For starters, the offer is not universally available. You must satisfy various criteria that include, but are not limited to: Being unemployed or eligible to receive a Jobseeker payment. Alternatively, on or after January 1, 2020, if you were made redundant, or your working hours were reduced by 20 per cent or more, or your sole trader business was suspended or had a reduction in turnover of 20 per cent or more, you may apply to withdraw from your super. Next, I want to highlight that superannuation is not “going” anywhere. If you are with one of the fund managers, your superannuation will almost certainly be spread across various asset classes – cash, property and shares – and each of these may be rising, falling or staying static. A capital gain, or capital loss, is not something that is “happening” – it’s something which has happened.

So yes, almost everybody has seen a decline in their super balance because it will be heavily invested in local and international shares. However, that’s past tense – every day your balance will be rising and falling. It is reasonable to assume that a good super fund should return about 9 per cent a year long-term, yet mortgage rates can now be found everywhere for less than 3 per cent. What is the point of withdrawing money from a fund that can be expected to produce 9 per cent per annum and then “investing” it in your home loan to get a lesser capital-guaranteed 3 per cent? Some people argue that mortgage rates will eventually go up but, if they do, inflation will be on the rise too, and returns on good growth assets, such as shares and property, should rise as well.

Loading In any event, over the long term, earnings on property and shares should be more than the interest you pay on a loan. One of the hidden issues here is that many Australians don’t understand their super and deep down don’t trust it. This comes from the propensity of governments to keep changing super rules, and of the media highlighting major share market falls as an attack on super balances. So, let me give you a way to get your mind around superannuation. It's not an asset class, such as property or shares, but a basket that holds assets in a low tax or zero tax environment.