Building Lifetime Bonds

Recently, I’ve been trying to add consistency to my life. I’ve started going to bed the same time each night. I’ve set times in my day to stretch and take a walk. I’ve even made plans to see friends and family on a regular basis.

Consistency can be a powerful tool to improve one’s personal life. However, it is easy to leave your finances out of the equation, and it should be a place you start. Using technology and the tools available today, I can make financial plans that I wish I could have made decades ago when I couldn’t afford a financial planner. It makes me wonder if I had these tools in college or early in my career, how much better off would I be?

The future of financial planning isn’t someone in an office staring at a spreadsheet; it’s an automated system that engages and encourages consumers right from their smartphones, computers and smart speakers. An AI-powered financial planner with zero bias and isn’t looking out for its next commission check. This financial planner is looking out for you and helps improve your financial health at any stage of life.

BOND.AI’s Empathy Engine artificial intelligence suite does just that. It analyzes income, spending, financial relationships and much more to create paths to financial wellbeing throughout your stages in life.

The ol’ college try

College is tough, but there’s no reason someone entering college can’t start preparing for the future. While 23% of college students report having between $51 and $500 in their bank accounts, AI helps college students save as they prepare for careers and financial independence. Through personalized insights, The Empathy Engine nudges students to make smarter choices. As an example, it can remind them that making lunch at home is more affordable than a sandwich from the student union. Just because you’re in college, doesn’t mean you can’t start saving for retirement. In fact, through the power of compounding interest, investing $100 a month over 40 years can have huge returns versus an investor who waits until later in life.

BOND.AI’s Empathy Engine, helps college students with some beginner savings plans that could begin their investments. It automatically starts rounding up debit-card buys into investment accounts. Then helps find other opportunities like scholarships, work study positions or side jobs. A helpful AI financial assistant might even help college students from having to move back in with their parents after graduation.

Enter the workforce

After crossing the stage and tossing the mortarboard, it’s time to get a job. With a real paycheck, there can be a temptation to go crazy with spending. It’s time to start investing. Understanding the opportunity cost associated with day-to-day spending, as well as frivolous expenses can result in adding years at the end of a career before retirement.

According to cordcuttersnews.com, the average household spends about $47 a month on streaming services and the average consumer has about 3.7 subscriptions – streaming services, internet subscriptions, phone bills, etc. While some subscriptions are a necessary part of a modern lifestyle, the Empathy Engine offers suggestions on how to save on subscriptions and invest those savings properly.

Where can AI help at this stage of life? The average 25- to 34-year-old spends more than $2,000 a year at coffee shops! Most also admit spending more on coffee and beer than contributing to retirement funds. This is where BOND.AI encourage an individual to build savings and supply the insights to understand why saving is so important. It’s one thing to be told to save a certain percentage of your income, but it’s another thing to be shown how much that savings could grow if invested at the right time.

Mid-life, no crisis.

As a person moves through their career, there are many other changes in their life. Marriage, kids, home buying, and many more. These are things that a financial adviser would be very interested in because they can sell a consumer more products. Our Empathy Engine detects these life events automatically and suggests the same products, just without the fees. The coming banking era is one where either your bank is embedded in a consumer’s world via tech or it no longer exists.

A consumer might have a child and want to open an education-savings plan to prepare for their college needs. The average cost of in-state tuition at a public university in 2021 is about $11,631 a year and can be expected to rise. The earlier one starts saving for college, the easier it can be to raise the necessary funds. Education-savings plans are often tax-deferred, which can help them keep up with the rising cost of tuition and keep students from relying solely on student loans. These plans can even be used if an adult wants to go back to college to further their own education. BOND.AI’s Empathy Engine recommends this product and even manages the fund based on the needs of the benefactor. All of this can be done automatically without the fees.

The Golden Years

After a rewarding career, it’s time to relax and enjoy and nice retirement. Now how do you make those investment dollars last if possible? Let BOND.AI’s Empathy Engine do the hard work here and get rid of the financial advisor. Many financial advisors charge up to 1% of the account balance each year! For a fund of $1 million, that’s $10,000! That’s money lining someone else’s pockets. A fund managed by the Empathy Engine allows the account holder to retain more of their money, which would continue to grow in the market.

The trusted advisor

What does all of this mean to a financial institution like your local community bank? In many cases, they don’t offer every wealth management services, but provided Bond’s Empathy Engine can provide customers the valuable information and tools at any stage of life can build trust throughout the life of a customer. In community banks, personal bankers need to be the trusted financial advisor who offers products and services that help everyone’s needs without bias or putting the interests of the bank first. Trust in banks keeps dropping and AI tools like the Empathy Engine remove the guesswork for bankers to deliver those products efficiently and exactly when the consumer needs them. It doesn’t matter if they’re fresh out of high school or on the road to retirement, consumers want help managing their finances and banks are perfectly positioned to offer that aid at all stages of their lives.

Click here to schedule a free demo to see how BOND.AI can put this tool in your bank’s hands.

‍