This year's super statements will cause lots of unpleasant surprises, with plenty of people discovering for the first time just how much sharemarket turbulence can affect the value of their nest egg.

When you review your fund statement for the financial year just ended, chances are you'll find your nest egg has gone backwards.

That's because most of us have our super invested in balanced or growth options - both of which have strong exposure to the sharemarket. So when the sharemarket falls, super funds investing in shares are likely to drop too.

But here's the thing. The reason investments like shares feature so strongly in super is because they have a track record of solid returns over the long term.

And, and as a very long-term asset, your super should also go on to recover from the present turmoil.

To show just how this works, a recent report from fund researcher Morningstar and the Investment and Financial Services Association found that if you had invested $1,000 in Australian shares in 1973, the same investment would be worth around $80,000 today.

Yet over the intervening 35 years, plenty of events rocked the sharemarket - each regarded as 'disastrous' at the time.

In 1974 for example, the OPEC oil crisis sparked a 50% drop in the sharemarket, yet four years later it had recovered its value and continued to climb higher.

And who can forget Black Monday - October 20, 1987 - when the All Ordinaries share index plunged by 25% in just one day?

And then there were the monstrous terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when Australian shares slid 12%.

The bottom line is that history tells us that sharemarkets, and your super, should recover their values, and given time, a single year of bad returns will be offset against many more good ones.

After all, over the last five years to April 2008, the median annual return on growth-style super funds was 10.8%, which is about in line with long term trends.

Falling super values over this last financial year can mean that those of us nearing retirement may have to re-think our immediate plans, possibly staying on at work a bit longer.

And don't get me wrong, I know this will come as a setback to many people, and I also don't like seeing my own super heading south.

But if you're still very much in the workforce, now could be a good time to take advantage of discounted asset prices and actually tip more into super.

Share values have taken a hammering in the last twelve months and that means your contributions will buy more in terms of underlying investments.

By the time you've hung up your work boots it could make a tremendous, positive difference to your lifestyle.