Why 1.6 million Aussies have secret savings accounts
There are good reasons — and bad — why Australians are keeping quiet about hidden money
2 min
Millions of Australians admit to squirrelling money away in a secret savings account that their partners or family members don’t know about, new research shows. A Finder survey of 1,012 Australians found eight percent – the equivalent of 1.6 million people – have a secret bank account. A further four percent, or 900,000 people, admit to having one in the past.
The survey found women are more likely to set up a secret savings account than men. It is also a more prevalent trend among younger generations, with 26 percent of Gen Z respondents admitting to having a secret account either now or in the past, compared to 14 percent of Millennials and 10 percent of Gen Xers.
Finder’s money expert, Rebecca Pike, said secret saving is a widespread practice.
“Australians are stashing money away without their partner or family member’s knowledge. Individuals go to extraordinary lengths to hide income and savings from their partner or relatives,” she said.
Ms Pike said the reasons for setting up a secret stash of cash can vary. Some people may not trust their partners to spend joint finances wisely. Others want financial back-up ready and accessible if their relationship ends.
“When it comes to hiding savings from your partner, there are harmless reasons like being able to buy them presents without their knowledge, to more sinister ones like a gambling addiction or adultery,” Ms Pike said.
Regardless of the reasons, Ms Pike urged Australians to take advantage of the highest savings interest rates in decades and park their spare cash – whether secret or not – in a high interest–bearing account. The highest interest rate among 189 savings accounts profiled on Finder is 5.5 percent.
Separate Finder research shows 45 percent of Australians have less than $1,000 in their bank account and 70 percent do not have an emergency fund. Emergency funds are savings accounts where money is held over the long term to cover unexpected expenses, such as major medical bills. At a time when economic growth is weak and unemployment is expected to rise, four in 10 Australians say they only have enough savings to get by for a month if they lose their jobs tomorrow.
Finder recommends aiming to generate enough savings to cover three to six months of living expenses. This would allow enough time to find a new job or deal with a personal situation that required time off work. Finder’s head of consumer research, Graham Cooke, said if people put $100 per month into a savings account paying 5.5percent compounded monthly, they would generate $2,642 in savings within two years.
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The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
4 min
It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
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