How super works

In many cases, you’ll get to choose the super fund where your money will be invested, and this is where your employers will pay your Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions.

In some cases, an employer will nominate a specific fund under your terms of employment or an industrial award. This fund is where they’ll pay your SG contributions. You can check with your employer to see if this applies to you.

Why choose Catholic Super

If you don’t choose a fund at all, your employer will check with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to see if you’ve already got an account with another super fund. If you do – that’s where they’ll pay your SG contributions. And if you’ve got accounts with more than one super fund, the ATO will decide which one your employer should contribute to – it’s called your ‘stapled’ fund.

If you don’t have any accounts with any super funds, your employer will open an account for you in their chosen super fund – that’s called their ‘default’ fund.

Why choose Catholic Super

Over the years, your employer contributions help to grow your super. Any positive investment returns earned on your super investments will also help to boost your savings. Along the way, you can also make your own contributions to your super account to boost your savings even more.

There are lots of ways to contribute to your super. They can be regular contributions or one-off contributions. Different types of contributions receive different tax treatments, so it’s a good idea to explore your options and see which types might be most appropriate for your circumstances.

How to add to your super

When you open a super account, the super fund will invest your savings on your behalf. Many funds give you a range of investment options to choose from. This means you can choose an investment option that best suits your financial circumstances and what you want to achieve from your investments over the long term.

Equip Super offers a wide range of investment options for you to choose from, including eight diversified investment options and four sector -specific options. If you don’t choose anything at all, we’ll automatically invest your savings in our MySuper option.

View Catholic Super’s investment options

One of the things that can make super an attractive way to invest your long-term savings is the generous tax treatment it receives from the government. In most cases, the money you save via super is taxed at a significantly lower rate than if you’d invested that money outside of the super system.

Typically, you can’t access the money in your super account until you’ve stopped working and you’ve reached your preservation age. This is an age limit set by the government that determines when you’re eligible to access your money.

But in certain limited circumstances you may be able to access your super earlier – for example if you’re experiencing severe financial hardship, or you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The government sets strict rules around early access to your super and how much you can withdraw.

Learn more