Superannuation, the ultimate government cash cow?

[Bellcose]

You closed smsf and went into aus super while i am thinking doing the reverse..

I decided to go that route after assessing many things. The major reason is that while I believe I still have the smarts to administer an SMSF, it will probably come to a point when I won't. I concluded it was better to do the change now. I was also fed up with having to administer the darn thing. It was becoming tedious.

I selected this option in case you are interested.

 

[rolly1]

I stopped insurance thru super so not important for me, but yes, could be a good point
If required, i could still keep a token super amount with the fund

I have done this. When I was an apprentice carpenter, my boss paid into my bussq super for me. I have left that one open purely for the death insurance in it. It is half the price of anything outside of that fund or what I could find myself.
I have been with a few industry super funds over the years. I started with ING Direct but when they raised their fees massively I switched over to Hostplus. I was quite active in changing my asset allocation within that fund but when I realised it takes them two days to action my requests I decided to leave them.
I opened up a SMSF with Stake and have been with them for just over a year now. I have been really impressed with how easy the process has been and all for $990/year plus a few other outside fees everything is done for you. I only trade stuff on the Australian market but if you wanted to you can trade stuff on the US market as well for an extra fee. $3 per trade up to $30,000 value or .01% for orders above that so very cheap brokerage as well.
For an extra yearly fee you can also add residential property, commercial property, managed funds, precious metals, venture capital funds, startups and anything that is allowable in a SMSF investment.

 

[qldfrog]

Food for thoughts, thanks, a process I go thru regularly as circumstances changes on top of the smsf landscape being quite moving as well.
Thanks all for your answers

 

[Bellcose]

food for thoughts, thanks, a process I go thru regularily as circumstances changes on top of the smsf landscape being quite mmoving as well.
Thanks all for your answers

Yes, there can be so much involved. Whether you have a partner or not. Is the other half interesting in the financial aspects? If not, do you want to load them up with managing the payout on death as well as continuing to manage the SMSF? I know some who have set an age target on when to move to an industry fund. It can be exciting setting up an SMSF and buying this or selling that but the mundane should not be completely ignored.

Fun stuff, 'eh?

 

[Knobby22]

I'm too busy with work to go SMSF but it would be nice to do that and retain the Industry Fund with the bulk of the funds. Probably too costly.