Getting started with Aurora is meant to take a few minutes, not an afternoon. Here's what the process actually looks like, from first login to your first real projection.
Step 1: Set Up Your Financial Picture
Aurora starts by building a baseline picture of your current financial position — income, expenses, assets, and debts. You can connect accounts directly for a faster setup, or enter figures manually if you'd rather not link accounts right away. Either way, the goal of this step is just an accurate starting point, not a perfect one — you can refine details later.
Step 2: Define What You're Actually Planning For
Rather than a generic dashboard, Aurora asks what you're trying to figure out — a retirement timeline, a major purchase, a career or income change, or an ongoing general plan. This shapes which projections and scenarios it surfaces first, so you're not wading through features irrelevant to what actually brought you to the app.
Step 3: Build Your First Scenario
This is where Aurora differs most from a typical budgeting app. Instead of just reviewing historical data, you'll build a forward-looking scenario — adjusting an assumption (a new expense, a change in income, a different savings rate) and seeing how it plays out over time against your baseline.
Step 4: Read the Projection
Aurora shows you the resulting projection alongside your original baseline, so you can see clearly what changes and by how much. Where relevant, it flags tax implications or risk factors tied to the scenario, rather than just showing a number in isolation.
Step 5: Adjust and Compare
You're not locked into one scenario. Part of the point is being able to build a few versions side by side — what happens if you delay a decision two years, or approach it differently — and compare them directly rather than mentally tracking the differences yourself.
Step 6: Keep It Current
Aurora is meant to be revisited, not set up once and forgotten. As your actual financial picture changes, updating it keeps your projections accurate — the platform is built for ongoing use, not a one-time plan.
If You Get Stuck
Every major feature in Aurora includes in-context guidance, and support is available directly from within the app if something isn't clear. The goal throughout is that you shouldn't need a finance background to use it well — just a real question you want an honest answer to.