A question for you: if an accountant asked you to share what your financial life is like, from debt and income to expenses and savings, how detailed could you be? If your answer is something like “uh, bird’s eye view at best?” then rest assured you’re in good company. A large majority of Americans experience financial stress and, honestly, don’t really know where it hurts or how to fix it.
About twenty years ago, my company began its long history of building web and software tools that have helped millions of people make critical decisions about their employee benefits, retirement investment money. With the release of our new product, Vivid Finance, we’re taking it personally.
Vivid is a personal finance tool that digs into your financial story to help you understand where you’ve been, where you are and, ultimately, where you might be headed. Depending on how each of those views look, Vivid helps educate and guide users toward an ideal, financially solid future.
When I say we’re taking it personally, I mean it.
We've self-funded Vivid, which means the last year has been a lean one financially for me personally. So when Vivid's early prototype first ran on my own finances, it did what a good advisor might, by giving it to me straight: "Ok, Craig, here's where you stand and here’s where you’re headed. There’s work to do, but there’s blue skies ahead." That was the moment I knew Vivid had a truthful but hopeful story to tell, and I was the first one to hear it. It made me proud to know its potential for possibly millions of other Americans.
For example, a twenty-three year old in the job market unknowingly pays exorbitant high interest fees each month on their credit card instead of using that same money to get their employer match on their 401k plan.
Or, consider a late-career professional edging toward sixty who has a noticeable but manageable gap to fill for their post-retirement income. How do all the pieces fit, and what are the cards left to play? Vivid Finance helps tell that story and, hopefully, help that soon-to-retire user have a financially sound chapter in retirement.
Where’s Vivid Finance fit in this world?
In the big wide world of consumer financial apps, there are budgeting tools, investment tools, and something called “financial wellness benefits.” That latter category is where Vivid Finance actually started out. Financial wellness, as it pertains to an employee benefit, is meant to help employees feel more secure in their personal financial realms. You can think of Vivid Finance as an amalgamation of all the above - with some caveats.
What we see is a big ol’ gap that needed filling. Most people don’t need investment management tools; another bank account or debit card; a website telling them how to better spend their already slim paychecks. Most of all, perhaps, people don’t have time to manage a budgeting tool they pay to manage their budgeting.
So here’s Vivid Finance’s pitch: everyone has a financial story, but most have never read theirs. It’s there for the reading though and, as the saying goes, with knowledge comes power. Vivid Finance shows you your personal financial story, and helps you to see, and ultimately create, more impactful next chapters (and retirement!).
Vivid Finance is simple but powerful in a few unique ways:
- Connect and view ALL of your financial accounts and transactions in one place. Search, filter, organize, report on, and receive alerts about any transaction - from credit cards, to bank statements, payroll and retirement/brokerage accounts.
- See where your financial health has been and where it’s forecasted to go, based on YOUR personal financial history. Real data, real forecasts.
- Vivid Finance gives you one primary focus at a time. No budgeting envelopes, no brow beating. As you quantitatively progress in a particular area of your financial well being (high interest debt paydown, for example) Vivid transitions you to the next area to focus on.
- Vivid Finance has a personalized, AI-powered coach to answer questions, dig into data like travel expenses, and give you top-level briefs on how things are going in your financial story. Always on, always ready to help.
What Vivid Finance isn’t.
We built a product that meets users where they are, but requires those same users to be involved decision makers. After all, it’s your money. In that regard, here are the guardrails we baked in:
- Vivid never touches your money - no transfers or trades; no withdrawals or payments, etc.
- Vivid doesn’t take the place of a certified financial planner. They’re the ones with the degree, and any CFA worth their salt will be thrilled to work with someone fluent in their personal financial story.
- Vivid Finance is the product. You pay for it (after a free 30 days to try it!). There are no product upsells or phone calls from financial service providers. Vivid Finance is made for you.
- Vivid isn’t run by AI. Where it’s useful, we use machine learning and LLMs to complement the product’s value for you. Like a real brick and mortar bank, we want Vivid to be a (digital) place that isn’t an amorphous or transient experience for our customers.
- Vivid Finance takes your privacy and security seriously. We built the product on the backbones of regulated companies like Plaid, Quiltt, and Finicity (Mastercard). Vivid doesn’t know or store your account numbers or passwords. Your data is your data, and not sold or distributed outside of Vivid Finance and the providers we use to deliver a fast, secure and insightful experience.
Ready to learn your financial story?
We’re excited to release Vivid Finance soon. We’re doing so carefully and slowly at first. If you’re interested in giving it a free thirty day test run, please sign up on our waitlist. We’ll keep you updated over the coming weeks and notify you when Vivid’s door is open to welcome you.
Finally, I want to share my love of the Vivid Finance motto which my coworker Dee Byrne created last fall. It speaks to our true aspirations with Vivid - helping you build your long term financial wellbeing:
Vivid. Let’s build your financial story.