Financial wellbeing: researching the community

Having a clear view of how consumers are spending and saving their money, particularly in this challenging economic environment, can help shape products, policies and processes.

"Everyone is out there developing tracking measures, finding a way for the people… to understand how they're doing from the standpoint of financial wellbeing.” – Dr Warmath

Laura Higgins, Senior Executive Leader of Financial Capability at The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), was a member of ANZ’s independent steering committee for the bank’s research into financial wellbeing.

She is currently leading a review of the wider financial wellbeing research landscape in Australia. Aside from its better-known regulatory role, ASIC also leads Australia’s National Financial Capability Strategy and manages the MoneySmart consumer website.

Higgins sat down with Dr Dee Warmath, a Professor in the Department of Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia, to discuss the various types of research charting financial wellbeing in Australia and globally – including the recently released ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Wellbeing Indicator.

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Warmath says the fact so many people are now studying financial wellbeing rather than just the objective measures of household finance is a huge step forward.

“Everyone is out there developing tracking measures, finding a way for the people… to understand how they're doing from the standpoint of financial wellbeing,” she says. “There are opportunities for us to continue to evolve… We have the opportunity to augment our tracking with more diagnostic measures.”

Regarding the ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Wellbeing Indicator, Warmath says working with such a large dataset will enable researchers to undertake significant analysis.

“The possibility of having [over] 50,000 responses a year is just enormous,” she says.

Warmath says the indicator shows the financial wellbeing of Australians is on par with many similar regions.

“Most countries have the same situation, which is about average financial wellbeing,” she explains. “Right at the midpoint of the zero to 100 scale.”

You can hear more of the conversation between Warmath and Higgins in the video above.

Michelle Commandeur is Head of Financial Inclusion at ANZ