A quick guide to smartMonday’s investment options

From dedicated options in Australian shares to low-risk options designed to preserve what you have, smartMonday caters to a broad range of tastes in its investment choices for members.

The customary superannuation investment strategy is to accept higher risk early on in your working life that typically generates higher returns, and lower risk as you move toward retirement to preserve your balance in the event of a market downturn.

That’s because it’s easier for younger members to overcome any losses that riskier investments could generate, just as they could benefit from any higher returns. While older members, who may already depend on their superannuation, may not want to put it at risk and preserve what they have.

We broadly categorise our investment options into MySuper, pre-mix choices and sector choices, which are outlined below. We also list exactly what each option invests in if you’d like to know.

Most of our superannuation members are invested in MySuper. This is our ‘lifecycle’ option that is the easiest of all to manage as a ‘set and forget’ choice.

MySuper balances risk and reward in your investments as outlined above: more risk to achieve higher returns early on, automatically reducing as you age to keep what you have. smartMonday MySuper has returned 8.62% on average each year since 2014/15.1

We have five pre-mixed investment categories for super and pension members based on levels of risk– high growth, growth, balanced growth, moderate and defensive – each of which can be actively or passively managed.

‘Actively’ means our investment managers try and beat the industry benchmark, typically charging higher fees to do so than an ‘index’ (or passive) approach where the aim is to match the performance of a benchmark.

Check out our monthly investment performance reports to see how each of these options perform over the medium to long term.

While MySuper and our pre-mixed options are packaged investments designed according to risk, our super sector-specific options allow you to go all in on one investment category or mix and match them.

We have five categories to invest in – Australian shares, international shares, property, fixed interest and cash. For each of these you can choose an actively or passively managed approach (as described above).

What you choose to invest in depends on how much risk you’re prepared to take on. The greater gains you want, the more risk you must accept.

To get a clear idea of risk versus reward, review the performance of all options, noting the risk level of each option (listed under ‘growth assets %’) and rate of return. To get more understanding of risk, review our explanation of investment risk.

The essential factor in deciding the level of risk you’re happy with is how long you have until you access your super, which is between ages 55 to 65 depending on the year you were born and whether you’re retired.

If that is some time away, then a growth focused option may suit you. If you’re getting closer to retirement, then you may want to be more defensive. (This trajectory is the essential strategy in our MySuper option.)

It’s a good idea to get financial advice when making any investment decision and trying to plan your future. If you have a financial adviser then consider speaking with them, or our smartCoaches can offer guidance in superannuation matters.