I don’t feel like I can live off less money per month but I have heard of the importance of making additional super payments above the compulsory. Is it worth doing?

There will never be a good time to start saving extra as you will find that lifestyle expenses creep means that any future income just seems to disappear in everyday spending. The earlier you start saving the longer you have the power of compounding work for you so I would encourage you to save as much as you can up to the $25,000 concessional contribution limit. If you can get in the habit of putting extra away in to super now then you will benefit many times over later with the option to control your own retirement decision.

Putting just $50 a month extra in to super from age 25 could add $175,000 to your retirement funds or $50 from 35 could mean an extra $79,000. If you are on $37,000–$250,000 you will save between 19.5 and 32 cents tax per dollar contribution to super.

You can also use some of those extra contributions to fund a home deposit using the First Home Super Saver (FHSS) scheme. Building your super for professionals also gives you some additional options later, like the possibility of using your superannuation via an SMSF to fund the purchase of a commercial premises to run a future pharmacy.

Liam Shorte is a financial planner and SMSF advisor at Verante Financial Planning.