Money Decision Index

An index to help you make better money decisions.

For organisations and educators

If your people make financial decisions, they carry the same biases as everyone else. The ones that drain savings, stretch debt, and leave families wondering where the money went. Money Decision Index is an education resource that names those biases in plain language, so the people you support can spot them before they act.

This page is for any organisation that wants to bring the catalogue to the people they work with. Companies and HR teams supporting employees through career changes or financial stress. Universities and schools teaching personal finance without textbook jargon. Outplacement and wellness providers extending what they already offer. Community groups, unions and not-for-profits helping people make better decisions for themselves and their families.

The goal is to reach as many people as possible with this material. If your organisation wants to bring it to your team, your students, your members or your community, get in touch. We will work out the right format together, from a single session to a long-running programme.

For companies and organisations

Financial stress is one of the biggest invisible costs employees carry into work, and one of the most predictable ways to lose them. The same biases that drain savings at home drain focus, productivity and retention at work. When your people understand how those biases work, they make better decisions for themselves, and they bring less stress through your door.

Why financial biases matter at work

Financial stress is more expensive than people realise.

  • #1 cause of unplanned absence

    Financial stress is now the leading driver of unplanned absenteeism in Australia and the UK, ahead of physical illness. Every sick day costs your business directly. (CIPD Good Work Index)

  • 3+ hours per week

    Employees dealing with money problems spend over three hours per week at work thinking about their finances instead of doing their job. That is a full month of lost productivity per employee per year. (PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey)

  • 2x more likely to leave

    Financially stressed employees are twice as likely to look for another job. Replacing an employee costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary. A $2.95 guide is cheaper than a recruiter. (CIPD / SHRM)

  • 13 IQ points lost

    Employees under financial stress experience a cognitive decline equivalent to losing 13 IQ points. That is the difference between normal functioning and impaired decision-making. It affects every task, every meeting, every output. (Nottingham University)

Companies that help their people make better financial decisions get back focus, productivity and continuity. The catalogue is one way to do that, without a course, a coach or a long rollout.

For schools and universities

Personal finance education does the heavy lifting on the math: budgets, compound interest, debt formulas, how investing works. Those foundations matter, and they are taught well in most curricula.

The catalogue adds something different: the part of decision-making that happens before the math, when biases the textbook does not name take over. The decision itself, in the moment, in real life.

Built around the decisions students face every day. Subscription stacks that quietly drain the account. The first phone contract. Buy-now-pay-later on a $40 t-shirt. Food delivery that costs more than the food. The first credit card. Signing a shared lease.

Plain English, free to read, designed to sit alongside what educators already teach. Universities point students to it as supplementary reading. Schools weave it into life-skills modules. The biases work the same way at twenty as at fifty, so what students learn from one entry stays with them for life.

For community groups and not-for-profits

People going through a major life transition face the most consequential financial decisions, often with the least time to think clearly. Job changes, relocation, separation, a new baby, the death of a parent, retirement. Each one stacks new decisions on top of emotional load. The biases that affect any financial choice multiply in those moments.

Community groups, unions, faith organisations, support charities and not-for-profits sit closer to those moments than anyone else. The catalogue gives them a structured, plain-language reference to share with the people they support, in the format that fits what they already do. No specialised training, no proprietary platform, no jargon to translate.

Outplacement providers and wellness platforms use the catalogue as extra material for the people moving through their programmes. The catalogue does not replace what these organisations offer. It adds another layer the person can take home, share with a partner or a parent, and apply when the next decision arrives.

How we can share it

The catalogue itself is public, written for anyone to read. When organisations want to bring it to their people in a more structured way, we work out the format together.

Some examples of how we can share it:

  • A reading list curated for a specific moment, like redundancy, parental leave or retirement, sent to your people through your existing channels
  • A short session, 30 to 60 minutes, walking through the patterns most relevant to your audience
  • A workshop or workbook designed around your audience, whether that is employees, students, members or families
  • Co-branded entries from the catalogue, shared inside your organisation alongside what you already do
  • A regular feed of new decisions integrated into your wellbeing platform, learning system or internal communications

The point is not to add another thing to your stack. It is to bring something simple and useful to the people you support, in the format that fits what you already do.