1. “Start early and make compound interest your ally.”

Investing has never been about getting rich quick for Luke Irwin – it’s about securing peace of mind. “I didn’t want to worry about financial security in my later years,” says the Brisbane-based veteran. “Realising I wanted a larger balance to draw upon outside of just my super is what got me started.”

Luke’s initial move was highly strategic: upon joining the navy, he immediately increased his super contributions to the maximum level, capitalising on government co-contributions to enjoy a 20 per cent super rate for seven years.

Luke has chipped away at another goal – to have an additional $500,000 on top of that super available to him at retirement – by a…