The way your superannuation is invested will impact your performance.

Chris Sozou, Virgin Money Australia’s General Manager Wealth & Insurance, explains superannuation is invested in a range of asset classes with the primary aim of producing better returns across your entire investment timeline.

The asset classes used by Virgin Super include Australian shares, international shares, Australian listed property, fixed interest and cash. The performance of each asset class varies, and they generally do not move together. Therefore, your allocation and the performance of individual investment classes will impact performance.

Read the full transcript: How does my investment mix impact my performance?

“LifeStage Tracker® funds allocates its investments across 5 different asset classes, namely

• Australian Shares,
• International Shares,
• Australian Listed Property,
• Fixed Interest and
• Cash.

Each of these asset classes perform differently at any point in time.  For example, with interest rates in Australia at historic lows, cash is returning about 2.7% over last 12 months, whereas before the GFC in 2008, cash was providing returns above 6 and 7%.  Likewise, Australian Equities has returned around 14% over the last 12 months, however during the GFC Australian shares fell dramatically in 2008 and then rose dramatically in 2009.   No asset class performs consistently and generally they do not move together.  This is the major reason we mix the asset classes, with the aim of producing better returns over your investment timeline.”