Australians are being warned about the long-term impact of panicking with their superannuation with some facing potential losses of $57,000.<\/p>\n
Volatile markets are driving some members to switch from balanced options \u2014 which includes shares \u2014 to cash according to AustralianSuper.<\/p>\n
Global share markets have experienced sharp swings in recent months owing to the fallout of Donald Trump\u2019s Liberation Day tariffs, geopolitical tensions and fears of stock markets being overvalued.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past month, we\u2019ve seen members switching their super into our cash option at around four times the usual rate,\u201d head of assets allocation at AustralianSuper Alistair Barker said. <\/p>\n
As Australians react to short term market movements, they are neglecting to think of to the potential downside their actions have on their retirement savings. <\/p>\n
According to AustralianSuper, a member who moved $100,000 from a balanced option to cash in April 2025 would have found themselves $8,000 worse off just three months later compared to those who stayed the course. <\/p>\n
This switch can slash retirement funds by anywhere from $26,000 to $57,000 over 30 years. <\/p>\n
Mr Barker said that when Australians move into cash they \u201clock in\u201d their loss and \u201cmiss out on the bounce back\u201d when the market recovers. <\/p>\n
This is because a super fund is a long-term investment \u201cdesigned to weather market volatility\u201d as it\u2019s powered by \u201ccompounding interest\u201d. <\/p>\n
A balanced superannuation option is a diversified portfolio for your money to grow, where wealth is spread across growth assets like shares and property, and defensive assets such as cash and fixed interest. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, a cash option prioritises capital preservation over aggressive growth. <\/p>\n
Rather than chasing high returns, wealth is anchored into stable assets like cash deposits, term deposits, and short term money market securities. <\/p>\n
This offers a shield when markets become turbulent.<\/p>\n
Mr Barker added: \u201cThe key thing to remember is that market ups and downs are a normal part of investing, and even if it makes you feel uneasy and tempted to make a reactive decision, super is a long-term investment and staying focused on the long-term has generally led to better outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians are being warned about the long-term impact of panicking with their superannuation with some facing potential losses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[288507,288504,64,63,288513,99,288508,288510,158377,186,69508,82329,30011,115817,184,185,288506,17822,288511,288512,288509,52880,288505],"class_list":{"0":"post-590674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-alistair-barket","9":"tag-assets-allocation","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-balanced-option","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-cash-option","15":"tag-chair-joe-longo","16":"tag-compounding-interest","17":"tag-finance","18":"tag-long-term-investment","19":"tag-market-movements","20":"tag-market-volatility","21":"tag-newswire-business","22":"tag-personal-finance","23":"tag-personalfinance","24":"tag-retirement-mistake","25":"tag-retirement-savings","26":"tag-sky-news-business-reporter-ed-boyd","27":"tag-super-move","28":"tag-super-switches-costing","29":"tag-superannuation-funds","30":"tag-superannuation-sector"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590674","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=590674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}