When can you access your super?

Super investors are encouraged to maintain a long term perspective. This is because access to super is generally restricted until you have:-

permanently retired from the workforce; and

reached the minimum age set by law, called your 'preservation age'. See the table below.

If your date of birth is:	Your preservation age is:
After June 1964	60
July 1963 - June 1964	59
July 1962- June 1963	58
July 1961 - June 1962	57
July 1960 - June 1961	56
Before July 1960	55

You may get at least part of your super earlier only:

if you suffer permanent incapacity for work; or
in cases of severe financial hardship, (the Trustee must follow approved guidelines to determine severe financial hardship); or
on 'compassionate grounds' (there are strict guidelines for release on compassionate grounds and both APRA and the Trustee must approve the release); or
if you are an eligible temporary resident of Australia, who has the option of accessing their super benefits after permanently leaving Australia; or
upon termination of gainful employment on or after 1 July 1997 where your preserved benefits at the time of the termination are less than $200.

You may access your super once you reach age 65 whether you have retired or not. A person may now retain their superannuation funds (in the accumulation phase) on an indefinite basis until death. Contact your fund for more information.

Tax free super!

Regardless of whether you choose to make lump sum withdrawals or receive your super as income payments, you can receive your super benefit tax free if you have reached age 60.

Transition to retirement

Legislation was recently introduced to provide more financial relief and flexibility to people who wanted the best of both worlds; to continue to work and have access to their super at the same time.The laws generally allow anyone who has reached their preservation age to work and access their super in the form of a periodical income stream (in the form of a non-commutable pension or annuity), which cannot usually be converted into a lump sum. Please note, from 1 July 2007, pensions commenced under the transition to retirement condition of release will allow no more than 10 per cent of the account balance (at the start of each year) to be withdrawn in any one year.

A further benefit of the transition to retirement measure is the potential tax advantage of working full time. A person may salary sacrifice part of their income to super and then access it as an income stream.

As super is a long term investment, short term market volatility need not concern investors who have a long time before retirement.