The Average Australian Somehow Has 40k In Savings
Meanwhile, there are welfare recipients scraping by on $46 a day.
The average Australian reportedly has $40k in savings, according to the results of a new survey.
Yep, data pulled from a study conducted by Finder indicates that not only is your average compatriot sitting on $40k in savings — average savings are up a massive 75 percent since March.
The figure may come as a shock given that by all accounts, it’s getting increasingly expensive to be alive. Rental affordability is getting worse, the cost of everyday staples like groceries is on the rise, and Australians effectively copped a pay cut in 2021.
But if you break wads of savings down by age bracket, things look quite different. Baby boomers have an average of $77k squirrelled away, Gen X is sitting on just over $40k, millennials have around $23k, and Gen Z about $13k. So it looks like cashed up baby boomers and Gen Xers are pulling the average up.
Also worth mentioning is that these types of blanket figures tend to obscure the levels of inequality that exist in Australia. Men, for example, tend to have double the amount of savings that women do. Meanwhile, there are huge numbers of people — for example, those on welfare — who are struggling to survive.
“The people who are on low fixed incomes, like those on JobSeeker or pensions, there is no fat in those people’s budgets. So, when the cost of rent or petrol or utilities increases, they are forced to make impossible choices,” Fioina Guthrie, CEO of Financial Counselling Australia told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The federal budget handed down earlier this year did little to address those struggles, and a few months out from Anthony Albanese being elected PM, we’re yet to see this supposedly more progressive government hike up welfare payments.
At the moment, single people without children on JobSeeker payments are expected to make do on $46 a day.