Articles by
Barbara Drury
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Pension fund performance: Monthly returns to November 2025
Choppy markets weighed on pension fund returns in November, but the median Growth fund is still up a stellar 9.6% in 2025 to date.
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Super fund performance reckoners: Monthly returns for 5 investment categories
In our reckoner below you can view the median monthly investment returns for 5 superannuation investment options going back to January 2016.
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Super fund performance: Monthly returns to November 2025
After a shaky November, super funds are still on course to deliver healthy returns for the 2025 calendar year.
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Retirement planning for couples
Super can’t be held in joint names, but it does provide opportunities for couples to maximise their combined tax-free retirement income and streamline estate planning.
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Rethinking the role of your home in retirement
Home ownership provides a sense of security and wellbeing in retirement, but it could also be a potential source of income.
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How the rich invest
Wealthy Australians have surfed the wave of strong investment returns in 2025, with a disciplined approach and a growing appetite for alternative investments.
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Super funds of the year awards: Best super funds for 2025–26
While returns are important, they are not the only ingredient in a top super fund, as these annual awards show.
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Pension fund of the year 2025-26: What makes a winner?
As the Baby Boomer bubble enters retirement, attention is shifting to the retirement phase of super and which funds offer the best pension products and member services.
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Super pension funds put to the test
A new consumer-friendly review of pension funds reveals which funds are ticking all the right boxes.
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3 very different types of ‘retirement’
Today’s 60- and 70-somethings are reinventing retirement, easing into it with a focus on finding meaning and purpose in flexible part-time work, volunteering and new activities.
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The taper trap: Super and the Age Pension assets test
A quirk of our retirement income system can leave retirees with middling a super balance worse off than a full Age Pensioner. But there are ways to increase Pension entitlements
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Retiring overseas: Implications for your super and tax
Escaping to a dream location where the living is easy can be tempting for cash-strapped retirees, but there are some practical issues to be aware of before you make the leap.
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How a transition-to-retirement (TTR) pension works
If you’re over 60 and not ready to retire but would like some extra cash to top up your super or wind back your working hours, then a TTR pension could help.
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Super and pension fund performance: Where does your fund rank?
Have you ever looked at your super fund’s investment returns and wondered how your fund compares with similar funds? Is it a consistently high performer or an inveterate underachiever?
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SMSF investment rules: Collectables and personal use assets
An ATO crackdown on asset valuations is putting pressure on SMSFs with collectables to take stock.
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SMSF statistics: 1.2 million members with $1 trillion in super
The size of the self-managed super fund sector continues to grow in terms of members and assets, at the expense of all but industry super funds.
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What type of people have SMSFs?
If you think SMSFs are just for old wealthy Australians, think again. Increasingly, younger people and women are also embracing the self-managed ethos.
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How do ETFs compare to LICs/LITs and managed funds?
Managed investments offer instant diversification, but there are important differences between the types of funds on offer – from cost to legal structure.
