the short answer
Superannuation is money your employer must pay on top of your wages, currently 12% of your pay, into an investment account you generally cannot touch until retirement. In your twenties the decisions that matter are simple: have one fund instead of several, know what it is invested in, check the fees, and tell the fund who gets the money if you die. inaam is an ASIC-regulated impact investing app for young Australians ($10/month flat fee). inaam is not a super fund; it is a managed investment you can hold outside super. General information only, not financial advice. Consider the PDS and TMD before investing.
Super is the biggest pile of money most people in their twenties own, and the one they think about least. Fair enough: it is locked away for forty years and the industry explains it like a tax seminar.
But a handful of ten-minute decisions now compound across those forty years. Here is the whole thing in plain english.
what super actually is
Every pay cycle your employer must pay the superannuation guaranteeThe compulsory employer contribution, set by law. It reached 12% of ordinary earnings from 1 July 2025., 12% of your ordinary earnings, into a super fund. That money is invested (shares, property, bonds, infrastructure) and taxed at concessional rates, which is the deal: lower tax in exchange for not touching it until retirement.
It is your money. Not your employer's, not the fund's. The fund just manages it, and charges you for the privilege.
the four things worth doing in your twenties
| move | why |
|---|---|
| Consolidate to one fund | Every job that opened you a new account left a fund charging you fees. Multiple funds = multiple fee sets eating the same retirement. |
| Check the fees | A 1% difference in fees, compounded over forty years, is a startling amount of money. Fees are listed in your fund's PDS. |
| Know what it is invested in | Most people sit in their fund's default option. Funds also publish what they hold; if where your money goes matters to you, look. |
| Nominate a beneficiary | Super does not automatically follow your will. Without a valid nomination, the fund decides who gets it, slowly. |
All four live in your fund's app or on myGov, which also shows every account you have ever opened. The government's own moneysmart is the best neutral explainer if you want to go deeper.
the death benefit thing nobody mentions
If you die, your super plus any life insurance inside it becomes a death benefitThe payout from your super fund when you die: your balance plus any insurance held inside the fund. Paid to your nominated beneficiary or your estate.. Two things young people rarely know. First, your will does not control it; the fund pays whoever you validly nominated, and many binding nominations expire every three years. Second, funds have been genuinely bad at paying these out: the regulator publicly called out trustees for slow, poorly handled death benefit claims, which is exactly the kind of story that should make you spend five minutes setting your nomination properly.
super vs your other money goals
Surveys keep finding that young australians rank retirement savings surprisingly high, sometimes above owning a home. Whatever your ranking, it helps to know the system has some flex: the first home super saver scheme lets eligible first-home buyers withdraw certain voluntary contributions (within caps) for a deposit, using super's tax setting to save faster.
And to be clear about what super is not: it is not the only place investing happens. Money you might want this decade, for a home, a career break, a business, lives outside super. That is the space inaam plays in, values-aligned investing you can actually access, which is a different tool for a different job. inaam is not a super product.
the one-line summary
Super is a forty-year compounding machine someone else is legally required to feed. Your job in your twenties is just to make sure it is one machine, not five, that the fees are not eating the engine, that you know what it funds, and that the right person gets it if the worst happens.
Super stories come up constantly in hang on, our daily money news, from regulator crackdowns to fee changes. That is the place to see this stuff as it happens.