Team Name:
Solitude
Team Members:
Solitude
BudgetMate is a personal finance management tool designed for New Zealanders, empowering them to take control of their financial future. By analyzing public datasets and utilizing AI, it provides users with insights that shift their financial behavior from reactive to proactive.
Many New Zealanders struggle with better financial management due to a lack of financial literacy and the non-availability of effective tools. The goal of BudgetMate is to create a user-friendly solution that helps individuals:
The following are the core features of BudgetMate:
Financial Personality Analysis: This tool helps users understand their financial behavior based on their spending, saving, and investment patterns. The tool uses public datasets combined with user-specific financial data to provide tailored insights.
BudgetMate offers custom reports that provide detailed insights into a user’s financial behavior over time. These reports help users track their financial progress and make informed decisions.
The AI-powered Smart Financial Advisor provides real-time advice on budgeting, saving, and spending based on the user’s financial personality and open data sources.
The application calculates a Financial Health Score to give users an easy-to-understand overview of their financial well-being. This score is updated regularly based on spending habits, debt, and savings goals.
Real-time insights allow users to track their spending trends and savings goals in real-time, making budgeting and financial management simpler and more effective.
Through the Akahu API, BudgetMate allows users to connect their bank accounts and cards for automatic transaction imports, spending categorizations, and detailed financial analysis.
BudgetMate empowers New Zealanders by providing personalized financial advice and tools to help them make better financial decisions. Through the use of AI, real-time data, and insights, BudgetMate enables users to achieve financial security and long-term success.
<
Handling personal finance is an upward struggle in a country where the cost of living is very high, with the ratio of household debt to household income blowing out. The majority of New Zealanders consider it a huge challenge to monitor their spending, save regularly, or plan for the future. In fact, Stats NZ reported that the national household savings rate remains low, and many households carry high levels of debt compared to their income.
However, the problem for many Kiwis isn't not having enough money; rather, it's a lack of the right tools to manage what little they have effectively. They need help in understanding where money goes and what they can do towards financial security.
BudgetMate was built to give Kiwis the power by providing them with tools to take control of their finances. The app uses open public datasets and real-time data to offer personalized insights into spending behavior.
One of the greatest mysteries for Kiwis is knowing where their money goes. According to data on consumer spending from Stats NZ, the majority of spending by New Zealanders falls into discretionary categories like dining out or entertainment.
John lives in Wellington and decides to connect his bank accounts to BudgetMate using the Akahu API. Within minutes, BudgetMate classifies his transactions and generates a spending breakdown for the past month:
John immediately notices that he overspends on dining out. BudgetMate recommends reducing dining expenses by 20%, potentially saving him $70 per month.
Through AI-driven analysis, BudgetMate determines the user's financial personality, helping them understand their behavior with money. Most Kiwis fall into categories like "spenders," "savers," or "investors."
BudgetMate identifies John as a "spender" based on his spending patterns. His spending-to-saving ratio is too high: he spends a large percentage of his income on unnecessary items and saves only 10% of his monthly income.
The Smart Financial Advisor suggests that John should save at least 20% of his income and provides suggestions on cutting down expenses, such as reducing dining out and limiting online shopping.
After receiving personalized advice, John begins tracking his progress. BudgetMate continuously checks his transactions against his goals, adjusting its recommendations when necessary.
BudgetMate calculates John's Financial Health Score, based on saving rate, spending habits, and debt levels. Initially, he scores 65/100, but with room for improvement in saving and cutting discretionary spending.
After a few months of cutting discretionary spending and saving more, John's Financial Health Score improves to 85/100, putting him on the path to financial security.
BudgetMate uses public datasets to give more relevant, data-driven recommendations:
BudgetMate generates detailed reports to track financial health over time, including spending trends, savings progress, and debt reduction.
After six months, John runs a financial report showing:
Managing finances can be overwhelming, but BudgetMate keeps users motivated with real-time alerts and financial quests. John receives alerts when he nears his budget limits and earns achievement badges for reaching savings milestones.
In six months, John's financial habits transformed. He went from overspending to consistent saving and debt reduction. With personalized advice and real-time insights, BudgetMate empowered John to take control of his financial future.
Description of Use By giving the right tracker for CPI data, BudgetMate would enable users to continuously monitor prices of ordinary commodities and services and correctly advise them on how to deal with price increases.
Description of Use BudgetMate then gives an analytical view of income and spending by a user while comparing that against the nation's average. This will then allow it to provide the user with personalized suggestions on how to optimize spending in order to increase savings. For instance, it could highlight to users where exactly they are overspending in comparison with typical households in their bracket. Long-term financial planning: Through the use of expenditure data, BudgetMate can help users set long-term financial goals-for example, retirement savings or building an emergency fund-based on national income and savings trends.
Description of Use A) Cost-of-Living Adjustments: With the aid of this information, BudgetMate will be capable of analyzing and suggesting the most viable living cost adjustments at regional and national levels. For instance, if the living cost for groceries or housing increases in a particular category, the application will automatically detect this and inform the user of that fact, proposing ways of optimizing their expenses. B) Budget Planning: By leveraging insights from this dataset, BudgetMate will assist users in creating budgets that are realistic based on living costs and inflation.
Description of Use Benchmarking Financial Health: BudgetMate can use this information to benchmark users' financial behaviors, including saving rates and debt levels, against the national average. This will provide a clear understanding to the users about their actual standing. Savings Recommendations: Based on savings rates from this dataset, BudgetMate can let a user know how much they should save relative to their income and provide personalized advice in order to further improve their financial health.
Description of Use Calculation of Net Worth: With this information, BudgetMate can calculate users' net worth by pitting their personal assets-such as savings and investments-against liabilities like mortgages and debts. More so, it gives personalized advice on how one can reduce debt or increase assets, consequently leading the user towards a better financial health status. Debt Reduction Plans: BudgetMate allows the identification of the user's liabilities, such as credit card debt or loans, and may suggest ways to pay down high-interest debt. It provides ways to build net worth.
Description of Use Customized Housing Expense Management: Compare the users' housing expenses to the nation or regional average of rent or mortgage payments. BudgetMate can also provide recommendations on how to reduce their housing-related expenses or optimize their mortgage payments in relation to a user's income and job situation. Employment Analysis: Integrate employment data to gain employment trends and, subsequently, better support the users in the planning phase of a period of job uncertainty or to be financially prepared in case of unemployment.
Go to Challenge | 6 teams have entered this challenge.
