Someone at work has an SMSF and now you're wondering whether you're the one not paying attention. Here's an honest look at what a self-managed super fund costs, what it asks of you, and how to tell whether the answer for you is yes, no, or not yet.
The words super funds use — balanced, growth, conservative — don't mean the same thing from one fund to the next, and the only number that matters is how much sits in growth assets. Here's how to find yours, what the difference is worth over a decade, and how to decide without guessing.
Your super balance isn't an income — an account-based pension is the thing that turns one into the other. Here's how the minimum drawdown rules, the tax treatment after 60 and the Centrelink tests actually work.
Noel Whittaker explains how capital gains tax actually works — and shows a case study where deductible super contributions reduce a $700,000 gain to no tax at all. Here's the principle, and where it applies if you're still working.
Nobody pays super for you when you work for yourself, which is why so many self-employed Australians reach their fifties with a balance that looks far too small. Here's how the personal super contribution deduction works, how the five-year catch-up rule can let you put in well above one year's cap, and the paperwork that has to be right.
