Fantastic Money: An Examination of Communicating Financial Literacy Through Fictional Storytelling

Personal finance is a popular publishing genre, yet there is little evidence to suggest its generic conventions have been critically examined. This gap presents an opportunity for creative writing practitioners to investigate how the conventions of personal finance literature might be adapted into fictional forms. This project addresses this gap through a practice-led analysis of selected personal finance texts and their generic conventions, alongside the development of a creative artefact that explores alternative approaches to personal finance storytelling. The project is situated within a context of low financial literacy among young Australians. Young people represent one of the few cohorts who consistently read and are the largest consumer group of young adult (YA) literature, suggesting YA fiction as a productive space for exploring financial concepts. Furthermore, the resurgence of cosy fiction, including cosy-fantasy, following the COVID-19 pandemic provides a relevant fictional mode for this project due to its emphasis on everyday stakes, community, comfort, vulnerability, and non-violent problem-solving. The creative artefact, Short Changed, explores financial concepts through character development and fintasy (fantasy combined with finance) worldbuilding rather than didactic instruction. Through the integration of creative practice and exegetical analysis, this research contributes to understanding how personal finance conventions can be transformed within fictional forms and how these approaches may engage young audiences with financial themes.