The 100K Super Milestone: Why Financial Literacy Should Be Taught, Not Discovered
There’s something both heartwarming and frustrating about watching someone discover the power of compound interest at 31. I’ve been following a discussion thread where a nurse shared her excitement about hitting $100,000 in superannuation - and honestly, her enthusiasm is infectious. She’s clearly proud of herself, and she should be. But it also highlights a massive gap in our education system that frankly pisses me off.
The fact that this woman had to educate herself about super through Reddit discussions and stumbled upon the magic of switching to high-growth options “after educating myself” speaks volumes about how we’re failing young Australians. She mentioned wishing she’d known about high-growth super options when she was 20 - and that hit me right in the gut. How many people are sitting there with their super in conservative options, slowly watching inflation eat away at their retirement dreams, simply because nobody ever explained the basics?
The technical discussion that followed her post was fascinating from my DevOps background - users debating active versus passive management, fee structures, and asset allocation strategies. Someone pointed out that HESTA’s high-growth option is actively managed with higher fees, while funds like Australian Super, Hostplus, and Rest offer indexed options. It’s the same philosophical debate we have in tech: do you trust the “active management” of complex, expensive solutions, or do you go with the simple, low-cost, passive approach that often outperforms?
What struck me most was how this information cascaded through the comments. People were genuinely helping each other, sharing resources like the ATO website and Passive Investing Australia. It reminded me of those moments in open-source communities where someone shares a solution that saves everyone hours of frustration. But here’s the thing - this shouldn’t be happening on Reddit. This should be happening in Year 10 maths class.
My daughter’s 16, and while she’s learning about quadratic equations (which, let’s be honest, she’ll probably never use), she knows absolutely nothing about compound interest, salary sacrificing, or asset allocation. She doesn’t understand that a simple decision at 20 could mean the difference between a comfortable retirement and eating baked beans until she dies. The education system is preparing her for university, not for life.
The discussion also revealed some interesting perspectives on Australian versus international markets. One user mentioned moving 90% to US markets, noting that “AUS markets will survive a US market crash anyway.” It’s a fair point - our economy is increasingly tied to global trends, and diversification makes sense. But it also reflects a broader issue about how we think about long-term wealth building in Australia.
This nurse’s story is ultimately a success story. She’s earning good money - $110-130k as a registered nurse, which shows our healthcare workers are finally getting paid something approaching what they deserve. She’s taking control of her financial future, branching into ETFs through Vanguard, and considering getting proper financial advice now that she owns property. But imagine if she’d started with this knowledge at 20 instead of 31. Those extra 11 years of compound growth would have been substantial.
The optimist in me sees hope in these online communities where people genuinely want to help each other succeed financially. The cynic in me wonders why we’ve left financial education to Reddit threads and YouTube videos. We need mandatory financial literacy in schools - not just the theory, but practical stuff like “here’s how super works, here’s why you should salary sacrifice, here’s the difference between active and passive funds.”
Until then, I’m grateful for communities where a 31-year-old nurse can celebrate hitting $100k in super and inspire others to take control of their financial futures. Her enthusiasm might just be the catalyst that gets someone else to switch from conservative to high-growth options. Sometimes the best education happens person to person, even if it’s through usernames on a screen.
The 100K club is just the beginning - wait until she sees what compound interest does over the next decade.