Financial situation

Q. Which of the following statements best describes your financial situation?

	Total		Work full time	Work part time	Income less than $600 pw	Income $600-$1,000 pw	Income $1,000-$1,500 pw	Income $1,500 – $2,000 pw	Income $2,000+ pw		Oct 2014	Mar 2015	Feb 2016
I don’t have enough money for basic essentials like housing food and electricity	8%		6%	9%	21%	7%	8%	6%	4%		7%	8%	6%
I have enough money for basic essentials but I cannot save any money	40%		35%	31%	53%	46%	41%	34%	28%		35%	39%	35%
I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a little money	42%		45%	50%	22%	40%	45%	53%	48%		47%	44%	49%
I have enough money for basic essentials and I can save a lot of money	7%		11%	7%	1%	2%	4%	5%	19%		8%	7%	8%
Don’t know	3%		3%	4%	3%	5%	2%	1%	1%		4%	2%	3%

 

42% say they have enough money for basic essentials and can save a little money and 40% say they have enough money for basic essentials but cannot save any money. Only 7% say they can save a lot of money.

 

Only 23% of those earning less than $600 pw say they can save any money – compared to 67% of those earning over $2,000 pw.

Overall, there has been a slight decline in financial situations since this question was asked in February last year – 48% (up 7%) say they cannot save any money and 49% (down 8%) say they can.