There are a couple of different options for you to consider here (you may even want to consider getting Advice)... Ultimately we can look at this as a tax saving opportunity but, I think we need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture here. Ultimately, we want to have decent Super balances, so we have security in retirement. For both of you.

The ‘mad house’ presumably runs as efficiently as possible because that is her full-time role (I can’t even imagine the daily to-do list when you have five kids –my assumption is it would be many more hours than a usual full-time role!). Which sounds like it’s enabled you to take on a high income earning one... so I think of your income and super as household funds.

Her super balance is low, and assuming you have fees and insurance coming out, it will continue to dwindle if nothing much is added to it. So I think this needs a broader strategy around what amount of contributions should be added to her account (and of course, look at ways to use the offsets to minimise tax where appropriate).

I would love to say we don’t need to worry because you’re married and what’s yours is hers and vice versa, but there are plenty of divorced people who have thought their life would pan out differently, who would caution everyone who has this mindset. So, I would say making sure you both have decent Super balances is very important. If either of you are much older than another, you want to think about who can access Super first and you can be strategic there, but with more women ending up on the poverty line in older years I get nervous and concerned when they have little long-term retirement savings in their own name.

It also sounds like you have your insurances sorted, but make sure you have appropriate covers (especially for Income Protection for you) and Life Insurance, given that if you were no longer able to earn an income it would have serious consequences on your families financial outcomes.

What options do you have:

*Government Contributions: If you are working & earn below a certain income threshold, you may be eligible for government contributions. The government can match your personal after-tax contributions up to a certain limit (currently $500), which can significantly boost your super savings. Worth investigating!

*Spouse Contributions: If your partner earns less than $40,000 per year, you may be eligible for a tax offset if you make contributions to their super account. The tax offset is up to $540 per year. Check out this page for more info on eligibility conditions and how to claim the offset.

*Contribution Splitting: If you are keen to split your employer contributions or salary sacrifice amounts you are adding into your fund you generally can do that (you need to check with your fund, annoyingly not all allow it). You can split up to 85% of your taxable contributions or 100% of your untaxed contributions. More helpful info on this can be found here.

*Contribute extra from your savings: This assumes you have extra cash you want to chuck in and keep there until retirement age. If you do this, call your Super Fund to see how you can claim it as a tax deduction (assuming it’s a concessional contribution). Generally, they have a specific form that must be received by them before the financial year ends.

Also, if you are planning on doing this and then changing your super fund, make sure you speak to them. The last thing you want is to make, what you think is a deductible contribution, only to find out you can’t claim it. Consider that to get any deductible benefit here, you would need an income to offset it from.

There are also ways to backfill for years when you didn’t reach your annual cap (currently $27,500per year), there are some specific requirements for this, so check first to make sure you’re eligible. Generally, your balance needs to be under $500k (which yours is!) and you can only use the bring forward rule for 5 years. I hope this is helpful, I assume she works incredibly hard and I think having a clear agreed contributions strategy for the both of you is very important.

Jess

(From the madhouse with only one slightly erratic human and her very busy dog).

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