![]() It could get worse over the next two years as hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of interest-only home loans expire, requiring the higher principal and interest repayments which many interest-only borrowers will struggle to afford. The number of households in mortgage stress has reached a record high, with almost a third of home loan customers in financial trouble. We’re now at a point where around a third of owner-occupied mortgage-holders are suffering from mortgage stress. ![]() While the big property price rises around the country over the last decade may have made Aussie property-owners wealthier, it’s also made new mortgages bigger. If you look at our savings accounts, over a quarter of Australian households have less than $1,000 in the bank to dip into (according to ME Bank’s 2018 financial comfort report), with Australia’s notoriously high cost of living making it difficult for Aussies to put money aside. Most of this wealth is likely to be tied up in a home, given Australia’s inherent penchant for owning property (the so-called ‘Great Australian Dream’).Ī significant portion is also bound to be tucked away in superannuation, which most Australians can’t legally access until they’re 65. While the median Australian may be worth $271,000 on paper, a lot of this probably isn’t readily accessible. Standalone statistics often don’t tell the full story. We tend to prefer to associate ourselves with the tag of the fair dinkum battler.īut a lot of us really are battling. Most Australians don’t consider themselves rich, nor are they comfortable with such a label. Perhaps it’s because we’re happy to perpetuate it. In spite of this wealth, Australia is often laughed about overseas as an upside-down backwards country of convicts, surfers, sheep-shearers and crocodile hunters. Some perceptions are hard to shake off, it seems. On the face of it, we Aussies are already pretty darn good with money, with the highest median net wealth per adult in the world.Īccording to Credit Suisse’s 2018 Global Wealth Report, the median net wealth per adult in Australia is $US191,453, which equates to around $AUD271,000 as at the exchange rates in December 2018. Median means that if every Australian aged over 18 lined up in order of their net wealth, the person in the exact middle would have a net wealth of around $271,000. In second place is the land of the Rolex – Switzerland, with a median of $US183,339 ($AUD259,000) per adult. Subtract your liabilities from your assets to determine your personal net worth.Do you know what your net wealth is? As in, the total of your bank accounts and superannuation, plus the value of any investments and major appreciating assets (such as a home), minus any debts? This number represents your financial worth, and regularly keeping a record of it in a spreadsheet can be one of the simplest ways to stay on top of your finances.
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