Australian women's financial self-efficacy in a digital financial world

In the current Australian context, inflationary pressures, wage stagnation and housing insecurity have intensified financial vulnerability (O'Keefe, 2024), making long-term planning increasingly difficult. Retirement saving is organised through the mandatory Australian superannuation system, yet its complexity and opacity contribute to delayed engagement, particularly among younger consumers (Rickwood and White, 2009; Russell et al., 2020). These challenges disproportionately affect women: older Australian women experience higher rates of poverty and housing insecurity (Australian Human Rights Commission [AHRC], 2025; Kumar et al., 2019), and the gender superannuation gap remains around 25–30% (Association of Superannuation Funds in Australia [ASFA], 2024). Early adulthood is therefore a pivotal stage for Australian women aged 40 and under (AW ≤ 40), in which engagement with superannuation can materially influence long-term financial security. Proactive contributions and informed investment choices made in early life generate compounding benefits that strengthen financial wellbeing over time (Australian Securities and Investments Commission [ASIC], 2018). AW ≤ 40 face challenges navigating the superannuation system. Gendered patterns of employment, caregiving and earnings create interrupted work histories and lower lifetime incomes, constraining superannuation accumulation (Russell et al., 2020; Women in Super [WIS], 2020). These structural constraints intersect with financial self-efficacy (FSE), beliefs in one's ability to manage financial situations (Bandura, 1997), which plays a critical role in shaping financial engagement and behaviour (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB], 2015; Farrell et al., 2016).

Financial capability research has traditionally emphasised financial literacy (knowledge and understanding of financial concepts) and financial capability (the ability to translate knowledge into effective financial behaviour) within specific contexts (Sherraden, 2013; Russell et al., 2020). Financial wellbeing is typically positioned as the outcome of these processes, encompassing both objective material conditions and subjective perceptions of security and control (Muir et al., 2017). However, these constructs frequently overlap in practice, and empirical evidence suggests that confidence and perceived capability may precede, rather than follow, sustained financial engagement. This has prompted growing interest in FSE as a central mechanism linking knowledge, behaviour and wellbeing (CFPB, 2015; Muir et al., 2017; Russell et al., 2020).

Despite this recognition, limited research has examined how FSE is developed in real-world financial contexts, particularly those involving long-term, high-stakes decisions such as superannuation. Bandura's (1997) social cognitive theory (SCT) offers a robust lens for understanding how women develop the confidence and financial capability required to engage with complex financial products, including superannuation (Goyal et al., 2023). While SCT identifies four primary sources of self-efficacy, i.e. mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion and affective states, applications of this framework in financial research have been uneven and are largely concentrated in educational contexts. Even where the framework is applied, research tends to focus on specific professional or institutional settings, with a lack of examination of how the sources operate in complex, real-world decision-making environments (Morris, 2025). As a result, there is limited understanding of how these sources operate across everyday financial environments, relational networks and informal learning spaces.

Personal finance digital platforms (e.g. podcasts and online communities such as Facebook groups) have become an important source of financial information and peer learning (World Economic Forum, 2024). For those unable or unwilling to access formal advice, these platforms provide accessible and relatable guidance (Chatterjee and Fan, 2023; Hii and Ong, 2025). However, concerns remain about content quality, commercial incentives and users' ability to critically assess information (Aggarwal et al., 2022; Bucher-Koenen et al., 2017; Estelami and Florendo, 2021). These dynamics raise questions about how digital financial spaces shape confidence, trust and decision-making. Despite the growing importance of digital platforms in consumers' financial lives, relatively little research has examined how digitally mediated financial learning environments contribute to the development of FSE and peer-based financial decision-making, particularly among women. This represents an important gap at the intersection of digital platforms, financial capability and women's financial inclusion (Sadovykh and Sundaram, 2016).

To address these gaps, this study is grounded in SCT, with FSE as its core analytical construct. The study is further informed by a life-course perspective, which situates FSE processes within age-graded social roles, key life events and broader historical and structural conditions (Moschis, 2019). In this study, the life-course perspective is defined as an approach that conceptualises behaviour as dynamically shaped by the timing and sequencing of life events, social roles and structural conditions across the lifespan, emphasising how earlier experiences and transitions influence later outcomes (Elder et al., 2003). Accordingly, the life-course framework is repositioned as a sensitising lens and contextual, interpretive perspective that informs how FSE is examined over time, with “sensitising lens” used in the sense of Elder et al. (2003) to guide attention to timing, transitions and heterogeneity, rather than to operate as a formal, fully specified analytic framework. Financial engagement among AW ≤ 40 is conceptualised as contingent and evolving, shaped by partnership formation, caregiving, employment disruption and housing transitions rather than by age alone (Khan and Surisetti, 2022). This illuminates early and mid-adulthood as formative periods for developing financial capability, with implications for women's long-term financial security.

Drawing these perspectives together, the study applies SCT to examine how the lived experiences of AW ≤ 40 influence financial capability and FSE in superannuation decision-making within broader system conditions. It examines the most salient sources of FSE and explores how they shape superannuation choices, including the use of personal finance digital platforms as a form of informal financial learning. In doing so, the study positions these as a contemporary site of financial socialisation and capability building. The fourth source, affective states, is not treated as a discrete analytic category as they are often transient, internally interpreted and difficult to disentangle from broader experiential narratives in retrospective qualitative accounts. Instead, affective dimensions are considered as embedded within mastery experiences, vicarious experiences and verbal persuasion, which are the primary focus of this study.

This study examines four interrelated questions. First, it explores how the lived financial experiences of AW ≤ 40, from early socialisation through to adulthood, shape the development of financial capability and FSE over time. Second, it investigates which sources of self-efficacy, particularly mastery experiences, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion, are most influential in superannuation decision-making. Third, the study further explores how and why women engage with personal finance digital platforms, and how these digital spaces function as informal learning environments that build, reinforce or constrain FSE and capability. Fourth, it examines how credibility, trust and life-course context condition whether digitally mediated social learning translates into confidence and action in superannuation decision-making.

In personal finance research, FSE is consistently associated with positive financial behaviours and improved wellbeing outcomes. For example, higher FSE has been linked with better financial decision-making and financial wellbeing among women (Farrell et al., 2016; Forbes and Kara, 2010). Recent synthesis-level reviews consolidate the FSE field and strengthen the rationale for specifying how efficacy forms rather than treating it as a single global score. Gulati and Singh (2024a) review 64 consumer-finance studies and propose an integrated model organising typical antecedents, modifiers and outcomes of FSE, while Gulati et al. (2026) map 245 papers and explicitly nominate retirement planning and technology adoption as forward directions, aligning strongly with a superannuation and digital informal learning setting. Cross-domain self-efficacy research similarly operationalises efficacy with domain-specific scales and shows links with psychosocial conditions, reinforcing the value of an SCT sources approach (Amponsah et al., 2024). FSE has also been treated as a key element of capability formation, influencing planning and behavioural follow-through (Lown, 2011; Sharma et al., 2023). However, despite the prominence of self-efficacy as a construct, much of the empirical work operationalises self-efficacy as a global score and does not distinguish how different efficacy sources contribute to confidence and action. This limitation matters because mastery, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion are not interchangeable pathways: they imply different intervention points, different vulnerabilities (e.g. exposure to poor role models) and different risks (e.g. persuasion that is commercially motivated).

High-stakes, long-horizon financial decisions such as retirement saving require deeper theoretical examination. While a small number of studies apply Bandura's sources of self-efficacy, these are typically situated in education or institutional training rather than complex consumer environments (Bellemans and Devos, 2021; Morris, 2025). Research on younger consumers' retirement intentions is also limited (Bongini and Cucinelli, 2019). Despite rising interest in FSE and women's financial decision-making (Farrell et al., 2016; Furrebøe et al., 2023), few studies examine how the sources operate in real-world financial contexts. Consequently, little is known about how mastery experiences, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion develop through informal digital channels such as personal finance podcasts and social media communities. This study addresses that gap by using SCT to examine how efficacy is built and contested in the lived experience of superannuation engagement.

Research on household finance commonly distinguishes between financial literacy, financial capability and financial wellbeing, although the boundaries between these constructs remain blurred in both theory and measurement (Kim and Chatterjee, 2013; Muir et al., 2017; Sherraden, 2010, 2013). Financial literacy is typically defined as knowledge and understanding of financial concepts and products developed through formal and informal learning (Kim and Chatterjee, 2013). Financial capability extends beyond knowledge to encompass the ability to apply skills effectively in context, recognising the role of social and institutional conditions in shaping behaviour (Leskinen and Raijas, 2006; Sherraden, 2010, 2013). Financial wellbeing is frequently positioned as an outcome state reflecting both material conditions and subjective perceptions of security and autonomy (Muir et al., 2017; Salignac et al., 2020).

Empirical work points to significant overlap and non-linearity in the financial wellbeing literature (Bongini and Cucinelli, 2019; Salignac et al., 2020; Sherraden, 2010, 2013). This has led scholars to emphasise psychological mechanisms that help explain why some individuals translate knowledge into behaviour while others disengage. FSE is interpreted as a key mechanism of financial engagement and behaviour (CFPB, 2015; Farrell et al., 2016; Lown, 2011) and recent reviews help clarify why FSE is conceptually valuable in separating knowing from doing. Gulati and Singh (2024a) organise consumer-FSE research into antecedents, modifiers and outcomes, showing that variables labelled literacy, capability and wellbeing frequently co-occur and are analytically linked through efficacy beliefs. Consistent with this, Gulati et al. (2026) include financial literacy and capability among agenda priorities, supporting an approach that treats FSE as the mechanism through which knowledge resources are mobilised into enacted capability and longer-term wellbeing. This study builds on this literature by treating self-efficacy as a mechanism shaping the development and application of knowledge (i.e. capability) and subsequent behaviour, rather than as an undifferentiated construct. While knowledge is conceptually distinct, self-efficacy influences how individuals engage with, interpret and mobilise knowledge in practice. SCT provides a robust framework for specifying these processes.

Financial capability and FSE develop over time through processes of economic and financial socialisation, particularly within families and close networks (Bandura, 1997; Sherraden, 2010, 2013; West, 2019). Parents and caregivers are primary agents of early financial learning, shaping both financial knowledge and beliefs about money management (Kim and Chatterjee, 2013; West, 2019). However, research shows these socialisation processes are gendered. Recent work positions gendered socialisation as central to FSE scholarship rather than peripheral. Gulati et al. (2026) identify both financial socialisation and gender as key themes in the FSE literature, strengthening the rationale for examining how differential exposure to role models, opportunities for mastery and trusted encouragement shapes women's efficacy trajectories. This synthesis-level positioning supports moving beyond documenting gender gaps to analysing which efficacy sources are differentially available and credible for women across life contexts. In addition, girls are exposed to fewer financial conversations and report less engagement with wealth-building topics than boys (de Zwaan and West, 2022), reflecting normative expectations around financial roles within households. Mothers often model day-to-day budgeting while fathers more commonly engage in strategic financial activities such as investing and taxation (Clarke et al., 2005; West, 2019).

Within the SCT framework, these patterns shape access to key efficacy sources. Reduced exposure to strategic financial behaviour among girls limits key efficacy sources, including vicarious experiences and domain-specific verbal persuasion relevant to investing or retirement planning (Bandura, 1997; West, 2019). Furrebøe et al. (2023) demonstrate how gendered socialisation informs young women's FSE trajectories, reinforcing the need to understand how confidence is built, not only what knowledge is transmitted. When parents lack financial literacy or confidence, opportunities for effective role modelling and mastery experiences are also constrained (Sherraden, 2013).

These dynamics have implications for women's later engagement with complex financial products. Early socialisation that emphasises budgeting over investing may leave women with fewer mastery experiences in wealth-building domains (de Zwaan and West, 2022), producing observed gender differences in financial engagement without resorting to deficit narratives. Improving women's financial outcomes requires attention to how efficacy is socially and experientially developed, requiring more than just information provision.

Positioning the life-course as a sensitising lens illustrates how transitions dynamically shape the core mechanisms of SCT by altering the availability, salience and credibility of self-efficacy sources (Elder et al., 2003). Rather than treating age groups as homogeneous, life-course theory draws attention to heterogeneity and non-linear trajectories shaped by role transitions and cumulative experiences (Elder et al., 2003; Khan and Surisetti, 2022). This perspective is particularly relevant for women in early and mid-adulthood. These transitions do not occur uniformly, producing uneven opportunities to develop FSE and capability even within the same age cohort (Bandura, 1997; Salignac et al., 2020; Sherraden, 2010, 2013).

Life-course transitions inform SCT mechanisms because they alter the availability and credibility of FSE sources (Elder et al., 2003; Muir et al., 2017). Transitions may create mastery opportunities (e.g. managing a mortgage or negotiating salary) or constrain them (e.g. reduced paid work during caregiving) (Bandura, 1997; Russell et al., 2020). They may also shift the relevance of role models, as observing peers navigate comparable transitions can strengthen vicarious learning, while mismatched exemplars may weaken it (Furrebøe et al., 2023; West, 2019). Persuasion from trusted sources may be particularly influential during periods of uncertainty or decision overload (McAlister et al., 2008; Russell et al., 2016). Research on financial wellbeing shows that major life events, such as job disruption, relationship breakdown or caregiving, can significantly affect both financial security and people's sense of control over their finances (Muir et al., 2017; Salignac et al., 2020). This perspective supports analysing how life transitions reshape both the availability of mastery opportunities and the perceived credibility of vicarious models and persuasive influences over time, thereby positioning the life-course as a lens for understanding evolving financial capability. Furthermore, a life-course lens is consistent with evidence that efficacy trajectories are heterogeneous and context-dependent. Resilience and cognitive-demographic influences have been identified as prominent themes in FSE (Gulati et al., 2026), implying that efficacy beliefs evolve with coping resources and socially patterned constraints rather than functioning as stable traits.

Superannuation provides a distinctive context for examining FSE and capability because it is central to long-term financial wellbeing. However, it is widely perceived as complex, abstract and distant (ASFA, 2025; Gulati et al., 2026; Gulati and Singh, 2024b; Muir et al., 2017; Rickwood and White, 2009; Salignac et al., 2020). Engagement requires navigating product choice, investment risk, fees and long-horizon planning under uncertainty, creating high cognitive and psychological demands (ASIC, 2018; Russell et al., 2020). These characteristics raise the threshold for action, making FSE particularly consequential in determining whether individuals engage with superannuation decision-making (Bandura, 1997; Farrell et al., 2016; Lown, 2011). Research also foregrounds limited attention to younger consumers' retirement decision-making despite the long-term implications of early engagement (Bongini and Cucinelli, 2019). Moreover, feedback in superannuation is often delayed, limiting mastery opportunities that typically support confidence-building (Bandura, 1997; Muir et al., 2017). For women, these challenges are compounded by structural conditions that shape resources and opportunity. Gendered patterns of paid work and caregiving interrupt employment trajectories and contribute to lower superannuation accumulation (WIS, 2020), with long-term implications for retirement security. These disparities contribute to heightened poverty and housing insecurity, increasing later-life vulnerability for women (AHRC, 2025; ASFA, 2024; Kumar et al., 2019).

Within capability scholarship, such structural constraints are central, as they can inhibit action even when knowledge and motivation exist (Sherraden, 2010, 2013). From an SCT perspective, structural conditions influence access to self-efficacy sources such as mastery experience, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion (Bandura, 1997; McAlister et al., 2008). Employment contexts may provide financial learning and social persuasion, whereas precarious work or caregiving may restrict exposure to such supports (García Mata, 2021; Muir et al., 2017; Russell et al., 2020). For women with lower incomes, financial advice may be inaccessible due to cost, thereby increasing reliance on informal learning channels (Chatterjee and Fan, 2023; Moneysmart, 2025). Consequently, informal learning environments become particularly relevant for understanding how women build confidence and capability in superannuation decision-making.

Digital informal learning occurs within a wider digitalisation of financial services that expands access while also introducing emerging risks, raising the salience of digital financial literacy and credibility judgements. Kishor et al. (2025) review a large body of fintech and financial inclusion literature but note comparatively limited conceptual/qualitative work and recommend multi-theory perspectives, supporting a theory-led approach to informal digital channels. Personal finance digital platforms, including podcasts and online communities have become an increasingly prominent site of informal financial learning, shaping how individuals access, interpret and engage with financial information outside formal advisory channels (Bucher-Koenen et al., 2017; Dai et al., 2025; Hii and Ong, 2025). These digital spaces provide peer narratives, simplified explanations and emotionally resonant encouragement, aligning closely with SCT mechanisms of vicarious learning and verbal persuasion (McAlister et al., 2008). Podcasts can also foster a sense of intimacy and relational connection, shaping how audiences interpret and adopt financial guidance (McAlister et al., 2008). Such dynamics may be especially salient for AW ≤ 40, who may seek financial information that is accessible, empathetic and culturally aligned with their lived experience.

Trust is central in this context. In financial services, source credibility strongly shapes whether advice is accepted and translated into action, particularly in uncertain or complex decision environments (Ayeh, 2015; Bandura, 1997; Ohanian, 1990). Research indicates that women's financial decision-making is frequently shaped by relational contexts and trust dynamics, reflecting broader social and structural norms that continue to shape expectations around paid work, caregiving and household financial roles, often positioning women as secondary earners or primary caregivers (Gulati et al., 2026; Gulati and Singh, 2024b; Muir et al., 2017). These norms can influence career continuity, hours worked and access to workplace-based financial learning, thereby limiting women's opportunities to build financial literacy and participate fully in economic life (García Mata, 2021; WIS, 2020). These social norms can make advice from family and friends more prominent than formal financial channels (Russell et al., 2016). Digital communities may therefore function as substitutes or complements to formal advice, providing credible and relatable exemplars. This suggests a theoretical extension of SCT in digital finance contexts: social learning online is conditioned by evaluations of credibility and relatability, such that vicarious learning and persuasion are filtered through the perceived trustworthiness of the source.

Digital financial spaces, however, are not uniformly beneficial. Concerns persist regarding information quality, commercial influence and platform dynamics that favour engagement over accuracy. User-generated content varies in reliability and intent, sometimes producing misinformation or oversimplified accounts of complex products (Bucher-Koenen et al., 2017). Algorithmic amplification may reinforce selective exposure, shaping beliefs through repetition rather than critical evaluation (Aggarwal et al., 2022). Risks are amplified on platforms like FinTok, where persuasive content often lacks nuance and contextual fit (Aggarwal et al., 2022; Bucher-Koenen et al., 2017). Estelami and Florendo (2021) show that individuals with higher literacy and greater need for cognition are less likely to rely on social media for financial guidance, suggesting that those with lower literacy may be more vulnerable to low-quality advice. For SCT, this implies that verbal persuasion and vicarious learning can build FSE but may also produce misplaced confidence, emphasising the need to consider both efficacy-building mechanisms and credibility filters when assessing when and for whom digital platforms affect capability.

Overall, the literature indicates that women's financial capability is shaped by the interaction of gendered socialisation, life-course transitions, structural constraints and psychological mechanisms of self-efficacy. FSE is consistently associated with positive financial behaviours and wellbeing (Farrell et al., 2016; Forbes and Kara, 2010; Sharma et al., 2023), yet research often treats self-efficacy as a global construct rather than examining pathways through which it is formed. Bandura's (1997) sources of self-efficacy offer a theoretically precise way to examine these pathways, but applications that disaggregate mastery, vicarious experience and verbal persuasion remain limited in financial decision-making research (Bellemans and Devos, 2021; Morris, 2025). Recent work by Gulati and Singh (2024a) and Gulati et al. (2026) provides an explicit anchor for positioning this manuscript in contemporary FSE scholarship. This manuscript addresses these agenda cues by examining a retirement-planning domain (superannuation) and theorising digital informal learning as a contemporary site of socialisation, while adding mechanism-level specificity through Bandura's efficacy sources and credibility-conditioned learning.

In parallel, personal finance digital platforms have developed as an influential site of informal financial learning, but limited research examines how these platforms shape FSE, particularly in complex contexts such as superannuation (Berger and Messerschmidt, 2009; Sadovykh and Sundaram, 2016; Shi et al., 2025). Existing work points to both potential benefits (accessibility, relatability, community) and risks (misinformation, commercial influence, selective exposure), illuminating the need for empirically grounded and theory-led analysis that avoids assuming uniform effects (Aggarwal et al., 2022; Bucher-Koenen et al., 2017; Estelami and Florendo, 2021).

Addressing these gaps, this study applies SCT as an analytical lens to examine how AW ≤ 40 develop FSE for superannuation decision-making through mastery experience, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion, and how these processes unfold across heterogeneous life-course contexts. It also considers how credibility and trust shape the translation of digital social learning into confidence and action, positioning personal finance digital platforms as an important site of contemporary financial socialisation.

A qualitative methodology was adopted to explore the lived experiences of AW ≤ 40 in relation to financial wellbeing and superannuation engagement. Purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit rich, contextually grounded accounts (Denscombe, 2014). A qualitative approach was selected for its capacity to capture the depth, complexity and subjective meanings participants attach to financial capability (Creswell, 2013). As Kirk and Miller (1986) posit, qualitative research is most appropriate when the aim is to interpret rather than generalise, to uncover meaning within complex and dynamic social contexts.

The study adopts an interpretivist perspective, treating participants' accounts as situated meanings shaped by social context and life-course experience (Creswell, 2013; Marshall and Rossman, 2016). A life-history interview approach enabled exploration of financial narratives across childhood, early adulthood and anticipated futures, supporting examination of how life-course transitions shape financial learning opportunities and confidence over time (Hammarberg et al., 2016). Consistent with an interpretive paradigm, the study does not seek statistical generalisability but aims to generate analytically transferable insights that advance theoretical understanding of FSE and capability in a specific policy and social context. Moreover, semi-structured interviews capture intergenerational financial learning and role modelling (Hammarberg et al., 2016).

Two qualitative studies were conducted using semi-structured interviews with AW ≤ 40, focusing on financial decision-making, superannuation and FSE. Study 1 was exploratory in nature and aimed to understand key experiences, meanings and sources of FSE relevant to superannuation engagement among AW ≤ 40. Building on these insights, Study 2 was designed to extend and refine the developing analysis by engaging a new cohort of participants and examining how these processes unfolded across varied life circumstances. This two-study design enabled iterative theoretical development while preserving methodological consistency, enhancing the credibility and depth of the findings.

Study 1 employed purposive non-probability sampling to recruit AW ≤ 40 for semi-structured, life-history interviews focused on superannuation engagement. Initial recruitment was conducted via a personal finance blog and associated Facebook page, enabling access to information-rich participants willing to reflect on money-related experiences (Denscombe, 2014). Interested participants completed a short screening survey designed to confirm eligibility and capture demographic and behavioural diversity, including age, education, caregiving responsibilities and superannuation behaviours. No incentives were offered.

Early interviews indicated that participants recruited through finance-oriented platforms tended to exhibit above-average engagement with personal finance. To mitigate potential self-selection bias and broaden diversity, snowball sampling was subsequently employed (Noy, 2008), targeting participants with varying levels of financial confidence, including those who did not consume financial content. This second recruitment phase was used purposively to include participants from varied socio-economic backgrounds, including lower-income participants, First Nations women, and non-binary individuals assigned female at birth. Interviews were conducted both in person and online to accommodate geographic dispersion. Recruitment continued until additional interviews were no longer generating substantively new patterns of meaning in analysis, signalling thematic saturation (Green and Thorogood, 2004). In total, 20 participants were interviewed for Study 1.

Study 2 was designed as a sequential qualitative extension of Study 1, focusing specifically on the role of personal finance podcasts and online communities in shaping financial learning and FSE, a finding from Study 1. Consistent with this focus, purposive sampling targeted AW ≤ 40 who actively used personal finance podcasts and/or online communities for financial learning (Denscombe, 2014).

Recruitment occurred via posts to a large Australian personal finance Facebook group and amplification through a national personal finance podcast. Interested participants completed a screening survey to confirm eligibility and ensure variation across life-course circumstances and financial trajectories. Screening items captured age, income, caregiving status, superannuation behaviours, use of digital financial communities and six items from Lown's (2011) FSE scale, enabling recruitment of participants with varied levels of financial confidence and engagement. No incentives were offered. Participants represented diverse cultural backgrounds reflective of the Australian context. While the study did not aim to conduct cross-cultural comparisons, this diversity provided a broader range of lived experiences through which FSE and capability were interpreted.

Eligible participants were invited to one-to-one online interviews. Recruitment continued until further interviews were not contributing substantively new insights in analysis, and the dataset was judged to be thematically adequate (Green and Thorogood, 2004; Guest et al., 2006). Study 2 comprised 12 interviews.

Together, Studies 1 and 2 constitute a coherent qualitative programme of research rather than independent investigations. Study 1 was exploratory, developing an initial understanding of key experiences, meanings and sources of FSE relevant to superannuation engagement among AW ≤ 40. Study 2 was subsequently designed to deepen and refine these insights by examining how digital financial communities and podcasts function as informal learning environments across different life circumstances and levels of financial confidence. Conducting the research in two sequential studies enabled iterative theoretical development while maintaining methodological consistency.

Interviews were transcribed using a hybrid approach: manually for Study 1 and via an online transcription platform (Otter) for Study 2, with all transcripts checked against audio to correct errors and remove identifying details. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's (2006, 2021) approach. Consistent with this approach, analysis was iterative, recursive and interpretive, with themes actively generated through engagement with the data rather than treated as passively emerging. The first author immersed herself in the data through repeated readings and memo-writing, before undertaking an initial round of inductive coding to remain close to participants' accounts. A subsequent theory-informed phase examined codes in relation to SCT (mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion) and life-course transitions, generating approximately 85 codes in Study 1 and 60 in Study 2. In this research, codes are conceptualised as analytic tools used to capture and organise meaningful features of the data, rather than as themes themselves. Codes were organised using spreadsheets and visual mapping into broader organisational categories to support pattern recognition across the dataset. These categories functioned as analytic scaffolding, enabling the development of themes as patterns of shared meaning underpinned by central organising concepts, rather than as summaries of data topics. A second coding cycle supported analytic completeness by checking for disconfirming or overlooked material, increasing confidence that the themes sufficiently represented patterned meaning across the dataset. Themes were developed through an iterative process of reviewing, refining and interpreting coded data, moving from codes and organisational categories to a coherent set of themes that capture patterned meaning across the dataset (four in Study 1, three in Study 2). To enhance methodological transparency, Appendix Table A1 presents an overview of themes as central organising concepts alongside associated organisational categories.

Throughout this process, analysis was reflexive and recursive: the researcher, drawing on professional experience in financial services alongside academic training, engaged in critical self-reflection by keeping analytic memos during transcription and coding to acknowledge how prior experience could shape interpretation and to make analytic decisions explicit. This reflexive stance, along with strategies like recruiting a diverse participant pool and performing a second round of coding, helped mitigate the influence of researcher preconceptions. To enhance trustworthiness, the study adhered to qualitative rigour criteria: transparency in the analytic procedure, an audit trail of coding decisions, and confirmation that further data collection would likely not add substantially new insights in relation to the research aims (indicative of saturation). All findings were thus grounded in participants' accounts, and the research process aligned with ethical guidelines for integrity and credibility in qualitative research.

Profile information of participants in Study 1 and Study 2 showing age, family situation and superannuation actions is detailed in Table 1.

This section presents an integrated analysis of findings from two qualitative studies examining how AW ≤ 40 develop financial capability and FSE for superannuation decision-making across the life-course. Drawing on SCT (Bandura, 1997), the analysis moves beyond thematic description to interpret how access to key efficacy sources is unevenly shaped by early financial socialisation, life-course transitions and broader structural conditions. Study 1 focuses on formative influences within family and early adulthood, illuminating how constrained mastery and gendered socialisation patterns shape later confidence and engagement with superannuation. Building on these insights, Study 2 examines how personal finance podcasts and online communities operate as informal learning environments that partially compensate for these constraints by providing socially embedded opportunities for vicarious learning, verbal persuasion and mastery. These influences on overall financial wellbeing are shown in Figure 1, where theme labels (T1–T7) correspond to the thematic structure presented in Appendix Table A1.

This section reports integrated results and discussion from Study 1, examining how the lived experiences of AW ≤ 40 shape financial capability and FSE for superannuation decision-making. Guided by SCT (Bandura, 1997) and a life-course perspective (Elder et al., 2003), the analysis interprets participant accounts through three sources of self-efficacy while situating these processes within broader structural and relational conditions.

Participants consistently described early financial socialisation occurring through observation rather than explicit instruction, reflecting gendered divisions of financial responsibility noted in prior research (Clarke et al., 2005; West, 2019). Mothers were associated with everyday budgeting, while fathers handled larger or longer-term decisions. Donna's account illustrates this pattern:

From a SCT perspective, this pattern is significant because vicarious learning, one of the primary sources of self-efficacy, depends on repeated observation of others performing behaviours perceived as relevant and attainable (Bandura, 1997). Where girls predominantly observe budgeting and bill payment, these behaviours become familiar and confidence-building; while investing or retirement planning remain abstract or externally owned domains.

Breanna's account indicates how repeated exposure to routine financial practices enabled early participation and competence in budgeting-related behaviours:

Low-stakes financial practice supported capability and confidence (Kim and Chatterjee, 2013; Sherraden, 2013), but these opportunities mainly focused on short-term money management. Strategic behaviours were less visible, consistent with evidence that girls are socialised into “maintenance” rather than “growth” roles, with strategic learning typically occurring through paternal verbal persuasion and tools, an SCT-aligned pathway for building efficacy (Bandura, 1997; Furrebøe et al., 2023). Harriet described such encouragement:

These findings suggest that early financial socialisation among AW ≤ 40 produces domain-specific and asymmetric FSE, rather than generalised financial confidence. Mastery and vicarious learning are concentrated in everyday financial behaviours, while exposure to long-term and wealth-building decisions is uneven and often gendered. This asymmetry has important downstream implications for superannuation engagement, which requires confidence in precisely those domains that are least commonly modelled.

Participants frequently illustrated adolescence and early employment as the point at which they first exercised independent financial agency. These experiences often involved saving towards tangible goals, such as purchasing a car, and served as early mastery experiences that strengthened confidence through direct success. Dawn's account illustrates this process:

Mastery experiences strengthened everyday financial confidence, yet they were short-horizon and not easily transferable to superannuation, where delayed feedback limits efficacy development (Bandura, 1997; Bongini and Cucinelli, 2019). Brooklyn articulated this disconnect between everyday financial capability and confidence in superannuation:

This aligns with SCT's proposition: individuals are unlikely to initiate action when efficacy beliefs are weak (Bandura, 1997). It also helps explain why financial literacy alone does not drive superannuation engagement, since confidence mediates the knowledge–behaviour relationship (Fernandes et al., 2014; Farrell et al., 2016).

Through adulthood, financial capability and FSE evolved alongside non-linear life-course transitions and in heterogeneous ways even within the same age cohort (Elder et al., 2003). Participants felt confident in saving but uncertain about investing and wealth-building, especially when risk was perceived. Sydney articulated this contrast clearly:

The “saving–investing gap” aligns with research showing women often report lower FSE in risk-oriented domains due to limited exposure rather than innate aversion (Lemaster and Strough, 2014; Watson and McNaughton, 2007), with some participants noting that learning increased their tolerance for risk. Olivia's account illustrates how efficacy can develop through accumulated learning and reframing of time horizons:

SCT perspective explains this pattern: mastery experiences and cognitive appraisal reduce anxiety and increase confidence (Bandura, 1997). Life-course transitions further shaped superannuation engagement by shifting perceived urgency and feasibility, especially in relation to anticipated caregiving. Waverly noted:

This finding reinforces the value of a life-course lens: FSE for superannuation is shaped not only by current resources but also by anticipated future roles and disruptions, which influence whether individuals perceive early action as worthwhile or sufficient.

Study 1 further illustrated that participants often prioritised financial strategies that offered tangible or immediate security, particularly home ownership. Housing was frequently framed as a more comprehensible and controllable form of long-term protection than superannuation. Sydney noted:

Relationship status also shaped FSE and perceived responsibility. Participants who did not anticipate relying on a partner emphasised the need for self-sufficiency.

These accounts illustrate how structural and relational conditions – including income stability, household composition, caregiving expectations–shape access to efficacy sources and the capacity to engage with long-term financial planning (Muir et al., 2017; Salignac et al., 2020). Superannuation engagement, therefore, cannot be understood solely as an individual choice, but as embedded within broader systems that shape opportunity and constraint.

Taken together, Study 1 addresses the first components of the research aim and suggests that financial capability and FSE among AW ≤ 40 develop unevenly across the life-course and across financial domains. Early socialisation and adolescent mastery experiences build confidence in routine money management, whereas investing and superannuation efficacy is limited by fewer modelling and mastery opportunities and higher perceived risk. Life-course transitions further shape engagement by disrupting learning opportunities and shifting perceptions of feasibility and urgency. Women's FSE is therefore asymmetrically distributed across domains depending on where and how efficacy sources are encountered. This helps explain disengagement from superannuation even among financially capable women and sets the stage for Study 2, which examines how personal finance digital platforms operate as an alternative site of vicarious learning and verbal persuasion when traditional pathways are constrained.

Study 2 investigates how AW ≤ 40 use personal finance digital platforms as an alternative site for financial learning, examining how vicarious learning, verbal persuasion and mastery experiences operate online, and how source credibility conditions their translation into FSE and action.

Source credibility theory (Ayeh, 2015; Ohanian, 1990) suggests that relatability, trustworthiness and expertise determine persuasiveness. In our analysis, the credibility of secondary verbal persuaders developed as central to participants' accounts, as trusted individuals often functioned as shortcuts to action, bypassing independent research. April (34), for example, trusts the advice of her sister as she's “a bit savvier than I am. pretty clued on”, while Miley started investing in exchange traded funds (ETFs) after a conversation with a friend:

These accounts point to the importance of source credibility, a concept developed in marketing and communication research and operationalised through dimensions of trustworthiness, expertise and relatability (Ayeh, 2015; Ohanian, 1990). When sources were perceived as credible, participants were more likely to accept verbal persuasion and adopt observed behaviours without extensive independent research.

Online communities similarly functioned as sites of vicarious learning. April (34) learned about an online investing app through a Facebook group and subsequently began using it. Torah described how reading others' questions and experiences prompted reflection and curiosity:

In contrast to everyday consumer decisions, which often involve extensive comparison and information search (Sharma et al., 2023), superannuation decisions were frequently initiated through trust-based shortcuts when advice came from credible or aspirational others. Tia described how a casual workplace conversation acted as a catalyst for salary sacrificing into superannuation:

Similarly, Gemma described learning about contribution strategies through others' shared experiences:

Participants sought out personal finance podcasts and online communities for accessible, life-stage-relevant learning. Personal finance digital platforms acted as both an information source and participatory learning environment (Dai et al., 2025; Hii and Ong, 2025). Many felt underprepared earlier in adulthood and sought platforms that matched their situations.

Mara described how online learning shifted her financial orientation away from parental preferences:

Among the most frequently mentioned platforms was She's on the Money, which several participants discussed as an entry-level gateway into financial learning. Winona explained:

Digital platforms enabled self-paced financial learning embedded in daily routines, which for Tia made podcasts particularly appealing for their convenience (Dai et al., 2025).

From an SCT perspective, accessible, relatable messaging strengthens verbal persuasion by reinforcing capability beliefs (Bandura, 1997). Credibility depended not just on qualifications, but on authenticity and shared experience.

Female-focused online communities were frequently described as supportive environments for peer learning. Gemma points to the value of openness and shared experience:

In addition, Miley noted that She's on the Money, in particular, was an inclusive space where she feels she can “cheer on and support other women on their finance journey.”

Such forums provided opportunities for vicarious experience (Bandura, 1997), allowing participants to observe peers navigating similar financial challenges. Participants such as Fay (38) and Tia (33), for instance, described building financial knowledge through independent exploration.

Participants also discussed instances of mastery experiences when podcast content prompted them to act. Miley shared how engaging with She's on the Money inspired her to help share knowledge by building a peer-led finance group in her workplace:

This sense of taking initiative and sharing knowledge forward not only reinforced Miley's own learning but also contributed to the collective capability of others – a clear example of mastery being internalised and amplified through peer networks.

As participants' financial literacy grew, many transitioned to more specialised platforms such as Equity Mates, Money, Money, Money and The Australian Finance Podcast. Gemma (28) notes that she believes The Australian Finance Podcast to be “accessible” but “more information heavy” while Winona discusses progressing on to more advanced financial territory by listening to The Australian Finance Podcast:

Concerns about credibility and misinformation were also raised. Hana questioned the qualifications of some creators:

Kadence also emphasised the need for trust:

Source credibility operated as a gatekeeping mechanism for SCT processes, with verbal persuasion and vicarious learning internalised only when sources were perceived as trustworthy, competent and relevant, extending Ayeh's (2015) work to informal financial learning contexts.

Overall, Study 2 suggests that podcasts and online communities operate as informal efficacy infrastructures for AW ≤ 40, enabling vicarious learning, verbal persuasion and occasional mastery experiences that support engagement with superannuation. However, credibility evaluations mean that digital learning is selectively adopted. Taken with Study 1, these findings indicate that FSE develops through socially mediated and life-course–shaped pathways, not merely through knowledge acquisition, and that digital environments can both mitigate and reproduce inequalities in financial capability.

This study set out to examine how the lived experiences of AW ≤ 40 shape FSE, decision-making and capability across the life-course. The findings indicate that financial capability is deeply rooted in early life influences of parental modelling, often reflecting traditional gender roles, formative experiences such as part-time work and social learning through trusted advice.

Despite limited formal financial education, these experiences foster foundational literacy and guide engagement with complex systems such as superannuation. Interpreted through SCT (Bandura, 1997), this research extends the theory to financial services marketing by positioning FSE as a domain-specific manifestation and key psychological mechanism through which social learning, modelling and reinforcement influence financial behaviour. It also brings into focus how digitally mediated social learning environments and life-course experiences shape women's financial behaviours in ways that can both enable and constrain capability.

Positioning the life-course as a sensitising lens draws attention to how transitions across adulthood reshape the core mechanisms of SCT. This illustrates to how early financial socialisation and formative experiences accumulate to shape later confidence, perceived capability and engagement with long-horizon financial decisions such as superannuation. These results directly respond to the research agendas outlined in recent systematic reviews of FSE (Gulati and Singh, 2024a; Gulati et al., 2026) by using a life-course sensitising lens to interpret how women's confidence in retirement planning and wealth building.

Furthermore, digital engagement (e.g. podcasts and online communities) can be interpreted as a potentially transformative mechanism that aligns with and extends SCT by illustrating how digitally mediated social learning environments may enhance FSE through trust-building and the normalisation of financial conversations. At the same time, these environments can also support overconfidence, reinforce selective exposure or diffuse low-quality advice, underscoring that their effects on superannuation engagement and long-term investment are not uniformly positive (Aggarwal et al., 2022; Bucher-Koenen et al., 2017; Estelami and Florendo, 2021; Mölders et al., 2024).

Relatable influencers and targeted interventions, particularly around superannuation, appear to offer one pathway for supporting women's confidence and engagement. Consistent with prior research underscoring the perceived credibility of finfluencers through their “skin in the game” (Mölders et al., 2024, p. 6), this study shows how relatable influencers can facilitate vicarious learning and verbal persuasion that enhance women's FSE and encourage proactive engagement with superannuation and long-term investments. However, these same mechanisms can also amplify commercially motivated messages or oversimplified strategies, potentially fostering misplaced confidence or misaligned decisions when credibility assessments are weak. By embedding financial learning into everyday routines, personal finance digital platforms can reduce psychological barriers and support proactive decision-making among AW ≤ 40, but its contribution to financial capability remains contingent on content quality, regulatory safeguards and consumers' critical evaluation skills.

This research contributes to bank marketing and consumer finance literature by advancing understanding of how FSE among AW ≤ 40 is shaped through social learning processes that unfold within changing life contexts. By employing the life-course as a sensitising lens rather than a formal analytic framework, the study illustrates how financial confidence and engagement evolve through age-graded roles, critical transitions and broader structural conditions. This perspective was interpreted as showing heterogeneous and non-linear trajectories of financial capability, illustrating how early financial socialisation, gendered parental modelling and subsequent life events interact with changing mastery opportunities, vicarious learning and persuasive influences over time. In doing so, the study provides insight into the mechanisms through which financial capability is built and sustained, rather than treating financial engagement as static or uniform across consumers. The research extends the work of Furrebøe et al. (2023), Russell et al. (2020) and West (2019) by demonstrating how traditional gender roles embedded in parental modelling continue to structure women's financial behaviours and confidence. This points to the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in financial education and policy to better support women's long-term financial security, and the enduring influence of early socialisation on later engagement with complex financial products such as superannuation.

This research illustrates that vicarious learning and verbal persuasion operate as interacting and reinforcing sources of FSE, shaping behavioural engagement among AW ≤ 40. Exposure to others' financial successes and mistakes prompted both reflection and deterrence, strengthening confidence and encouraging more proactive financial management. These findings suggest that financial education and intervention efforts should move beyond information provision to deliberately incorporate credible peer examples and socially embedded persuasion. More broadly, the results extend SCT by conceptualising FSE as a domain-specific, temporally evolving construct shaped within digitally mediated social learning environments.

Consistent with emerging literature on influencer credibility (e.g. Mölders et al., 2024; Vrontis et al., 2021), this study conceptualises finfluencers as potential agents of transformative change who can promote financial literacy, empowerment and inclusion while normalising financial conversations. By embedding financial learning into everyday routines, personal finance digital platforms reduce psychological barriers and extend prior research by demonstrating finfluencers' influence on long-horizon financial behaviours, including superannuation engagement and gendered financial empowerment. At the same time, participants' reliance on friends and digital financial communities to compensate for gaps in formal financial education makes visible the need for more practical and relatable learning approaches, particularly for complex financial products such as superannuation. Participants were more likely to act when encouraged by trusted sources, in contrast to other financial domains where they engaged in extensive independent research (Farrell et al., 2016; Perry and Morris, 2005; Rickwood and White, 2009), underscoring the importance of pairing efficacy-building strategies with critical evaluation skills to ensure that trust supports informed engagement rather than uncritical reliance.

Collectively, this research contributes to the theoretical integration of life-course theory, SCT and digital engagement within the context of financial services marketing. By demonstrating how FSE evolves through the interaction of early socialisation, life transitions and digitally mediated influences, the study offers a nuanced and dynamic understanding of women's financial behaviour and provides a robust foundation for future research in bank marketing and consumer finance.

The findings indicate the importance of temporal and contextual influences on the development of FSE, suggesting that FSE cannot be assumed to be uniform within demographic groups. While age and income have long been recognised as shaping financial education needs (Leskinen and Raijas, 2006; Russell et al., 2016), this study suggests how life-stage and engagement with digital financial content interact to influence financial behaviours and attitudes. For practitioners, moving away from one-size-fits-all financial education towards life-stage–responsive interventions may better align with key transition points (e.g. entering the workforce, caregiving or partnership changes), where financial decision-making becomes more salient.

The research also draws attention to the unique financial challenges faced by women, particularly those involving caregiving responsibilities and the gender pay gap (Furrebøe et al., 2023; Russell et al., 2020; West, 2019). Targeted approaches are needed to support financial independence and long-term financial security among AW ≤ 40. These should incorporate practical, relatable content that reflects real-life scenarios and acknowledges the impact of gender roles. Specifically, interventions should prioritise confidence-building over information provision alone by incorporating peer modelling and scenario-based learning, alongside tailored financial advice delivered at key life transitions through collaboration with financial institutions, educators and trusted social media influencers, thereby strengthening women's financial capability and addressing gaps in formal financial education.

Marketing efforts should intentionally leverage dimensions of trust such as familiarity and perceived credibility. The trustworthiness and relatability of social media influencers bring into focus the potential of digital platforms for financial literacy initiatives, suggesting that informal sources can play a constructive role in shaping FSE. Embedding financial education within everyday digital environments (e.g. podcasts and social media), delivered through relatable voices aligned to the audience's life-stage and communicated with warmth and authenticity, can reduce perceived complexity and financial anxiety while fostering trust, engagement and confidence at the point of need rather than through stand-alone educational interventions. These strategies should be complemented with tools that build critical evaluation skills, ensuring that trust supports informed engagement rather than uncritical reliance. This form of digital engagement allows AW ≤ 40 to build financial literacy at their own pace while selectively trusting sources perceived as credible and relevant (Hii and Ong, 2025).

This study acknowledges the primary researcher's positionality, recognising that professional experience in financial services may have influenced both the design and interpretation of the research, consistent with reflexive principles in qualitative enquiry (Creswell, 2013; Hammarberg et al., 2016). In addition, several methodological and analytic choices shape the scope of findings. The use of purposive sampling introduces potential self-selection bias, as participants who volunteered may have been more financially engaged or confident than those who did not, limiting insights into disengaged AW ≤ 40. An urban bias was also evident, with many participants residing in metropolitan areas, particularly Melbourne, where access to financial services and resources differs from regional or remote contexts. Although the sample included participants from diverse cultural backgrounds, the analysis did not explicitly examine cultural differences in financial socialisation or decision-making. Future research could explore how cultural norms and values shape access to self-efficacy sources and financial capability across different groups.

A further limitation concerns the treatment of affective states within the SCT framework. In this study, affective states were not analysed as a discrete category but were interpreted as embedded within mastery experiences, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion. This analytic decision reflects both the retrospective, life-history design and the difficulty of isolating transient emotional states from broader experiential narratives in participants' accounts. However, emotions and embodied aspects of lived experience are likely to be important for understanding how women adjust to financial shocks, risk and uncertainty over the life-course. Future research could therefore examine affective states more explicitly, for example through longitudinal or diary-based methods that attend to emotional trajectories alongside changing efficacy beliefs and financial behaviours.

Finally, reliance on semi-structured interviews provides only a snapshot in time (Harvey-Jordan and Long, 2001). Future research should investigate the quantitative aspects of how economic, social and psychological factors influence AW ≤ 40's financial behaviours, particularly in the context of digital platform engagement and gender-specific financial education. This aligns with the fintech and inclusion literature, where Kishor et al. (2025) also call for larger-scale, mixed-method studies to generalise insights on digital financial engagement. Large-scale studies would allow for generalisation across this demographic, helping to formulate hypotheses and measurement tools tailored to their unique financial trajectories. Additionally, comparative studies could explore differences in FSE and decision-making between women of different age groups or educational backgrounds, and between those engaging with personal finance digital platforms and those relying solely on traditional sources, further enriching our understanding of tailored financial interventions.