The First Home Super Saver Gets Up!

Hi Scott,

I heard you on Triple J this week talking about the fact that the First Home Super Saver Scheme has finally been passed by Parliament. My parents, being traditional hardcore Asian parents, are telling me I have to open one up. But realistically it will be 10 years before I buy a house (I am 23). What do you think I should do?

Mandy

Hi Mandy,

Honestly, I thought the First Home Super Saver Scheme was as good as Sam Dastyari’s political career (dead and buried). Yet after seven long months the Government took some legislative laxative and passed it into law.

Here are the basics:

First home buyers can now divert extra money into their super (maxed at $15,000 per year), and then draw it out as a deposit on their first home. The maximum they can save is $30,000 per person ($60,000 a couple).

For someone earning $65,000 a year, after three years of using the First Home Super Saver Scheme they’ll have $6,314 more than if they’d saved via a standard bank account.

So I’d certainly use the First Home Super Saver Scheme if I knew I was going to buy a home in a couple of years and I’d already saved up a big deposit. For an average-earning couple it’s an extra $12,628. I wouldn’t kick it down a drainpipe if I was walking along the street and saw it. Do it.

However, if I were in your shoes, Mandy, I honestly wouldn’t bother. There’s ‘legislative risk’ to doing something 10 years out (i.e. Krusty the Clown could be our PM in 2027). Instead, I’d focus on getting your buckets set up and sorted.

Scott