International Women's Day, post-lockdown spending trends & top Easter travel spots: This week’s best banking news

• Building savings buffer tops financial priority list for women
• Telstra announces satellite internet service to rival Sky Muster & Elon Musk’s StarLink
• Home loan applications from single women rising, but the property market gender gap persists
• Aussie spending trends post COVID lockdown
• Top 7 Easter destinations: Australia & abroad
• Property price surge widens gender pay wealth gap, says Corelogic

All in this week’s best banking news recap: editor’s pick.

International Women's Day: Building savings buffer tops financial priority list for women

On Monday (the 8th of March), we celebrated International Women’s Day. This year’s theme #BreakTheBias aimed to raise awareness of the inequalities women face and to work towards achieving a gender-equal world.

In line with this, online lender Plenti surveyed over 2,200 people to get a better understanding of women’s financial priorities for 2022. The survey found that both men and women had very similar financial goals, which only really differed around women having children.

The survey found that prior to having kids, women viewed building a nest egg as a greater priority than men did (39% vs 32%) and were twice as likely as men to prioritise saving for a big purchase (17% vs 8%).

Read the full article: International Women's Day: Building savings buffer tops financial priority list for women for more interesting stats.

Telstra announces satellite internet service to rival Sky Muster & Elon Musk’s StarLink

This just in: Telstra has announced plans to expand beyond traditional broadband internet and into the satellite NBN game. 

As per a press release distributed on the 2nd of March, Telstra will be joining forces with OneWeb (a global satellite operation that currently offers satellite internet in parts of Europe and Asia) to launch their own satellite broadband service that’ll rival the NBN Co’s Sky Muster and Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Read the full article: Telstra announces satellite internet service to rival Sky Muster and Elon Musk’s StarLink for the full scoop.

Home loan applications from single women rising, but property market gender gap persists

New analysis from ME Bank has revealed that while single men are still more likely to take out bigger home loans at a younger age, single women tied with men 50-50 when it came to buying property last year.

The data showed that the percentage of single women applying for home loans increased by 1% in 2021, bringing the average loan size for single women up to $411,752. 

Read the full article: Home loan applications from single women rising, but the property market gender gap persists for the full rundown.

Aussie spending trends post COVID lockdown

With life looking significantly different over the past couple of years, we’ve subsequently seen a change in the spending habits of Australians. 

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, there was a considerable increase in the amount of money people were spending on eating and drinking out, following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria towards the end of 2021.

Read the full article: Aussie spending trends post COVID lockdown for the details.

Top 7 Easter destinations: Australia & abroad

We know what you’re thinking: “the year’s only just begun, and you’re already talking about Easter?” But believe it or not, Easter is only just around the corner - which means it’s time to start planning your long weekend getaway before things book out. 

Considering the last two Easters have been pretty low key thanks to the pandemic, why not take the time to explore what Australia (or the world) has to offer.

Read the full article: Top 7 Easter destinations: Australia & abroad for some Easter egg-scape inspo.

Property price surge widens gender pay wealth gap, says Corelogic

Contributing to the current gender pay wealth gap, new CoreLogic figures have shown a continued underrepresentation of women in the property market.

The data has revealed that in the 12 months up to January 2022, Australia’s total residential market  value went from a little over $7 trillion up to $9.7 trillion. Currently, the percentage of female property ownership sits at 26%, with male property ownership at 29.9% (recorded in January of this year).

Read full article: Property price surge has widened the gender pay wealth gap, says Corelogic for more details.

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