Patent ID: 8285622

Claim:
A computing system implemented process for providing budget recommendations based on financial data from similarly situated individuals comprising: one or more processors configured to: provide a financial management system, the financial management system being implemented by one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems; obtain a first individual's financial data from the financial management system, the first individual's financial data including data representing historical financial transactions associated with the first individual, the historical financial transactions representing income received from one or more payors, and expense transactions representing spending at one or more merchants; determine one or more parameters for identifying financial peers of the first individual, by analyzing the first individual's financial transaction data; obtain one or more other individuals' financial transaction data, the one or more other individuals being individuals other than the first individual, the one or more other individuals' financial transaction data being associated with the one or more other individuals, the one or more other individuals' financial transaction data representing income received from one or more payors, and expense transactions relating to spending at one or more merchants; identify one or more of the one or more other individuals that are financial peers of the first individual based, at least in part, on the one or more parameters for identifying financial peers of the first individual, the identifying being accomplished by analyzing the one or more other individuals' financial transaction data; identify one or more of the one or more other individuals as financial peers of the first individual, based on the analysis of the other individuals' financial transaction data and the other individuals' financial transaction data meeting the one or more parameters; process the financial transaction data associated with the identified one or more financial peers of the first individual; and provide data representing one or more budget guidelines for the first individual based, at least in part, on the processed financial transaction data associated with the identified one or more financial peers of the first individual including providing data representing a comparison between averaged budget spending data for the identified one or more financial peers of the given individual and the financial transaction data associated with the first individual.