pig.E

Inspiration

Becoming financially independent is both an exciting and intimidating experience. For many teens, young adults, and college students, getting a first job or gaining more financial freedom from their parents is a big achievement. However, it comes with responsibilities that can feel overwhelming. Even if money management is taught in school, the real-life experience of earning, spending, and saving is completely different. What a lot of young adults don’t realize is that the habits they build now shape their financial well-being for the future. Poor management is one of the largest causes of personal financial trouble, but taking initiative to save early on combats this!

What it does

pig.E —personal investment guide— is an interactive tool that helps young adults build healthy saving habits by turning everyday purchases into an easy opportunity to save. pig.E connects to the user’s bank account and provides two effortless and accessible options to grow their savings: round up to the nearest dollar and save the balance, or save a chosen percentage of what they spend. Each time the user saves, an animated piggy bank becomes visibly happier, giving the user instant positive feedback. This makes the process of saving rewarding and helps young adults build financial confidence.

How we built it

We built pig.E as a simple, web-based tool using HTML. We leveraged our past experience with HTML as well as AI tools (built into Visual Studio as well as Microsoft Copilot) to guide us in creating an interface with the features we wanted. After we had a successful base for our project, we read over the code to make sure there were no discrepancies. We then proceeded to add other features, like a specific bank-connect feature that was made secure by integrating Plaid into our HTML, and more elements that went with our theme.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we had different ideas about the layout and execution of pig.E. We had to pivot many times while coming up with the format of the website itself. After landing on an HTML format, the biggest challenge we ran into was connecting the cards/bank accounts. We wanted to make connecting your bank look more sophisticated and be more secure. In order to do this, we integrated Plaid into our HTML code, in order to make a smooth and secure connection when working with sensitive data.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of our ability to collaborate and come up with a creative website that can help students. Even though there was only one of us with more accelerated coding knowledge, we were able to successfully come together and produce a complex website that achieved our goal. We’re proud of our idea, and even though it didn’t turn out how we initially thought it would, we’re proud of the HTML website that we were able to create.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate several different technologies, such as Plaid, in order to solve a common problem not only among students, but also for anyone. As this was our first hackathon, we all learned how to code under pressure and work as a team. Even though we took COMP110, this was our first time applying coding knowledge.

What's next for pig.E

Next is a mobile app that allows you to use pig.E on the go! With this app, you’ll be able to link your debit/credit accounts to automatically update and save your purchase round-ups. We also want to include an analytics page that displays your biggest spending categories over the past month. This helps you discover areas in which you can save the most. Our ultimate goal is financial independence for our users, making saving and financial stability accessible to all.