Financial Snapshot in Morning Brief

A glanceable card that appears in the daily brief showing account balances, upcoming bills, and any budget concerns worth knowing about.

💰 Money Pulse

Synced 6 min ago

📋 This Week

🏠
Mortgage auto-pay ($2,340) scheduled for Thursday
⚡
Electric bill ($187) is 23% higher than usual - might be the heater
🎯
Dining budget at 72% with 8 days left - $84 remaining
💡

Design Rationale

The financial card appears only when there's something worth knowing - upcoming bills, budget alerts, or unusual activity. On quiet weeks, it can be collapsed or omitted entirely. We show aggregate balances, not transactions - the goal is awareness, not anxiety.

Budget Alert States

Different alert levels depending on what's happening with spending and bills.

⚠️ Budget Warning

Needs attention
🛒
Groceries budget at 92%
You've spent $460 of your $500 budget with 12 days left. At this pace, you'll exceed by ~$180.
Adjust budget Show spending Got it

🚨 Budget Exceeded

Over budget
🍽️
Dining out exceeded by $127
You've spent $427 against a $300 monthly budget. That anniversary dinner was worth it though!
Adjust for next month Rebalance from savings

✨ On Track

Looking good
💪
All budgets healthy this month
You're on track across all categories. If this continues, you'll have ~$340 extra for savings or fun money.

Account Balance Questions

Simple, direct questions about current account balances.

M
How much is in checking right now?
U
Your Chase checking has $4,827.43 as of this morning.
🏦
Chase Checking ****4821
Synced 23 min ago
$4,827.43
+$1,240 since your paycheck Friday
Pending: -$67.23 (Amazon)
Just now
M
And the savings?
U
Your Ally savings has $12,450.00.
🐷
Ally Savings ****7832
Emergency Fund
$12,450.00
You're at 83% of your $15,000 goal
At your current pace, you'll hit it in ~4 months
🎯

Quick Responses

Balance questions are answered immediately with cached data (synced via Plaid). We show the account nickname they'll recognize and add context like recent changes or goal progress.

Spending Questions

Questions about spending patterns, categories, and trends.

M
How much did we spend on groceries this month?
U
You've spent $487 on groceries so far this month.
🛒 Groceries - January
$487 / $600
81% of budget used with 11 days left
Biggest trip: Costco ($156) on Jan 4
That's about $35 more than this time last month, mostly from the Costco run.
M
What about compared to last year?
U
Your grocery spending is up about 12% compared to January last year.
📊 Year-over-Year
Jan 2025 $487 (so far)
Jan 2024 $524 (full month)
Monthly avg 2024 $498
Grocery inflation has been about 8-10% nationally, so you're actually doing pretty well.

Bill Questions

Questions about recurring bills, due dates, and amounts.

M
What's our mortgage payment?
U
Your mortgage is $2,340/month, due on the 1st.
🏠
Wells Fargo Mortgage
Auto-pay enabled
Monthly Payment
$2,340.00
Next Due
Feb 1
It auto-pays from checking. You've had this amount since you refinanced in 2023.
M
What bills are coming up this week?
U
Three bills coming up:
⚡ PG&E Electric
Due Thursday, Jan 16
$187.43
💳 Chase Credit Card
Due Friday, Jan 17
$1,847.00
📺 Netflix
Due Saturday, Jan 18
$22.99
Total: $2,057.42. The electric bill is auto-pay, but you'll need to pay the credit card manually.

Family Account Questions

Questions about linked family member accounts (with their permission).

M
How much is in Lucas's savings account?
U
Lucas's savings has $847.50.
👦
Lucas's Savings
Chase Kids Savings ****2847
$847.50
Last deposit: $25 (allowance) on Jan 10
He's saved $125 since his birthday goal started
He's been pretty good about not touching it since setting that Nintendo Switch goal!
M
How much more until he can buy the Switch?
U
He needs $152.50 more for the Nintendo Switch ($999.99 with games).
🎮 Nintendo Switch Goal
$847 / $1,000
At $25/week allowance, he'll hit it in ~6 weeks (late February)
Want me to set a reminder for when he reaches the goal?
🔒

Family Access

Family account access requires explicit linking during setup. For minor children, the parent controls visibility. For spouses/partners, both parties must consent. Umber only shows what each person has permission to see.

Financial Context Store

What we store about your finances - metadata and patterns, not raw transactions. This is what enables Umber to give smart, contextual answers.

🏦

Account Profiles

Primary Checking Chase ****4821
Typical Balance Range $3,000 - $6,000
Payday Pattern Bi-weekly, Fridays
Avg Direct Deposit $2,847
📊

Spending Baselines

Monthly Groceries ~$520
Monthly Dining ~$280
Monthly Gas ~$180
Monthly Subscriptions $147
🏠

Fixed Bills

Mortgage $2,340 (1st)
Car Payment $487 (15th)
Car Insurance $142 (monthly)
Internet $79 (5th)
🎯

Goals & Budgets

Emergency Fund Goal $15,000
Monthly Savings Target $500
Dining Budget $300/mo
Fun Money Budget $200/mo
🔑

Key Principle: Metadata, Not Transactions

We don't store individual transactions - those stay in Plaid and are fetched on-demand. We store derived patterns and metadata: "you typically spend ~$520 on groceries" not "you bought milk at Safeway on Jan 3 for $4.29". This is more useful for the AI and better for privacy.

Derived Patterns

Patterns and insights computed from transaction history that help Umber give smarter advice.

💰 Income Patterns

Primary Income
$5,694/month
Bi-weekly deposits, typically Fridays
Side Income
~$400/month
Etsy shop, irregular timing

📈 Spending Trends

Groceries
$520 avg
+5% YoY
Dining
$280 avg
+18% YoY
Gas
$180 avg
-12% YoY
Subscriptions
$147 fixed
Stable

🔮 Predictive Insights

💡 Low Balance Warning
Based on your patterns, checking typically dips below $2,000 around the 28th-3rd. Mortgage ($2,340) hits on the 1st.
📊 Seasonal Pattern
Your spending typically increases 25-30% in November-December (holidays) and drops in January.
🎯 Goal Projection
At your current savings rate ($500/mo), you'll hit your $15K emergency fund in 5 months (June).

Technical Design

How the Financial Context Store works under the hood.

Architecture Overview

Financial Context Store Schema

// What we store per user (NOT transactions)

FinancialContext {
  accounts: [
    {
      id: "acc_chase_4821",
      nickname: "Primary Checking",
      type: "checking",
      typicalBalanceRange: { low: 3000, high: 6000 },
      lastKnownBalance: 4827.43,
      lastSynced: "2026-01-10T14:23:00Z"
    }
  ],

  incomePatterns: [
    {
      source: "ACME Corp",
      frequency: "biweekly",
      typicalAmount: 2847,
      typicalDay: "friday",
      nextExpected: "2026-01-17"
    }
  ],

  recurringBills: [
    {
      name: "Mortgage",
      payee: "Wells Fargo",
      amount: 2340,
      dueDay: 1,
      autoPay: true,
      category: "housing"
    }
  ],

  spendingBaselines: {
    groceries: { monthly: 520, trend: "+5%" },
    dining: { monthly: 280, trend: "+18%" },
    gas: { monthly: 180, trend: "-12%" }
  },

  budgets: [
    { category: "dining", limit: 300, period: "monthly" }
  ],

  goals: [
    {
      name: "Emergency Fund",
      target: 15000,
      current: 12450,
      monthlyContribution: 500
    }
  ]
}

Data Flow

1
Plaid Sync (Nightly)
Fetch new transactions via delta cursor, update account balances
2
Pattern Extraction
Analyze transactions to update baselines, detect bills, identify trends
3
Context Store Update
Write derived patterns to DynamoDB, discard raw transaction data
4
Agent Query
Finance agent reads context store to answer user questions
🔐

Privacy by Design

Raw transactions are processed and discarded. We only keep aggregated patterns. If a user asks "what did I buy at Target last week?", we fetch on-demand from Plaid, answer the question, and don't persist the individual transactions.