Why do so many capable women feel confident running businesses, raising families and managing careers, yet lose that confidence when the conversation turns to money?

Tracey Sofra did not start her career thinking she would spend her life empowering women financially. It evolved over time. She started her career as an accountant and moved into financial planning, and over more than 30 years she began noticing the same thing again and again.

She would meet incredibly capable women, women running businesses, raising families, managing careers and holding everything together, who would suddenly lose confidence when the conversation turned to money.

And she kept thinking, why? Why were women so capable in every other area of their lives, yet so many did not believe they could understand money?

That question has really determined Tracey’s life’s work.

Because money is not just money. Money gives women choices. It gives them security. It gives them the ability to leave something that is not right, rebuild when life changes, help their children, retire with dignity and ultimately live life on their own terms.

For Tracey, that is what financial freedom has always been about: choice.

A Changing Relationship with Money

After more than three decades in financial services, Tracey has witnessed a significant change in the way Australian women approach their finances. Women today are increasingly taking an active interest in understanding the decisions that shape their financial futures, a shift she sees as both necessary and encouraging.

“The biggest change is that women are finally saying, ‘I want to understand this for myself.’ And I love that,” she says.

When she started in the industry, financial decisions were much more likely to be delegated. Today, women want to understand their super, their investments, their cash flow and their retirement. They want to participate in the conversation.

Yet alongside this growing willingness to engage, Tracey continues to encounter a surprising lack of self-belief. She has sat opposite women who are enormously successful and capable, only to hear them say, “Tracey, I’m hopeless with money.”

Her response is immediate: “No, you’re not. Nobody taught you.”

For Tracey, the distinction matters. She believes women need to stop interpreting “I haven’t learned this yet” as “I’m not capable of learning it.” That change in thinking is where financial confidence begins.

Where Financial Confidence Begins

The gap between financial knowledge and confidence is closely tied to how women have historically been encouraged to engage with money. Tracey sees this as one of the most important issues in her work because a lack of knowledge can easily become a belief that financial matters are simply beyond one’s ability.

“This is probably the subject I am most passionate about,” she explains. “I genuinely believe that our biggest challenge as women is often simply self-belief.”

For generations, many women were not encouraged to engage deeply with money, investing or wealth creation. When they do not immediately understand the terminology, Tracey says, they can interpret that as, “I’m not good at this.”

She wants to change that narrative.

Women do not need to know everything to become financially confident. They need to understand enough to ask good questions, recognise their choices and participate in their own decisions.

One of the most rewarding moments in her work, she says, is watching the language change from “I can’t do this” to “I understand this now.” That small shift can be incredibly powerful because once a woman starts trusting herself, her relationship with money changes. That belief in education as a pathway to confidence also shaped the creation of WOW Women.

Building a Community Around Financial Education

The idea behind WOW Women grew from Tracey’s recognition that information alone could not address the barriers many women faced around money. Women also needed education, conversation, encouragement and a community where asking financial questions felt completely normal.

WOW Women teaches the foundations of financial wellbeing, including cash flow, investing concepts, wealth protection and how the different pieces of a person’s financial life fit together. Tracey is careful to distinguish financial education from personal financial advice, with individual advice remaining within the appropriate professional advice process.

The deeper purpose, however, lies in the community itself.

Women discover that they are not the only ones who have felt overwhelmed, started late, experienced divorce or found themselves at a financial crossroads. That shared experience can make conversations about money feel less intimidating.

Tracey does not tell women what financial decisions to make. She teaches them how to become more informed and confident in making decisions about their future.

For her, that individual confidence has consequences well beyond one person’s financial circumstances. It connects directly to economic equality.

Financial Confidence as Economic Empowerment

Tracey’s work with women’s financial education also connects to the broader question of economic equality and the UN Sustainability Goals. She sees a direct relationship between financial capability and a woman’s ability to exercise genuine choice over her life.

“For me, the connection is incredibly clear,” she says. “You cannot really talk about women’s equality without talking about women’s economic empowerment.”

A woman who has financial capability has choices. She is better equipped to participate in decisions about her future, prepare for retirement, understand her financial position and navigate life’s inevitable changes.

The impact also extends beyond the individual.

“When you financially educate one woman, you rarely educate only one woman,” Tracey explains.

She sees that woman speaking differently to her daughter, her son, her girlfriends and her colleagues. She starts asking different questions, and those conversations can carry financial confidence into the next generation.

For Tracey, financial education is therefore about more than creating wealth. It is about creating agency, choice and freedom. That broader purpose has also shaped how she views recognition and leadership throughout her career.

Leadership Beyond the Awards

Recognition from the industry has marked important moments in Tracey’s career. Winning Financial Planner of the Year was an incredibly proud and humbling experience, as was being recognised as a finalist for Female Excellence in Advice.

Yet she has never wanted an award to define her.

“What matters is what you do when nobody is giving you an award,” she says.

For Tracey, leadership is not about perfection. It is about integrity, having the courage to stand for something, making difficult decisions and being prepared to learn when things do not go perfectly. It also means remembering why the work began in the first place.

After more than three decades, she remains deeply passionate about financial education because she can still sit opposite one woman and see the moment something changes for her.

“That’s worth more to me than any trophy,” she says. That focus on meaningful change also informs the practical advice she gives women who feel overwhelmed by their finances.

Starting With Clarity

For someone overwhelmed by money, Tracey believes the first step should be deliberately simple. Before strategies, investments or long-term plans can be considered, a person needs to understand their current position.

“Find out where you are. That’s it,” she advises.

She recommends sitting down with a cup of coffee, taking out a piece of paper and writing down four things: what you own, what you owe, what you earn and what you spend.

There should be no judgement attached to the exercise.

Tracey knows women sometimes avoid looking at their finances because they are frightened of what they might find. Yet avoiding the numbers rarely makes the situation easier.

“I always say: clarity before strategy,” she says.

Once a woman knows where she is, she can begin making decisions about where she wants to go. Even that first piece of clarity can create confidence.

The importance of making financial information accessible is also reflected in Tracey’s work as an author and contributor.

Using Stories to Change the Conversation

Tracey has contributed to publications including Endless Possibilities and There Are No Limits, alongside the stories and perspectives of many people, including internationally recognised voices. Her own book, Finding Financial Freedom, carries a message that remains central to her work.

The book encourages readers to take responsibility for themselves and their financial future, while challenging the belief that past circumstances have to determine what comes next.

“Your past does not have to determine your financial future,” is the message Tracey wants women to remember.

She believes people can start again, learn, ask questions and make different choices.

Storytelling plays an important role in making that possible. Facts can educate, she says, but stories help people see themselves differently. She can explain compound interest, investing or retirement strategies, yet sometimes the thing that inspires someone to act is hearing about another woman who was frightened, overwhelmed or starting later in life and discovering a way forward.

“When we share our stories honestly, we remove shame,” Tracey says. “We make conversations about money human.”

For her, those stories can give another person the courage to write a different next chapter. That human connection remains central to her work, whether she is speaking to hundreds of people or sitting across the table from one client.

The Human Being Behind the Numbers

Public speaking and one-on-one financial advice may appear to demand very different skills. Tracey sees a common thread between the two: connection.

On stage, she may be speaking to hundreds of people, but she tries to speak as though she is talking to one woman who needs to hear the message.

A client conversation is quieter and deeply personal. Behind every spreadsheet and financial projection sits a human being asking much bigger questions: Am I going to be okay? Can I retire? Have I left it too late? What happens if life changes?

Numbers matter enormously, but Tracey believes they exist to serve people’s lives.

Whether she is holding a microphone or sitting across a desk, her responsibility remains the same: to listen, communicate clearly and help people feel more capable of facing their financial future. That perspective also shapes how she approaches one of the most common financial mistakes she sees among women.

The Cost of Waiting

For Tracey, the most damaging financial mistake women make is often not selecting the wrong investment. It is delaying action.

Women wait until they earn more, until their children leave home, until the mortgage is smaller, until a partner deals with it or until they finally feel confident enough to begin.

“Time is one of our greatest financial assets, and we can’t get it back,” she says.

Her advice extends to financial advisers as well. Serving women effectively begins with listening before trying to solve the problem.

Advisers should not assume what matters to a woman or overwhelm her with jargon. They need to understand her life, her concerns and what financial security actually means to her.

Trust develops when someone feels heard, respected and involved in the process.

As technology continues to reshape financial services, Tracey believes preserving that trust will become even more important.

The Future of Financial Planning

Tracey expects the next few years of financial planning in Australia to be defined by the intersection of technology and humanity. AI, automation and digital tools will change how efficiently information is analysed, communication is handled and services are delivered.

She sees considerable potential in that shift.

Technology, however, should give advisers more capacity to be human rather than make financial advice less personal.

People do not come to advisers simply for calculations. They arrive with uncertainty, competing priorities, relationships, fears and dreams. Technology can process information incredibly well, but trust still has to be earned.

Tracey believes the advisers who thrive will embrace innovation while becoming even better listeners, communicators and educators.

“The future isn’t technology versus human advice,” she says. “The opportunity is using technology to make high-quality human advice more accessible, responsive and meaningful.” Her own definition of success increasingly reflects this balance between business growth and human impact.

A Legacy Measured in Confidence

At this stage of her career, Tracey’s definition of success has evolved. She remains an entrepreneur who enjoys building successful businesses and creating new things, but the measure that matters most to her is impact.

She wants more women to understand their money, participate confidently in financial decisions and approach their futures from a position of knowledge rather than fear.

She particularly wants women in their forties, fifties and sixties who believe they have left it too late to realise that they have not.

She wants women who have always handed their finances to somebody else to become curious enough to ask their first question. She wants daughters to grow up hearing their mothers speak openly about investing, superannuation and financial independence. And she wants women to stop believing that wanting financial security or wealth somehow makes them selfish.

“Money gives women choices, and choices create freedom,” Tracey says.

For WOW Women, her vision is to continue building a movement where financial education becomes normal, accessible and empowering, particularly for women who feel they are starting late or rebuilding after life has not gone according to plan.

If she could change one thing in the industry, Tracey would want financial professionals to become better at reaching people before they reach crisis point by educating earlier, communicating more simply and making financial confidence something Australians develop throughout their lives.

When she eventually looks back at everything she has built, she does not want her legacy to be defined simply by the businesses she created, the awards she won or the stages she stood on.

She wants it to be measured by the women who decided to change their lives because, somewhere along the way, they finally realised:

“I can do this.”

“That’s success to me,” she says.