With hindsight

In her job as the executive assistant at Melbourne law firm IFS Legal, mother-of-two Chris Panagiotopoulos comes into regular contact with the superannuation industry. "Our clients are super funds," she says.

Nonetheless, Panagiotopoulos says her own super is not front of mind - and little wonder. After taking a year's maternity leave after the birth of her son, John, Panagiotopoulos worked part time for 18 months and is now back on maternity leave after the arrival of baby Julia in late May. "With kids, you think about the immediate but you do tend to think long term as well," she says.

"Planning for them, planning for school and planning for us in retirement. My priority now is looking after the kids and making sure I'm still employed, to be able to still get super so when I do get to retirement the funds are there."

"Long term, I'm thinking about myself. But it's last on my list."

Panagiotopoulos and her husband, Peter, have done some planning for retirement, which they intend to fund with super and investment properties.

But time out of the workforce means that Panagiotopoulos' superannuation contributions have been reduced or halted altogether for the past 2½ years, and will be until the children start school. Her plan now is to make extra super payments when she returns to work.

Looking back, Panagiotopoulos wishes she'd put more into her super before she had children when she was working full time. "I wish I'd locked away more money in my super," she says. "Whereas now I have to be conscious of where I'm putting that money because I've got kids."