RetireWell

💡 Inspiration

We were inspired by the growing crisis of financial insecurity among older adults—especially those from middle- and low-income backgrounds—who are approaching retirement without enough savings or a clear plan. This financial uncertainty often leads to anxiety, depression, and reduced access to healthcare. We saw an opportunity to create a human-centered solution that makes retirement planning tangible, empowering users to visualize and influence their future.

Our team focused on families facing both immediate financial obligations and long-term planning needs. We aimed to build a tool that not only supports individuals emotionally and practically, but also offers data insights to inform systemic improvements in retirement policy.

🧠 What It Does

Our platform is an AI-powered scenario planner designed to support aging adults in navigating their financial futures.
It allows users to:

Input income, savings, goals, and lifestyle choices
Visualize different retirement scenarios (e.g., job changes, asset sales, caregiving needs, location shifts)
Receive behavioral nudges and recommendations to adjust their plans
Understand the emotional and mental health implications of financial choices
Explore how policy changes (e.g., Medicare, Social Security) could affect them
Optionally connect to real financial data (bank, benefits) for personalized planning

The experience can be offered as an interactive platform—and in the future, as a VR program that shows users what their retirement might look like in different cities, lifestyles, and economic realities.

🛠️ How We Built It

We developed a prototype that combines financial modeling with behavioral design.
Core components include:

A scenario planning engine built with simple input/output logic and adjustable variables
Modular prompts for emotional well-being and financial stress check-ins
Personas that guide experience design: Sandra (caregiver), Carlos & Ana (young planners), George (self-employed)
A future-ready architecture designed for integration with Medicaid/Medicare systems
Policy implications and expansion strategies mapped for scalability

🚧 Challenges We Ran Into

Designing for users with limited digital literacy while maintaining rich, customizable features
Ensuring that the financial advice felt empowering—not overwhelming or fear-driven
Balancing policy-level ambition with product-level feasibility
Building a solution that is scalable but also deeply personal
Accounting for ethical concerns: data security, informed consent, equitable access

🏆 Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Creating a realistic, inclusive financial planning tool for underserved older adults
Designing a solution that integrates financial, emotional, and systemic dimensions
Developing a clear path for Medicaid/Medicare integration and public access (e.g., libraries, grocery stores)
Highlighting a policy-technology connection: using user data to inform better retirement policy

📚 What We Learned

Financial planning is deeply emotional—especially for aging populations and caregivers
Equity, simplicity, and agency must be embedded from the first wireframe to final output
Many users need permission to hope—to believe their future can be better with the right tools
Policy-level innovation must be grounded in clear, tangible user needs and data

🚀 What's Next for Elder Care Financial Health

Build a VR module that lets users “step into” retirement scenarios based on their current trajectory
Pilot the platform in partnership with a Medicaid provider or a community senior center
Expand planning tools to include younger users (40+) and gig workers
Integrate personality-based AI recommendations to match financial strategies to user preferences
Explore partnerships with government and private insurers to incorporate this tool into benefits packages
Continue to center ethics: informed consent, fear-free design, and true access for all income levels