This year is shaping to be the best year ever for super. Which makes a refreshing change from the carnage that was 2008.

If balanced funds hold on to their gains until the end of the month, SuperRatings forecasts the median 12-month rolling return will scrape back into the positive.

That might not sound like much but in March the figure was negative 20 per cent.

The result has required the fastest performance rebound since compulsory super was introduced in 1992: 2.6 per cent in the month of September, 9.3 per cent in the three months to then and 17 per cent over seven months. And in the same period, Australian share funds have seen the five highest monthly returns of the past five years – a far cry from 2008, where they endured the five worst.

Before you get too excited though, even with the impressive recovery this year, SuperRatings calculates we are still only back at 2006 levels. If you had put $1000 in super when it was introduced 17 years ago, you would have had $3331 at the end of September 2006. And, thanks to the financial crisis, that is exactly how much you would have had at the end of September this year.

It's all rather grim.

But there are things you can do to rebuild your balance fast.

One of the best is to shovel more money into super while the market is still (relatively) low. Sure the ASX/S&P 200 has rallied 55 per cent since March but it is still nearly 30 per cent off its November 2007 high.

The most effective way to pay into super is via salary sacrifice, where the money goes in pre-tax. So instead of paying tax at a marginal rate as high as 46.5 per cent (including Medicare), you pay only the 15 per cent contributions tax.

Let's say you are 35, earn $60,000 a year, have $50,000 in super and don't pay anything above your employer's contributions. You're on track for a fund at 65 of $366,000. But if you salary sacrifice just $100 a month (costing you only the amount you would have received after tax), that leaps to $419,000, or an increase of $53,000.

There's also the option to make after-tax contributions, which will cost you the full amount but incur no contributions tax. In the above example, $100 after tax means an extra $62,000 at 65.

You should definitely pay in $1000 a year this way if you are employed and earn less than $61,920 as you'll qualify for the government's co-contribution of up to $1000 (increasing to $1500 when a temporary scale-back is removed in 2014).

But you can't afford to delay with any of the above balance-repair strategies; two broad-ranging reviews could shortly curtail them.

The tax-free status of payouts post-60 is apparently safe, which means the reviews are probably looking at paring back concessions on the way in and while money is invested. And indeed, one of the cost-cutting measures introduced in the May budget was to halve the annual amount you could contribute before tax (which includes your employer's 9 per cent) from $50,000 to $25,000 (and $100,000 to $50,000 for the over 50s).

For now, however, there is much you can do to take advantage of the market's low prices and undo the damage the past few years has wreaked. Make the most of it while you can.