Girls: Ditch The Gym For A Financial Resolution This Year

Ladies, I am about to introduce you to the best thing that will happen to you all year.

Meet LearnVest, a website devoted to women in need of a financial hero. Think of it as the knight in shining armor who happens to have all of the answers to your monetary queries. (Pretty hot, right?)

Introduced at TechCrunch50 back in September, LearnVest touts itself as a "personal financial guide for women," but that just doesn't do it enough justice. I'd say it's more like the romantic novella of financial know-how. This site is, without a doubt, one of the most useful resources on the Internet. And it's just for us girls! Woo!

 

As a young 20-something, fresh out of college, scraping by on a low salary and sitting on enough student debt to feed a small army, I'm pretty much LearnVest's target demographic. And I would literally get down on my knees and grovel at LearnVest's feet if I could. When I wanted to figure out what kind of savings account I should open, LearnVest walked me through it. When I needed new car insurance but wanted to avoid getting conned into paying for coverage I didn't need, LearnVest walked me through it. And when I decide to figure out whether or not I'll be able to afford the impromptu pedicure with my girlfriends next weekend, one of LearnVest's check lists will walk me through that, too. You know how that makes me feel? Good. Safe. Panic-free. Like I'm nestled in the arms of a beautiful broad-shouldered accountant. (I'm sort of sensing a theme here.)

If you manage to get into the website while it's still in beta (make sure you're using Firefox, as Safari isn't supported yet), the first thing you'll notice is LearnVest's layout. It's clean and organized - a serious feat considering how much information they're trying to assemble... which brings us to the second thing you'll notice - its sheer wealth of information. Despite the plethora of info, it's shockingly painless to browse through and makes you feel like you're the most valuable visitor they've had all week.

Once you set up a free account (apply for a beta invite) you're able to set up a profile and sort through your personalized check lists and tutorials at your own pace, saving all of your progress the whole way through. LearnVest is all about you. It caters to the individual... and if you're female, you're genetically programmed to love that. 

 

While you're waiting for that beta invite, you can follow LearnVest's tweets and sign up for their daily newsletter. LearnVest is also in the process of offering what it likes to call LearnVest Bootcamp; a month's worth of daily emails geared to give you one action each day that you need to complete to "really know your money." Each action takes no more than 20 minutes, but strung together these deeds will set you on the right financial track for the entire year. (Even if the suggestions aren't news to you, the affirmation that you're already doing the right thing is a reward in and of itself.)

 

It'll be cool to see how the site evolves as it launches out of beta this year. I'm hoping they broaden their playing field to cover even more bases, like "how to know if an auto shop is trying to take advantage of your vehicular-ignorance" or "how to deal with the fear that you might be making 70c to your male co-worker's dollar." Those seemingly minor issues are still affecting a surprising majority of women these days, so it would be cool to see it addressed in a how-to fashion.

 

And if I really had my way, I'd urge LearnVest to morph into a Mint.com competitor, becoming a one-stop-shop for all of your financial tracking, but there's no telling if that's the direction they want to go.  Thankfully, LearnVest is open to feedback, so sign up and voice your suggestions! And start this year off with a newfound sense of fiscal responsibility!