The Super Guara ntee (SG) – Employer Contributions

• What it is: The SG is the minimum your employer must pay into your super.
• Current rate: as of 1 July 2024 11.5% of your ordinary time earnings. This will rise to 12% by 1 July 2025.
• Eligibility: You’re entitled to SG regardless of whether you’re full-time, part-time or casual irrespective of how much you earn; and under18’s that work 30 hours per week.

Concessional Contributions (Before Tax)

• These include your employer’s SG payments and any extra contributions you or your employer) make using pre-tax income.
• Tax rate: 15% going in (plus an additional 15% if you earn over $250,000 /year
• Cap: $30,000 per year.
• You can also claim a tax deduction if you make personal concessional contributions.

Non - Conces sional Contributions (After Tax)

• Made from after-tax income (e.g. transferring from your bank account).
• Not taxed when added to super (as you’ve already paid income tax).
• Cap: $120,000 per year (or up to $360,000 in one go under the three-year bring-forward rule, subject to your total super balance being less than $1.9M).

When You Can Access It – Preservation Age

• You generally can’t access your super until your each preservation age and retire (or meet another condition of release).
• Preservation age is based on your date of birth
• Born before 1 July 1960: age 55
• Increasing gradually to age 60 for those born after 30 June 1964

Why Early Contributions Matter – The Power of Compounding

Super grows not just through what you put in—but what those contributions earn over time. Let’s compare:

• Person A starts at age 25, contributing an extra $50/ week → by age 65, they may have an extra $210,000 + in super (assuming 6% average annual return).
• Person B starts the same at age 45→by 65, that same effort grows to only $70,000. Time is the secret weapon. The earlier you start, the less you need to do later.