Economic Crisis and Super Contributions

[B of Melb]

Hello,

Question:
In light of the current economic crisis and the way Australian Super has been affected by this, is it advisable to stop making additional super contributions? E.g. I make a contribution to super on top of the employer's contribution but I am wondering if I should stop doing this given that super is losing it s value at the moment?

 

[LDFerguson]

As this is an Irish board, I somehow doubt that too many contributors would be that familiar with the Australian superannuation system.

 

[Brownie10]

Hi there,

In Ireland we refer to super as pensions. Unlike Australia it is not compulsory here and your choice of funds is restricted to those offered by the trustees. It depends on your view of the markets, if you think that they will bounce back in the medium term then now could be a good time to contribute as you will get more units for your contributions which will happily appreciate when the markets come back. if you think we are for a prolonged recession the markets may be in doldrums for a while and continue to fall, in which cash switch your super funds towards cash options.

Many of the threads that refer to pensions will have comments & views that may apply to your super.

I still have some Aussie super and it was holding up quite well compared to what has happend in the Intl markets in the last year. The mining boom is really shielding the losses in Aus.

I would love to see the Australian system come in here, i found it great when I lived in Sydney. Although we do get full tax relief on contributions here.