Yahoo Finance ‘So you’re giving me free money?’: Aussies making $48k just by shopping online
Australian women retire with around half as much super as men on average, but a new cashback platform is hoping to change that.
Launched in 2019, Boost Your Super is a cashback platform that funnels cashback into users’ superannuation accounts in a bid to reduce the retirement savings gap and help parents on parental leave, and more recently, those on JobKeeper.
“About five years ago I found out all of these dreadful statistics about women in retirement and the difference in balance for men and women and about how time out of the workforce for children have really adversely affected their ability to have a better super balance,” co-founder Bec Brideson told Yahoo Finance.
“I was thinking about emotional labour and how … we could reward women for all of those economic decisions women make in their own households.
“Rather than earning points that maybe buy you a kettle after five years, if you could put money into your own super fund then you’re looking after yourself. You’re paying yourself forward.”
Boost Your Super works on a commission basis, which means retailers funnel a small commission to the platform for any sales made through Boost Your Super. Then, shoppers using the platform receive a portion of that in cashback which is transferred to their super balance.
And the dividends are significant.
While Brideson is clear that the retirement pay-offs will vary from person to person, Boost Your Super modelling found that a 35-year-old person who planned to retire at 70 with a $86,000 income and current super balance of $75,000 would be $48,113 better off by retirement if they shopped through the platform and accrued $438.80 in cashback.
Brideson remembers in their research stages, early users asked her, “‘So, you’re giving me free money?’ We were like, well yeah, when you put it like that, it’s what we’re doing.”
Changing world of superannuation
It comes amid major changes in Australia’s superannuation landscape: the Covid-19 pandemic saw millions of savers raid their super to deal with the financial fallout of the lockdowns, and previously scheduled increases to the amount of superannuation employers pay are also in doubt.
According to the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, a 20 year old woman who took $20,000 from her super could stand to lose as much as $120,000 by retirement due to foregone earnings.
“Thankfully there are plenty of ways you can boost your super, some not even requiring you to add in a cent,” Canstar’s money expert, Effie Zahos said earlier this year.
“For example, if you focus on what you can control it won’t cost you anything but it can gain you plenty. Fees, asset class, performance and insurance are four elements that you should spend some time on as all can impact your nest egg.”
Stockspot analysis finds that Australians who swap from super funds charging more than 2 per cent in fees to funds charging less than 1 per cent in fees stand to be $200,000 better off by retirement.
And for those who raided their super, Canstar analysis found the average 30 year old woman who took $10,000 out would need to contribute an extra $90 a month to get back to where they were, if it took three years after withdrawing super to be able to afford extra contributions.
Brideson said the ability to “squirrel away” extra cash is instrumental in boosting retirement balances.
She noted that this is especially critical when you’re going without an income. Boost Your Super has doubled the cashback for Australians on parental leave and those on JobKeeper to reflect those savers’ unique challenges.
“We’ve seen really great take-up of people sending it through to people that they know as well, because they see that every little bit helps… a dollar today is not a dollar in the future.”
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