I designed a way for first-time earners to plan every rupee and actually learn money along the way.
In this project, I designed Realise, a budgeting and money-learning app for young Indian earners. It splits your income with the 50/30/20 rule, shows how healthy your money is at a glance, and turns short, practical guides into goals you can act on straight away.
Young earners get their first salary with no plan for it
Budgeting apps assume you already know what an emergency fund, SIP or PPF is. Finance content lives on YouTube and Instagram, separate from your actual numbers.
So people track spending without knowing what “good” looks like, or learn the theory and never apply it.
One place that answers three questions every month:
- Where is my money going?
- Am I doing okay?
- What should I do next, and why?
Planner
Enter take-home pay and Realise splits it into Needs, Wants, Emergency, Debt and Savings, with editable limits, statement import and PDF export.
Money school
12 bite-sized guides that link straight back to your plan, e.g. “Add a ₹3,00,000 emergency fund to your plan”.
People track spending but can’t tell what’s healthy
[__ user interviews] with [first-time earners aged __–__] · [a survey of __ people] · competitive review of [Walnut, INDmoney, ET Money, Excel templates]
No benchmark
People track spending but have no way to tell whether it’s healthy.
Jargon stalls saving
SIP, liquid fund and 80C put people off, so they postpone saving.
Emergency fund skipped
The most skipped step, usually because people don’t know how much they need.
Nothing in their name
Many first-time earners, especially women, have no account or credit history of their own.
Manual entry kills budgets
Typing in every transaction is tedious, so budgets get abandoned.
“[Add a real participant quote]”
Two first-time earners with no one to explain the basics
[Name], 24
First job in [city] · ₹[60,000]/month take-home“I don’t know if I’m spending too much, because I have nothing to compare it to.”
GoalBuy a laptop and stop feeling broke by the 25th.
SituationPays rent and a phone EMI out of the same salary.
NeedsA simple benchmark, a goal with a date, very little data entry.
[Name], 29
Earning in her own name for the first time“[Add a real quote from your interviews]”
GoalBuild a safety net and start investing, but unsure where to begin.
FrustrationMost finance advice assumes she already knows the jargon.
NeedsPlain-language guides, a clear order of steps, and relevant schemes (Sukanya Samriddhi, Stand-Up India).
From anxious to in control, one month at a time
Get paid → spend → balance runs low mid-month → guilt → search “how to save money” → generic advice → nothing changes
Set up
Enter take-home pay. Auto-fill splits it 50/30/20 in 2 minutes.
Fill in
Add items, or import a bank statement CSV and tick the rows.
Understand
Each category shows its limit in plain words, plus a health score.
Act
One tip, one next step: move ₹2,000 from Wants, reach the goal ~9 months sooner.
Learn
Open the guide, calculate a personal target, “Add as goal”.
Repeat
Next month copies the last; progress carries over.
People don’t need more financial advice. They need advice that already knows their numbers.
Generic tips like “save 20%” don’t change behaviour because they aren’t personal. Worked out from your own budget — “your target is ₹3,00,000, and you’re 1.8 months in” — a tip becomes a task. So every learning surface connects to the planner, and every planner number links to an explanation.
[Back this up with a research finding or quote]Five principles, and the trade-offs behind them
- Benchmarks over bookkeepingEvery number is shown against a limit or target.
- Plain words, not jargon“At your limit — no room to add more.”
- One next stepOne tip at a time, not a wall of alerts.
- Learn → do in one tapGuides end in an action, not a dead end.
- Low effort inAuto-fill, statement import, months that copy forward.
50/30/20 by default, editable
A starting point for beginners; editing any limit turns Auto-fill off.
Emergency and Debt stand alone
The two habits that most affect financial health, not hidden under Needs.
Health score from four checks
Partial credit shows progress; “How is this calculated?” builds trust.
One savings goal at a time
Keeps focus; the app asks before replacing your current goal.
A planner that benchmarks every rupee, and a school that turns guides into goals
- “Where your ₹60,000 goes” allocation bar
- Category cards with limits and plain-word status
- Health ring scored on four checks
- Emergency fund, savings goal and projected savings
- CSV import, PDF export, autosave
- 12 guides across 7 topics, with a first-12-months roadmap
- Calculators that end in “Add as goal”
- Savings options compared on risk, returns and lock-in
Outcome: [__ of __ participants set up a budget in under 3 minutes]. Next: bank sync via Account Aggregator, multiple goals, more interactive guides.