Deloitte x SVA
Learn, earn and bond
A family-centered financial literacy experience designed to help parents and children learn about money together, build healthy financial habits, set shared goals, and access expert guidance when needed.
The initial challenge explored how financial literacy could improve adult financial health. Research revealed, however, that healthy financial habits are not built simply by giving children more information. Parents strongly influence how children understand money, yet many parents feel uncertain about financial topics themselves.
Limited financial literacy can become a repeated habit across generations, not just an individual problem. Because of that, financial education needed to move beyond one-way information delivery and become an ongoing experience of conversation and action inside the family.
- —15-week project with a team of four designers
- —Conducted in-depth interviews to validate the core concept
- —Led user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototype creation
How might we introduce financial literacy to the education system to improve adult financial health?
Failure of financial health goes beyond the individual.
Financial literacy affects decisions throughout a person’s life, yet financial education often begins too late or remains disconnected from everyday behavior. Rather than teaching financial concepts in isolation, we began looking at how financial habits are formed at home, where children first observe, discuss, and experience decisions around money.
A stable society starts with financially stable individuals.
Financial stability contributes not only to individual wellbeing but also to stronger families and communities. Instead of treating financial education as a one-time lesson, we saw an opportunity to help people build healthier financial behaviors gradually through practice, conversation, and goal setting.
Money talk ≠ financial education.
Simply talking about money does not necessarily give children the knowledge or confidence to manage it. Financial education needs opportunities to learn, discuss, practice, and apply concepts in everyday situations. This shifted our focus from delivering information toward creating an environment where families could build financial habits together.
- —What have people previously learned about finance?
- —Where do they currently get financial information?
- —What makes financial topics difficult to understand?
- —How comfortable are families discussing money?
- —What role do parents play in children’s financial behavior?
- —What would help people build healthier financial habits?
Parents are lost too.
Parents frequently struggle to discuss finances with their children because they are unsure where to begin or have limited confidence in their own financial knowledge. Parents strongly influence their children’s financial habits, yet they may not feel equipped to teach those habits. Instead of designing financial education exclusively for children, we began exploring how parents and children could learn together.
Everyone wants a stable financial future.
Finance is often perceived as difficult and complex, which can make people hesitant to engage with it. Yet our research showed a common motivation across participants: people want greater financial stability for themselves and their families. This reframed financial education from something intimidating and technical into something connected to a universal aspiration—a more secure future.
How might we encourage generational learning at home to foster good financial habits?
Build a product that helps parents and children build healthy financial habits together.
Rather than designing another financial education app for an individual learner, we wanted to create a shared environment where families could learn together, plan together, and ask for help together.
Encourage long-term practice that helps healthy financial behaviors become part of everyday life.
Educate parents and children together instead of expecting parents to already have all the answers.
Turn abstract financial concepts into achievable short- and long-term family goals.
Give families access to trustworthy professional guidance when financial questions become too complex to navigate alone.
As children grow, financial independence increases while direct parental involvement decreases.
Instead of parents controlling every financial decision, the experience should help children progressively build the knowledge and confidence to make decisions themselves. The parent’s role evolves from manager to learning partner to supporter, while the child develops from learner to participant to independent decision-maker.
Learn together and start financial conversations.
Parents and children learn financial concepts together and use shared content to start conversations about money. The experience creates a learning environment for the whole family while giving parents useful conversation starters for continuing financial education outside the app.
Turn learning into shared goals and action.
Parents and children work together to set short- and long-term financial goals. Planning gives children practical experience with saving and money management while helping families establish healthier financial habits over time.
Connect with trusted experts when families need more guidance.
Families can access financial professionals when they need more reliable or sophisticated guidance. Expert involvement provides trustworthy financial knowledge and another source of support for questions that cannot be answered through educational content alone.
I entered the project without deep financial expertise, which put me closer to the perspective of many participants. That helped me understand how intimidating financial topics can feel and strengthened my empathy for people facing similar uncertainty. This connection helped us uncover meaningful pain points and shape the project direction.
Our early case study documented nearly every research and development activity. While comprehensive, it made the larger story difficult to understand. Through iteration, I learned to prioritize the insights that directly influenced the product rather than showing every step of the process.
The final concept was organized around three connected behaviors: Co-learn, Co-plan, and Collaborate—helping families learn together, turn learning into goals, and access professional support when needed.
Reframed financial education from an individual learning task into an intergenerational experience of learning, planning, and practicing together.