Hope for wealth? The Financial Literacy and Wellbeing among Australian Women with Cathy Wu

Financial wellbeing is an important topic that received increasing attention in recent years. Financial wellbeing – or the contentment or happiness that we feel in relation to the state of our personal finances – is an important component of our general life satisfaction. When people experience financial stress, it become one of the largest negative shocks that are likely to have a large impact on a person’s overall satisfaction in life. Therefore, understand the importance of financial knowledge (or financial literacy) on helping individuals to make prudent financial decisions and prepare financial plans and targets for their future is crucial for everyday Australian, especially young women.

This webinar aims to discuss the key results from the “Financial Wellbeing and General Life Satisfaction in Australia” report released in 2022 and emphasise on the implications to Australian women. The discussions in the webinar are likely to help women to obtain a better understanding of their financial wellbeing and how they can improve their financial wellbeing through increasing the level of financial literacy.

In this interactive webinar, Cathy will discuss the following finding within the report:

1. Australian women, on average, had lower levels of financial literacy (only 53.77%) compared to men (with an average level of 70.19% financial literacy).

2. 43% of young people (aged 18-24) are facing financial hardship as they could not meet their debt obligations (i.e., home loan or rent, credit card bills and personal loan). However, Australian women, on average, are more likely to meet their debt obligations than Australian men.

3. Australian women in early-mid adulthood (aged 18-44) feel less satisfied (scored around 5.5/10) with their financial status, but it improved as they become more mature.

4. 50% of young women in Australia (aged 18–24) are likely to have a household budget compared to young men (about 31% having a budget). Australian women, on average, are 20% less likely to use credit card compared to Australian men.

Speaker

Dr. Cathy Wu completed her PhD at the Australian National University and is currently a lecturer at the Newcastle Business School from the University of Newcastle. Cathy is teaching intermediate financial accounting (i.e. consolidation) at the undergraduate level and financial statement analysis at the postgraduate level. Apart from teaching, Cathy is passionate about research in the accounting and finance areas that are likely to provide measurable impacts on the corporate world. Her papers have been published in high-quality journals like Journal of Business Ethics (A, FT50) and Accounting and Finance (A).

Cathy is one of the authors of the “Financial Wellbeing and General Life Satisfaction in Australia” report that we are discussing in the webinar today.

Style of Event: FREE for Corporate Members

WiBF Member: AUD $0.00

Non-Member: AUD $20.00