Introducing Mr and Mrs Australia

By Steve Marsten

Recently I came across an article about Mr & Mrs Australia. Basically it was saying that Australia remains the lucky country despite us having the second highest housing prices in the world! So much for the great Australian dream!

On average men live until they are 80.4 and women 84.5 years of age.

The statistics though paint an interesting picture of what most of us think average is. Apparently based on the International Monetary Fund data of Australian households, the average Aussie family owns $954,800 worth of assets. These include Houses; car, property and contents. Our total household debt is $245,500 and we save about $100 per week.

The downside is we have on average $4,300 in credit card debt and we earn about $1,500 per week. Also we only work about 32 hours per week on average.

As a Nation, we spend $14.1 billion on alcohol each year; $9.5 billion on gadgets and computers; $8 billion on beauty products and treatments;$20 billion on gambling which by the way the average gambling loss per adult is $1,279 which is the highest in the world!

The average household has about $160,000 in super; while couples aged 55-64 have the most - $488,000 in super. Because of obligatory superannuation, Australians technically become one of the biggest savers in the world and clearly the baby boomers made the most of this when it was introduced by the Keating Labor government and encouraged by the succeeding Howard governments.

In 2015 Australians gave up $229 million dollars to scam artists!

What’s does this all mean? Probably not much other than highlighting where you might stand compared to Mr & Mrs average Australia in statistics. It does highlight that perhaps our debt to assets is not as bad as we may have thought,  however our retail or consumer debt (the credit card) at 2.8 times our weekly take home pay is probably more of a concern. Other key matters might be to make sure you have a plan to atleast cover your retirement for 15-20years on average and to review your personal budgets to determine where you can save while paying down the credit card and reducing the amount you draw on your card while the interest rates remain low.

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