PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial socialisation experiences, socio-economic factors, demographic characteristics and the financial knowledge of first year undergraduate students.Design/methodology/approachUsing a questionnaire, data were collected from a sample of 450 first year university students from both private and public universities. A multivariate regression method was adopted to examine the influence of financial socialisation among respondents of different ethnic groups and their social backgrounds on the individual's financial knowledge.FindingsThe findings indicate that: firstly, financial knowledge is low among first-year university students in Sarawak. Secondly, male respondents outperform female counterparts in terms of financial knowledge. Thirdly, parental financial socialisation remains the main source of financial knowledge among the students. Fourthly, there are significant differences in financial knowledge across ethnic groups.Research limitations/implicationsIt is paramount to implement financial education programmes to elevate the financial literacy for both youth and parents since parents remain the primary source of financial socialisation for young adults.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that financial knowledge varies according to gender and ethnicity. Hence, financial education programmes should be designed to accommodate the differences between groups based on ethnicity and gender to achieve the best outcome.Originality/valueThis is the first study that draws a representative sample of university students in Sarawak that examines the effects of ethnicity, gender and parental financial socialisation on financial knowledge among first year university students.

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In accordance with United Nations’ sustainable development goal in achieving gender equality and to empower all women and girls, this paper investigates gender equality and power in marital relationship. Using Resource Theory of Power as a conceptual framework, this paper examines the distribution of marital power among married couples. More specifically, this paper examines to what extent do married couples use money as a bargaining tool to negotiate for more control in two areas: (1) managing economic resources and (2) household decision making. Forty married couples from urban Sarawak were located and interviewed. Results indicate that apart from money, marital power is affected by more influential factors such as ideologies and religious teachings. Consequently, having more money does not necessarily mean having more control over the decision making as decision making in a marriage is often guided by prescribed gender roles in accordance to one’s ideologies, cultural and religious teachings. Hence, gender equality in the management of economic resources and decision making within a household can only occur when an increase in women’s resources is combined with changes in gender roles and ideologies.