Now I am retired, I am shocked at the number of people who don’t pay any attention to their super. Our neighbour took all his out because he thought it would devalue during the pandemic and it certainly is now, under his mattress. The younger members of the family who were unaffected by the COVID crisis cleaned theirs out, “because they could” and blew it, and advised us to do the same.
My husband (to-be at that stage) had no idea what his Super was doing, despite annual statements. When his wife died her super was cashed out to him, the family took most of it and the neighbour advised him to see a Financial Advisor. He ended up with AMP who charged him $7k to put $100k in and promptly lost $43k over 18 months. He had no idea that was happening. He assumed they would tell him if anything was going wrong.
My advice to these people is to treat it like a bank account. Check your statement and ask to go into a different account or fund if it isn’t performing. Go to an Industry Super fund. Bear in mind that even in a crisis, war, pandemic; someone is making money. I have an accounting background and keep a close eye on things. His super earned the equivalent of 11%pa in the first 6 weeks of the financial year (June/July 2020).
Super is one of the BEST investments an ordinary person can make, but you need to pay attention to it.