Personal Finance 2.0

Finances are complicated. That's a given. I believe that things can be made easier. The following is an outline proposal aimed at just that.

The Finances Summary Page

This would be a web service sponsored by the state but run by the private sector overseen by the FSA.

The service would provide a monthly summary of your finances in one place. It will include any loans, Higher Purchase deals, bank accounts and credit cards. The summary would simply point out basic metrics that point towards good or bad financial management such as the amount of debt you have in short term unsecured debt, how costly that debt is and so on as well as the likelihood that you could make savings by changing the way your finances are geared and how substantial those savings are likely to be if you were to choose to do something about it.

The output should be simple. You see a summary of available cash, savings, debts and non-liquid assets and a red, yellow or green status that informs you of how healthy your financial situation is. If you see a red status you know that it is worth looking in to transferring debts, re-financing loans or taking up other options.

This financial dashboard would be the jumping off point for any and all changes to your financial status. It could be linked easily to official assistance programs as well as services offered by the private sector to help people. It may also inform people if they are missing the opportunity to make their money work harder by checking how much they are placing in ISA or other high yield savings accounts.

This service could be run at little cost and with few security concerns as account specific information is not held there. Link this to other context specific information such as the birth of a child or retirement and you have a wealth of possible benefits.