Baby boomers stagger blindfold into retirement: REST

We might have been better prepared if the superfunds didn't lose money half the time. Working in private industry and only in a superfund when it was compulsory for employers to contribute.

There has to be real thought as to how foreign superanuation funds are buying into Australian infastructure as well as purchasing government privatisation, our political superanuation agenda belly flops with little interest or guidance.from government and with super funds appearing not too willing to commit further towards their own Australian developments and wealth creation outside of the share market lottery.

Compulsory super sounded like a good idea until the GFC hit. Oh the politicians are fine with their unfunded yet guaranteed benefits for life. Asset sectors are becoming correlated so after saving for all those years there isn't much left after the markets collapsed taking most of what the Government didn't managed to get its hands on through contributions tax, tax on earnings, tax on benefits, excess contributions tax and the infamous Costello "Surcharge. Thanks to all of that I will have to work until the day I die - assuming of course that there are jobs. What a total fiasco it's been.

I would expect that previous generations before the baby boomers were equally under prepared given the general lack of superannuation in the market place unless you worked for the government or a large corporation. What has changed is that the baby boomers expect to be able to do a lot more in their retirement than previous generations and hence the disconnect.

The baby boomers are doing nothing but raise the ire of their children and grandchildren, who will have to live with much higher taxes to pay for their prolificacy for the next few decades. They all know that they will end up taking far more than they put into government coffers, yet seem to feel no guilt about this. The governments over the last two decades have made good work with superannuation (the gold standard compared to every country despite the constant moaning peope do, but it's still not good enough), but are still too afraid to make the boomer responsible for their own action by raising the age of retirement more aggressively before the majority of the boomers retire. Instead we get a tiny increase which is so gradual that most of the boomers will retire before it gets much higher. I expect to retire at 70 at the earliest ( roughly 40 years away), and will be paying high taxes the whole time in order to fill up the pensions of people who knowingly voted in governments that put off the hard choices to pay for the incoming boomer pension wave until the recipients were all safely out of their peak earning years.

Government needs to increase the contributions cap to allow those who can, to contribute more. $25k is ridiculously low for the undersuperannuated baby boomers. They should encourage the private sector to develop low cost equity release options - reverse mortgages are very costly and the money supply erratic, such as fractional property investing to unlock equity without the need to move. This would also assist a gradual inter-generational transfer of property wealth to younger Australians and give senior Australians an opportunity to create an annuity stream from their property. The Fed should also pressure state governments into relaxing stamp duty on retirees downsizing to fund retirement and aged care needs.

Facts:
In 1985 only 39% of the workforce had super. Access to super depended on age, gender, occupation, occupational status, whether you were full or part time, permanent or casual, or a contractor.
Access to super was deeply inequitable: only 24% of women had super, while 50% of men had access to super.

Higher income earners such as permanent public servants and full-time white collar private sector employees were more likely to have access to super.

Women and blue-collar workers were the least likely to have access to super.

In 1986, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission arbitrated that all workers covered by an Award should be provided with 3% super (that is 3% of their wage). However not all workers were covered by awards, so not all employers complied.
Australia's system of compulsory superannuation savings has been in place since 1992

In 1992 the Federal Labor Government Introduced the Superannuation Guarantee (SG). All workers had to receive a level of super during their employment, as long as they earned more than $450 a month.
Super contributions were to be increased progressively, between 1992 and 2002 from 3% to 9%.
Source: ACTU

Past employment practices

Marriage retirement

The "marriage bar" describes the practice that prevented women in certain sectors of the workforce from continuing in employment after they married.

A woman was forced to leave her employment when she married. She was repaid her superannuation payments over her period of employment, but without interest.

Until well into the 1960's Australian women in the public service were forced to resign from their jobs as permanent officers if they got married.

It was the same in many private companies.

It was not until 1971 that people resigning from Commonwealth employment had an option of preserving their benefits in the Commonwealth superannuation scheme. Prior to 1971 that option was not available.

Super's only been compulsory since '92. And if one's been unfortunate to have patchy employment, what do you expect? Don't blame Boomers, many of us have simply not had enough time to accumulate Super savings, or have been on an inadequate income. Funny how other groups in society are so damed entitled and/or self-righteous.