Average Savings in Australia

This caught my attention an thought to share to get an opinion from you guys. So I was doing research on the average salary Australians make which is roughly $80k. So then i decided to search how much the average Australian saves as we all know a lot of people struggle saving for a house deposit. Turns out, in 2015 the younger generation 25 - 34 year olds were putting the most into savings of $533 a month or $6396 per year, which was over $100 more a month than the national average. 27% have more the $50k, 24% have between $10k and $50k, and 49% have less the $10k.
What do you guys think about these figures?

 

Beat's me what I think.
All I know I always saved minimum 15% of any net income I received throughout my lifetime and then invested it. It helped!
$6,396 of $80K represents 7.995% so around 8%, which would be less than compulsory Super contribution (9.5% currently) so IMHO, it is not enough.
So poor saving figures IMO!

 

Who gives a Rats about the word Average? It is a social construct, usually nothing like reality. Show me an average Australian.

 

Savings, my friend, is above and beyond Super contributions. Two different things.
Good on them, it's far better than being those who refuse to save anything.

 

Agree.
Saving is one thing and investing another...or taking some form of action to make your life better.

 

Here's a comparison against other countries - we are fairly down below compare to other countries: Personal Savings - Countries - List

Also on downward trend and with declining home ownership rate:
Australia Household Saving Ratio | 1959-2019 Data | 2020-2022 Forecast | Historical

 

The big spenders aside, the amount you can save is inextricably linked with how much you earn. All good to say you save 20/30% but if you're earning $40K....

 

Apparently 80% of Americans don't even have $500 in the bank!

 

I was at the tyre shop yesterday, they we're selling a 6th set of mag wheels and tyre's for the day (totaling $7,500).
The young guy making the latest purchase obtained the $1,200 of funds from drawing down on his superanuation
Doesn't matter how hard I try, there's always a few dragging the majority average down
*same can be said about Gina and James raising the average income I guess

 

A gross income of $80,000 is just $60,853 after taxes.

A savings rate of $6,396 represents 10.51% of that net figure. That's a reasonable savings rate as combined with Super it's ~20% of income (or ~17.5% of gross income).

Obviously our capacity to save rises with disposable income so comparing averages is a flawed concept. Using age group medians is far more indicative.

 

The average Australian family was found two suburbs away from where I am when the Census was done many few years ago.

I was disappointed they had a round number of kids. Thought the media had finally found the mythical 0.3 of the 2.3 that is oft quoted.

 

Not surprising considering we have second highest personal debt in the world

 

I think that while interesting on the face of it, averages don't really tell you that much. In the US for example, 8 individuals would change those averages more than 50% of the population (I know it's not as extreme here, but I wanted to highlight my point).
Means would be a much better measure in my opinion.

 

The mean is the average.... by definition.

Perhaps you "mean" the median.....

 

Yep

 

Personal experience says the ability to save decreases as you get older. Higher income but more family responsibilities.

 

Sorry but I cannot scientifically accept anything more or less than 0.3 of a kid.
(sarcasm intended)

 

I'm presuming things are worse now with CV-19 shutdowns

Dec 16, 2019

Survey: 69% of Americans Have Less Than $1,000 in Savings

Since 2014, GOBankingRates has polled Americans to find out how much they have in a savings account. This year, GOBankingRates asked adults from across the U.S. six questions to learn about their savings habits and what obstacles are keeping them from saving more. The results show that, compared with previous year’s findings, there’s a growing percentage of people with little to no savings. In 2019, 69% of respondents said they have less than $1,000 in a savings account compared with 58% in 2018.


17 February 2020

Why more than a QUARTER of Australians have less than $1,000 in the bank

An ME Bank study found the vast majority of people would struggle to handle a financial emergency.

The situation was so bad 26 per cent of respondents admitted they had less than $1,000 in the bank while 13 per cent of people had less than $100 in savings.

ME Bank consulting economist Jeff Oughton said many workers were desperately seeking more hours so they could pay their bills, with wages continuing to grow at below-average levels for the seventh year running.

 

WOW, less than a quarter with $1000.
No resilience there!

 

More than a ¼ of Aussies with less than 1k savings doesn't surprise me at all.
When vast swathes of the population live like there is no tomorrow in terms of spending with little to no fiscal responsibility it's inevitable.

Personally, even if your salary is only 40k, I believe it's important to save a percentage of it as it's not just about money. It helps to teach responsibility and understanding the difference between wants and needs. Once you understand that fundamental difference, you can then resist impulsive spending habits.