This kind of “out of sight, out of mind” attitude is exactly what massive, traditional superfunds want to cultivate. You not asking too many questions – say about where that money is being invested – makes their life easier. It also means you’re probably not engaged enough to consider moving your money if you don’t get the answers you want.  

But it’s kind of nuts we don’t think about this more. Even if you’re still in the financial stage of your life where you’re rushing to the pub to catch a half-priced glass of house wine, you probably have more money in your superfund than you realise.  

The average 25-year-old’s super balance is said to be somewhere around $24,000. By the time they think about retirement in their 60s, that figure could have swelled to over half a million dollars. Collectively, there is around $3 trillion quietly sitting in Australian superfunds. Not only is that money able to buy a lot of (hopefully non-house) wines during your golden years, it’s also funding huge businesses – which is what we’re really getting at here.  

Let’s pause for a second and do a bit more backgrounding on what that money is doing while you’re out here hustling. Superfunds exist to make themselves and their members' money. They invest those trillions of dollars into industries they think will perform and make money in the long term.  

Traditionally, that has meant putting money into some pretty shady places. Think fossil fuel projects, offshore detentions, gambling, tobacco, live animal export and weapons development.  

So while you’re at home doing your bit learning to balance the PH levels of your compost bin, your hard-earned cash might quietly be funding huge industries that represent the polar opposite of your values.  

But if 80s movies taught us anything, it’s that money equals power. And while the thought of your cash paying for fossil fuel expansion projects in vulnerable areas is grim, you have the agency to ensure that your money is being directed towards cleaner investments.  

The first thing you need to do is check in with your current superfund. We’re talking about your hard-earned cash, so you should be doing this anyway.  

Super providers have online portals where you check to make sure your employer is making regular payments, and see how the fund is generally performing. They should also provide a breakdown of where they’re focusing their investments. Warning: this can be a stark reality (AKA, all that aforementioned fossil fuel funding).  

If you don’t like what you see, then the good news is the situation can easily be fixed. A growing number of superfunds are breaking away by focusing singularly on ethical investing. Making the switch over to one of them is easy, you will just need to fill out a few forms online. Remember, they want your business so will make things as simple as possible for you to make the change.  

Similarly, many more traditional funds are at least offering an ethical investment stream within their larger business model. In those cases, you don’t even actually have to move your cash; it’s just a matter of opting into that ethical stream.