Project

Concrete Financial Sim

Concrete Financial Sim aims to anticipate probable outcomes of different decisions across time. Life consistently presents choices that require a rational balance between instant gratification and long-term consequences. Should I buy the sunglasses now or should I save? Should I buy a house, or should I rent a room? What if I do it next year instead of next month? Intertemporal components of choices complicate the decision-making process. The complexity comes not in just a one-to-one immediate tradeoff decision, but in its long-term implications. Based on one�s past financial behavior and current plans, we are designing a decision environment that visualizes the future values of present choices. The goal is to create a reality-based model that informs decision makers of their probable rewards and penalties over time, and will serve as a �cognitive prosthesis� for people to externalize their mental model of intertemporal choices.