The Problem With Super, Propping Up Greed

This is an issue that has always concerned me but has taken on new importance recently.

Why is my employers contribution to my superannuation given to a massive multi-national to look after?

I would prefer they put that mandatory 9% (12% soon hopefully) into a savings account that I cannot access until I am 65. Or let me invest it myself.

A few reasons for this:
1. I do not trust that in 40 years or so when I am of retirement age (if it hasn't been raised to 80 years for retirement by then) the fund I use will be in existence. The recent economic events of the world will attest to my paranoia.

With companies like these in times of trouble they will protect their own bums first, their mates second, and me and my hard work and livelihood may rate a footnote at best. It is only yours and my money that has made them rich so it matters little in a crisis what happens to it. They have no connection to the numbers before them on the screen. These meaningless numbers that amount to a lifetime of our toil, to them are just credits on a poker machine that just never runs out of coins.

2. The gambling aspect of super funds means that someone who works less and makes less than myself could get lucky with super fund investments and end up with a great deal more money than me just because of a few lucky hits.

This is crap. I would prefer to invest that money myself in businesses I choose, in amounts and ratios I choose.

3. The GFC for instance knocked about 60% of my wife's super off. She did nothing for this to happen. Greedy people doing greedy things did. My wife is not avaricious, the super is there because the government insists that her employers put it there instead of in her control.

These points are the main reason for my outburst.

But it does give one pause to think. The people in charge of these companies are often the silver-spoon crowd or the corporate psychopaths. Ask yourself, are these the kind of people you will want to have a massive hand in your future? For me that is a big NO. The claim is that their pay and bonus is tied to the portfolios performance. Yet none of these people had their pay cut or bonuses denied when my wife's super went down so dramatically.

It seems to me that the way the mandatory contributions and government and industry practice works is just to prop up the elite and keep us working for them.

Think how indebted to these companies you are for life.

If they go belly up so does the money for your old age. They now practically own you. If all these companies just decided to cry poor and say they are about to go broke you better believe the government will prop them up.

A few things to add are: I know about industry super. I am in it. But it does not really defeat the previous points as I still have no control over my cash.

Being an Aussie I do not know how other countries do this, so if your country has a different experience please let me know.

When one blindly trusts people that are this greedy with their ultimate future only bad things can happen.

Cheers,
Pabs

Originally posted by pablos
It seems to me that the way the mandatory contributions and government and industry practice works is just to prop up the elite and keep us working for them.

I'm not familiar with the Australian system, but it sounds like a form of insurance for those large multi-nationals. Everyone is required to 'contribute' to some pooled fund, which magically turns from real money into imaginary bookkeeping promissory notes. So the multi-national must stay afloat and profitable in order for the people to ever have a chance of getting paid back. "Too big to fail".

You may want to have a contingency retirement plan.


[edit on July 5th 2010 by Ian McLean]

reply to post by pablos


I know what you mean and most people do the same as you..

ie: just roll with the Super Fund provided by your employer...

You can however, choose any fund you like, even set up your own trust fund..

You can choose high risk or secure cash only...

Learn what you can do, It's really your choice...

Here in Canada, for retirement, we have many systems we can have, or see, our money being invested in, to make profit for everyone contributing...

The thing is, if you take 10 retirement plans, you won't get 10 times your salary when you retire, you'll get 10% from each, as each one will say someone else can provide for you retirement... be it public or private...

So I stopped putting money in all that crap ( for a 2000 dollars investment, I received only 180.00$ when I closed the contract... ), except for the one we are "obligated" to, with the government.

But what I can't understand, is people investing in what is called a REER. Basically, you give the amount of your choice to the government, and he uses it and invests it. You pay nothing from your capital since you are "investing" in the government. You will get ( LOL!!! ) the money when you retire, minus a percentage of the profit generated over the years. And if you want it back before you retire, you have two choices: A) you pay a 50% penalty for reclaiming YOUR money, or you can have it with no penalty to buy a house, if you reimburse the government in something like 10 years... Try that with a bank that asks for your payments...

So aside from saving some money for the old days, I think the trick is to do like the rich and buy material things that are robust and long lasting, and that will resell with a profit some day.

Remember we say the rich are worth X amount of money, not that they possess X amount of paper money. A car worth a million will pretty much resell at that prize, eventually. Now you know why they possess so much stuff! Art is a good way to protect your money also. As it rarely looses its value...

reply to post by pablos


All I want to say is this, if you want to do something different and you cannot do it, if means you are controlled. And chances are that you are a slave . Other slaves will tell you that you are wrong and just put up with it. Think about it.

reply to post by Aresh Troxit


I agree. When the market recently tanked, I was soooo glad that I didn't have "investments" (retirement plans) other than my house and a couple of properties. Anyone who had "investments" lost approximately a third of their money. My house and property didn't go down in price. Saskatchewan, it can't go down any further we are already around the lowest prices in Canada.

Investments aren't done very good these days. Someone gambles with your money, if they win, they get a bonus, if they lose, it's not their money, they still get their bonus, and you are the one left with less money.

Best off to have everything you need paid off for a comfy retirement, houses (rent one or two out), vehicles, tools, comfort, and food. Chances are there isn't going to be much in retirement funds in a few years, whether it's personally invested or invested (gambled) by a professional financier, or government.

reply to post by virgom129


Virgom I must respectfully dispute your claim.

I have learned what I can do and the options are grim.

If you want to manage your own super the government has stacked it with so much red tape and fees that it is not even worth considering unless you have a minimum 200,000 dollars. I am 28 and have been working for 15 years now, with the last 13 at places that kick in super.

That means in my position I would have had to have earned 170,000 per annum to have this much super to invest.

To get that much on my average salary over that time I would be working for 52 years before I would have enough to contemplate running my own future. If it weren't pissed away on golden handshakes by then.

Just in time for retirement.

I would just love to be able to save that cash in my own account, where it remains money, not given to people to gamble with.

However this is illegal. Which I find idiotic. I cannot be trusted with my money, but I am supposed to trust the least honest people on Earth.

If I have my facts wrong Virgom, please correct them but this is all I can really find out about it.

Cheers,
Pabs

reply to post by pablos


Mate, I agree with you, it is all about greed, but what can you do when you can't change the system.

You can take a little more control of it. Instead of just going with your employers super, take control of your own fund.

I have a financial adviser who works it out for me, and if I have a problem or want something changed he does it in 24 hours. During the GFC my super only lost 2%, because I and my adviser transfered a lot of my fund into cash.

Don't just let someone control it, take control of it yourself. Just a little bit of leg work can save you a lot of cash.

Sure, it's not the best system and I'd rather have that cash in my pocket to control, but you've got to work with the system we have.

Wow sounds nice. In the US they take 15% for "social security", and the government just spends it immediately.