What risk means for your super
No investment can ever be guaranteed to perform well. The nature of investing means there’s always the potential for your investment to lose value from year to year.
Over the long term, you can think of risk as the chance that the return on your investments might not be enough to provide you with the income you’ll need in retirement.
The appropriate level of risk for you may depend on your age, how long you’re investing for, what other assets you have outside super and how they are invested, and how comfortable you are with the possibility of losing some of your investment in some years.
Consider how long you’ll need to invest
When choosing your investment plan, the amount of time you want to invest for may impact how much risk you’re willing to take. You don’t need to choose the best performing investment plan. It’s more important that you choose the one that best suits your investment goals and how comfortable you are with risk.
For help choosing an investment plan, use our Selecting your investment plan tool.
Risk and return are closely related
Generally speaking, the higher the potential return from an asset over time, the higher the potential risk.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and the Financial Services Council have created the Standard Risk Measure to help members compare the risk of various investment plans.
An example - Readymade plans for GESB Super
Shown below are the Readymade and Mix Your plans for GESB Super, and where they sit on the risk scale compared to each other. The plans are positioned on the chart based on their risk level.
You can see that the Readymade Growth plan is lower risk than Mix Your plan Australian Shares. That’s because the Growth plan includes a more diversified range of assets which bring the risk down. The combination of high risk and low risk assets set the risk level for each Readymade plan.
Risk scale for GESB Super investment plans
For more information on investment risk, please refer to the GESB Super Product Information Booklet or Investment choice brochure.
Thank you for printing this page. Remember to come back to gesb.wa.gov.au for the latest information as our content is updated regularly. This information is correct as at 27 April 2024.