DIY Super for Dummies

SOMETHING seems paradoxical about the concept of Super for Dummies. After all, if you don’t know anything about super, should you really be running your own fund?

Self-managed super funds are not easy. They require professionalism, consistent attention and in-depth industry knowledge. Ignorance of the rules will not be an acceptable excuse if regulations are accidentally breached. This is not play money – our future livelihoods are at stake. So maybe retirement savings are too important an investment to try to drive by ourselves.

Then again, maybe it’s too important to leave to anybody else.

This is the central dilemma for anyone thinking about getting into an SMSF. The formula for successfully taking control of your super is combining initiative with realism. You’ve got to believe in yourself and have the presence of mind to know what you can and can’t do. Confidence and competence are the essential factors for self-managing your super.

DIY Super for Dummies recognises this fact in establishing its first two steps as trusting yourself and deciding whether an SMSF is right for you. The idea is that you don’t have to be a financial expert or superannuation guru to make an SMSF work. But you do have to have energy, enterprise and enthusiasm. In other words, it’s not what you know, it’s who you are. Even if you’re a “dummy” about super, you can still take the wheel of your retirement savings.

The new second edition of this book offers guidance through the initial decision-making process of taking the plunge with an SMSF, as well as breakdowns of the costs and procedures of setting up your own fund. Logistics on management, administration, following the rules and bookkeeping are outlined in following chapters. And there’s a strong emphasis on where to go for the right advice, acknowledging that taking control and being on your own are not the same thing.

Reading DIY Super for Dummies won’t make you an expert on self-managed super but it will offer you a practical blueprint for getting started. There are plenty of scattered tips and warnings but the book’s real value is in the lucid step-by-step checklists. One particularly functional section numerates the procedural basics for setting up an SMSF. Each step from “buying a trust deed” to “opening a bank account” is systematically highlighted and thoroughly explained. The information is exhaustive but never unnecessarily detailed. This book is a flipper – for those who want to jump in and out, taking only what they need.

The style is consistent with the For Dummies series – buoyant, straightforward and unintimidating.  If you’re familiar with other Dummy books, you’ll recognise the organisational icons and chapter-opening comics. These features mesh well with author Trish Power, whose writing often echoes this balance of irreverence and expertise.

Power is a well-established authority on the superannuation industry, having more than 20 years’ experience writing on finance and retirement budgeting topics. She runs the independent consumer website SuperGuide and is the author of Superannuation for Dummies and Super Freedom: a woman’s guide to superannuation. (Click here to read our review of Super Freedom)