Stash, a new savings and investment app powered by financial services company, Liberty, enables users to save while on the move.<\/p>\n
Launched in May, Stash is an app that invests your ‘digital’ spare change. Every time you swipe your card, Stash detects the transaction, rounds it up to the nearest R10 and invests your spare change in SA\u2019s Top 40 biggest companies.<\/p>\n
The app has evolved over the past month and now enables users to stash money on sunny day, and every time you move \u2013 whether through formal exercise or walking up a staircase.<\/p>\n
The maximum amount a user can stash each year is R33,000 from 1 March to the end of February. As long as Stash is your only tax-free savings account you won\u2019t pay any capital gains tax, dividends tax or tax on your interest, Liberty said.<\/p>\n
It noted that any debit, credit or cheque card from FNB, Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank, Investec, RMB and DiscoveryCard (VISA and MasterCard), can be linked to the app.<\/p>\n
The group has now added the following features to the app: ‘sunny money’ and ‘sweat to stash’.<\/p>\n
“Every morning Stash checks the weather in your area. If it\u2019s sunny, you stash R5 – by default – but you can also choose to stash R10 or the maximum temperature of that day.<\/p>\n
“It varies from city to city, but the average South African city has ten sunny days a month. In Johannesburg, winter is the sunniest season. Upington is the sunniest place in the world in December and January. That means that if the R5 is stashed on every sunny day, you\u2019ll stash R50 in that month,” Liberty said.<\/p>\n
The premise of sweat to stash is for the user to invest while on the move using a built-in step counter to work out how many steps you take.<\/p>\n
“The average person takes between 5,000 and 7,000 steps a day. So, if you walk 7,000 steps a day you\u2019ll Stash R3.50 a great way to incentivise yourself to walk that little bit further,” Liberty said.<\/p>\n
“Stash is the first app in South Africa where you can unleash the power of the stock market. There are zero fees. You can take your money out whenever you need it and the best part is you don\u2019t pay any tax on the cash that is stashed,” it said.<\/p>\n
“Stash checks your daily bank balance and never transfers more than you can afford. Before you know it you\u2019ll have a significant Stash balance. Your Stash grows as fast as South Africa\u2019s biggest companies do because your spare change is invested in South Africa\u2019s top 40 listed companies,” said Juan Labuschagne, head of development at Stash.<\/p>\n