Inspiration
Financial literacy is unevenly distributed between classes. Unfortunately, many adults in the US lack basic understanding of economics. However, According to the National Education Association, "a full and honest financial curriculum can foster critical thinking and an understanding of the foundational causes of economic disparities based on race and gender." Educating our society is the first step towards closing the existing socio-economic gap, and DebtFreeMe aims to supplement this education by helping users practice basic saving habits with an easy and fun to use interface.
What it does
DebtFreeMe is a website that allows users to build essential money management skills. Users enter both their daily expenses and incomes and DebtFreeMe summarizes these transactions in easy to understand summaries and graphs. In addition, users can set financial goals, and DebtFreeMe encourages users to follow through with them using its interactive game. As players complete their goals, they can water their virtual plant, and watch their efforts grow into a money tree!
How we built it
First, we found the problem we wanted to solve. We then worked on designing a mock-up user interface and tried to base our code off the template. Of course, there were some changes as we went. We also decided on some primary features we wanted. Afterwards we programmed the website based on a to-do list we created during the planning process.
Challenges we ran into
It was difficult figuring out how to divide the programming tasks especially since none of us had ever cooperated on a project. In addition, figuring out how to make certain features work with each other such as the transactions showing up on the dashboard, was challenging. Implementing ai was also difficult as it was the first time we tried doing it.
What we learned
The overall project was a learning experience, we have minimal experience with hackathons, and we had to learn how to work on the project simultaneously. In addition, while we had experience with cs, we had to learn how to translate that into a project.
What's next for Debt Free Me
We hope to polish up the website and add more interactivity. We also hope to expand the ai functionality.
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