You failed to mention that switching investment options cost you money, due to the sell price and buy price being different. So every time you switch your super balance will reduce and take time to recover.

My financial advisor recently told me that I should have be in any option lower than the default, as even with market crashes the market always recovers.

Super is a long term investment, the best thing you can do is add some extra dollars per week in the early years of working and with compounding interest you will be thousands ahead by retirement age.

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Simply being a woman who knows how much they have in Super makes you an outlier.

I'm pleased to be an outlier also. But I have contributed extra from day one and only had a 6 month break where I was not employed (my choice). I did take a chunk of unpreserved funds out to pay off my mortgage before my 30th birthday, however I don't regret that decision.

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Hi Karren, Congratulations on your super progress so far. With time, your balance should accumulate nicely. Compounding remains a miracle!

I appreciate the way you have outlined your progress. Much that we need to address is about the impact of caring roles and career breaks arising for several reasons. I like your reasoned discussion which is about more than just a gender division. There really is so much more in this than just the gender discussion and I appreciate how you have widened it through your experience. I look forward to hearing more of your observations.

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If you look alittle deeper your low balance problem may be due more to your high cash percentage and you market timing strategy. It sounds like you have sold down to cash after each crash, did you get back in before or after the rise?

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Congratulations on your super you have more than I have and I'm a male some of my friends don't even have that much I wish I was in your position

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I'm 58 and just saw my super top 300k . It's money i never expected so when i turn 65 I'm going to pull it all out go down to the Star and place it on black.

Double or nothing.

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(I doubt the moderator will let this get published because its the truth, which is not in fashion in 2021)

Ladies, want to end up with the same financial outcomes as a man? Here's how:

1) Don't go to Uni and major in worthless degrees, or degrees in fields that pay badly. Men are not "falling behind women at Uni" we are just avoiding a bad investment which is what most degrees (apart from STEM) are these days.

2) Don't spend your pay on worthless stuff like $300 haircuts and dresses, fake nails, fake eyelashes.

3) Work 41hrs a week (like men do on average) instead of 35.6hrs per week that you are doing (source: ABS data)

4) Choose to work on that big project or tender at work instead of throwing your workmates under the bus at the last minute so you can go to see your daughters ballet recital.

You're welcome.

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I really appreciate this honest account of your experience with Super. I came to Australia in 1992 as a corporate transfer. With the same company. Our UK pension scheme was non- contributory and I worked for the UK company for 11 years from my mid twenties to my mid thirties and had two children during my maternity leave I presume my pension contributions continued to be paid.

When I arrived here I used to receive a statement telling me my Pension balance but I could not transfer it without a big loss due to tax and fees. Then the laws changed and, using a specialist advisor, I could transfer it. At the time my stated balance was UKP 250000. When the transfer was effected, they transferred UKP 500000. Kismet indeed.

After a similar period of working here my Colonial Bank Super had amassed $300000.

I was given no information about Super and remained largely ignorant until much later.

Now, in my 60s, I have a small amount of Super having invested largely in my principal residence. I keep it in cash having long ago decided that the author of 'Where are the customers' Yachts' was right. Investing is just gambling, and I am not interested in that.

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I get #1 and #2. Number 3 is completely dependent on your stage of life. If you have a husband/partner who refuses to share care of the children and childcare isn't an option or is too expensive, someone has to do it. #4 - you can't buy some things. Like time. Or memories.

Basically you are saying if you want decent super, be a man. What a pathetic thing to say.

Edit: 45yo female with 2 teenage children, husband who works PT and was a SAHD and has 500K in super.

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I tend to agree on girls spending money on worthless stuff. I'm a woman and feel like an outlier since I can't justify $300 haircuts, eyelash extensions or god how much are botoxed lips??? Then again maybe men buy stupid shit too.

I commonly tell people my opinion around the gender pay gap as exactly what you said: women don't work as much as men on average. And we don't want to. Many of us want to work part time and make the ballet recitals. I wouldn't expect to be paid as much as my male colleagues as I only work a 4 day week to be at home with my daughter and see her grow. I don't know anyone make and female who works the same hours doing exactly the same job who are paid differently unless it is based on commission or performance?? Weird that we are having that discussion. Let's divide pay by contracted hours and years of experience then....

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"Basically you are saying if you want decent super, be a man. What a pathetic thing to say."

...and yet here you are, with your husband staying at home and raising your children, and you going out and working full-time, hence the healthy Super balance you have.

I am guessing you've done a lot of hours and sacrificed a lot to get where you are at 45yo. So good for you. However, its no doubt come at a cost of not seeing your kids much I suspect. There is no free lunch, just compromises and choice.

Your life choices are literally proving my point for me. Hilarious. Guess my comment isn't that pathetic after all. You might not like my opinion, but its the truth. Whether you would like it to be the truth or not is irrelevant.

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You need to get a new financial advisor.

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