{"id":230694,"date":"2025-10-21T20:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230694\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:02:08","slug":"we-have-1-5m-in-super-should-we-use-it-to-help-us-downsize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/230694\/","title":{"rendered":"We have $1.5m in super. Should we use it to help us downsize?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am 67 and my husband is 68, and we are both retired. Between us, we have about $1.5 million in superannuation, from which we currently receive fortnightly payments from our income stream accounts. In addition, we hold about $50,000 in shares \u2013 mainly BHP shares that I inherited and some CBA shares. My super totals $975,000, made up of $170,000 with one fund and $805,000 in a defined benefit account that is in a holding account not yet opened. My husband\u2019s super balance is $774,000.<\/p>\n

We plan to downsize, but because our current home is in a lower-value area than the one where we intend to buy, we expect to be about $200,000 out of pocket. We would like advice on whether it would be better to use funds from our superannuation or to sell some of our shares to cover this shortfall.<\/p>\n

\"Keeping<\/p>\n

Keeping your money inside your super account is often more tax effective, so don\u2019t be too tempted to break it open.Credit: Simon Letch<\/p>\n

I notice that some of the shares have been inherited, which means capital gains tax could be an issue, especially if they were bought many years ago and have a low cost base. It\u2019s usually more tax-effective to have your money inside super, but the great advantage of shares is that they can be sold in small parcels.<\/p>\n

A smart approach might be to draw on your superannuation to make up the shortfall, then gradually sell the shares and tip the proceeds back into super over time. That way you can minimise capital gains tax and keep your investments working efficiently.<\/p>\n

Your accountant will be able to guide you on the best way to manage this. It may be possible to make tax-deductible capital contributions to super to eliminate the capital gains tax.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

In your article last Wednesday about the change in the rules, unrealised capital gains or superannuation, you made the statement \u201cGiven that a superannuation member can leave only about $2 million to a beneficiary when they die, there\u2019s likely to be a huge withdrawal of funds as these members pass on\u201d. Would you please clarify? I thought they could leave all their superannuation to a beneficiary.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit complicated. The superannuation rules limit both who can receive your superannuation death benefit and how much can remain inside the superannuation environment.<\/p>\n

Only a dependant (your spouse, child of any age, or someone in an interdependent relationship with you) or your legal personal representative (the executor of your will) can receive your superannuation benefit directly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am 67 and my husband is 68, and we are both retired. Between us, we have about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-230694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}