Registered User
This is what always confused me too, that I had to be in some sort of paid work, even just a few hours a week, to access the co-contributions?? I always forget to ask the accountant at tax time too..Will try to remember it this year!
Legislation may have changed, but when the co-conts were first introduced I am pretty sure you ahd to be in gainful employment to be elligible
What you can look into is a spouse contribution, where he can offset his contributions to your fund
Registered User
You need to do the math to see if it is worth worrying about as well. If you have a significant amount in there, then getting your partner to contribute to your super can be a really good idea. Do you intend on returning to work at any point in the near (within 5yrs) future??? How will you catch up the 'gap' from your time as a SAHM? Does your DH's super amount to a decent amount, or would it be stressed to provode for one person?
For me personally, my super is so piddling it doesn't pay for me to do anything with it whilst on maternity leave (I think I have about $800 in there at the moment, because it gets eaten up every time I go on maternity leave), unless it is coming up to 12mths since the last contrabution, just to ensure my life insurance is still valid. Having realised that with me being a SAHM and not entering full time employment for 5yrs now and likely for at 'least' another 5-6yrs, my super is unlikely to ever be an impressive amount. Instead DH (who has fabulous super) and I have looked into other external personal investments to work towards securiing my retirement.
[Honestly, even those with huge amounts of super should look at other avenues, as the super is unlikely to sustain anyone for a reasonable amount of time by itself.]
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