How much of my DIY superannuation cash returns are being extracted by super funds?
Problem: Australians managing their own super may lose ~1-3% of their interest on cash in their superannuation transaction accounts compared to the minimum super funds are making on it (benchmarked by the RBA Cash Rate). Interest rates well under 1% are not uncommon for SMSF or DIY Super. By eliminating the value of risk-free cash returns, the finance industry forces people into fee-extracting and unnecessarily high-risk or fraud-exposed investments.
Key Ideas: Wealth Extraction; Financial Repression; Negative Real Rates (aka Stealth Tax).
Rationale: Australians employees are forced to have 12% of their wages paid into super. If saving in at-call cash outside of super they could get returns ~0.5-1% higher than the RBA Cash Rate. E.g. Macquarie offers 4.25% with the RBA rate at 3.6%.
Solution: Force federal politicians to require all super funds to pay a minimum interest rate on cash benchmarked to the RBA Cash Rate (or relevant proxy like BBSW). See prior reforms here.
Reward: How Australia Really Works offers rewards of up to $500 for work (research, advocacy) toward this solution.
HARW Reality: The superannuation myth is that it exists to benefit all Australians. The reality is the primary beneficiaries of this compulsory, intentionally-overcomplicated system, that redirects 12% of annual wages, are the wealthiest 20% of the population who: exploit the tax breaks, work in super/finance/law, help their children find overpaid jobs in these unproductive sectors, utilise super and property to transfer intergenerational wealth, create myriad ways to extract returns from this captive pool of over $4.5 trillion, frustrate simple, low-cost ways for 80% of Australians to save/invest with worthwhile risk-return and have access throughout their lifetime, and generally force 80% of the population to be dependents on government, serve their needs in the economy, and be lifelong wage slaves and compliant followers of their rules and requirements.
Problem Summary:
Australians employees are required by law to have 12% of their wages paid into superannuation ("superannuation guarantee"). With strict exceptions, the vast majority of these compulsory savings are only accessible after retirement and being older than 60. Yet, the government fails to properly regulate the super industry which is an annual extractor of over $30 billion/year of Australian's wealth.
One extraction is by paying Australians much less on their cash holdings (especially in transaction accounts) than the minimum rate they earn on that cash (using the RBA Cash Rate benchmark).
This is particularly important for those managing their own super (SMSF, SMSF-lite) as they often have significant cash in the transaction account for periods of time. This can cost them 1-3% of their cash returns per year.
Links:
> AustralianSuper Member Direct (August 2025: 4.35%)
> ING SMSF Cash (Dec 2025: 0.35%)
> Macquarie Cash Accounts (Dec 2025: 3.9% CMA Accelerator)
