Super Advantages On The Tax Front
Sun Herald
Sunday September 13, 1998
* I AM 57, have a block of land in Queensland and would like to build a home on it in 4-5 years. A self-employed woman, I plan to work until I am 70. What would be the best avenue of saving for me to augment a present $250 a month contribution to an AMP balanced trust and which would provide maximum return? J T, Parramatta
YOUR best investment is via superannuation because of the tax advantages it offers you.
Being 57, there is less of a sense that superannuation savings are locked away for a long time. And if you work past 65, you can access your super when you want it, anyway.
You don't give sufficient information but have you considered borrowing the money now, building the home and renting it in order to get a tax deduction while you are working? Be sure that it is possible to rent as there are areas in Queensland where the property market could be difficult.
If not wanting to save via super, then I would suggest a good long-term savings vehicle is the BT Split Growth Fund. Its performance over the past few years has been quite good, as shown below. It is different to the AMP Balanced Fund with the BT fund investing about half of its assets overseas.
BT Split Grpwth Fund % pa return 1yr 3yrs 7yrs AMP Balanced 9.7 13.0 9.4 BT Growth 29.6 26.9 22.5 * FPG Research
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