The original plan for superannuation was that by paying into it over a working life, you accumulate enough wealth to live roughly the same sort of lifestyle in your retirement.
Therefore, someone who earns roughly 70K throughout their life (reasonable amount, not glorious by any stretch) will be able to live roughly the same life once they retire.
the idea is that it should still apply whether you earn 45K or 75K or 100K or whatever.
BUT, 9% isn't enough. In fact, with life expectancy increasing, you need to pay close to 15% over a working career to live the roughly the same life over a 20 year retirement... This means we should ALL be adding (every paycheck!) to our super
just close your eyes and think about that last figure.... 20 YEARS of retirement... that's a huge amount of time without any income (just savings) and pure expenses.... this is ALSO the time where you're supposed to be relaxing and enjoying yourself.
the worst decision Howard EVER made was stopping the superannuation rate at 9% .... if he had done NOTHING, and allowed the AUTOMATIC, bi-annual increases to 11% then 13% then 15% we'd all be laughing
