When Associate Professor Michelle Cull began teaching a course at Western Sydney University on financial planning, she noticed that although students had a strong interest in basic personal finance, they lacked knowledge.  "It was a surprise to see how little students understood basic personal finance, even when they were enrolled in an advanced business-related subject," says Cull. "I’ve seen high-achieving students let their grades slip, or not submit assignments on time. Often it would come back to a financial situation affecting their sleep and mental well-being." 

To bridge the gap, she considered creating a tool that offers students advice before they make  financial decisions. Assisted by Professor Catherine Attard in the School of Education, she partnered with UniBank — a bank focused on serving the university sector — and a developer from Western’s Launch Pad startup incubator, to design a personal finance app specifically for university students in Australia, called Wallet$mart.  

The app includes features and resources covering seven crucial areas for student life: borrowing, budgeting, buying a car, education fees, employment, moving out of home, and saving. When they sign up, students are tested on their knowledge of personal finance. This generates a 'Wallet$mart score' that students are encouraged to improve upon as they learn from in-app resources. 

In a survey conducted after five months of app use, Cull found that 75% of the students using it felt it had positively influenced their financial knowledge and money management habits. Students who used all features of the app answered 81% more accurately on questions commonly used to test basic financial literacy than students who weren’t using the app.