Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
How this app is helping Australians save
Part of the “financial wellness” app category, WeMoney is a must-have for those that are bad with their money or anyone, for that matter, who is looking to streamline and manage multiple bank accounts.
Founder Dan Joveski is a former banker at NAB and has experience with start-ups after launching a company called SwitchMyLoan, which was acquired by Pioneer Credit (ASX: PNC). WeMoney is his second fintech-focused business, this time launched to provide a service that helps young consumers with making better financial decisions. Joveski created WeMoney to help millennials avoid the debt trap and point them in the right direction. The start-up fintech recently raised $2 million via Better Labs venture capital, Full Circle venture capital, plus a group of individual backers.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Joveski decided to create WeMoney when his first child was about to be born. At the time, he looked at his finances and realised that he needed to sort himself out. He needed to review the insurances he had, refinance his mortgage, and reduce expenses. It took him quite a while to get all his finances in order. Time and effort that could have been spent doing the things he loved doing. “People should be empowered to effortlessly achieve the things they want in life,” he says.
And so, WeMoney was developed to “remove the friction and barriers to financial wellness.”
What does WeMoney do?
The platform generates an “aerial view” of your financial position and calculates a financial health score out of 100 points. It connects all of your finance accounts together, such as your credit cards, buy-now-pay-later accounts, mortgages, personal loans, sharetrading accounts and superannuation accounts.
It then offers the user a “smart” recommendation using its own formula to help the user achieve a better financial outcome. The platform also lets the user track bills, set up recurring payments, budget, monitor their credit score, track spending habits and savings, and monitor their income.
The “We” in WeMoney refers to the shift in attitude towards money. People are a lot more open these days and talk about their financial problems and issues. Young people, which include Millennials and Gen Zs, are a lot more open in talking about how much debt they’re in, and how much they are earning, in order to better themselves.
WeMoney offers users a platform to have those conversations, where they can learn, share ideas and connect.
