A friend told me a year ago that she wanted to save some money before investing in stocks. Eventually, I found out that she hadn't put into action yet and she said she couldn't save money. Digging a little deeper, her monthly income was spent on rent, food and some small satisfying consumption.
I am curious, is it a common issue among the younger generation?
Consumerism is guiding most of our behaviours, especially in the younger generations. Millennials are often referred to as the “instant-gratification generation,” with high expectations for their professional and personal lives. They are satisfied with rational or irrational consumptions and very used to consume in advance. Besides, financial products like credit cards and loans through electronic gadgets without thresholds accelerate these behaviours. It's not surprising that the liability ratio among younger generations is hitting a higher level.
Sadly, statistic about Millennials is that they are, on average, holding more debt than their forebears. According to a Statistics Canada resource, in 1999, young Gen-Xers had a 125% debt-to-income ratio, while Millennials in 2016 had a 216% debt-to-income ratio.
A recent survey conducted by Bank of America found that 73% of millennials are actively saving money and more than half (59%) have $15,000 or more in savings.
Generation Z have strong characteristics on their value, consumption view and consumption tendency.
After the research and interviews, it's not hard to find out that generation Z are more willing to spend money no matter if they earn it or loan it. From the money saving perspective, most of them don't have a clear plan on savings. Due to the lack of the overall perspective of their earning ability and spending habits, generation Z have no idea on the risk they might be facing in the future.
I believed that the younger generations won't build up a spending mind at the very beginning and we should look into the problem in a wider perspective. And human behaviour is highly affected by the environment. So, what turns our society into a spending-driven society?
The huge benefits of asset securitization have led to many capitals advocating consumerism
Business decision like planned obsolescence, custom-tailored production and advocating personalization are all creating demand, physically and mentally.
This refers to a single way of getting income, basically exchanging labor and time to money, and there are no other ancillary revenue. (Mainly in Asia)
Visualize the number can help user have a better understanding on their income
Organize one's assets and liabilities into one platform
One should have a better understanding on what they buy
Show what to be expected in the coming months and years, including income and debts
In order to test the usability of the mock-ups and the interactive prototype, I conducted 2 rounds of user testing. The testing group is highly overlap with the target users. The first round was tested with the paper prototype with 10 users and the second round with the interactive prototype with 12 users. The tests were focusing on 2 main areas:
1. How well the user understand the function without explanations
2. After telling the user what they should do, how soon they can finish it and how is the accuracy
MoneyPig is an app that aims to provide a convenient and clear service to users, for them to have a better understanding on their assets, debts, consumption habits and and risk resistance capacity. It's formed by four parts: assets to keep monitoring one'e assets and debts status; "de-risk" to test one's ability on pooling risk; community to provide extra information on financial suggestions or asset allocation; and profile to showcase the overall condition of the user.
