Lower costs and transparency are no small beer

Matt Campbell estimates that for the same price as two beers at the football he pays for $10,000 to be managed by robo advisor Six Park for five months. “It makes use of technology to get costs down and my investments are not being chewed up by fees.”

For $18, Matt’s investment is spread across a balanced portfolio of exchange traded funds that hold hundreds of local and overseas shares and bonds. He can access online education and research and receives regular communication from Six Park.

Matt was so impressed with Six Park’s low fees, the solid investment performance, the transparency about his investments and the ease of online investing that he added $4000 to his portfolio.

He is a good saver. At 29, he is in the accumulation phase of his life. He says he wants to eventually buy a home and has a flexible time frame.

Up until Matt signed up with Six Park, he kept his savings in a cash account and term deposit. But he wasn’t earning much interest. He was keen to find a place to invest part of his money to potentially earn more but admits he didn’t know how to find an adviser for a relatively low investment amount. He was also concerned about the costs.

He came across Six Park through social media. He and his father are big fans of Ted Richards, who played for Essendon Football Club and the Sydney Swans. Richards works at Six Park and Matt decided to look into it. He went onto the website and completed a short risk assessment that included answering questions about his age, income and how much he wanted to invest.

He had a live chat with a Six Park expert on a Sunday afternoon. He was recommended the balanced option – not too aggressive and not too conservative. “It suited me fine. But a few months in, I got a bit more confident and moved it up to balanced growth.”

He admits he is not too overinvested to worry.

His term deposit is coming up for renewal soon and he will take out some money to top up his Six Park portfolio. “I find my money is more liquid in Six Park than a term deposit and it will earn more money over the long term. I really get a kick out of earning money on my money.”

What has surprised him about Six Park is the quality of the customer service. He even had coffee with CEO Pat Garrett when he was in Sydney. “It is accessible to someone moderately financially literate.”

Even though Six Park uses technology to save time and costs, Matt says there is still human contact through online chats. It has been such a positive experience that his father, a retired economics teacher who has held term deposits and bluechip shares, is also interested.