financial news

average balanced super fund return for the 08-09 is -12.7%

I always calculate my return after all tax and fees.

can make a significant difference. 

apart from fees, one reason I went to SMSF is that in MINs/ Wraps, I was not getting the full benefit of Dividend Imputation, (or Capital raisings)


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## Prospector (27 July 2009)

awg said:


> just watching financial news
> 
> average balanced super fund return for the 08-09 is -12.7%
> 
> I always calculate my return after all tax and fees.




Yes, that is the way to calculate returns.  Last year I held shares in BRK which probably tipped my losses further than normal trading conditions.  I guess when the SMSF earns well in excess of other managed Supers in most years, if you dont get out quick enough then there is a greater potential for higher losses in the not-so-good years.

Knocker, only Public Servants have any guarantees on what their Super is valued at.

And well done to beamstas.:


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## Julia (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



beamstas said:


> My super increased, beat that



I'd imagine the super of many people increased in the last year.
Mine has.  
Still a bit down on the peak of November 2007 though.


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## Buckeroo (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



Julia said:


> I'd imagine the super of many people increased in the last year.
> Mine has.
> Still a bit down on the peak of November 2007 though.




Spare a thought for us poor soles who cash up our super just before the collapse last year - yep I got lucky, but now I'm too frigen timid to put it back in!!


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## Buckeroo (27 July 2009)

Prospector said:


> Knocker, only Public Servants have any guarantees on what their Super is valued at.




I know some very lucky individuals in the private sector that still have defined benefits which means their super is calculated on their final salary and based on how many years worked etc. 

No doubt their employers will be looking at ways to remove these individuals before retiring age!

Cheers


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## MRC & Co (27 July 2009)

http://www.fundmonitors.com.au/

An interesting site for those who wish to try and find a fund that performs consistently in any environment (a must these days IMO).


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## MRC & Co (27 July 2009)

MRC & Co said:


> http://www.fundmonitors.com.au/
> 
> An interesting site for those who wish to try and find a fund that performs consistently in any environment (a must these days IMO).




BTW, no affiliation whatsoever with this site.  

Just heard about it last night and spent a couple hours on it, pretty interesting and useful.


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## Julia (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



Buckeroo said:


> Spare a thought for us poor soles who cash up our super just before the collapse last year - yep I got lucky, but now I'm too frigen timid to put it back in!!



Why not put some back in, and keep some in cash.
You're missing out on some good profits at present.


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## GumbyLearner (27 July 2009)

Told Mum to withdraw the lot early last year.

She is doing very well and no longer pays fees or wears losses from the doyens of this "specialized field".


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## Buckeroo (27 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



Julia said:


> Why not put some back in, and keep some in cash.
> You're missing out on some good profits at present.




Your right Julia, although have had some investments back in the market recently, am now pondering if I should expose some of the Super as well. Will maybe look at this over the next week or so - courage Buckeroo, courage.

I do though, intend to steer well clear of October - traditionally a black month

Cheers


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## wayneL (27 July 2009)

I wonder how krisbarry's/stoptheclock's super is?


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## Prospector (28 July 2009)

wayneL said:


> I wonder how krisbarry's/stoptheclock's super is?




He was heavily into Biomedicals wasnt he?  In which case with swine flu he might be doing ok.


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## Julia (28 July 2009)

wayneL said:


> I wonder how krisbarry's/stoptheclock's super is?



I sometimes wonder how he himself is.   He used to have trouble with pretty severe depression as I recall.


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## cheeyeen (28 July 2009)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



knocker said:


> Well actually it was only 50k but now 40




The market has gone down fair a bit in the last two years.  But if you are still working and contribute to the super last year, then the performance of your super is quite bad.  Could be related how aggressive you are with your investment allocation.


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## gooner (28 July 2009)

"where has my super gone"

Think of it this way. A few people on ASF think I'm full of crap. So I decide to bottle my crap and sell it. Lots of people decide to invest in it and the price rises to $50,000 a bottle. This continues for a few years and I am very happy selling my crap for so much money.  On the ACX (Australian Crap Exchange) the bottles of crap trade for $50,000 each and everyone is happy.  But then one day  for some unknown reason, not as many people want to buy my crap anymore and the value of the crap falls to $40,000 a bottle. I am no worse off because I do not hold my crap, I sell it immediately, knowing full well that it is, well, crap (sub prime mortgages anyone). However, all those people who hold my crap are $10,000 a bottle worse off.  Does that explain it?

When I was retrenched in October last year, I was in a defined benefit fund - this got rolled into Australian equities around the December 2008 low, so that was good timing for my super. The downside of course is that I do not have a job still. And still have not been able to convince anyone to buy my crap


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## NeuromanceR (28 July 2009)

"Super is a great *long-term* investment." - Paul Clitheroe


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## Julia (28 July 2009)

NeuromanceR said:


> "Super is a great *long-term* investment." - Paul Clitheroe



Typical Clitheroe comment.
The fact that it's a long term investment does not mean it doesn't need active management.

I reckon the bulk of Clitheroe's investment is shares in the sound of his own voice.


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## johenmo (29 July 2009)

Julia said:


> The fact that it's a long term investment does not mean it doesn't need active management.




This is the crux of superannuation.  A lot of people put it in the buy and forget category.  It's thanks to ASF and bad share buying that I woke t the fact that the market was dropping and moved mine to cash.  Current position would be about 15% down still if I hadn't changed it.  So the share losses are more than compensated by the super "saved".


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## burglar (11 March 2011)

awg said:


> ... My aim when joining ASF, as identified in my first post, was to self-manage, and be ahead of like super funds after fees and tax, I have well and truly achieved that.
> 
> Improving my alpha and beta is an ongoing work in progress



Hi AWG,
Admiral!!


Some old threads are really good, why are they allowed to die??


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## xyzedarteerf (21 April 2011)

*Re: Where has my supa gone?*



gav said:


> To Trembling Hand's trading account




yeah like everyone else's money


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