Another day

Well it's another day and I don't want to wait another 22.5 years to put it to work.

can't you put it to work by actively managing your super ?

Sure, no leveraging, however there are tax breaks. Its there anyhoo, it doesn't need to be as passive as it once did.

No external leveraging. But geared funds are available.

I recently rejigged my super to be more aggressive.. so now theres a geared australian fund, a property fund, a small cap fund, and an asia fund.

A common form of "leveraging" your super is using it in combination with an SMSF and a Unit Trust to purchase commercial property. No security can be held on the property in question, but for many investors who've been in the property market for a long time, they can secure any debt against another property.

This is particularly popular for business owners but other investors seem to be starting to use it too.

The other day I mentioned the guy who rolled a $600K capital gain on the sale of his business into super. He will be looking at doing something like this when he finds his next "business" opportunity. He'll use the structure to buy a commercial property which will be partly owned by his fund, and he'll rent the property to his business.

*Looks for the too hard basket*

I think I will either need a partner in crime with enough of a stake to make a go of a SMSF or look at the rules on CFD trading a bit more indepth.

I've been thinking about trading my super in an smsf, I have about $140k in two accts, and using the recommendations of Nick Radge (subscription). However I'm not comfortable trading a $140k account, and if I trade a smaller amount it lifts the bar to make it worthwhile.

I've always viewed super as petrol money, ie I work my other investments and rely on those for my well offness when I pull the pin, super will just bubble away in the background until I can tap into it. I actively manage it in terms of picking and monitoring the mgd funds but it is out of site, out of mind.

Dr Lobster, (great handle by the way)

I'm not disagreeing with your sentiment, just putting a spin on it.

Super for a lot of people can be and needs to be more than just petrol money for when they retire.

I know a lot of people poopoo it but when you consider that for a lot of people a 1/4 of their lives will be lived after the age of 55 (or 60 depending on your current age), then that has to be funded from somewhere.

Super can be worked well to their advantage.

Matt - I think the majority of us on this forum will NOT be those people who rely on Super in retirement - (that's kind of the point of being here). Super is a good safety net though, and so should not be abused.

I agree wholeheartedly Sim.

Perhaps a better way of expressing my concern is that the title "Superannuation" often has an instant effect of making people think in a certain way.

I guess I like to challenge that thinking. Particularly as I have seen it being used so effectivley by many business clients to actually assist them in the here and now, not just in retirement.

However, dont most business owners usually have very little super, as distributions from profits drawn are super exempt and most owners rely on the sale of the business to provide for their retirement?

So while it may help them now, it is really only placing in what everyone else does everytime they get paid..

i agree with both sides... ill contribute to super while i still earn less enough to get the contribution (free money), but apart from that im not 2 worried how it will set me up in over 34 years time...