Australia's most advantaged suburbs revealed

Eight out of 10 "influencer" posts called out as dodgy, Perth trounces Melbourne for most advantaged suburbs, and under-30s can earn 5% with (almost) no strings attached. Here are five things you may have missed this week.

ACCC calls out the perils of social media

Eight out of 10 Australians use social media, and if a new report is anything to go by we're hooked on it.

According to consumer watchdog, the ACCC, we spend an average of 17 hours each month on Facebook, 22 hours on YouTube and 13 hours on TikTok.

It begs the question when do we find time to eat and sleep?

The ACCC however, is more concerned about the potential harms of social media.

It says scams on social media platforms continue to be "of significant concern", with Australians reporting losses of over $80 million to social media scams in 2022.

Other pitfalls include a lack of effective dispute resolution mechanisms, and poor disclosure by "influencers" when they're being paid to spruik a product.

In early 2023, the ACCC found 81% of influencer posts were potentially misleading endorsements and testimonials.

The watchdog says it's planning various education, compliance and enforcement activities.

In the meantime, it can pay to maintain a healthy dose of scepticism about what you see on social media especially if a financial product is being recommended.

Australia's most advantaged

Tasmania has come up trumps in the Commonwealth Bank's State of the States survey for having the best-performing economy over the last quarter.

But that's unlikely to fan the flames of envy among residents of Australia's most advantaged neighbourhoods.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) compiles snapshots of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage across Australia for use in government planning.

The latest data shows NSW coming up trumps, with six of the nation's most advantaged suburbs spearheaded by Woollahra in Sydney's east.

The big surprise is that neither Melbourne or Brisbane have any suburbs in the top 10.

Perth, on the other hand, has three of Australia's most advantaged townships, led by Peppermint Grove.

The most economically disadvantaged suburb in Australia according to the ABS is Woorabinda, located an eight-hour drive north-west of Brisbane.

Check out how your home town ranks with the ABS's QuickStats tool.

Under-30s rewarded with 5% returns

Police Bank has just lifted the rate on its U30 Super Charge savings account to 5.00%.

It's not the first savings account to hit the 5% milestone. However, the U30 Super Charge account, which is only available to 18-29-year-olds, doesn't impose minimum monthly transaction requirements to earn the high rate.

You will need to have your salary deposited into any Police Bank account. That shouldn't be a problem as the U30 Super Charge account offers an all-in-one banking package combining an everyday transaction account and two savings account that let savers bucket their goals.

Brits spend over $2 billion on coronation souvenirs

The coronation of King Charles III this weekend is shaping up as an irony-packed event.

British media reports suggest the cost of coronation could top £100 million ($187 million), with much of the tab being footed by the public, despite King Charles III being worth an estimated £2 billion ($3.75 billion).

As the Brits battle surging living costs it's hardly surprising that a YouGov survey found 51% of UK adults believe the ceremony shouldn't be funded by the public purse.

Crazy thing is, the UK Centre for Retail Research says Brits are expected to spend more than £1.4 billion ($2.6 billion) on coronation souvenirs and memorabilia.

The sheer scale of knick-knacks being sold means few will ever become valuable.

In another ironic twist, UK news outlets report that some of the most valuable coronation memorabilia dates back from the coronation of King Edward VIII, which was canned following his abdication in 1936.

Hurry in for a free heart health check

Plenty of free health checks are available in Australia including bowel cancer screening (who can forget "make a date with your date"?) and mammograms for early detection of breast cancer in women aged over 40.

Since April 2019, heart health checks have been covered by Medicare and are free at practices that bulk bill this service.

This is set to end on June 30 when heart health checks will be scratched from Medicare benefits.

That's despite cardiovascular disease accounting for one in four of all deaths in Australia, claiming the life of one person every 12 minutes.

The Heart Foundation has launched a campaign to save Medicare heart health checks.  So far, over 36,000 have signed up.

With no guarantee that heart health checks will be reinstated as a bulk billed service, this is one freebie worth taking advantage of before 30 June.

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