Aussie Finance With Luke's latest video reframes one of the most common questions Australian savers ask in 2026 — what to do with a $100,000 windfall — as a tax-wrapper bet rather than a returns bet.
The ASX 200, including dividends, has delivered around 9 to 10% a year over the long term, the host points out, while the average balanced super fund has returned roughly 7 to 8% a year over the past three decades. On raw numbers, shares look like the obvious winner. "More risk, more reward. End of story, right? Not even close," Luke argues. "Because raw returns are only half the equation. The other half, the half that actually decides who wins, is tax."
Outside super, every dollar of dividend income is added to taxable income. For a worker on $90,000, that means investment returns are taxed at 32.5% or 37% once the Medicare levy is included. "A 10% return suddenly becomes a 6 to 7% return after the tax office takes its cut," Luke says. Franking credits soften that on Australian shares, but foreign shares, ETFs holding international assets and any unfranked income are hit at the full marginal rate with no offset.
Inside super, the maths is very different. Earnings are taxed at 15%, capital gains held more than 12 months are taxed at an effective 10% thanks to the one-third discount, and once a member transitions to pension phase after age 60, tax on earnings drops to zero. "You become legally invisible to the tax office on those investment returns," Luke says. "There is no other structure in Australia that offers this. Not trusts, not companies, not investment bonds — nothing comes close."
The video runs the numbers on a 35-year-old earning $95,000. In option one, they put $100,000 into a low-cost ASX 200 index fund and let it ride for 25 years, assuming a 9% return and roughly 2% a year of tax leakage on dividends and rebalancing. They end up with about $530,000 at age 60. In option two, the same person uses the bring-forward rule to push that $100,000 into super as a non-concessional contribution — comfortably under the $130,000 cap that takes effect from 1 July 2026 — and earns the same 9% with tax of only 10 to 15% on earnings. After 25 years, they are sitting on closer to $760,000.
"That's an extra $230,000," Luke says. "Same starting capital, same time horizon. The only difference is the tax wrapper."
The catch, he warns, is liquidity. Money inside super is locked away until preservation age — now 60 for everyone watching. "That's not a flaw in the system, that's the deal you make in exchange for the tax break," he says. "For someone in their 50s, that's a fair trade. For someone in their 30s with a mortgage, kids, a small business, or dreams of buying an investment property, locking $100,000 away for 25 to 30 years could be financially crippling."
The video also flags how rule changes can erode certainty. Contribution caps, tax rates, preservation rules and balance thresholds have all been adjusted multiple times over the past two decades, and any super balance sits inside whatever future rules Canberra writes.
Luke recommends a split that scales with age. Under 40s should lean toward keeping capital outside super for flexibility. Those between 40 and 50 are in the sweet spot for splitting contributions roughly half-and-half. "If you're 50 or older and earning a strong income," he says, "super becomes almost unbeatable."
A final under-used lever, he notes, is the carry-forward rule, which lets investors with super balances under $500,000 use unused concessional caps from the prior five years. "A tradie, a teacher or a small business owner who finally has a strong income year can legally dump $100,000 or more into super in a single year and slash their tax bill dramatically," he says — adding that the concessional cap rises to $32,500 from July 2026, up from $30,000 this financial year.