Investing inside your super

AMP has shared with us this video that will talk you through investing within your superannuation. You can watch the video here, or read the transcription below.

Jon Comino is my name. I’ve been at AMP around about 12 years. I’m a fund manager there. I’ve been in financial markets for 30 years. I’m here to give you some insights into investing inside your superannuation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGING YOUR SUPERANNUATION

Superannuation is a very significant asset for a lot of people, up there with their family home. You begin attracting super when you start your first job, and it keeps accumulating until you retire. It’s a long time frame, typically 30 years. It’s very important stuff. You’ve got to pay the same attention to super as you do the family home. You’ve got a lot of control over your super. Once you understand what sort of investor you are, then you can invest in an option that suits you, and that’s really reflecting your own comfort level with risk.

WHAT LEVEL OF RISK ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH?

One of the well-established approaches with investing is the concept of balancing risk and return. Essentially, each asset class that we as fund managers invest in has their own return targets. What’s really important to understand is with those return targets comes risk, and the higher potential return, the higher inherent risk.

There’s a common saying about don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I make the point of saying it’s okay to have a bunch of eggs. It’s very important that each one of those eggs is different. There’s a range of diversified options reflecting these different risk/return characteristics that different people want.

You have to ask yourself the question ‘How risk tolerant am I?’ That’s the concept of, ‘Am I comfortable with losses being made with the idea of getting good returns in the longer term’? Or do you really not like it when you wear a loss at any time?

The entrepreneurial type of person will accept those higher levels of risk. The more cautious person will feel more uncomfortable with that.

HOW CAN A FINANCIAL ADVISOR HELP?

A financial adviser will be able to help you really get an understanding of how comfortable you are with risk. There are some tools online, on AMP’s website for example, that will help you to determine where you’re positioned with risk. But also you can look at historical return data, so you can see the overall returns, but also the volatility, in other words, the inherent risk, in those various options. It’s important to understand: it’s your super, and it’s really important that you control it.

The old-school thinking was ‘I pay my taxes, so the government will look after me with a pension’. In our society now, everybody wants a higher standard of living than the pension can deliver. That’s what superannuation is all about; putting it back into your control, and hopefully you can have that higher standard of living in your retirement.

If you have any questions about investing inside your superannuation or would like to review your personal financial plan, please contact us for an initial consultation.