Super raiders in a dangerous game

“DO “D you have $10,000?” “You’re O the Barefoot Investor,

I was sitting in the back of I aren’t you? What do you think an U Uber when my driver I should do with the $10k I grun grunted this muffled request took out of my super?” thr through his face mask. Ah-ha! Now it all made “Sorry … what?” sense. In fact, I’ve been getting His piercing eyes stared that question a lot lately. back b at me through the One financial counselling rear-view rea mirror. client of mine, in his mid-30s,

I started to feel a little took his $10,000 and gambled nervous. ner vW the lot inside of a week. He

Why was this dude asking plans on doing the same with me for ten grand? the next $10,000 he can apply

And why were the doors for. (Although this time he locked? lock assures me he’s going to win).

And A why the hell was Phil Over 1.8 million

Collins playing on the radio? applications for a total of

In frustration my driver $14.8 billion have been pulled down his mask and approved, and I’ve come to repeated (clearly this time): realise that people are doing it for three main reasons (other than to feed their addictions):

First, there are people who are using it for the purpose it was intended: maybe they’ve been laid off or have lost hours and they want a cushion for what promises to be a very long winter.

In that case, I’d keep the money in a high-interest saver — preferably with a bank you don’t owe any money to (otherwise they may suggest you swipe it to ‘help’ pay off your loans). There are some sweetheart teaser offers at the moment, like Macquarie Bank’s online saver, which pays 2.65 per cent for four months before reverting back to 1.35 per cent p.a.

Second, there are young people who are saving for a deposit. Depressingly, Treasury figures show that almost half a million people under the age of 30 have accessed their super.

Now I understand the motivation to own a home, but I don’t really like raiding your super to do it.

In this case, if you’ve satisfied the requirement for early release, it also means you need to work on boosting your income so you can get a loan.

And finally there are people like my Uber driver, who admitted that he didn’t need the money: “I just figured it was better off in my hands than theirs.”

He was in his mid-50s and explained that he planned on retiring in a decade or so.

Well, if you’re going to invest the money in the share market you need to take at least a 10-year time frame.

Reason being, in the current climate there’s a very real possibility that you could be underwater for many years.

And the best place to invest in index funds for the long term is … via your superannuation fund!