Effective financial education is a critical problem worldwide and even more critical in developing countries. This research aimed to find an effective way to deliver financial education for university students in Indonesia. University students were chosen because they were in the last gate of formal education before officially becoming independent from their guardian. Previous research found mixed results in the impact of financial education. Some of them found positive and significant impact, while the others found the opposite. Some previous research was also trying to add another program that followed financial education to increase the impact, but they forgot to improve their financial education. This research aims to identify how to increase the impact of financial education. To reach this aim, this research is divided into three stages. The first stage aimed to identify the essential topics of financial education for a university student in Indonesia. To answer this question, mixed-method data collection was applied from three points of view to make it more comprehensive. We collected from an adult point of view, university student expectations, and financial advisors. Five main topics were identified to be critical for university students in Indonesia: financial planning, expense management, saving, debt, and investment. The second stage of this research was to identify an essential factor in improving financial education’s effectiveness. This research focused on developing financial education material. To identify an important factor in developing financial education material, literature review of previous studies was done focusing on evaluating the effectiveness of financial education. There were three critical factors to develop financial education materials. If we followed these three steps to develop financial education material, we could increase the impact of financial education. After the most critical factors were found to develop financial education materials, this research developed customised financial education as the third stage. The material is customised for university students in Indonesia. The customised financial education separated into four courses. Each meeting discusses specific financial topics: 1) financial planning, 2) expense management and saving, 3) investment, and 4) debt. Each meeting was two hours of lectures and discussions. To examine the customized financial education, this research tested the materials for university students in Indonesia as the last stage. 862 students participated in the four-week online course. At each meeting students discussed and learned financial education for 120 minutes. This research found that students who joined the customized financial education course that we developed had better financial planning and saving behaviour. They also found that they have higher investment and debt knowledge than the students who were in the control group who got conventional financial education. The effectiveness of financial education is a complex phenomenon, as it needs to be developed by locals as they understand the cultural value of the participants. As no one-size-fits-all financial education material could effectively improve participant behaviour, each country needs to develop its financial education material and curriculum based on its value. This research found that several factors are essential for the financial educator to develop their current curriculum. They must be aware that the material should be customized based on the participants’ needs, induce motivation to change behaviour, and teach them common financial decision bias could increase their effectiveness. Based on this research’s conclusion, financial educators and policymakers should consider evaluating and developing current financial education to increase its effectiveness. To change people's behaviour, they need more than information. For example, people know that saving is essential, but why do many people have no savings account? They need an explanation of the risk of have not saved an account, they also need to understand the benefit of having a saving account. They need motivation and reasoning to understand that issue. Motivation and reasoning will make the material stick to students’ memory longer than a conventional education that delivers only information to the students. Teaching practical cases, problem- solving, and honest stories could help students imagine what will happen to them soon if they make a bad and good financial decision. Giving students an easy example to replicate also helps them to shift their new knowledge into actual behaviour. All these factors are essential to increase the beneficial impact of financial education to the participants. Each profession might need a different approach and example in the material of financial education. For example, a government employee with fixed, regular income and a pension in their retirement age needs a different example and story with a seasonal farmer or sailor who has huge income in a certain period and loses their income in a low season/holiday period. If we need to teach them financial education, we cannot use one-size for all financial education, we should ask them, discuss with them, and develop together with them to make us feel how was their finances live, what is their main problem financially. Then we could develop material that could motivate them to change, materials fitting with their life.