Thinking One Step Ahead

It might not be our primary purpose, but a good part of our lives goes into simplifying all the aspects that we come to interact with on day-to-day basis. Identifying the right problems, and then answering them in the most creative and value-efficient way has probably been our biggest motivator to this date. Now, even though we, as humans, boast some phenomenal cognitive abilities, our success in the said regard had remained somewhat mix for a long time. We would be able to solve certain issues, but in terms of big structural questions, our track record showed nothing but a string of failures. This was, of course, before technology appeared on the scene. With such an ingenious creation in its corner, the world was able to go on a run, which saw us achieve defining transformations all over the board. Furthermore, the metamorphosis also brought many essential services closer to the consumer by making them easily accessible, thus creating the foundations for a heftier bottom line. One of the many areas where this vision has been realized to a tee would be the financial industry. In fact, the arrival of some modern day financial services has literally altered the core makeup of industry’s function, paving the way for a concept like fintech. Fintech is all about broadening the pool of opportunities, while keeping convenience at the heart of everything. A latest foray by one industry-giant does everything to back that up.

Greenlight, a start-up that popularized debit cards for kids and teens, is now turning its focus to parents, as the company recently shared the details about an upcoming investing platform. The platform is specifically designed to teach parents about how to productively research stocks and ETFs. It will work by asking the user to fill out a survey, which will gauge your investing time frame and risk tolerance. Once you have submitted the answers, you will get your tailored stock and ETF recommendations. It must be noted that the users are not required to fork out any cost outside of their monthly subscription, if they are to opt for this service.

Saving enough money to give their kids good education and other privileges can sometimes be a challenge for the parents. Greenlight aims to help these parents in setting up and managing brokerage accounts that they can use to conjure up a variety of benefits for their kids. Another fact worth a mention here is that the company will absorb all the expenses included in executing the trades, therefore keeping it financially feasible. During the announcement, Greenlight Co-founder and CEO, Tim Sheehan also made his intentions clear about not wanting to make the new platform a profit-generating model. He explained it by saying:

“We don’t want to gamify it; we’re really trying to teach people the right way to invest. I don’t want to ever be in the situation where it’s not clear how somebody is making money, or how they’re making money is questionable.”