Health Check Tuesday; your Personal Finances
There’s more than $17 billion in lost super out there and some of it could be yours!
Many people have lost track of their superannuation. If you’ve ever changed your name, changed your address or changed jobs – and most of us have at least once – you may have lost track of some of your superannuation. There may be superannuation that is yours that is part of that $17 million and would be better in your account than sitting idling.
There are a number of ways to keep track of and manage your super.
The ATO website provides a number of ways that you can check if you have any lost super.
Over time as people change jobs there is the chance that superannuation ends up in different funds. Some time ago when I was employed in a book shop, they paid all their employees super into a specific fund (this was in the days before we were able to choose our preferred fund). This resulted in my having more than one superannuation account.
Some people end up having several super accounts. This could mean that fees and charges are reducing their overall super investment. Each fund will charge fees. Why would you want to have your money in multiple superannuation funds when you can amalgamated into one fund?
When you decide which fund you are choosing as your main fund, if you contact them, they will usually happily assist you to find and claim any lost super funds. They are the experts.
Your action:
- Check with the ATO if you have any lost super
- Contact your superannuation fund and ask them to help you to locate and claim any lost super
- Continue contributing to build your super account – this is particularly important for start up businesses, many of whom do not contribute to super! More on this later …