Gemma Dale

That 15 cents in the dollar can be higher than your marginal tax rate if you're a low income earner.

And so the idea of things like this list, though, is to offset tax being paid into the fund that you wouldn't have paid if it was paid to you.

So that's a really good question.

We're talking averages and then we'll talk

everything else.

So on average, people stay in the default option.

So most people don't make an active choice.

And the superannuation system has been pretty carefully designed now to ensure that if you go into the default option, and this is with my super, for example, the default option is relatively inexpensive.

And it also gives you an appropriate level of risk and therefore return theoretically for your age.

What used to happen often was that you could be dumped into the conservative option, even though you were 25 years old, because that was the default.

So now the default option is usually a balanced or a growth option.

And some funds will do it per age and so on.

And that means that you are taking an appropriate level of risk

And the vast majority of people, I'm talking 80% plus, just stick with the default.

So that's everybody, male and female.

I will say men are somewhat more likely to make an active choice.

So they're more engaged to the best of our knowledge and are more likely to make an active choice.

And when they make an active choice, they tend to make a higher risk choice rather than a lower risk choice.

So if you're put into the growth option and you've got the choice of

perhaps actively selecting your own Australian equity, some funds allow you to do that, or specific international exposure or whatever, or the conservative option, they're more likely to go for the higher risk options, which longer term, and sleep is a very long-term investment strategy for most people, tends to give you a better return.