Superannuation and your annual statements.
As many of you will soon be receiving your annual statement, I thought it would be a good time to position the impact of this year’s recent market events on your super.
After the strong performance of the past few years, the recent downturn means it’s likely your annual statement will show a negative return for the year.
Although it’s natural to feel alarmed when this happens, it’s important to remember that it’s normal for markets to move up and down. Therefore it’s important to have a long-term view and not look at this year’s performance in isolation.
Market volatility is normal. Since the end of World War II there have been 11 bear markets (i.e. where the market* has fallen by around 20% or more).
Despite this, the market is 20 times higher today (excluding dividends) than it was post World War II, which shows the good years have more than made up for the bad.
The same trend is likely to be true for your super returns over the long term, so at this point there’s no need to be unduly concerned about your fund’s performance.
However if your circumstances have changed, or if you do have concerns you would like to discuss, please call me on 07 49 237 142.
* The Australian sharemarket (as represented by ASX All ordinaries Price Index (1980-2008) and Sydney All Ordinaries Price Index (1945- 1980))