Savings Account for a 20 Year Old

Hi guys, Hope you're doing well and are staying safe,
I'm a full time apprentice chef who works 40 hours a week, i get roughly $600 a week after tax, at the current time,
i have 300~ spare a week, and currently have 5,000 in a netbank savings account, which is linked up with a everday spendings account through commbank.
i am wanting to start seriously saving up for a house deposit, as i am just spending whatever i have left over each week.
im looking at the westpac life account which has a 3% PA rate, as far as im aware this is the highest rate in the market?
im looking for recommendations on banks and which ones would be most suitable?
and if anyone has the westpac life account can you please comment on how easy it is to keep the 3%?
Thanks
Morgan

Comments

  • +11

    You should explore investing instead.

    • +2

      where should someone in this situation start?

      • +5

        The easiest to get started would be something like Spaceship or Raiz.

        Otherwise find a low-cost broker and trade ETF.

        • +2

          I started in Spaceship a few months ago and my investment has grown miles more than keeping it in the bank would have.

          • @Flying Ace: I started investing in ETF a couple of months ago and it's nearly going backwards :( Not sure if I should try spaceship too and see which performs better.

            • @onetwothreefour: Have you added back your distributions? Did you have tax withholding on them? I doubt you'd be going backwards but if you have it just means the price is low and you should consider buying in more regularly.

              • @plmko: Haven't been doing it long enough to get any distributions yet, I'm ahead on VGS but VAS seems to be having a bad month. I just have to get used to not checking it so often and then it won't get me so worried! I'm currently buying once a month, just bought some more this week.

        • But what if there is a crash and it goes to zero?

          • @rektrading: When has it ever gone to zero?

          • +3

            @rektrading: Those mostly indices. If there's such a big crash that index goes to ZERO — then I guess we'll have a much bigger problem to solve.

      • Check out stockspot

  • +2

    Go for Westpac. You can't get a better savings %. The only issue is you have to keep up with their spend criteria e.g. 5 transactions a month etc. But if you use the Westpac choice account as an actual transaction account you shouldn't have any problems remembering to do that.

    The next best youth saver (as far as I'm aware) is the BOQ fast-track starter account. However, it has a 10k cap. The interest for that one is 2.5% P.A. But if you decide to keep more than 30k in your Westpac account as your savings grow you could definitely open one of these too.

  • +7

    Inflation is 3.8% 1Y.

    This means you lose -0.80% 1Y on your saving.

  • +2

    The Westpac account is pretty easy.

    Only 2 requirements:
    - Make at least 5 purchases each month through the transaction account.
    - For the savings account, ensure the closing balance on the last business day of each month is higher than the opening balance on the first day of each month.

    • +1

      Don't forget about the deposit 2000 within the month to waive the monthly fees for that Westpac account.

      I'd look into 86400, ING. There is a Google Sheets of the current top interest rates for saving accounts.

  • +3

    Also, if you don't grow your balance by the end of the month Westpac won't give you 0.4% interest but as long as you make 5 transactions with your linked transaction account (Westpac choice) you'll still get 2.6%

  • +3

    If I were you, I'd just chuck your saving into an ETF at a reasonable interval and grow your house deposit that way. Having it in a savings account is only slightly better than stuffing it under your mattress.

  • +2

    Go with Spaceship, it’s easy, user friendly and returns will be better than any savings account.

  • +2

    Yeah i am kinda super stupid as well, I had only realized investing at later stages of my 19 years old. Had already saved up like 60K (been working hard real hard man).

    1. Get WestPac acc. full @ $30,000 (it's a emergency fund at very least)
    2. Get BOQ full @ ~ $9000 (extra emergency fund)
    3. Get Spaceship full @ $5000 portfolio
    4. Get started on investing @Thinkmarkets/Superhero/Commsec/Stake/SelfWealth/Pearler or Any other Chess Sponsored Broker —— This is the stage where you will loose most at beginning. I had lost like 2-3%, But over the years this is the thing that is expected to grow the fastest.
  • +1

    See if any banks class an appretice as a student,

    Investment wise CBA makes it stupid easy

  • Thanks for the responses guys,
    From what I've gathered
    Having it in Westpac actually comes out as a loss due to inflation?,
    And spaceship seems to be the go, is there much risk in investing through spaceship?
    I don't want to lose all of my money

    • +1

      Having it in Westpac actually comes out as a loss due to inflation?,<<,

      Any saving account will come out as loss these days. My mortgage interest is 2.5% do you reckon you gonna get term deposit higher than your 3ish% that anywhere?

      • Not sure, first time in the market so that's why I'm asking for help
        Glad I did, because I didn't factor in inflation

    • +1

      I don't want to lose all of my money

      Generally speaking investing in good companies is almost close to guaranteed to NOT LOSE ALL OF MONEY, sure it may go down a lot BUT 100 % is not possible in case of a good investment.
      Just take an example of Cashrewards they started around about $2 a share, now @ $0.77 ish, Majority share holder Andrew is still holding his 20+% of shares there, probably hoping they turn profitable sometime in future.

Login or Join to leave a comment