As a proud Chartered Accountant, there’s potentially nothing more satisfying than a reconciled set of accounts and a beautifully balanced financial model. You could say accounting is a metaphor for life — everything has its place and should be in a state of equilibrium…

With my love for numbers, people assume my personal finances are neatly squared away. Tax returns lodged on the 7th of July, income and expenses tracked to the cent and a consolidated spreadsheet of my net worth.

Well, this is not so, and I am embarrassed to tell you, is actually far from reality.

The reality is that I am harassed by my fiancé every month because I consistently forget to transfer my share of housekeeping money into the joint bank account. I pay a late fee to Origin because I forget to pay my utilities bill on time. I buy a brand new pair of hand wraps at the boxing gym every other week because I forget to bring them. And I am often only wearing one sock, because well, #careless.

While they may seem small things at the time, these minor expenses do add up, particularly when these habits compound over a number of years.

Step 1 was recognising I had a problem. Step 2 was remedying that problem. And what better way to do that than with a well-meaning New Year’s resolution. Thus, my New Year’s resolution was to focus on improving my mindfulness — to pay more attention to these minor, menial ‘life admin tasks’. Why?

Because how you do the little things is indicative of how you approach more important tasks.

The first thing on my long list of neglected life admin tasks was to consolidate my superannuation.

Despite all the propaganda from the ATO over the years about the importance of consolidating your super accounts, I always ignored it. ‘Bottom of the priority list,’ I subconsciously told myself.

And it wasn’t just the ATO nagging me to take action.

I am grateful to have a fiscally responsible mother

Superannuation has forever been perceived as this boring, stale, low return, mandatory thing. 9.5% of my salary is deposited into some war chest which I can’t touch for another 30 years. It’s for old people. I’m a millennial, I want to spend my money now, dammit!

After being stuck on a phone call with the ATO for 52 mins due to three unsuccessful attempts to login to my MyGov account (potentially the most un-user-friendly platform ever developed), my fears were realised.

Fifteen years of superannuation was spread amongst numerous accounts. Unclaimed super held in trust by the ATO — presumably from my first (legal) job serving fish and chips circa 2000, Hostplus from cooking entrees in a Chinese restaurant circa 2002, Asgard from my first job in an accounting firm circa 2006, a second Asgard account after moving to another accounting firm circa 2008.

The total: four accounts, charging three sets of fees and two funds with duplicate life insurance policies.

I was ashamed of myself for letting my superannuation get into this state. Years of neglect has cost me thousands of dollars.

I’m supposed to be a fiscally responsible accountant — the financial compass for my clients, if you will.

And so began my exploration into the world of superannuation. After consolidating my super into one fund, I did some digging into the historical performance and management fee structure of my current fund. I was getting absolutely taken for a ride.

It was time to make a change.

Spaceship(!)

Coincidentally, Paul Bennetts’ superannuation product, Spaceship was making headlines throughout various media channels. Spaceship is disrupting the superannuation industry.

“Invest where the world is going, not where it’s been”.

With 100% transparency, a ‘tech focused investment portfolio’ featuring businesses like Apple, Alphabet and Facebook and seed funding from local tech heroes like Michael Cannon Brookes, Spaceship immediately caught my attention. At last, a sexy fintech startup shaking up the stale, bland superannuation industry.