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Hi everyone, my name is Brad Zaknich from
GESB, and I'd like to thank you very much
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for logging onto today's recorded webinar,
so it's not a live one today,
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it's recorded and it's about investing
in super 101. So we're gonna go through
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the ideas of investing through
superannuation compared to investing
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in other formats. So, for those who
haven't used webinars before, very simple
-
technology, sit back and relax. Some of
the normal interactive opportunities we
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have with webinars has been turned off
for today's session, obviously things like
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typing in questions and clicking send,
you can't do that today because there's
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no-one to reply to them. So what we'll do
is get through some of the housekeeping.
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What we're showing you here is what you
already would have received, well, in fact
-
what you're going to be receiving, is a
webinar survey follow-up email, we do
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still love to get feedback, even with
recorded webinars, so if you wouldn't mind
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setting a few moments it takes to complete
that, that'd be greatly appreciated.
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The webinar, like I said, is being
recorded, and you'll be able to sit back,
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watch it at your own leisure. You can move
forward, you can go back in the slides,
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and you can watch it as many times as you
like, and from my understanding, this
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webinar will be staying live on the GESB
website, so probably around the end of
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the financial year, at which point we'll
most likely get a new presentation up.
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Now, I'd first love to show my respect
and acknowledge the traditional custodians
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of this land, of Elders past, present and
emerging, on which this event takes place.
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And then you've got the all-important
disclaimer. When talking about
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superannuation, investing, money, finance,
it's important that you understand that
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we're not giving you personalised
financial advice today. My job today is to
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provide you with information, explain
things, explain how things work.
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It's not to get you to make a decision
based on what I'm saying. So if you do
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need personalised financial advice,
you'll need to go elsewhere to get that,
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as GESB only provides you general advice.
Now in today's session there is a lot to
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get through, some of which might be
concepts that you're familiar with,
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and some maybe not. So in this session
we're gonna talk about the basics of
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investing, and we're gonna talk about
things like income tax, and how that
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impacts investing, budgeting, where to use
your money, borrowing, and debt.
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Also going to talk about with investment
concepts, the idea of compounding
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interest, the value of superannuation,
understanding the different asset classes
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that exist within super, and what
investment options are available.
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Now hopefully you all know who GESB is,
I work for GESB, GESB is a state
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government department, and it just stands
for Government Employee Superannuation
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Board. Now we've been around for over
85 years, we've grown over $42 billion
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in funds under management as of 31st
December 2024, and GESB, being a
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government department, we're a
not-for-profit organisation.
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So the only fees we collect from you,
through your super, through your insurances
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are to run the fund, we are
not-for-profit. And our returns are
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competitive and long-term.
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In regards to GESB's product structure,
people often get a little confused,
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but it's quite simple. GESB at the top
of the tree there stands for Government
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Employee Superannuation Board. Below that
are the different schemes that we
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administer. Now we're got some old
legacy schemes like the Pension scheme
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and the Gold State Super scheme,
we're not going to be talking about
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those at all today, okay, they don't sit
within the bounds of today's presentation.
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We're predominantly going to be talking
about superannuation, that are in the
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accumulation phase, and are accumulation
accounts, so West State Super, GESB Super,
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and some of the other invest, general
super funds that work in a similar fashion.
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When we speak about stuff that is general,
superannuation, I'll make that very
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well-known. When we're talking about
anything that might be GESB specific,
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I'll also make that well-known. What we're
not going to talk about in great detail
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today, or if at all, are the allocated
pensions. They are the retired products
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that most people use to draw down their
retirement savings.
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Well let's quickly talk about West State
and GESB Super because there are some
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differences between the two of them,
and you need to be aware. So, West State
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Super was the default super fund for
WA State Public Servants who commenced
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working for the government prior to
15 April 2007. The reason that is
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important is that after April 2007, new
employees to the public sector might have
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had a GESB Super account open, or perhaps
some other super fund, Hesta, Australian Super,
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Hostplus, something like that. The reason
it's important to know, is that most
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Australian funds like GESB Super, and most
other funds, are considered to be taxed
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super schemes. Why is this important?
The government allows super contributions
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to be contributed at a lower rate of tax
than your normal pay. We need to remember
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that super comes under the tax regime,
and GESB super, like most Australian funds
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is a tax scheme and that simply means
when your employer puts money into your
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super fund, through your employers' 11.5%
super guarantee, or you put extra money in
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through your payroll process called
salary sacrifice. Those contributions are
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only taxed at 15%, compared to
your normal tax rates through your income.
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But it happens on the way into your
account, and while your money's still
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invested. If however you've got a West
State Super account, your money's are
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not taxed on the way in, because it's
called an 'untaxed super scheme'.
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So the money's from your employers'
contributions and any salary sacrifice are
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not taxed on the way into your account so
the full contribution hits your account.
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Any investment earnings or growth in your
fund would normally be taxed at 15% in
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a regular fund, they are not taxed in
West State Super whilst the money remains
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in West State Super, but what happens
however is when you take your money
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out of the West State scheme, that is
when the 15% tax gets applied.
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So it's important that you understand the
difference, and there are some other
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differences to talk about in a little
while as well.
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Now, when we talk about tax, you need
to remember as well that the way the
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Australian tax system works is relative to
your income, is the more income that
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you earn, the more tax you generally pay.
So up to the first $18,200 you earn in
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earnings through your salary, through your
income, there is no tax applicable to that
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income for most Australians. But once your
salary gets above $18,201, up to $45,000,
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I shouldn't say salary, I should say
income, in that bracket your income is
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taxed at 16%, okay, for every dollar over
$18,201, up to $45,000.
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Then, if you're earning over $45,001 per
year, the earnings between $45,001 and
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$135,00, that portion alone is taxed at
30%. So people often think 'well I'm
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earning over $45 grand a year, I must be
paying 30% tax.' Yes, but only on the money
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you're earning, above $45,000. And as your
salary goes into the new higher brackets,
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you pay more tax on the extra earnings.
Now, as I said earlier, money's going into
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superannuation from your employer's
contributions, and through the process
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called salary sacrifice. They are not
taxed at your marginal, personal tax rate.
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They are instead taxed at 15%. So when you
talk about that, you can see that money's
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being earned over 45 grand are normally
taxed at 30%, money going into your super
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are only going to be taxed at 15% maximum.
That is the benefit of superannuation,
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so let's go through this. Let's start
talking about investing money, finances,
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all those sort of things, and first thing
when I talk about this is the basics of
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investing and knowing where your money
comes from.
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So knowing where your money goes is
extremely important, being able to track
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your spending is an extremely important
part of looking after your money.
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Planning your goals, whether they be
short-term, medium-term, or long-term,
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basics of knowing where your money comes
from, and what you're gonna spend it on.
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But also being a smart borrower. There's
nothing wrong with borrowing money,
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but some would argue, borrowing money to
purchase something that is declining in
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value may not be a smart borrow, but
that's up to the individual to decide how
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they want to do that. Also understanding
compounding interest.
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Interest earnt, people understand that
maybe I'm making, for example, a 7%
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return on my money, but when you
understand that compounding interest is
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interest on top of interest on top of
interest, that's extremely powerful.
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Albert Einstein once said 'compound
interest is the eighth wonder of the
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world, he who understands it, earns it.
He who doesn't, pays it.' Something to
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think about there. Well let's firstly talk
about budgeting.
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So there is a concept called the
'bucketing approach', cause when we talk
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about budgeting, people get quite
concerned and they think very heavily
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about every cent that this, and every
individual item, and that is fair enough.
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But if you simplify things in budgeting
into a simpler approach, it might be as
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simple as dividing your income into three
buckets, or three aspects of your income.
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And you might allocate, for example, 50%
of your income to your needs, so for
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example your home loan, your rent,
groceries, utilities and your insurances.
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So 50% is just a concept, you might have
more than that, you might have less,
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but when you identify an amount of
money, that is used for your needs, set
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that money aside and you know that your
needs are covered.
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And then you might have your wants, and
you might decide to allocate maybe 30%
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of your income to your wants. And they can
be things like your, upgrading needs,
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money's for evenings out, hobbies,
sporting events, holidays, but upgrading
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needs we might talk about maintenance
on your home, new cars, things like that.
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And then you might decide to allocate
20% of your income towards savings.
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And that might be an emergency fund for
when things go wrong, or maybe long-term
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savings for things off in the future,
that might include other investments like
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superannuation, shares, property, but it
also might include the overpayment of your
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debt, so paying extra money to pay off
loans might be considered to be savings.
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And when you break it down into 50%, 30%
and 20%, it's a very reasonable starting
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point, you might decide to put more money
into savings, less into wants, but by
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having a structure, makes it easier to
stick to that structure, and identify what
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you're going to be putting your money
into.
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Let's now talk about being a smart
borrower. Borrowing money is for most
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people, a necessity in life, for certain
things, but not all debt is equal, it will
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depend on the purpose of the loan,
it will depend on the interest rates
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you're paying, how often and how much
your payments are going to be, and it
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should be consolidating different debts,
or different loans, into one.
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So for example, when they say 'not all
debt is equal', if you're borrowing money
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from a bank or institution, as an
example, and maybe you're borrowing it
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and you're having to pay, 5% interest
or 6% interest to borrow that money,
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but maybe you're borrowing that money
to purchase something that's going to
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increase in value by 7, 8, 9 or 10%
per year, that might be said as being
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'good debt'. Whereas 'bad debt' might be
be something as simple as paying for a
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holiday where you don't have much to show
for it at the end and you're paying extra
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when you get back by way of interest.
So understand, borrowing money is not
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necessarily a bad thing, but understanding
when you should, shouldn't borrow to
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purchase things is something
that you have to decide.
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Now lets now talk about compounding
interest, I'm gonna go through the example
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we quite often use. Compounding interest
is basically earning interest on top of
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previously earned interest. So let's look
at a case study of Jenny, who invests
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$10,000 over a five year period. Now she's
gonna, let's say in her example, she
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receives 5% per annum compounded interest,
compounded on a monthly basis.
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Now, and the end of five years, her
investments actually gonna grow to $12,834.
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She's not just earning 5% on $10,000,
so let's see how this works.
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If she invests $10,000 at the start of
year 1, by compounding interest at 5%
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per annum monthly, she's doesn't end up
with $500, which would be if she
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compounded once, she ends up with $512,
it's actually more than 5% over the 12
-
months because it's been compounded
monthly. So at the beginning of the next
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year she's got $512, which she earns 5%
interest compounded monthly, for the next
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12 months, she accumulates $538.
Ends up with $11,049, and you can see over
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five years, the interests that's been
compounded grows, 512, 538, 565, 594, 625.
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So compounding interest, when you leave
investments alone, and they compound on
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top of each other. It's investments'
interest on top of the last lot of
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interest returns. That's where leaving
things long term can generate greater
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levels of interest, because it's not
simple interest, it's compound interest.
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And that's where these slides come in,
excuse me, time is money.
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People often talk about 'timing the market',
it's often more important to spend time
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in the market. What do we mean by that?
Well let's say for example, you've got
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a 20-year-old, a 30-year-old, a 40 and a
50-year-old, who all of a-side,
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with a starting balance of nothing,
they want to put an extra $50 a fortnight
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perhaps even less, in superannuation.
So let's just assume this is extra money
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you're putting into your super, above and
beyond what you might already be getting.
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What difference will it make by putting
$50 a fortnight, now let's assume an
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annual earning rate of roughly 7.8%,
so you're probably in the growth plan.
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Now if you start when you're 20, an extra
$50 a fortnight, taken out of the
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conversation inflation and things like
that, when you get to 60, so after 40
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years, you'll have $345,758 extra sitting
in your account.
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By only putting in $50 a fortnight.
Now if you don't start until you're 30,
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now I've got $154,000, you don't start
until you're 40, about $64,000,
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you don't start until you're 50, it's
$21,000. Now you can see, even though
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they're only 10-year periods separating
each starting point, the amounts of
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difference are massive. Because the person
starting making contributions earlier,
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is getting compounding interest every
month on top of the contributions that
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have already grown. And that's why the
balance can be quite large, by putting in
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significantly small amounts of money,
if you start really early.
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Well let's now focus on that $345,000
because we know that starting at 20,
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over 40 years, should generate a figure
that's similar to that.
-
But what if, you need that amount of
money, but you don't start when you're 20.
-
Well if you don't start 'til you're 30,
to meet the same objective, you'll need to
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put in $112 a fortnight, significantly
more. If you don't start 'til you're 40,
-
now you've gotta do $270 a fortnight,
for a much shorter period of time.
-
And if you don't start 'til you're 50,
now it's $807 per fortnight.
-
So this is where compounding interest can
work against you, the longer you wait to
-
start making investments. And because
superannuation can't be accessed,
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generally until the age of 60 anyway,
for a lot of people making extra
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contributions in super, the benefits of
compounding interest come along anyway,
-
because you can't get access to it.
But what it does say, is if you want to
-
start growing your super, the earlier you
start, generally speaking, the less amount
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you've gotta make as a contribution
a fortnight.
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And what is the value of superannuation
to you? Well the value of super is this;
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It's a very tax-advantaged saving scheme
for retirement, often more, better tax
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advantages than you're gonna get through
your income tax rates.
-
Why is superannuation compulsory, and it's
been compulsory since 1992, it's so that
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you have an alternative to, or a
supplement for, the age pension.
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The age pension, is not going to disappear
anytime soon, but it is still seen as
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being only a safety net for retirement.
Because we've been getting compulsory
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super now since 1992.
-
And the value of super for you might be
to give you the options in retirement
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that you might not otherwise have, by just
relying on the age pension, or even just
-
compulsory super, maybe making extra
contributions, will meet your objectives,
-
as to what your lifestyle might look like
in retirement.
-
Now there are different ways of getting
money into super, and the main way is
-
your employers' contributions.
Now down on the left-hand side you can
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see, you can put money in super through
your employers' contributions, through
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salary sacrifice through your payroll,
voluntary after-tax contributions,
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through cheque or B-pay or even through
your payroll. There are also personal
-
deductible contributions which we're not
going to go into great detail about today,
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and there's also spouse contributions.
But across the top, there are two main
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forms of contributions. One is called
concessional contributions, one is called
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non-concessional.
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What is the difference? The difference
comes down to the name. Concessional
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contributions are moneys' that go into
your super before you pay your income tax.
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So when I showed you before that for
most Australians earning over $30,000 a
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year, most of us are paying 30% tax on a
fair chunk of our income.
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So for when you have a non-concessional
contribution, that means you've earned
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your money, you've generally paid your
tax on your income, which could be 30%.
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So if you earn $1000, you might lose 30%
being 300, you can get $700 into your
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super, that would be a non-concessional
contribution. But when putting money
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into your super as a concessional
contribution, the money comes out of your
-
income, before it gets taxed at your
regular tax rate and instead goes into
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your super and will only be taxed at 15%.
So you earn $1000, only to lose 15%,
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you're left with $850. So superannuation
concessional contributions is like earning
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$1000 and being able to invest $850,
whereas non-concessional contributions,
-
which you can invest in anywhere, might
otherwise be earning $1000 and only
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getting $700 invested. That's the benefit
of superannuation.
-
And what this slide here is showing,
excuse me, is normally you earn your
-
salary, your salary gets taxed at your
marginal tax rate, think 30-odd percent or
-
possibly more, at the top end, and money
goes into your bank account.
-
Money that you can buy and invest
elsewhere, the interest or earnings are
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also taxed at your marginal tax rate.
But when you put money into superannuation
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through your salary, through salary
sacrifice, it'll only be taxed at 15%,
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either on the way into your account with
most super funds like GESB, Australian
-
Super and Hesta, or the money on the way
out, with West State Super, still 15%.
-
And not just that, not only do you pay
only 15% tax on the contributions, you
-
only pay 15% tax on the investment
earnings, as opposed to your marginal tax
-
rate. Now because superannuation
is considered to be a tax-effective savings
-
strategy for your retirement, that's why
the government's put in place, they also
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understand, that by saving for your
retirement, the government is going to
-
receive less tax now, than if you hadn't
put it through your pay.
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That's why they limit the amount you're
allowed to put into your superannuation
-
through what are called concessional
contributions. Now for most Australian
-
funds, being taxed funds, GESB, Hesta,
Australian Super, that sort of fund, the
-
limitation per year is $30,000 per year.
And that includes your employers super
-
contributions, so you could already be
getting 11 and a half percent in super,
-
you're allowed to go above and beyond
that up to $30,000, per year to grow your
-
superannuation savings. If you go above
that, you're not penalised as such, but
-
the excess contributions will be taxed
at your marginal tax rate.
-
Now, for those of you who might have a
West State Super, or indeed a Gold State
-
Super Account those concessional
contributions of an annual $30,000 limit,
-
do not apply to you. Instead, you've got
what's called an untaxed plan cap,
-
and as that currently stands, that is
$1.78 million in your lifetime.
-
And that gets indexed every year.
So that means, if you've got West Side
-
Super for example, irrespective of
what your employer's putting into your
-
employers' contributions, you can salary
sacrifice above and beyond that, past the
-
$30,000 per year, up to $1.78 million over
your lifetime.
-
So that's an important consideration of
West State that provides benefits that may
-
not be applicable in other super funds.
-
However, there is one thing you need to
consider. Whilst West State Super does not
-
have an annual limitation, like every
other super fund, there is a correlation
-
between West State, and other super funds.
So what this example here is showing is
-
this, let's say I've got a West State Super
account, but maybe I've got another tax
-
super fund, like Hesta, or Australian
Super, or maybe a self-managed super
-
fund. What this slide here is showing is,
if I'm putting in $20,000 per year,
-
of concessional contributions into West
State, that's okay, I can still put
-
$10,000 of concessional contributions
into another fund, without breaching the
-
$30,000 cap. Now, in example two,
if I put in $30,000 a year into West
-
State, that is also okay, even though the
$30,000 limit does not apply to West State,
-
by putting $30,000 into West State, all of
a sudden, whatever I'm putting into West
-
State counts against whatever I'm putting
into any other Australian super fund,
-
tax super fund. So if I'm putting $30,000
into West State through salary sacrifice,
-
and employer contributions, at that point,
if any extra moneys' are going into a tax
-
super fund, as a concessional
contribution, that amount is now in breach
-
of the concessional contributions cap.
And as per example slide three, if I'm
-
putting $50,000 into West State, that's
not a problem, but it means anything going
-
into any other fund as a concessional
contribution is in breach of the
-
concessional cap. So please be mindful
of that if you've got multiple super funds.
-
Now, irrespective of which super
fund you've got, the non-concessional
-
contribution cap is, for example, money I
might have in the bank, money I might have
-
already saved, money I might be getting
from an inheritance.
-
Moneys' that I either don't need to pay
tax on, or I've already paid tax on.
-
I could put that into my West State
account, or GESB account or any other
-
super fund. And the amount that you're
limited to is $120,000 per year, up to
-
the age of 75. If I happen to go over
$120,000 per year, it's not a major
-
problem, provided I don't put in more
than $360,000 over a three-year period.
-
So what that's saying here is, if I put
$120,000 in this year, 120 the following
-
year, 120 the following year, no problem.
-
But let's say, for example, I accidentally
put in $150,000 this year, I don't have a
-
problem, but what happens is for this year
and the next two years, the government
-
says the most you can put in is $360,000.
-
Now, you do not want to breach that cap
because if you do, your excess gets taxed
-
at 47%. Now, there is something else to
take into account.
-
Whilst there is an annual limits, at a
three year limit to what you can put into
-
your super through non-concessional
contributions, you can only make these
-
contributions if your balance in super
is less than $1.9 million at the end of
-
the financial year. So what I would say is
this, if you're planning on making
-
non-concessional contributions to your
super, and you've got less than
-
$1.9 million, and you're under 75, you can
still make these contributions.
-
But as you get closer to 75 years of age,
please be aware, you need to contact your
-
super fund, 'cos once you're within three
years of getting to 75, the amount you
-
can put in, you just need to be a little
careful, when using the bring forward rule
-
because you might exceed that cap.
So please contact your super fund
-
to understand how that works.
-
Now, let's start talk about the investment
side of things.
-
Investment terms and concepts, so we're
going to talk about unit prices, share
-
prices, dividends, and liquidity, we're
gonna talk about asset classes, we're
-
gonna talk about risk profile and time
horizon.
-
So what are unit prices,
well unit prices are very similar to
-
shares, so in your super, when money
goes into your superannuation fund,
-
what happens is you don't get a set level
of return.
-
What actually happens is, we purchase
investments at a certain price.
-
So if a unit is worth $1, and you put in
$100 into your super, we buy 100
-
investments at a dollar per investment.
-
As the unit price goes up in value,
the investments you've already got go up
-
in value, your balance goes up.
-
But it also means that extra money going
into your super, buys less and less for
-
your dollar 'cos the new investments you're
buying are getting more expensive.
-
Subsequently though, if unit prices drop,
and you're putting money into your super,
-
you buy more for your dollar.
So understanding how unit prices work is
-
extremely important with super, because
even when markets go down, even though
-
your balance might fall, you actually get
to buy more investments for your dollar
-
because you're getting more purchasing
value, so please understand that.
-
Also, unit pricing provides liquidity
because it means that when you resign
-
or retire and you want to access your
super, you don't have to sell all your
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superannuation investments to take some
money out. Unit pricing provides
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liquidity, you might decide to sell off
$10,000 worth of investments to get the
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money out. Now we're going to talk about
asset classes shortly, we're also going to
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talk about risk profile, and time horizon,
in fact, I'll talk about time horizon now.
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Time horizon is, how soon until I need my
actual money. Why is that important?
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If I need my money tomorrow, from my
retirement savings, you may not want to
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have your money invested in high growth or
risky investments, because if the balance
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you need is about what you've got now,
then all of a sudden the market falls for
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the next 12 months, if you're invested in
a more volatile investment type,
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and the market will drop, you might lose
some of the value of that investment at a
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time when you don't have time to recover
the investment losses because you're
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drawing down soon. However, on the
flipside, if you don't need your
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superannuation for 20 or 30 years, your
time horizon is quite far off, you might
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decide 'well my risk profile might be a
little bit greater, which means I can
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afford to take on more risk, maybe I can
afford to take on more volatility,' because
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the more volatile your investments are,
the most risk they take on, the more
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likely it is to go up, but the more likely
it is to experience downturns.
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As we all know, over the long term, more
volatile investments do go up, yes they go
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down, but they likely recover the losses
in the medium-to long-term.
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And that's why we talk about risk in
super, super is not without risk.
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There's legislative risk, the risk that
the government may change the rules.
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It has happened in the past, will likely
happen in the future.
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But the extent to which those risks come
about with legislation, often or at the
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top end, to reduce the amount of tax
effectiveness that people can get, the
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rules don't change that much or that often.
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Then we've got investment risk, the risk
that your investment may not achieve
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your investment outcomes, that you're
looking for.
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So understand that even though markets
go up and down, okay, that is the
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investment risk. But avoiding risk might
result in you not getting the return that
-
you actually want, it may not give you
enough return.
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Increasing investment risk may increase
volatility, how much it goes up and down,
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but hopefully should increase what you
return in the end.
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And restricted access is also a risk.
Only put money into superannuation
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you can afford to be without generally
until the age of 60, because that's when
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you get access to your super.
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So managing your investment risk through
the GESB website, we have an investment
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tool in the GESB calculators area, there's
one that allows you, called the
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Investment Tool, to choose what investment
profile you might want to take on.
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Because in your super your money gets
invested in Australian shares,
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international shares, private equity,
and other investment options.
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Some are less, or more defensive, less
aggressive, some are more growth-orientated
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providing greater levels of return over
the long-term.
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Now, GESB takes what's called a
multi-manager approach, by doing this
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it means we spread your money far and
wide, so whether you're in GESB Super,
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West State or one of our retirement income
pension options, you can choose to be
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invested in cash, conservative, balanced,
sustainable balanced, growth and a range
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of other options. But even below that,
when you look at the actual investment
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managers we use, within the Australian
share portfolio, we use about seven
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different fund managers, within the
property portfolio we use in excess of
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10, we do this to spread the risk far
and wide, which mitigates the chances of
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the managers making mistakes and impacting
you.
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Because as you can see, different
investments perform differently, so what
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we like to do is take the risk away,
so you don't have to choose one investment
-
or the other, and by taking the balanced
approached for a lot of people, whether
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it be in the growth plan, sustainable or
my West State plan, what this graph is
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showing is how the West State Super plan
has performed since 2001.
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Now even though a lot of you aren't in
West State, maybe you're in GESB Super,
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the reason we show West State first is
because it goes back the furthest, which
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allows you to see the impact of volatility
growth has had on the investment markets.
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And you can see, even though growth and
the West State plan are the most important
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aggressive of the plans, that also
returned the greatest investment growth.
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Whereas the cash plan, nice, slow and
steady, doesn't perform overly well,
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but it also doesn't achieve negatives.
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Now you'll see over the last couple of
years, or year or so, there's some orange
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line, the sustainable balanced plan,
it only shows a short-term because
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we've only had it available for about
12 months.
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Now in West State Super there are five
ready made plans to choose from,
-
and you get to choose from cash,
conservative, the default plan if you've
-
not made an option, which used to be
called the balanced plan, there's also
-
the sustainable balanced plan as well as
growth. The growth plan is the most
-
aggressive, the cash plan is the least
aggressive.
-
But you can also take the option to do
a mix your plan.
-
This is where you can choose the exact
allocation of investment types, from the
-
five asset classes that exist, you can
change it as often as you want.
-
Now, the GESB Super. GESB Super only goes
back to 2007 and as you can see when it
-
first started, that's when the global
financial crisis hit.
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But it still shows, that even though cash
has been very steady along the middle,
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the other investment plans have been more
volatile, but have provided greater levels
-
of return. And you can actually plot these
graphs on the GESB website through the
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investment centre, and you can plot the
cash, conservative, balanced, the default
-
plan, sustainable and the growth.
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And as I said before, you can change your
investment options as often as you want.
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The benefit of investing through super is
that firstly, it's a long-term investment
-
for most people. It means you pick and
choose, you pick a fund or a plan that
-
suits your personality trait, you make
those contributions, you can make extra
-
contributions, and because you can't
access the money generally until you're
-
60, you get the benefit of compounding
interest, without disturbing those
-
investments. So the next steps for you.
-
Try out investment planning tool to help
determine what investment vehicle you
-
should be in. You might be a conservative
person, that might just mean simply,
-
you need to take a less aggressive option
with your investment.
-
However, if you understand that over the
long-term, and you understand that the
-
ups and downs with investments might
provide you with greater outcomes,
-
you might decide to go with more growth
orientated options.
-
You can change as your personality changes,
as your timeframes change for retirement.
-
You can review your investment choice
through the member online facility,
-
go to the GESB website, top right-hand
corner you can log-on to member online,
-
you can do it as often as you want.
-
Also read the quarterly investment updates
on our website, so that you get a better
-
understanding of how investments actually
work, rather than just listening to the
-
news, rather than your sister-in-law,
or indeed your friends because without
-
any disrespect intended, most of us aren't
investment gurus, we hear things through
-
the news, we hear things through friends.
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Get it from the horse's mouth, read the
updates, we want you to be as informed
-
as you can and you make those key
decisions. You can also try our
-
contributions calculator, so on the GESB
website, right-hand side roughly half-way
-
down, there's a section called
'calculators', within that there
-
is the investments tool, but there are
also tools about showing you how much
-
your contributions could be into your
super, there are also calculators about
-
the time and planning. How much difference
will contributions make into your super
-
over the long-term.
-
Have a look at them, they're very
worthwhile.
-
What should you be being next?
Well maybe contact at GESB if you need to.
-
Now this is a recorded session so I won't
be taking any questions, but please feel
-
free to contact at GESB on working days
Monday to Friday between 7:30am and 5:30pm
-
by calling 13 43 72, which just happens to
be 13 GESB. So 13 43 72. You can also use
-
the live chat on the GESB website between
the hours of 7:30am and 5:15pm, or you
-
can contact us through the website. If you
found this somewhat useful, you can go
-
back and watch this webinar at your
leisure, it is being recorded, and if
-
you've got any questions, contact GESB
directly. We'll be updating this webinar
-
probably at the beginning of the next
financial year, and there are many other
-
webinars available on the GESB website.
In the meantime, my name is Brad Zaknich,
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thank you very much for logging in,
we hope you enjoyed this recorded webinar.