Life can feel like a constant battle of keeping your bank account healthy. With wages going in and so much coming out of your bank account, it doesn't always leave much room for anything to go wrong, such as being hit by a large bill.
Budget planning can help – if done right. Whether you're looking to buy a new car or save the deposit on a house, becoming financially stable needs a little bit of work. So, how many Australians consider themselves in a good place?
According to Roy Morgan, 60.4 per cent of us feel financially secure. Researchers suggested this could be put down to their savings, superannuation or recent interest rates. Take the cash rate, for instance. We know that most big banks will still increase interest rates, despite them paying only 2 per cent interest themselves on overnight loans.
However, interest rates on a home loan are still historically quite low, depending on where you look. It means more people are able to dedicate less of their wage to their mortgage, put that extra money aside and use it to set themselves on a strong financial footing.
And yet, the 39.6 per cent who don't necessarily consider themselves financially secure show there is a lot of still room for improvement. The global financial crisis (GFC) in 2007/2008 saw the number of people who consider themselves financially secure fall from 61.2 per cent to 56.5 per cent – and we've not reached that high point again for some time.
If you're still feeling the effect of the GFC, or if you simply want to improve your financial footing, feel free to use our handy little budget planner.
Meanwhile, if you have any questions about savings, superannuation, loans or any of that other stuff, get in touch with CAPE for answers you can trust. After all, that's what customer-owned banking is all about.
