FOUNDER PERSPECTIVE
A Financial Picture Should Be More Than a Number
The same balance can lead to very different questions.
By Brian Holman · Founder & CEO, Dezota LLC
A number is an appealing place to begin a financial conversation. It is concise, easy to compare, and seems to offer a clear answer. How much have I saved? What is my account worth? How much will I need? Those are reasonable questions. But I am increasingly interested in what happens after the number appears on the screen. Does it help someone understand their circumstances, or does it leave them trying to decide whether they should feel reassured or worried?
Imagine two people looking at the same account balance. One expects to keep working for many years; the other is preparing to leave a career. One has obligations that are fairly predictable; the other is helping a family member through a period of uncertainty. The number is identical, but the questions surrounding it are different. A useful financial picture needs room for that context. It should help people connect what they have with what they are trying to understand about their lives.
That is why a headline announcing how much everyone needs to retire can be compelling without being particularly useful to a particular reader. It may introduce an important conversation, but the amount alone cannot settle it. What circumstances does it assume? What period does it describe? What has been included or left out? A comparison becomes more meaningful when we understand its boundaries. Without that context, we can mistake someone else’s starting point for a verdict on our own progress.
I see a related challenge in product design. A single prominent figure gives a screen a sense of order. It can also carry more authority than the information behind it deserves. The design question is how to make the overview approachable while leaving a clear path to the details that matter. Someone should be able to begin with a simple question and then explore further without having to become an expert in every term along the way.
Even the question “Am I moving forward?” deserves some care. A balance may change because money was added, money was withdrawn, or the value of an investment changed. Understanding which of those occurred helps someone decide what to ask next. More detail is useful when it explains something; adding another chart merely because the data allows it can make the picture harder to read. I want us to judge a product by the understanding it supports, including whether someone can recognize what remains uncertain.
This is part of the purpose taking shape in WealthProof. We are developing a way to help people examine their financial information with more context and a clearer sense of its limits. The judgments about priorities, tradeoffs, and what constitutes a good life remain personal. Technology can help someone prepare for those decisions and for conversations with qualified professionals. A worthwhile outcome is a person who leaves the screen better able to explain their situation—and better prepared to ask a question that matters to them.