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I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us.
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- Dave Ramsey
I managed and participated in the overall process of the project from user research, defining, ideation, wireframe, and UI of the product
Cheonhyun Park, Chi-Ching Tsai
76% of millennials lack "basic" financial knowledge. And many other statistics show that they are struggling with their financial status. Our initial assumption was that there is not sufficient source for students to learn financial knowledge. However, we found that their current lack of knowledge is not due to a lack of resources, as these students have many educational resources at their disposal. Based on our interviews and field research, college students do not feel the need to learn basic finance. They don't know what their goals are tied to having a solid plan for their finances. Motiv shows them how they can achieve their goals by adhering to a financial plan, gives them a tool to help students bring their aspiration life goals close enough to catch.
• 45% of students regret taking out as much loan as they did
• 70%of millennials are stressed and anxious about saving for retirement
• Students who graduated from college in 2015 will have to delay retirement for nine years to pay their debt
• 76% of millennials lack "basic" financial knowledge
Based on the desk research, it seemed like millennials the current situation of the US millennials is not well educated on financial knowledge. They are anxious about how to manage their assets and don't know how to plan their financial plans for their future life.
We interviewed five students, two financial advisors, and one private banker. According to the interview, we find out the gap between financial advisors and students about how they perceive millennials' financial knowledge. Experts are claiming that most of the students who visit them have solid financial knowledge. Still, every student we interviewed felt frustrating when they have to make financial decisions, and they all think financial knowledge and plan are important, but none of the students learned finance either at school or by themselves.
My teammate and I wrote down intriguing facts from the interview, put them on the wall, clustered to a similar subject, and defined it into eight definitions. The major insight was, for college students, their everyday life happens in the same place and a similar schedule. And for the financial part, all they have to manage is their monthly allowance. Therefore, students don't need to learn basic finance and take away their motivations.
We decided to focus and ideate on three insights below based on the priority map.
College students don’t have motivations to learn
Every day, college is the same. Same curriculum, same restaurants, same assignment, and so on. All they need to live is the monthly allowance they get from their family which leads them only to care about their monthly spending fees.
College students are afraid of financial institutes
They are afraid of asking for a consultation with financial institutions. Students think financial institutions are unwelcoming and strict. They prefer to take care of everything online and doesn’t prefer to go to financial institutes.
Most of the college students have their aspirational lifestyle, not the financial plan related to it.
Each of them has a desired lifestyle, but they don’t think that their goals are closely related to their financial plan. They are only focused on their dreams but do not have any plans or budgets in place to help them reach them.
The current financial education program follow the process of Informing, Educating, and conversion. But Motiv focuses on intriguing and engaging students to introduce them to financial topics and gain a motivation to learn about basic finance.
There are many ways that students may first engage with Motiv - but all lead to the Motiv application
How do the students get intrigued?
1. It engages college students without mentioning finance
2. Motiv continuously adjusts to show financial consequences in long term
3. Students can contact financial representatives
What is the benefit for the financial institution?
1. Build foundation trust with students
2. Break stereotypes of financial institutions
3. Gathers datas and contacts them in a set amount of time
There are 17 million undergraduate students in the US. According to Granum law, for every ten contacts our financial representatives speak to, they will deliver three financial plans, one of which will convert into a paying client. Based on this number, if we also get 1% of current college students to join as customers, we would have 170,000 customers when we first launch. Motiv will help financial institutions add younger loyal customers by introducing them to the institute as a trustworthy and reliable partner.
