More Aussies have mobile phones than superannuation

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Let's face it, we will all retire someday and like death and taxes, it is something you really can't ignore. That said, if you prepare for retirement, you can control when you retire and how much you retire with. What is concerning is that according to the Association of Superannuation Funds Australia (ASFA), women retire on average with a balance of $122,848 in super, while men retire with $154,453.

In the Consumer Sentiment Tracker report to March 2021, Finder.com.au shows that there are 24.4 million superannuation accounts in Australia, although only three in four Australians have superannuation, which is less than the number of mobile phone plans Australians hold. As Finder rightly states, superannuation is crucial to financing your retirement to ensure you can live comfortably, but as they indicate 38% of Australians don't understand how superannuation works, which is alarming given how important it is for our future lifestyle.

When you look at the figures on how much Australians are retiring on, it shines a light on two important areas; firstly, it is easy to see that unless Australian's have investments outside of superannuation, there will continue to be a large gap between the lifestyle desired by Australians in retirement and the reality they will experience.

market wrap more australians have phones than super funds

Secondly, it shows a major failure in our systems around educating Australians in financial literacy. Times have changed and all Australian's need to change with it, which means taking responsibility for their retirement rather than relying on the Government to pay a pension.

For those who are prepared to be a little more active, understanding how superannuation and investing works and the benefits that can be gained from putting in some effort is more than likely to pay off in retirement. The upside is that you get to enjoy a better lifestyle than what would otherwise be possible based on the information reported by ASFA above.

Best and worst-performing sectors this week

Healthcare and Industrials have been the best performers this week, as both are up more than 1% followed by Materials and Consumer Discretionary, which are up around 0.5%. The worst performing sectors include Energy down more than 4% followed by Information Technology down more than 2% and Financials down under 1%.

The best performers in the ASX/S&P top 100 stocks include Reliance Worldwide up more than 7% followed by Mineral Resources up more than 5% and Evolution Mining up more than 4%. The worst-performing stocks include Challenger down more than 22% following a warning to investors that FY21 profits will be lower. Appen is also down more than 10%, while Beach Energy and a2 Milk Company are both down more than 6%.

What's next for the Australian share market

After rising early on Monday to a new all-time high of 7358 points, the Australian stock market quickly turned to fall away the next day, showing weakness to close the day only 3 points higher than it opened. The fall continued on Wednesday with the market down around 2% before it started to regain lost ground later in the week.

Last week I indicated that the market was likely to pull back for one or two weeks although I anticipated it would be short-lived and it is possible that the move down this week is the move I was expecting. That said, it is too early to tell as we need confirmation that the down move has finished, which will come if the market closes high this week and then proceeds to trade above the all-time high next week. If this occurs, I expect it to be mostly bullish until around mid-May and possibly longer as it rises to around 7,600 points. While things are looking good, we need to wait for confirmation as the market could still trade lower.

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Dale Gillham is chief investment analyst at Wealth Within Limited (AFSL 226347). He also serves as the head trainer at the Wealth Within Institute (RTO 21917). He has more than three decades of experience in the investment industry, and is the author of How to Beat the Managed Funds by 20%, Dale's qualifications include an Advanced Diploma and a Diploma of Share Trading and Investment. He co-hosts the Talking Wealth Podcast, and his work has appeared in The Australian Financial Review, New York Business Journal, Wall Street Select and more.