Belly, I hope and pray that you are right and that our super is safe.

In the past 10 or so years however, many shifts have occurred with the goal posts.

Originally, one could take their super and invest into a building to house their business. This was done in conjunction with a 'unit trust'. All was fine until the government of the day decided that they would change this which sent many on a head spin.

I seriously doubt they (future governments) will be able to resit the temptation of getting their grubby little hands on those trillions of dollars.

Rehctub, IMHO our super is about as safe as the Australian economy
and as none of us can predict the future, its really an impossible
question to answer.

You are quite correct of course, the Govt has the monopoly power
of taxation, so if they run short, they will simply take it from
those who did the right thing and saved a few pennies during their
working lives. When Conroy pointed a gun at Telstra's head, we saw
how little they care about mums and dads who indeed have tried to
do the right thing.

As to our economy, well IMHO thats a little less certain then some
of us might think. We are really riding on China's coattails. If
they keep driving resource prices, things will keep bumping along,
but if there is some banking collapse or political crisis, they
are still not a market economy and can shut things down in a jiffy,
which would cripple us.

Next we have the Aussie housing bubble and I still think its a major
problem. Roughly half the money that our banks lend out, comes from
overseas. Right now you have a crisis developing, as countries like
Greece, Spain, Ireland and others are risking defaulting on their
huge loans. The net effect will be that global interest rates
are expected to trend highly upwards, that is why Westpac is already
offering 8% on 5 year deposits, whilst lending money for housing
at 6.7%. What the RBA thinks simply won't matter, if banks have
to pay heaps more for their overseas loans. Homeowners will have
to cough up 9-10% and at that point, I would be amazed if house
prices don't crash, with tears all around.

The best way to protect yourself is really to take note of the
saying, not to have all your eggs in one basket. Spread your
risk over a number of investments and industries. You can run your
own super fund, no need to trust the big ones. Buying some shares
in BHP etc, is not rocket science

Actually I don't think that anyones' money is safe.The US Federal Reserve has created too much cyber money.It is now filtering down to the real economy.The US $ has remained incredibly stable since it is still the international trading currency esp for oil.

China like many other countries have a $ trillion US,who are quietly trying to reduce their exposure slowly.However when the collapse beings,nothing will stop it.The panic will be for the doors and the price of gold will double or treble.Our $ too will probably follow.

Oh runner,

Just to prove I'm not a curmudgeon, how's this....

*both* sides of parliament, including *all* professed christians will accept their super willingly. Do note that Sen Brown of the Greens lives in a yurt with minimal services (when he is not stuck working elsewhere). Who is genuinely modest? Who is *most* likely to decline the money?

Hope your money is safe. The only thing they can't take from us are our skills.

Rusty

Yabby as usual I find little to disagree with.
But if China stops buying BHP is in trouble too.
I overlooked a real problem, so make it three threats.
I am not greedy, will live on about a quarter of my income on stopping work, for 5 years.
No welfare.
But if government says it MUST be taken only as pension?
No second hand 4x4 no old boat out the back no lifestyle dreams, and believe me they are few and cost less than $20.000 in total.
But it should never happen in our life times it may well one day come to pass, if we let it.
Our super however is safe IF we use our brains.
EVERY one must/please do look at the fees charged, I did recently seeing $700 a year plus the losses.
I moved to an industries fund, only weeks ago, my faulty I tell people every day not to let it stagnate.
And some have three or four more often, funds eating up cash in fees you need not pay, sometimes taking every cent forever, rechtub you can run your own, but look at your lifetime interest rates they are huge .
Some do even better in investing their own way.

Yes belly, I do run my own fund, have done for 20 years.

I hold a 'tree farm' and a unit, along with a small amount of cash and shares.

My main fear is not so much that we will not be able to draw from it upon retirement, but more so that we will be restricted in the amount we can draw, then taxed hard for any extra we draw.

I also tip a return of the 'death duty' taxes. After all, how else are we going to fund our forecasted population boom.

We have already seen a lot of manufacturing being out-soursed overseas, along with an alarming new trend for 'IT' work.

As our population grows and our tax inputs decline, the money has to come from somewhere. But where?