BrightDime Quick Start Guide: Part 1
Welcome to BrightDime! To learn your way around, here is a quick navigation guide.
- Profile: Start in the upper right hand corner, click on your name and select “Profile”. This is where you can review your financial wellness score and get a general idea of where you stand compared to the US average. We’ll ask you to take the survey again in a few months to check your progress. In the bottom left is “Edit My Profile”, where you can change your email address if you want your communications to go to a different address. Note: Since your email is also your username, you’ll need to remember this change and use the updated email address next time log into BrightDime.
- Accounts: Clicking on “Accounts” in the upper right corner takes you to your (surprise!) Accounts page. It will be empty to start but you can begin adding your online checking, savings, credit cards, investments, student loans, car loans, mortgages, personal loans, retirement accounts, etc. Just click the “Link New Account” button and search for your financial institution. We work with Plaid to securely allow you to connect your various accounts so that we can pull your account balances and transactions into the BrightDime platform. This connection is read-only, you can’t move money or make any changes to your bank accounts from within BrightDime. You can also add manual accounts here (those that don’t have online logins) as well, adding assets like your home or car to offset the loans you have outstanding (better reflecting your net worth). For example, If you link your mortgage via Plaid, don’t forget to add your home value manually so that your Net Worth accurately reflects the equity you have in your home.
- Dashboard: This main page includes six tiles giving you an “at a glance” summary of how you’re doing and some content:
- The top left tile shows a summary of the major components of your Net Worth.
- The top middle tile shows a summary of your Budget with a donut chart, tracking your progress through the month.
- The top right tile is our weekly Bright Idea (also emailed to you on Sunday afternoon along with your weekly account summary).
- The bottom row of tiles are suggested articles, webinars and links based on what you’ve told us about your financial situation.
- Budget: View your spending, add your expected income, and build your budget here.
- Goals: View some pre-set goals and create your own and monitor progress.
- Library: Review articles, webinars and glossary items on many different topics.
- Reports: Look here for a more in depth review of your financial situation. You’ll find information on your investments in Performance, a breakdown of everything you own and owe in Balance Sheet, and a deep look at what investment professionals call your “portfolio allocation” in Allocation.
- Coaching: The green circle in the bottom right corner is how you chat with a financial coach if you have any questions or need help.
If you’re ready to take the next step, read our Quick Start Guide Part 2 here.