I turned my financial dreams into ( virtual) reality
Headset shows the life you COULD have... if you save enough
I’M standing in front of an imposing black superyacht and deciding whether to make a purchase – or plump for the rather pretty sailing boat I’ve just viewed.
Earlier on, I toured a high-spec, two-storey home worth £700,000, with a brand new car sitting on the driveway – both of which I bought on the spot. And next I will choose my holiday – either on a private island or a luxury safari.
Have I won the lottery, you ask? No, sadly. I’m wearing a virtual reality headset and playing an investment game designed to show how financial planning could one day be...well, fun.
Using a handheld device and looking at the luxuries on screen before me, I point to those I want for my retirement. Then I invest imaginary money in a bid to boost the value of my pension pot to pay for them.
The game has been developed by digital consulting firm Synechron, and I’m testing it out in their London lab. The company hopes financial planners, banks and wealth management firms will one day adopt its technology to bring to life how much we all need to save to fund the lifestyles we want when we stop work.
The idea is that seeing your future – the nice house, flashy car and fancy holidays – might better motivate you to save for it. And instead of a dry chat over graphs and endless paperwork, advisers will be able to hand over a headset to their clients and show them what their future lives could look like.
Ben Musgrave, of Synechron, says: ‘The problem is that savers don’t save enough. And it’s hard for advisers to stress why this is important.’
A game tailored to more modest ambitions would be more realistic for me, but in the meantime I’m happy to play at being rich with a starting sum of $2 million (£1.57 million). I am tempted by the sailing boat as opposed to the ostentatious superyacht. And the £700,000 house I pick is one of the cheaper options.
Then the game begins. To afford my dreams I need to double my money to $4.8 million (£3.78 million) by 2033 – my fictional retirement date. I have to decide how to spread my play money across cash, shares in developed or emerging markets, gold, commodities, property and bonds. Faced with a table of options and using the hand-held device, I can slide a button up to increase funds allocated to one asset, but a button will slide down on others as a result.
I can amend my choices as I go. Soon it becomes obvious I need to slide the button down on cash and up on equities to reach my goals. Curve-ball questions flash up on screen, and I’m forced to make an investment decision affecting the value of my pot. Only a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is required.
My punt on Uber’s stock market flotation triggers a fall in value, but betting on a dip in the value of the euro boosts returns by 50 per cent. I say no to Bitcoin investments. By 2033, I have achieved just shy of 90 per cent of my goal. But it’s OK – I can sell the yacht.
Representing a lifestyle wildly beyond my reach means this game is unlikely to change my savings habits. If I could see a future reality more in step with my actual wealth, perhaps the results of playing the game would be harderhitting. But it is far more enjoyable than looking at a grim graph with predicted income and expenditure lines both curving the wrong way.
Other firms are working on similar ideas to make financial planning more exciting.
Software company Mesmerise has teamed up with financial research company Morningstar to develop a virtual reality experience for sustainable investing, which is growing in popularity.
Players fill out a questionnaire to determine how green and sustainable they want their investments to be. Their score is entered into a game, which sees investors donning a headset and standing in front of a 3D globe.
Using Morningstar’s data, the game shows the impact of their decisions on the world in front of them – for example, whether their selected fund or stock has a positive or negative impact on the landscape. At the end of the game, users get a sustainability ranking and a theoretical return on their investment.
Andrew Hawken, co-founder of Mesmerise, says: ‘You can envisage a future that brings to life the consequences of the financial decisions that you are making right now.’
Eventually, this type of technology will be commonplace. In the meantime, you can use the same principles without a virtual reality headset, says Svenja Keller, head of wealth planning at investment company Killik & Co.
She says: ‘Imagine a perfect day in your everyday life in as much detail as possible. Where would you live, what would you do when you get up in the morning? It’s a great way to motivate yourself to invest for the future.’