The One Investment Move Every Australian Should Be Making (But Most Don’t)

Let me start with something that has absolutely nothing to do with money.

The biggest investment you can ever make is in your relationships - your partner, your friends, your family… (and of course, yourself).

That’s the real stuff. No ETF is going to hug you back. No stock is going to show up to your birthday. And no amount of passive income is going to fix a broken relationship (if anything, it might make it worse… but that’s a blog for another day).

But outside of that… The biggest financial investment you can make as an Australian, in Australia, is not:

• “What ETF should I buy?”
• “Is AI or critical minerals the next big thing?”
• “When is KFC bringing back 10 Wicked Wings for $10 so I can stock up the fridge?”

It’s your super.

🛑The Moment You Almost Click Off This Blog

At this point, if you’re reading this and thinking:

“What the helly, I don’t care about super…”

…and your cursor/finger is slowly drifting towards the close tab button…

STOP NOW (...for my retention statistics!!!)

You are exactly who this is for.

Because the people who don’t care about super are usually the ones getting absolutely rinsed by it (like absolutely RINSED!) (at the end I'll tell you how much)

“I Need My Money Today”

One thing I hear all the time: “I can’t contribute to super, I need my money now.”

And look, fair. Life is expensive. Rent is criminal. A night out somehow costs the same as a small holiday. But here’s the thing, everyone saves money… or at least tries to. And if you are going to save anyway, why wouldn’t you do it in the most tax-efficient way possible?

Because whether you like it or not, there are three guarantees in life:

Death, taxes… and someone in your group chat saying “I’m easy with anything” and then rejecting every option (me). You can’t avoid tax.

But super is basically the government saying: I'm giving you free money.

The Bit Everyone Ignores (Until It’s Too Late)

Before we go any further, let’s actually simplify what super is… because I feel like half the reason people ignore it is because it sounds way more complicated than it is.

Every payslip, your employer is already putting money into your super (currently 11%+ of your salary).

That part is automatic. You don’t touch it. You barely look at it. It just… exists in the background.

But what most people don’t realise is:

You can also contribute extra on top of that.

And this is where things get interesting.

Why people actually use super

When you add extra money into super (called concessional contributions), it gets taxed at 15%.

Compare that to your normal income:

• At ~$120,000 → you’re paying around 30%+ tax
• Above ~$135,000 → that jumps to 37%

So straight away, there’s a minimum ~15% difference.

That’s not a small optimisation.

That’s a head start.

Let’s run the numbers properly

Say you decide to save $10,000 of your income.

Option 1: Outside super

• Taxed at ~30%
• You’re left with ~$7,000 to save/invest

Option 2: Inside super

• Taxed at 15%
• You’re left with ~$8,500 to invest

So before you’ve even picked an investment…

You’re already ahead by $1,500.

“Can’t I just invest and beat that?”

This is where it gets interesting. If you invest outside super, you’re starting with $7,000. To catch up to the $8,500 inside super in year one, your investment needs to grow:

• From $7,000 → $8,500
• That’s a gain of $1,500

Which means:

$1,500 ÷ $7,000 ≈ 21.4% return

So you’d need to make ~21–22% in one year JUST to catch up. And that’s before factoring in ongoing tax on earnings outside super.

For context:

• Long-term stock market returns ≈ ~8–10% per year
• What you need to MATCH the super saving (in year one) ≈ ~21%+ the 8-10% your super would be earning = ~+30%

You’re basically you need to triple the market. Consistently. Good luck.

And it doesn’t stop at year one

This is the part that really matters.

That $1,500 advantage?

It’s not a one-off.

It happens every single year you contribute.

And each year, that extra money stays invested and compounds.

So let’s isolate just that difference — the extra $1,500 per year — and see what it turns into over time (assuming ~8% returns, and $8.5k invested year):

When people say “super is boring”… this is what they’re missing (around $1+million).

It’s not about being exciting.

It’s about:

• Paying less tax
• Keeping more money invested

You don’t need to find the next big thing. You just need to stop giving away at least 15% for no reason.

“Okay But I Want to Buy a House. Can't wait to 65”

Everyone around me right now is trying to save for a house. Conversations have gone from “how many drinks will Ed and Kevin drink tonight” to “what’s your borrowing capacity”.

And yet… barely anyone uses one of the best tools available: The First Home Super Saver Scheme. Sounds complicated. It’s not.

Normally, when you save money:

• You earn income
• You get taxed on it
• Then you save what’s left in your bank account

That means you’re saving with money that’s already been reduced by tax. The FHSS scheme lets you do something different.

You can:

• Put extra savings into your superannuation
• Pay less tax on that money while it’s inside super
• Let it grow with lower tax on earnings
• Then withdraw it later to help buy your first home

So instead of:

Saving normally → getting taxed more → slower progress

You get:

Save via super → taxed less → more money → same house dream

It’s not about locking money away until you’re 65. It’s about using the system to reduce tax and speed up your savings so you can buy your first home earlier.

Most people think they just need to “save harder" but you just need to "save smarter".

“Alright… I’m In. But How Much?”

This is usually where people expect some complex formula.

Don’t worry — we’re not doing that. If you’re saving for something (a house, a future, a slightly less stressful life)… you already have a savings habit.

The question isn’t whether you save. It’s where you put it.

A simple way to approach it:

• If you’re saving for a house 🏠 — consider running part of your savings through super (via the scheme), not all (there's limits of $15k a year, and $50k total (that's heaps)), just enough to get the benefit.
• If you’re just building wealth 💰— start small. Even a little bit consistently does more than a big amount “one day”.
• If your income is growing 💹 — that’s when you can lean into it more. That’s where super starts doing some serious heavy lifting.

(FYI if you're thinking this is all too good to be true, that's because it is, and that's why there's limits to super contributions)

So What?

There’s actually so many more “hacks” you can do with super — things like shifting potential capital gains into your super structure, timing contributions, and a whole range of strategies that start to get a bit more technical. Once you go beyond the basics, this very quickly turns into territory for proper financial advice (which none of the above is 😝).

Because at the end of the day, super isn’t really about being clever or trying to game the system. It’s about using something that already exists in a way that most people don’t fully take advantage of.

You don’t need to out-trade the market. You don’t need to find the perfect ETF. You don’t need to predict what sector is going to run next.

Sometimes the “strategy” is just making sure you’re not paying more tax than you need to while time does the heavy lifting for you. And if you do that consistently, over a long enough period, the outcome tends to take care of itself.

No need to thank me now. Thank me in 30 years when you’re on your fourth overseas trip of the year, while your peers are googling “cheap fun things to do in Werribee” thinking “what the helly… we had the same salary our whole careers.”

Disclaimer: Any advice should not be taken as constituting professional advice. Simon Bui Tran is not a financial adviser. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation or other advice to suit your unique circumstances. Simon Bui Tran is not liable for any loss caused, whether due to negligence or otherwise arising from the use of, or reliance on, the information provided directly or indirectly, by use of this website.