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Your super won't make you rich. And if you're counting on

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it to fund your retirement, you're setting yourself up for a massive disappointment.

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I know that's not what you've been told. The government tells you to contribute

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more. The banks tell you it's your safety net. The financial advisors tell

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you it's the smartest thing you can do. They're wrong. The truth is

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your super is locked away for decades. It's taxed. It's restricted.

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And even if you max out your contributions, the average Australian retires

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with less than $400,000. It's not wealth that's

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barely enough to survive. So the question becomes, what

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are some other options that can increase your income by 50%, 100%, 300% on

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top of your super? Something you control, something that compounds faster

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than any super fund. ever will. And in this video, I'm

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going to show you exactly what it is, why your super won't make you

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rich, and what you should be doing instead of to build real wealth

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that you can actually use. So firstly, what is

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super designed to do? What is it? Most people have no

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flippin idea what superannuation is. Most people

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think it's a big bowl of soup money that

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they send away over 40 years, and then when they turn 65, boom,

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Where's my money you're going to send me? They don't understand that it's actually cash

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that their employee contributes to a fund and

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the fund invests in assets. Assets including stocks,

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mainly stocks. It's in property. It's in infrastructure.

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It's in private equity. It can be in bonds, of course, a lot of bonds. It

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can be in cash sometimes. So it's the value of

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the assets that the super fund buys. and

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their ability to compound, that actually can build wealth. The challenge

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with it is you don't know where it is. You don't know who's managing it,

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how much it costs per year, what the performance is, and whether it's locked away in

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low-risk bonds and it's not going to compound for you. So it's very

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uncertain to know how well it's going to compound. And the challenge is,

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too, that the contributions probably aren't enough for it

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to be life-changing wealth creation. but

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it's not bad, it's a forced savings vehicle. I actually think

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superannuation is great for people who need to put away

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because Australians can't be trusted with money management from what

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I've seen, right? So it's a forced savings vehicle and employers

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contribute like 11.5%. So it's a whole pay yourself first mentality

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put away into a tax effective vehicle, all right? It's legislated, it's

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structured, it's consistent. So over decades in

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a nice portfolio, it can compound, it will compound. And

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historically, you know, super funds have returned somewhere in the middle digits,

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right? Depending on what it owns. It's solid. And it's

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designed to provide some buffer in retirement to

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replace some of your, well, a few years

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of your wage. And it's to alleviate the

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reliance on the age pension. It was never designed

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to make you wealthy. It was designed to make sure that

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you have something at the end and to alleviate the exposure

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of the age pension. And by all accounts on those reasons, it's

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effective. So I'm for it for those reasons. Okay. However,

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it's designed more for preservation than wealth creation. Okay.

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So can it also create acceleration? Right.

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So let's look at some of the logic around it. If someone earns 80,000 a year, for

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example, and superannuation contributions to say, you know,

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for arbitrary sakes, 11%, that's roughly about 9,000 annually

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before tax. So $9,000 before it's taxed, it

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goes in there, but it's also taxed at still a lower rate, but it's still taxed, okay?

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Then over 30 to 35 years, it compounds at a tax-free rate,

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right? So it will grow tax-free. That's where the benefit is. It's actually a

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tax shield. Superannuation is not a big bowl of super money. It's a tax legislation,

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okay? However, By the time you access it

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at 60 plus and 65 plus, you don't have any active working,

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you have less active working years left. So you've actually traded decades of

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time, right? And it more aims

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at you being comfortable than wealthy. And you've missed the

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ability to take the 11% that you would have had in your own pocket and

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do things like build businesses, buy

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growth oriented assets. and skill

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up, investing in yourself, et cetera. And all that, it

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disappears over that timeframe, right? And so you get

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to that age and you've lost the chance to build freedom for

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yourself, all right? So if your goal is to

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retire comfortably, fine, you'll be able to do some

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stuff, but to live freely, it ain't going to happen, right?

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And so here's the real limitation. It's more of a structural issue. Look,

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it locks your capital away. That's the challenge. And

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you can't access it easily or at all, depending

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on what policy you have before the

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age of 60 or 65. So whilst it grows, it doesn't give you any

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options. Optionality is a huge asset. It's not

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just about net worth, it's about optionality. It's being able to walk away

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from a job that you hate, toxic environment. It's about taking a risk, starting

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a business, taking time off, traveling, investing in opportunities that

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arise over time that super doesn't fund. It's

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income and accessible, it's cashflow. And all that

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optionality disappears. So what good

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is a large balance at 65 if you were financially stressed for 35 years?

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Does that make sense? What

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does create wealth? Let's shift it. If super and

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you know it won't make you rich, what will? And there are three things. One,

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increasing your income. So for example, if I

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focus less on my super and more on my skills

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to increase my income and I double my income from $80,000 to $160,000, that is going to

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do a lot more for you. Okay.

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Second thing, owning productive assets outside super. For

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example, if you bought a laundromat, I'm just saying it as an example, I

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own one, but it's a 40% return on

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money and it will compound and grow in value and give you a lot of

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freedom and choice long before super. In fact, you'll probably find it to

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give it to you in about five or six years. Okay. And so there's

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those opportunities outside super that you may

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not be able to get because you have no cash left. And they don't take a

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lot of cash down either. But if you have had that superannuation, that

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$9,000, perhaps you could have bought something like that, right? Now, I'm not saying all are the same. I

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had a student of mine did the same when he bought a gym. And I think to myself, that

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was a great decision. He bought a gym. It's basically giving him a level of

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freedom outside his job. and it wasn't super

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that did that. Just quickly, if you're ready to take control of your finances but feel

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stuck on where to start, I have a solution. My book, Money

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Buys Happiness, simplifies investing and wealth building with

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practical steps to help you achieve financial peace. Get

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your copy via the link in the show notes and let's get your money working for

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you. Now back to the episode. So owning productive assets outside

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super is how you do it. And third thing, building scalable

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cash flow. So that means that you would want to

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be able to invest in assets like that, as well as certain stocks that

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provide, even in Australia here, tax-free dividends through imputation credits.

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You can do that so you can actually build assets outside super that also

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retire you long before 65. And that's the position that I'm

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in. So I've done all three of those things. And I sit here

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today to tell you that just on our assets alone, my

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wife, Alicia, and I, we don't have to work, but I enjoy working.

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I like to work on things that I like to work on, whether it be writing books, creative

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content, teaching, helping events. building

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businesses. I love doing that. It's great fun, right? And it's

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great for other people too. But I'm in a position where I

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don't have to depend on any super. Just why don't worry about it. And

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I'm 42. And I'm really glad that I didn't just

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go through life with the notion that, oh, it's OK, I'm just going to fall back on my

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super at 65. I don't give a rat about super.

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I just don't care. Because I've built freedom already at 42 instead

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of banking on someone else managing my money until 65 and then coming out

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with 400K. That just, to me, was not a way to live life. I

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wanted to live life better earlier. I wanted to go skiing

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in Japan when I wanted. I wanted to work in areas I wanted to work in. I

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wanted to work with people I enjoy working with. I wanted to have optionality. And

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so I decided that I wasn't going to bank on super. I was going to bank on my own

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skills, my own ambition and buy productive assets outside

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super and build scalable cashflow. And now we have it. And

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so without too much more effort, that'll scale far beyond what a super fund

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can scale to. You are your best asset. You are your best

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investment. there are far superior ways to building wealth than just superannuation, right?

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So increasing income is effective. It's the biggest wealth lever that

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you can pull. It's got earnings power, you can double your income, you

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can quadruple your income, right? I've got friends of mine that have 10 extra income, right?

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It allows you better capacity to invest more, to acquire assets,

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to build better buffers. Right. It will just do so

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much for you then banking on super. So I think that's

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the biggest lever you can pull. Right. If you can then take

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that and own productive assets outside super

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long before the age of 65, there'll be shares, businesses, property, equity,

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and private ventures. It'll amplify your income again and again and

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again, but give you superior assets that compound far beyond 10% as

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well. Right. They're more, they are still liquid. They're strategic. They're

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accessible. You can touch them. You can sell them. You can do all sorts of things. Right.

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And of course, being able to develop those smaller incomes,

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it just will create so much more for you. Like when I first created a network marketing

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side hustle, that's brought into my wife and I over

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$2 million in profits. And that's far better than superannuation,

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right? In fact, it as an asset is superior to superannuation, period.

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Okay? You've got to look at where people

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have built wealth. It's entrepreneurs, it's business owners, it's equity

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holders. They didn't get rich through retirement funds. They

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got rich through ownership of businesses, equity, scalable systems,

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investing in themselves, skills, and assets that grow way beyond

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their labor and time. and they become super passive. So ownership

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is superior and active ownership is where you get outsized

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returns. So if the wealthiest people built businesses and

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assets and got equity and became owners, why would you solely rely

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on a retirement vehicle? Now, I'm not saying ignore it

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completely like I do, but I'm saying if you're

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going to have it, of Of course, if you're in a job, in a wage job, you

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still wanna maximize your pull-in contributions, you still wanna optimize your fees, you still

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wanna choose appropriate allocations to make sure it compounds effectively, right?

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But understand its role. It's a safety net. It's not

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a trampoline, all right? If you wanna build real wealth, income. Invest

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outside super, develop skills, take calculated risks, and own equity. That

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is the path. That's the part. And it seems riskier,

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but I actually contend to say that the other path of comfort that

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everyone else is doing is far riskier, right? Who's to say people will

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even have jobs in the next 10 years to contribute to

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their super because AI might take it because they didn't invest in their own skills.

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They didn't buy it and build a business. The best thing to do is control your

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own income. You can't do it if you're working for someone. I think that's the biggest risk. But

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for some reason, maybe it's because of all the fees they generate, superannuation funds

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and banks have seduced you into thinking that you're going to be okay with

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super. And the fact is with 400k, you ain't, right? You're

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just not, especially if inflation is running at 10%. So your super will

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probably take care a little bit of your retirement, but it'll

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definitely keep you comfortable. And that's where you will go to die, right? It

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will not make you rich. So please focus

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on ownership, income growth, scalable assets, outside super,

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strategic investing, long-term discipline, and business building,

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right? That's where it's gonna come from, amplifying your income, right? Because

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if you want freedom before 60, you need a different strategy, you need

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something else. So comment below, do you think that

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super is enough or are you building wealth outside of it, right?

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If you want frameworks that focus on ownership, income, and real financial freedom, hit

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the subscribe button, Stay smart. See you in the next episode. Thanks

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for listening to Money Grows on Trees. If you enjoyed the episode, leave a

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five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and subscribe

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building wealth, make sure to check out the links in the show notes and follow me

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