Turning Financial Goals into Smart Mutual Fund Recommendations

Most of us set financial goals — buying a car, saving for our child’s education, or even achieving financial freedom early.
But the hard part isn’t defining the goal.
It’s figuring out how much to invest, for how long, and where to put that money.

While building my expense-tracking and investment insight platform, I realized that most users weren’t just looking for expense analytics — they wanted guidance. They wanted a way to reach their goals confidently.

So, I started building a new feature:

A Goal-Based Investment Recommender
where users can enter their target financial goal, timeline, and risk preference — and get mutual fund suggestions tailored to help them reach that goal.

The Idea

The concept is simple but powerful.

Users provide:

🎯 Target amount (e.g., ₹10,00,000)
⏳ Time period (e.g., 5 years)
💰 Current savings (optional)
⚖️ Risk profile (Conservative / Balanced / Aggressive)

Based on these inputs, the system calculates:

The required monthly SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) to achieve the goal.
The expected rate of return based on their risk preference.
A list of mutual fund schemes that align with their goals and risk tolerance.

In short — users move from “I want to save ₹10L in 5 years” to “Invest ₹12,500/month in these 3 mutual funds”.

Once the SIP is calculated, I match it with mutual fund schemes based on:

Fund category (Equity, Hybrid, Debt)
Historical performance
Risk level
Consistency of returns (using rolling return data)

This recommendation engine helps users focus on execution, not confusion.