My Retirement Planner

Michael [00:00:00] Hi, I'm Michael.

Jackie [00:00:01] And I'm Jacki.

Michael [00:00:03] We're here to give you an update on your super and how investments have performed recently and what we're doing to grow your super over the long term.

Jackie [00:00:11] We'll also talk about the performance of our two most popular investment options. And for those who are retired or close to it, I'll talk about how to prepare for what's next and how to make the most of your savings.

Michael [00:00:26] This quarter, markets moved up and down, as usual, as investors reacted to different pieces of news. Some weaker economic data from China negatively affected the performance of Australian shares and kept our dollar down. There are positive signs that inflation may finally be coming down, but this might not mean interest rates will come down quickly. Some central banks are suggesting that interest rates could stay higher for longer and that we may not see any rate cuts next year. This caused longer term bond yields to rise over the quarter, now back at levels last seen in 2007. It all added up to a quarter of subdued and sometimes negative performance for many investment options. Remember, though, the short term ups and downs are normal in investing. The important thing is to focus on long term returns to build your super for retirement. Short term dips in your balance can feel concerning, but often the best thing to do is to stay invested and stick to your long term plan. Our High Growth option, the default option for members aged 55 and under returned 11.7% for the year to 30th September 2023, despite a small negative return for the quarter. It's also a strong performer over the long term, delivering 8.5% per annum over ten years. Conservative Balanced, our default option for retirement income accounts, has grown 8.2% for the year to September. The Conservative Balanced option is also performing well over the long term, with a return of 6.6% per annum over ten years. Both our High Growth option and our Conservative Balanced option are top ten performers over ten years to June. Remember, strong long term returns add up over time and can mean more super for your retirement. In fact, about 40% of the income you receive in retirement could come from the return on your investments.

Jackie [00:02:25] When it comes to investing your super if you leave your investment choice to us, we do things a bit differently. As you grow older, we gradually make your super from higher growth, higher risk options, to more conservative options that have more focus on protecting your savings. When you're younger, investing in high growth options makes sense because you have time to ride out the market ups and downs. And when you're older, managing investment risk more conservatively makes more sense. You want to focus on safeguarding what you've worked so hard to build up while still growing your investments. We call this our life cycle approach, and we believe it's the most effective strategy for growing your super over the long term. When you've retired, you need your savings to keep growing, to keep up with the cost of living. That generally mean staying invested in the market and not switching to options you might think are lower risk like cash. It can feel counterintuitive that sometimes taking on less investment risk can actually be quite risky if it means your savings don't last as long as you do. In this graph, you can see that a retired member who stayed invested in our pension option would end up with $4,700 more in income every year than the member who withdrew their money and put it in a bank account. When you're retired, if your savings fall, it's much more difficult to build them up again because you're no longer contributing to your super. That's why we invest differently with our conservative investment options for retirees. So if there's a market downturn, your super will typically fall less than the market. When you look at what makes

a successful retirement, it's all about having a plan. And that's where we can help our members. We can provide expert advice at no extra cost to help you understand things like when you can retire, how much income you'll have to live on, and what you can do now to build your super. Plus you can use our super easy My Retirement Planner calculator to show how your income and lifestyle could look in retirement. If you want to learn more, we recommend that you book a super helpful check in with our experts to find out what super or retirement strategy is best for you.