How much super is enough? Web trends at a glance… Smart telco bundling… Global study of youth tech habits…

How much super is enough?

A third of Australian workers will not have enough super to live comfortably when they retire, according to the first AMP superannuation adequacy index.

The study of the super savings of 320,000 AMP corporate super clients found that a third of people will have a retirement income less than 65% of their working income when super and the age pension is taken into account.

The average Australian will retire with $535,036, excluding the family home, enough to provide an annual income of $40,567 when age pension and other investments are taken into account.

The average superannuation contribution is 12.6%, suggesting many Australians make voluntary payments in addition to the 9% compulsory contributions. People tend to make bigger contributions the older they get, with people over 60 putting an average 25.5% into super.

“Current savings patterns mean that even if young workers follow in the footsteps of their parent’s generation by contributing more to super near retirement, 35% will not achieve the savings they need for an adequate retirement,” Access Economics director Chris Richardson says.

Web trends at a glance

If you’re a visual person and you enjoy a Japanese joke, this could be for you. Japanese based design agency iA have put out what it calls a “Web Trend Map“. They have created a tube/subway map to represent the “200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective”.

You can buy the poster for $US25 or just use it as your wallpaper. iA Webtrend Map Screensaver (OSX). Look closely and there is method to the connections. The map is a new and improved version of a previous one, with more websites, a focus on English language websites but includes some Japanese, German and Chinese sites too.

Telco bundling can be a winner – if you pick the right one

It has been around for a while, but over the past month telecommunications players such as Optus, Telstra and now Virgin have moved to aggressively market service bundles incorporating phone and internet services to consumers and SMEs.

Virgin’s new package includes a fixed line telephone service with broadband internet access, unlimited local and national long distance calls and 4GBs of download data for $60 a month, iTWire reports.

Independent consumer advocacy and advice group Choice says a family can save about $20 a month through these offers, as long as they choose one that properly matches their needs.

Choice says when comparing telco service bundles, consumers should look out for:

• Contract lock in periods of up to two years with hefty penalties for early exit.
• Charges for exceeding internet download limits.
• Having to pay service charges or more expensive call charges.

Global study of youth tech habits

A recent study of the technology habits of 18000 people around the world between the age of eight and 24 conducted MTV, Nickelodeon and Microsoft and reported in Marketing Charts has produced some quite fascinating results:

• One in three UK and US teenagers say they can’t live without their games console.
• On average, a Chinese 8–24s have 37 online friends they have never met.
• Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has 94 phone numbers in his or her mobile phone, 78 people on a messenger buddy list and 86 in his or her social networking community.
• 59% of 8–14s prefer their TV to their PCs.
• 20% of 14–24s globally admitted to being “interested” in technology.
• Kids below 14 most enjoy they enjoy watching TV (85%), listening to music (70%), hanging out with friends (68%), playing videogames (67%) and spending time online (51%).
• As they grow into teens, the ranking of their favorite pastimes changes: music moves to the top (70%), followed by watching TV or hanging out with friends (both 65%), watching DVDs (60%), relaxing (60%), going to the cinema (59%), spending time online (56%), spending time with girlfriend or boyfriend (55%), eating (53%) and hanging out at home (49%).
• On average, 14–24s said they had 20 online friends, with Brazilians claiming the most – 46. Communicating with their friends is a priority: Nearly 70% said the first thing they did after turning on their computer was to check instant messages.
• Out of all young people surveyed, 14–17 year old girls spend the least time online (21 hours a week) while 22–24 males spent the most time online: 31 hours a week online.
• German kids aged 8–14 use the internet the least of all groups studied and were also the least likely to view it positively; only 25% of German kids said they loved the internet (likely linked to a high degree of parental supervision) compared with 73% of Dutch kids.

Quote of the Day

Pressure and stress is the common cold of the psyche.
– Andrew Denton