Long time lurker first time poster.
I'm 32 and have no share investments and no super.
If I have a 30 year investment horizon, am I best served by plowing my money into super e.g. hostplus vs investing in the index outside super, because of tax benefits?
It depends upon how much you can save. You currently have a 30 year investment horizon, which I assume means that you think you’re only saving enough to retire at 62. In that case, you would have access to your super, and putting most into super is a reasonable way to go.
However, if you tackle your expenses, and get them to 20% of your income, you would be saving 4 years of expenses each year, and could retire in 6 years. In that case, keeping all your money outside super would be the way to go.
If you have only just found MMM, and you like the idea of retirement, I suggest starting by investing outside super for the first year, while you adjust your spending patterns. This gives you funds you can use before you retire for doing things like buying a house. Then in a year, you can review what you’re doing.
You can now play catch-up with super (from this year they will allow you to put in up to five years of concessional contributions that you haven’t made - this year is year 1). So you could invest outside super for up to 5 years while you are working out exactly when you think you can retire without any penalties.