Howdy! It’s Doone here, your hype girl 💗 

Today I’m trying something a little different…. I‘d like to share a thought with you that I was exploring during the Techstars accelerator. Noodle on it. Lmk what you think?

The Baby Girl Super Bonus… It’s Giving Long Game Retirement Planning

In 2020, billionaire investor Bill Ackman threw out a radical proposal to address America's looming retirement crisis: What if Uncle Sam handed every newborn their own funded investment account (dubbed "Birthright") as soon as they entered the world? Sounds ambitious right? But here’s the kicker: thanks to compound interest, that relatively small initial deposit of about $6,750 would balloon to over $1 million by age 65, effectively minting future millionaire retirees.

Crazy? Maybe. Genius? Definitely.

So, let’s reverse engineer this thinking and imagine how this idea could unfold Down Under, specifically targeting Australia's gender retirement gap. Right now, Aussie women retire with roughly 25% less in their superannuation accounts compared to their male counterparts. It's a financial hangover from a lifetime of lower earnings, unpaid caregiving labor, and interrupted careers. But what if we tackled this at the root cause.. at birth?

Every year approximately 143,000 baby girls are born in Australia. What if each of these girls got a "Baby Girl Super Bonus", a government-funded investment of $1,200 deposited directly into her super account? At an annual cost of around A$172 million, it might sound pricey, until you realize Australia currently spends $51 billion aud each year on Age Pensions alone. In other words, the Baby Girl Super Bonus would cost less than 1% of what's currently shelled out annually to retirees.

But here's where the magic of compound interest comes into play. That single, teeny tiny modest deposit wouldn't just sit idle; it would steadily multiply over time. An initial $1200 investment generating 8% over the long term equals circa $208,000 extra in retirement. Continued after the break

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Cont.

Now, imagine doubling down. If parents or grandparents matched the government's contribution, that's not just closing the gap; that's completely reshaping the financial landscape for future generations of women.

But let's zoom out a bit: the concept of investing at birth isn't just about dollars and cents. It signals a major philosophical shift from reactive policy (where governments scramble to support retirees when it's already too late) to proactive investment in citizens from day one. It’s ambitious (and probably also politically tricky) but the long-term payoff could be game-changing.

And no ones saying it shouldn’t be fair for our baby boys too. Heck, gender parity is the goal. I’m sure there are AI tools that can run the math each year to keep the playing field fair and square, right?

Around the globe, forward-thinking governments are already making moves to tackle retirement inequality. Chile has introduced pension bonuses for mothers, Germany and the UK credit caregiving years towards pensions, and New Zealand offers a universal basic pension independent of work history… smartly sidestepping traditional career penalties faced by women. Australia's potential Baby Girl Super Bonus would join these progressive initiatives, offering a compelling roadmap toward genuine gender equity in retirement.

Still, it's not without hurdles. Investing money that won't yield visible returns for decades is politically spicy (aka, a big ‘ol red flag). What happens when future governments change, budgets tighten or market returns disappoint? The decision between a universal approach versus targeted assistance could and would spark fierce debates about fairness and efficiency. And let’s be real.. a stock market isn’t exactly predictable over half a century if the current state of affairs is what we’re going off.

But perhaps the boldest aspect of Ackman’s original idea and its Aussie spin, is how it forces us to think intergenerationally. We're talking about taking action now to secure outcomes 67 years in the future.

Baby bonds aren’t just a financial strategy, they're a cultural statement about who we value and how we plan for the future. By putting cash into the hands of newborns (or their super accounts), we acknowledge that the best time to plant a tree… or fund a retirement account, was yesterday. The second-best time? Today.

Financial security shouldn’t be an exclusive club. We should all be on the VIP list.

What do you think? Lmk here 📲

💗 Today’s vibe was a little different, whatcha think?