Inspiration The inspiration for this project came from the need for a more personalized and accessible retirement planning tool. Many people struggle with understanding how different savings and investment strategies impact their retirement readiness, especially when combining various retirement accounts like TRS, 403(b), and IRA. Our goal was to create an app that simplifies this process, providing tailored recommendations and projections to help users make informed financial decisions for a secure future.
What it does This application allows users to input their income, savings, retirement contributions, and monthly expenses. Based on these inputs, it calculates an estimated retirement fund, projects future growth, and compares it to a target fund needed for retirement. It provides tailored recommendations depending on the user’s investment strategy and savings approach. Users can also view a pie chart of their fund distribution and a line chart showing projected investment growth over time.
How we built it We built the application using Flask for the backend, handling data input, calculations, and secure storage of user information in an SQLite database. Flask-WTF and WTForms were used for form validation, ensuring accurate input. For the front end, we used HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for an interactive user experience, including visualizations powered by Chart.js for real-time feedback on retirement projections.
Challenges we ran into One challenge was accurately calculating retirement projections that adapt to different savings and investment profiles. Balancing various assumptions, such as growth rates and retirement years, required careful consideration. Additionally, we faced challenges in creating dynamic and responsive visualizations that effectively displayed complex financial data in a user-friendly way. Ensuring data security while handling sensitive financial information was also a key priority.
Accomplishments that we're proud of We’re proud of creating a comprehensive tool that addresses a real need for accessible retirement planning. The tailored recommendations, which adapt based on a user’s unique financial profile, add significant value. We’re also proud of the interactive visualizations that make financial projections and fund distributions easy to understand, turning complex financial data into actionable insights.
What we learned Throughout the project, we learned a great deal about financial modeling and the complexities of retirement planning. We also gained experience with Flask for web application development and learned how to integrate interactive data visualization with Chart.js. Additionally, working on this project reinforced the importance of security practices when handling financial data.
What's next for Untitled In the future, we plan to add more features, such as customizable growth rates and inflation adjustments, for more accurate projections. We also want to include additional account types, like Roth IRAs and 401(k)s, to expand our user base. Finally, implementing user authentication and cloud storage would make the application more secure and scalable, allowing users to save their progress and access their retirement plans from any device.
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