Financial Fitness provides actionable steps to better financial health

Contact:
Martha Shaughnessy
Atomic PR for Mint
martha@atomicpr.com
O: 415.402.0230

Financial Fitness provides actionable steps to better financial health

Mountain View, Calif., April 28, 2009 – Mint.com (www.mint.com), the nation’s leading online personal finance service, today released Financial Fitness, a new feature available in beta to current Mint.com users. This launch continues the service’s progress from providing valuable financial management information, to delivering actionable recommendations. While Mint.com already shows users their entire net worth in a clear and simple interface, Financial Fitness goes further, suggesting specific steps to improve that financial standing. Starting today, ten percent of Mint.com’s more than 1 million users will gain access to this new feature, helping to refine it before its broad launch early this summer.

“Most financial advice makes smart money management seem complicated, and it’s not,” said Aaron Patzer, founder and CEO of Mint.com. “The basics of personal financial management are simple and can be easily understood and practiced by everyone. We designed Financial Fitness to show that to our users and get them started.”

Financial Fitness defines five personal finance principles and specifies the steps everyone should take on a weekly, monthly and annual basis to put them into action. Integrated directly into users’ automated Mint.com service, which tracks their spending and investments every day, Financial Fitness recognizes and alerts users when they are on- or off-track in achieving financial health.

The five money-saving principles at the core of Mint.com’s Financial Fitness advice are:

• Know your Money
• Spend Less than you Earn
• Use Debt Wisely
• Invest Your Savings
• Prepare for the Unexpected

For each core principle, Mint.com defines the tasks a user needs to do to be fiscally fit, whether keeping to a budget, avoiding late fees, saving money, or making a retirement contribution. Mint.com not only shows users the steps they need to take, but also explains why they’re important. The approach is distinctive in four key ways:

• Alerts users, through integration with the user’s Mint.com account, when key “Achieve-Mints” are, or are not, being met – like going a full month with no bank fees.
• Makes each step immediately actionable, with direct access to Mint-approved tools, calculators, and providers that help them make real progress in real time.
  Reveals new steps toward improvement on an ongoing basis, based on each user’s individual situation.
• Tracks progress toward greater financial fitness in an engaging way.

“Whether their ultimate financial goal is getting out of debt, investing for college or a home, or saving for retirement, everyone should follow the fundamentals outlined by Financial Fitness,” added Patzer. “We not only make it easier to understand how to get financially fit, but add a little fun, with the ability to earn points toward the goal of achieving 100% fitness. Like any goal – from weight loss, to video game domination, or getting a promotion –specific, actionable plans help people stay on track in the short term, and achieve more in the long term.”

This initial entry into financial advice mirrors the launch of Mint.com’s breakthrough money management tool. While dozens of expensive desktop software packages existed before the September, 2007 introduction of this free, online personal finance service, Mint.com’s simplicity and ease-of-use have made it the fastest growing personal finance service ever and a favorite among experts, earning it a series of prestigious awards. The service recently added its millionth user and now provides online personal financial management services to 1% of all US households.

About Mint.com (www.mint.com)

Mint.com is the nation’s leading online personal finance service, providing 1 million users a fresh, easy and intelligent approach to money management. And it’s free. Mint is tracking over $50 billion in transactions, $15 billion in assets and has identified more than $100 million in potential savings for its users.

Designed to be effortless, Mint.com takes less than five minutes to set up. Users register anonymously using only a valid email address. Mint then does the rest, securely downloading transaction data from more than 7,500 bank, credit card and investment accounts on a daily basis. Users never need to import or synch their data. Mint applies patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms to categorize transactions; provide a unified view of all account activity; alert users to low balances, bank fees, upcoming bills, and even potentially suspicious account activity; and give users personalized suggestions for significant savings opportunities. Each user can monitor their total net worth, virtually real time, at www.mint.com, from any mobile phone (by texting shortcode MyMint [696468]), or by using Mint.com’s iPhone application – rated #1 in the Finance category in iTunes on the day of its launch.

Mint.com is rated top in its category by Kiplinger, Money, PC World and PC magazines, was named one of the 50 Best Websites of 2008 by Time magazine, and has received two Webby awards, an American Business Award and accolades from the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek,TechCrunch, and Lifehacker, since its September, 2007 launch. The company was named one of 34 international Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum in 2008 and publishes an award-winning personal finance blog at www.mint.com/blog/.

Mint’s management team includes seasoned industry veterans drawn from the ranks of Charles Schwab, eBay, Expedia, Intuit, PGP and other leaders in the finance, security and software industries. Investors include top venture capital firms and prominent individuals whose past investments have included Google, Intuit, eBay, PassMark Security, PayPal, Yahoo! and others.

For more information on Mint.com’s free online personal finance service, please visit www.mint.com.