UniSuper
Around 2016 I became more and more unhappy about the state of our investments. Because we had a registered company, a registered self-managed superfund and a unit trust, our annual accounting fees were substantial. I started looking for a way to eliminate these fees.
Helen was working for a few weeks several times a year for Charles Sturt University as an invigilator and was being paid super on her wages as was normal for employment situations. While looking at her super account online I realised that the percentage return on the meagre amount she accumulated far exceeded the percentage returns we were getting for our investment units and the term deposits we had in the bank. I decided to cash in all the term deposits and sell all the units and transfer all our funds into a managed superfund.
Charles Sturt University uses UniSuper as their preferred fund. It is restricted to educational facilities such as universities, colleges and schools, and is a closed fund. After making enquiries with them, their answer was a definite no to my wanting to roll our super over to them.
I joined Helen in being an invigilator with Charles Sturt. After I received my first pay, and super was paid on my behalf to UniSuper, my account at UniSuper was established. I started selling off the units in our self-managed super with the view of consolidating the whole lot together with the money from the term deposits and rolling all the funds into UniSuper.
In January 2017 all transfers were in place and Helen and I had an account each in UniSuper in accordance with our shareholding in our Silverwater Catering Company. Our company, the superfund and the unit trust were wound up and I bid a fond farewell to our accountants.
The returns we were receiving for the term deposits were 2.30% at the time we terminated them, and units return around 3.5%. For the past twelve months UniSuper returned to us 15% which is about 5 times more than what we were earning previously.
Having a go paid off yet again
Acknowledgement
This has been a very interesting and enriching experience. From digging into our family’s history and unearthing long forgotten bits and pieces, I also had a windfall of information from an unexpected source, namely, Michael Moz from Maale Adumim in Israel. I cannot speak too highly of his contribution because I would have had no chance of obtaining this information on my own. Being Russian, he was able to obtain information from Russian archives which would have been impossible for me to source. Michael also delved into my father’s family history as well as our mutual family’s history in great depth and was meticulous in his documentation. Kol hakavod.
I would also like to acknowledge the technical help I received from my friend Leo, who patiently steered me through the endless hassles I had with the computer. His knowledge of many aspects of the various programs made all this so much easier. He also became a de facto editor and picked up several anomalies while helping me organise my folders and files.
Last but not least my thanks also go to Helen who corrected spelling mistakes, grammatical errors as well as proof reading and offering structural changes to make the text more readable. I especially wish to thank Helen for her patience during this long adventure which occupied me substantially since my retirement.
But most of all, I want to commend Helen for being the best wife, companion, mother and home maker a man could ever wish for. Without her, none of this would have ever been possible and our family wouldn’t be what it is today. Thank you again.
Epilogue
What started off as a short term project, to write down a family background and include a few photos, finished up being a long drawn out saga spanning 14 years ending on March 19th 2018 when it was ready to go to print. It was fraught with difficulties and had I known this in advance, it would have caused me to think twice about embarking along this path.
Once I started however, I found that I was enjoying what I was doing almost to the point of obsession. Whereas in the beginning I was only thinking in terms of a family history, as the work progressed I started seeing it more of a legacy I was leaving to my children and grandchildren. I felt a theme emerging which was to have a go. I was never afraid of changing direction and was quite happy to take on challenges. Mostly, Helen and I were successful, but several times we were in difficult situations but we stuck it out and in the end we succeeded.
So what is the message I wish to leave to you, my children and grandchildren? Always do your best and don’t be afraid of challenges or changing direction.
Never continue in an occupation you are not happy in. When I saw an unhappy staff member in any of our businesses, I would always draw them aside and say “If you are not happy at work where you spend a large portion of your day you will be an unhappy person. Even if it causes you difficulties initially, don’t stick around, make a move”.
Have a go.
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