Cash bonus to kick in: spend or save?
With the Federal Government’s $900 cash bonus – part of the $42 billion stimulus package – hitting consumer bank accounts today, research conducted by the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) has shown that people are divided on whether to spend the money or save it.
The ANRA consumer sentiment survey has shown that 22 percent of respondents plan to spend the money on non-essential items such as clothes, footwear, white good and furniture, while a further 22 percent will spend it on general living expenses.
However, 8.5 percent said they would put it towards their mortgage, 23 percent will pay down debt, and 16.6 percent will save the money.
ANRA chief executive Margy Osmond is confident that consumers will spend the money as intended.
“With the continued reduction in interest rates, people will feel more confident about loosening their purse strings and spending the cash bonus.”
Recipients of the Family Tax Benefit Part B and Recipients of Family Tax Benefit Part A with a child aged between 4-18 years old will be the first to receive the cash bonus.
The bonus is intended to be spent, with a focus on boosting the economy.
For a full break down on the package, please refer to ‘$42 billion stimulus package to fight recession.’
What do you plan to do with your cash bonus? Spend or Save? Leave your comments below!
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Spend! The bonus is intended to be spent, and if the majority of people save the money, it will do nothing for the economy and will be a big waste of time.
I will probably purchase a washing machine and maybe splurge on some clothes or something. We all need to do our bit for the economy!
I’m very thankful for the $900 cash bonus as now I am able to (finally) get my car fixed after 7 months! However, if I didn’t have to spend the money on my car I would definitely save it, maybe in case of another accident!
Spend! It’s money the recipients didn’t have before. But I would recommend people spend it wisely, on goods/services that will have far-reaching positive consequences for society and the environment as well as the economy – energy efficient or water-saving devices rather than a plasma TV.
$900…..normally if i had a cash windfall it would go on the mortgage, however in support of the Australian economy i plan to spend it on some electrical goods…!
Hmmm… as much as I’d love a shopping spree, (and I know this isn’t helping the economy), but it’s going straight on the mortgage! If they want to avoid people doing that, they should give us vouchers!
Haven’t even thought about what I’ll spend it on. Don’t have a mortgage, live at home with my parents, eat their food and use their car. I’ll probably head overseas!
CHANGE TO MY EARLIER COMMENT….
I have just been advised that there is no $900 coming my way….!
Apparently….If you are employed and pay considerable amounts of tax to the Govt you are not entitled to the bonus….
Labour Govt, keep up the great work!
@Phil J: Is your real name John Howard? Slowly trying to undermine K Rudd’s overwhelming domination of the Liberal Party and Australian politics in the blogosphere will take you a very long time. Typical Lib thinking of themselves rather than those less fortunate.
Obviously senility is already starting to kick in, there is no ‘u’ in Labor. I hope you have a good ghost writer for your memoirs!
who cares what people spend it on?
some people will spend it some will save it. big deal. if it remains savings, well savings = investment so no problem there.
the money is out there floating around the economy that’s the point of the exercise.
KRudd’s policies are surprisingly sensible if you ask me.
also, you have to say that Howard did us all a favour by not spending the surplus when our economy was booming. really it’s a bloody miracle that our politicians got it close to almost right.
I agree with Danielle, the voucher idea would have been the way to go if they were really concerned about monitoring the spending, and making sure it was serving it’s purpose.
I’d say the majority of the money will go on personal debts, and the rest ( for those who aren’t too affected by this GFC), will probably take the opportunity to go on a bit of a shopping spree! Why not! Easy come, easy go I say.
I don’t know what I will spend it on … because I won’t be getting it.
I suppose this means I’m part of the population that’s paying for it.
The government is spending (I like to think of it as investing) $42billion in Australia and it’s people. What sort of return do you think they will get if every who gets the handout just pays off the mortgage or puts it in a bank account?
Better for the government to invest the money into education, innovation and the so called ‘nation building’ areas.
In Australia we survive on what we have in the ground and what we can grow above the ground. Wine, iron ore, coal, wool etc etc. It doesn’t take much smarts to dig something out of the ground and sell it?
We need to invest in improving the ‘smarts’ of Australia so we become less and less reliant on the land…which is a finite resource by the way.
Anyone who pays tax pays for it Ray. Off the bitter high horse you get.
No matter how we spend this, we’ll be paying for it for a long, long time. It’s just another one of Rudd’s tricks, using slide of hand, diverting our attention away from his lack of skills and ability by throwing money at us! I agree with Martin, there are better ways to invest this money, by giving it to public services that appreciate it like state hospitals and educational institutions, not people who intend to spend it on Plasma’s, LCD’s and drugs.