Should you pay off your debt or add to your super?

Relying on willpower alone to save for your retirement is easier said than done.

Instead, you could look at salary sacrificing into your super. This is where some of your before-tax salary is paid straight to your super, instead of your bank account.

By ‘sacrificing’ some of your pay upfront, you’re also reducing your taxable income, which is a win-win for your super balance and tax bill.

Personally, I’ve built my additional super contributions up gradually. Whenever I get a pay rise, I allocate a part of the increase into my super and keep the rest in my take home pay.

So, I still feel like I get a pay rise, I just don’t take all of it home. If I’ve never really seen the extra money in my bank account, I don’t miss it.

Over time, those small increases have allowed my salary sacrifice amount to grow without it ever feeling like one big hit to my pay that I would notice.

Would I prefer it in my pay? Absolutely. But, every week in my role I meet people who say I wish I had started earlier or paid attention to this earlier.

I have never heard someone complain they had too much money in retirement; it’s always the other way.

That also doesn’t mean I’ve always contributed the same amount. The only time I completely switched my salary sacrifice off was during maternity leave.

At that point, having the money available for everyday expenses was the priority while I was on a lower income. And I think that’s important too. For me, the important thing is coming back to it when you can.

I also recognise that I’ve spent most of my working life in financial services, so I’ve had the benefit of seeing what additional contributions, time and compounding can do over the long term. That probably made me think about my own super earlier than I otherwise would have.