Gemma Dale

The thing that really threw me is we do know that there's a sizable gap between men's average balances and men's median balances and women's when people reach retirement, both cohorts reach retirement.

What's a real worry is that under 18s there is still a massive gap between boys.

What do you mean under 18s?

Let's call them boys and girls.

Under 18s, so they cut this by age.

So instantly there's a gap, instantly.

Yeah.

The average balance for a male under the age of 18 is $7,687 in 2023.

And the average for a woman is roughly $4,700, so $4,699.

I mean, that's a huge gap.

That's massive.

If we go to the median, right, so the average can be misleading because you get a handful of huge balances.

Someone got $100,000 and threw it into super when they were 17 for reasons I don't understand, but maybe they did.

$350 for a male, $220 for a female.

So you're already talking a 30% gap.

Tiny balances, but a 30% gap.

It compounds over time.

And as you contribute, it starts to... So then I kind of went, I've just cut through the numbers because they're split by five-year increments.

We could be here all day just going through them.

But let's go to 30 to 34 because then you're starting to reach peak childbearing age.