[Barrykgerdes]

The whole issue of compulsory superanuation is an open invitation for rorts. Luckily I do not have to be a part of it. The managers make a good living out of it but I don't think the contributors get much.

The first thing shown in the TV adds is the comparasin of the amount of money you can expect from various managers.

If you think $500000 is enough to survive on in retirement do your sums. I admit I live quite comfortably on my super but it would be different if I needed to start out again by myself and my super is worth about $1.5m in real terms.

If you own your own house a single person can live on about $15000 P/A.
With the common inflation rate that seems to average around 3% your investments need to increase by that much each year before you can take a dividend. This means that your $500000 must have a nett earning of 6% Just to break even. I don't think there are many super funds that have averaged this sort of a dividend over the last 5 years.

If you want to live well in retirement run your own "super fund" by investing at least as much of your salary (eg 9%) in guilt edge securities and compound the interest.

Barry