How to skip entering a super account (a workaround)

It is strongly recommended that if an individual has a superannuation account, that you enter its details in Pathfinder. This makes the modelling easier because Pathfinder is built to assume superannuation is part of the strategy. 

However, under some circumstances, you may wish to provide limited advice that does not include any aspect of superannuation (contributions or withdrawals). If the individual is not earning any income that has a compulsory super guarantee, then you can simply not include a super fund.  However, if the individual is earning income that has a compulsory super guarantee (i.e. salary, bonuses, commissions), then the default is that you also need to include at least one superannuation account to receive these contributions.  However, if for the purposes of the analysis, you want to ignore the super account, then the workaround is:

• At the Super & Trusts step, do not enter any superannuation accounts or SMSFs
  
• At the Cash flows & Goals step, in the Income section, enter their salary with the following details:
  • Type = Taxable (this type does not have the 'Super guarantee' automatically applied).  Note, do not use  'Wages/Salary', 'Bonuses' and 'Commissions' because they automatically add the super guarnatee and will require you to add a super fund.
  • Amount:
    • The amount you enter for the income has to exclude the super guarantee, but be before tax (i.e. gross income)
    • If the planned retirement date is in the time frame of the analysis, then the individual will have to change the income amounts to zero in the year they retire (for more information, see How to stop a value in the series builder)
• In the Retirement planning sub-step (under the Cash flows & Goals step) , switch off voluntary contributions by entering the following data (if they are shown):
  • Allow transition to retirement: No
  • Allow spouse super splitting: No
  • Voluntary super contribution options: None
• Note that there are some shortcomings to this approach. For example, Age Pension estimates may not be correct, since they should include superannuation fund balances.