An Internet based user controlled aspirational savings social network system (100) comprising:
- at least one hardware server (113) comprising at least one computer processor upon which is stored a host electronic network platform (110) configured to host individual accounts (112) for a plurality of individual platform users (114), wherein each individual account (112) is assigned as aspirational goal (116) of goods and/or services by the account user (114), wherein the goods and services of the goal (116) are available from merchants (142) who have individual access (140) to the host electronic network platform (110), and wherein the host electronic network platform (110) develops, modifies, and monitors a savings plan (118) associated with each individual account (112);
- an aspirational goal authoring tool (120) on the host electronic network platform (110) that is housed on at least one server (113), wherein the aspirational authoring tool (120) is accessible by the individual platform users (114) on the Internet via the user's own electronic devices, wherein the aspirational authoring tool (120) includes at least one predefined category (122) of prospective aspirational goods and services to assist the user in assigning a goal (116) and wherein the aspirational authoring tool (120) is configured to assist individual platform users (114) in discovery and articulation of specific aspirational goals (116) to be assigned to each individual account of the user (114) by receiving inputs from the merchants (142) regarding prospective aspirational goods and services from third parties regarding prospective aspirational goods and services, and wherein the aspirational authoring tool (120) assigns at least an initial monetary goal amount associated with an individual account (112) based upon the specific aspirational goal's goods and/or services which is available from merchants (142) who have individual access (140) to the host electronic network platform (110), and wherein the aspirational authoring tool (120) develops a proposed savings plan (118) associated with the aspirational goal (116) which is assigned to the individual account (112);
- a financial institution interface (130) on the host network platform (110) that is housed on at least one server (113), wherein the financial institution interface (130) is configured to engage with at least one financial institution (132) and interacts with the aspirational goal authoring tool (120) to associated each individual account (112) associated with the aspirational goal (116) with one associated depository account with one associated financial institution (132);
- a collaborative savings amplifications tool (150) on the host electronic network platform (110) that is housed on at least one server (113), wherein the collaborative savings amplification tool (150) is configured to increase the effective monetary amounts in an individual account (112) to advance the savings plan (118) developed by the aspirational authoring tool (120) to achieve the aspirational goal associated with goods and/or services of the merchants (142) above the principal contributions of the user (114), wherein the collaborative savings amplification tool (150) includes i) social network (151) based crowdfunding of a specific aspirational goal (116) assigned to one of an individual user's accounts (112) by a user designated well-wishing community, wherein crowdfunding includes both potential monetary amounts into the one associated depository account with one associated financial institution (132) and non-monetary contributions which can advise, guide, motivate, modify, and fulfill a user aspirational, wherein the non-monetary contributions are utilized by the aspirational authoring tool (120) regarding prospective aspirational goods and services;
- and wherein the collaborative savings amplification tool (150) includes at least one of:
- ii) gamification of individual accounts (112);
- iii) group purchasing discounts from merchants (142) with access to the system (100) which provides the goods and services attributable to the goals (116) of an individual user's accounts (112) wherein a group for group purchasing is formed by a collection of individual platform user's having aligned aspirational goals (116);
- iv) reverse auction from a merchant (142) with access to the system (100) which provides the goods and services associated with the user's goal (116);
- v) maximization of the interest for the individual account (112);
- vi) content co-creation and vii) a user budgeting tool including data analytics to help the user (114) to budget;
- a relationship scoring system (170) on the host network platform (110) that is housed on at least one server (113), wherein the relationship scoring system (170) interacts with the collaborative savings amplifications tool (150) and the aspirational authoring tool (120) to review the monetary and non-monetary contributions of a user's designated well-wishing community to quantify participation in the executed savings plan (118) for each user's goals (116);
- and
- a merchant interface (140) on the host network platform (110) that is housed on at least one server (113), wherein the merchant interface is configured to engage with and be accessed by the plurality of merchants(142) of goods and services associated with each aspirational goal (116) of each individual account (112), wherein the merchant interface interacts with the system (100) to allow the merchants(142) to provide input to the aspirational authoring tool (120) for associating goods and services with the user's goal (116).