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Before I wrote Super Freedom: A woman’s guide to superannuation, I had often discussed the need for a practical non-technical book for women on superannuation. The first question I was asked when I told some female friends that I was writing a book for women on superannuation and retirement was: ‘Why does there need to be a book on super especially for women? Don’t men have to think about this stuff too?’ Yes, men do have to think about this stuff, but women have to deal with this stuff in a different way to men.
A male friend of mine suggested I should just add a supplement chapter to one of my existing books, explaining the special issues women face when planning for retirement. On the surface, his suggestion had merit because my existing books were certainly written with both female and male readers in mind, but as you probably already know, there are bigger issues playing out for women wanting to create a better life for themselves in retirement.
My book, Super Freedom: A woman’s guide to superannuation (Wrightbooks) can help women discover how to create a better life financially in six steps, and you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars in financial advice to make this happen.
Women have different life experiences to men
Although we may all like to think women and men are the same in terms of money and finance, women generally have different life experiences to men, such as:
- earning less (on average)
- living longer than men (on average); which generally means women need to save more for retirement than men, or live a more modest life in retirement
- taking time out of the workforce to bring up children
- continuing to be the main carer of children from a marriage or other type of previous relationship in the event of divorce or separation
- reducing or rescheduling work hours to care for an elderly parent, or parents
- for most women in their mid-fifties or older, not being given the option of having a super account until much later in life, if at all.
The major difference between a man and woman, when saving for retirement, is directly linked to the fact that the most popular way of saving for retirement is through Australia’s superannuation (super) system. The Australian super system was originally designed for a traditional male who worked full time for 35 years and remained married to the one person for his entire life. If you don’t fit into the traditional male definition of a working life — and most women (and some men) don’t — then you definitely need to be more hands-on with your retirement planning.
I have spoken at many seminars where women in the audience would approach me after the presentation and say, for example: ‘now I understand what my superannuation savings can create for me — why didn’t someone tell me this earlier?’ Other women would comment on the fact that I talked their language, rather than the language of the money men.
It was fantastic to receive such positive feedback from seminar participants, but I also appreciated that there was a real problem. Although the superannuation industry is spending millions of dollars to encourage Australians to think about planning for retirement, many women are not hearing the message. Although the government is offering tax incentives to save for retirement by using a superannuation fund, many women are not taking advantage of these incentives. Why not?
I have worked in, or written about, the superannuation industry for 28 years, and the answer to this question is now patently clear to me. Many women haven’t been heeding the plan for retirement message because most of the information available about superannuation and retirement is not targeted towards women; rather, it is targeted towards some average person that rarely resembles a female.
Women learn differently to men on money matters
From my thousands of conversations with women over the years, I believe that many women believe that financial freedom, particularly in retirement, is not possible. A financially stress-free retirement is indeed possible, and the easiest way to achieve this dream is by getting to know how the superannuation rules can benefit you.
In terms of finance and money, women often learn differently to men. Women like to discover the benefits of a product or service, or what it can deliver for them. Men like to do that too but many men also love to get under the hood and see how something works. In my experience, the process of how superannuation works seems to engage the blokes more than the women, and for some crazy reason the main focus in Australia seems to be on the process of saving for your retirement — typically the superannuation rules — when I believe the focus should be more on the outcome — wanting a comfortable life in retirement.
Clearly the super rules are essential information, but such information is most helpful when you know what lifestyle you want in retirement, and how much money is necessary — your retirement target — to deliver that lifestyle. You can then use the superannuation rules to help you reach your retirement target. In other words, much of the information available on retirement planning explains what the super rules are, rather than explaining how you can create the retirement lifestyle that you want by using the super rules.
Super Freedom: A woman’s guide to superannuation (Wrightbooks) is different, and the information is tailored to the life experiences of women, and uses case studies to illustrate how doing a little can dramatically improve your retirement lifestyle, and doing a lot can totally transform your life after work or raising children.
Women are a diverse group facing unique challenges
The superannuation system has certainly improved over the years, although women who don’t work full time, or women who are self-employed, definitely have to think more creatively when it comes to saving and planning for retirement. What’s new? I believe thinking outside the box has always been a necessity for women, and this can reap unexpected financial rewards. For instance, you may be surprised by the fact that a study has shown that women are better investors than men. I share some of the findings from this fascinating study in Super Freedom.
Women often have to work smarter, think smarter and tailor a standard system to suit their unique needs. Fortunately, women are highly adept at doing this because most women, in most parts of their life, are facing similar issues, whether it be raising children, managing work–life balance, tackling the boy’s club in society or traditionally male workplaces, or working in under-valued female-dominated industries.
Super Freedom deals with all types of women, although I do want to make an important point about women who may be single or divorced or widowed. Most women at some stage in their lives will live alone — either by choice or by circumstance. If you’re a woman, you may never marry; you may be single before you marry; you may divorce; you may outlive your husband or partner; or you may end up living apart because your partner (or you) suffers aged-related illness. Many wealth accumulation books don’t cater for women living on their own, but my book certainly does.
The aim of my book is to help Australian women (although men will find the book useful as well) work out the steps necessary to create a worry-free lifestyle in retirement, and superannuation just happens to be one of the easiest ways to get there. Every woman deserves the opportunity to discover her own retirement dream, and this book gives some handy tools to help make that dream come true.
If there is a single message I hope all readers will take from Super Freedom, it is that it is never too late, or too early, to improve your financial circumstances.
Click on the book link below to find out more information about the book. Or continue exploring this website for other super-related articles. For starters, check out the SuperGuide article Financial freedom: Retirement planning in six steps.
Super Freedom: A Women’s Guide To Superannuation
Super Freedom: A Women’s Guide To Superannuation(Wrightbooks)
Learn more about Super Freedom: A Women’s Guide To Superannuation
Like most of you I have worked hard for a number of years and only recently started to get myself into the mindset of Superannuation, its a bit like having an accident or fire, we believe it will never happen to us and by that I mean we think we will have enough when we retire.
I have a strategy that has helped me along the way to really boost my super account, it consists of small amounts of this each year;
1) – My wife salary sacrifices $100 into her super and then makes a spouse split contribution to me.
2) – I put $1000 after tax dollars into my super and the Govt hands me $500 free.
3) – My employer puts in the SG contribution.
4) – The Govt puts in small amt $$$ as per low income rebate.
This strategy and the selection of the high growth option over the past 6 years has helped grow my super, as I am getting older I have pulled back to the Growth option.
Dear Trish,
Until now, I have looked forward to reading information and sometimes opinion, which has been informative and helpful through your SuperGuide website. More than anything else, I felt comfort in knowing ‘someone has our backs covered’ – a ‘sentry at the gate’. Often I have forwarded your SuperGuide web address to family and friends when there have been particular items of relevance to their situation.
Reading posts in today’s Newsletter, I am disappointed to note there seems to be a change in your message delivery from free, honest and meaningful Super information to one of a sales agenda.
My disappointment and failing trust was particularly keen after reading the above post, where the title indicate that by reading the article, the reader may gain some insight into how a woman can improve her retirement financial security in 6 steps. Could you not have at least listed the 6 steps in your sales spiel and added that much free information as your topic title promised?
While I acknowledge you have the right to earn a living from the work and service you provide and advertise your books, would it have not been more honest if you advertised in the margin and kept your topic titles to content about the topic, that is, informative substance about the topic?
Never-the-less, thank you for providing SuperGuide information and ‘peace of mind’ for the past years until now.
Judith
Hi Judith
Thanks for your feedback. I am an author and journalist who chooses to share what I know for free, which is quite rare in any industry. I am pleased that you have found the service beneficial in the past.
I am also very proud of my books and believe they can be beneficial to those who want more detailed information.
Regards
Trish
I made an effort to salary sacrifice etc, however now I am in a difficult position as my ex squandered his super and now wants half of mine! I now no longer salary sacrifice and put my dollars out of his reach. It’s sad this has to happen.
“Although the government is offering tax incentives to save for retirement by using a superannuation fund, many women are not taking advantage of these incentives. Why not?”
…I think the answer to this question Trish is because this stuff is deadset boring to a lot of women (and men) out there! As much as you and I can digest and stomach all the detail, most people can’t.
I congratulate you for writing this book and will recommend it, but the reality is most people would be better off spending a few thousands of dollars on financial advice to make this happen.
For those that just can’t digest this stuff, they’d still be better off after paying a few thousand dollars for advice to take advantage of all these opportunties, can we agree on that?
(assuming it’s coming from a source that can be trusted, is independent, conflict-free and puts your interest first, not the advisers).
A few thousand dollars?
Ummm… isn’t that about how much we women have, on average, in super in the first place?
My advice to other women would be – invest in an industry fund – they are doing amazing things for substantially lower fees, and then take advantage of the FREE advice available from the inhouse advisers. Transfer all your other superannuation fund balances into this cheap (but very high quality) superannuation fund – they’ll help you do that.
Oh, and read “The Barefoot Investor” for some very down to earth guidance about finance in general.
Salary sacrifice into super – even a small percentage – it will add up and compound.
Over 15 years since I left my marriage, I have passed the average balance of Australian women, and I have not had high paying jobs, or been in full time work for a large part of that time. And now I’m a full-time student.
I expect to work for another 10 years (I want to pay off my mortgage) and I want to enjoy using my new qualification when I finish.
The important thing for us to do, as women, is know that we can do this. We run other people’s lives amazingly well – so we are very capable of doing the same for ourselves. Yes, it takes a bit of time and thought, but we can do it.
Baby steps – and remember that every journey of $1,000 begins with the first dollar (yes, I did paraphrase there a bit!).
Good luck – we can do this!