Financial Goal Tracking via Virtual Community Segmentation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional personal financial management systems are cumbersome and difficult to use, often intimidating for users, and lack effective mechanisms for setting and tracking financial goals, as well as facilitating peer-based financial engagement and comparison.

Innovation Solution

A computer-implemented method and system that associates users with financial goals and virtual communities of similar profiles, allowing progress tracking and comparison, with features like goal logic for setting and tracking goals, analysis logic for monitoring behavior, and guidance logic for providing advice and recommendations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If conventional personal financial management systems are used, then users can create budgets and track goals, but the systems are cumbersome and difficult to use

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebudget tracking capabilityVSAvoiduser interface simplicity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments users into virtual communities based on financial profiles and goals, breaking down the overwhelming task of personal financial management into smaller, community-supported steps. Users can see what others in their situation are doing, making the process more approachable and less daunting.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides continuous feedback by comparing user progress against peer performance within virtual communities. This social feedback mechanism motivates users to stick to their budgets and goals while keeping the interface simple through automated comparisons and notifications.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Adaptability or versatility

If users create detailed budgets and goals, then financial planning is more comprehensive, but users may be intimidated and neglect to follow through

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefinancial goal customizationVSAvoidgoal setting simplicity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by automatically creating virtual communities and assigning users to appropriate groups based on their financial profiles. This pre-organization reduces the burden on users, as they don't need to manually create detailed plans from scratch but can instead build upon community-established frameworks.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Users can customize their own budgets and goals within the structure provided by their virtual community, allowing them to adapt the system to their specific needs while maintaining simplicity. The community provides templates and examples that users can modify rather than creating everything from scratch.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Loss of information

If personal financial information is shared publicly, then peer-based comparison is enabled, but financial privacy concerns arise

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefinancial data sharingVSAvoidprivacy risk

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces virtual communities as intermediaries between individual users and public spaces. Financial information is shared within these controlled community environments rather than publicly, allowing peer comparison while maintaining privacy through community boundaries and anonymization techniques.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS11244406B1Personal financial planning and engagement with peer-based comparison

Publication Date: 2022.02.08 WELLS FARGO BANK NA

AI summary

A computer-implemented method for setting and tracking financial goals includes associating a user with a financial goal. The method also includes associating the user with a virtual community. The virtual community includes a number of users having similar financial profiles and similar financial goals. The method also includes tracking progress of the number of users of the virtual community towards their respective financial goals and providing to the user via a user interface a comparison of the user's progress towards the user's financial goal relative to the progress of the number of users of the virtual community towards their respective financial goals.