Inflector

Shocked by how much more expensive everything is since the last time you saw it? Look no further than Inflector! Inflector is a tool that uses live financial data to help you get on top of inflation.

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Inspiration

With 47% of Canadians living paycheck to paycheck (according to Bloomberg) and inflation at its highest point in decades, the pain of middle and lower-class Canadians cannot be understated. Young people, who are especially prone to rash spending, have discovered that the amount of goods you can get with your wallet last month is not the same as this month. To help the average citizen plan for inflation, we have developed Inflector!

What it does

The Inflector shows people how much their current monthly expenses will cost in upcoming months if current inflation rates hold. The user must enter their monthly expenses across eight categories (food, shelter, healthcare, etc.) and submit the results. Then, the user will be greeted with a graph that shows how much those same items they bought this past month will cost per month over the next 12 months at current inflation rates. The data is then compared to the Bank of Canada's target rate of 2% and monthly inflation rates. Moreover, the inflation rate data is pulled via an API in real time, keeping it updated and relevant.

How we built it

We used JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Bootstrap, Figma and the Inflation API from Ninja APIs to develop our website.

Challenges we ran into

Along the way, we faced many tough challenges. One large challenge was how we were going to get real-time inflation data that would automatically update for our calculations. At first, we tried web scraping and put several hours into developing and debugging the code. In the end, we found that it kept throwing errors, so we decided to try an API instead. The API came with its own challenges though, mainly that the inflation numbers after doing the calculations always ended up as a whole integer. After much debugging, we found that we needed to add an "async: false" to the code, to ensure the rest of the program didn't run before the API code finished executing. In the end, it took countless hours of hard work to incorporate a live API into our design but the rewarding website, in the end, was well worth it!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An accomplishment that we are especially proud of is adding live inflation data to our algorithm. We had to overcome many challenges to get there, including switching strategies halfway through. We never gave up though, and managed to get there in the end! Another accomplishment we are proud of is actually building a functional website in such little time. Our group had little to no prior hackathon experience, and it felt incredibly rewarding to learn so much and see our ideas come to light.

What we learned

Over the course of the hackathon, we learned so much. Firstly, we learned a ton of technical skills, from blockchain to web development to Figma. We also learned many soft skills as well, such as perseverance and the importance of communication.

What's next for Inflector

The next step for Inflector is to add even more real-time inflation data so the projections can become more accurate and the user can see more of them.

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