Design of a Rule-based Personal Finance Management System based on Financial Well-being

Abstract

Financial planning plays an important role in people’s lives. The recent COVID-19 outbreak has caused sudden unemployment for many people across the globe, leaving them with a financial crisis. Recent surveys indicate that financial matters continue as the leading cause of stress for employees. Further, many millennials overspend and make unfortunate financial decisions due to their incapability to manage their earnings, which forbids them from maintaining financial satisfaction. Financial well-being as defined by The American Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a state where one fully meets current and ongoing financial obligations, feels secure in their financial future, and is able to make choices to enjoy life. This work proposes a Personal Finance Management (PFM) system with a new architecture that aims to guide users to reach the state of financial well-being, as defined by CFPB. The proposed system consists of a rule-based system that provides users with actionable advice to make informed spending decisions and achieve their financial goals.