LearnLux: Demystifying Personal Finance
401K? IRA? ROI? WTF! LearnLux is a FinTech startup prepping millennials to take control of their own finances.
Rough Draft Ventures is excited to support Rebecca (Clark University ’15) and Michael Liebman (Bentley University ’18) of LearnLux, a financial education hub empowering millennials to take control of their own finances.
The Problem: Personal finance isn’t a priority in the education system, leaving millions of millennials blindly navigating their finances. Only 24% of millennials demonstrate basic financial literacy, according to PwC, and only 8% demonstrate high financial literacy. The stats get even more alarming: 30% of millennials overdraw on their checking accounts, 50% face serious credit card debt, and only 36% have a retirement account. Yikes.
The Solution: LearnLux! LearnLux’s financial education platform empowers millennials by providing them with the tools and resources necessary to improve their financial situation.
While existing financial technology startups like Mint and LearnVest offer millennials useful money management tools and advising, they’re either pricey or assume a decent amount of financial knowledge. LearnLux, on the other hand, is free and starts from square one.
The platform breaks down financial education into relevant case-by-case tutorials like “open a credit card” or “taxes” that users can complete at their own pace. Its easily digestible content and interactive simulations make personal finance less intimidating.
At the end of each tutorial, users can compare their options and take action (i.e. open a credit card or pay taxes). This is good facetime for financial institutions, who spent a whopping $7 billion in online advertising last year. Plus, banks, brokerage firms, and credit card companies recognize educated customers are more reliable than uneducated ones, so they reward LearnLux users by offering real money to open accounts with them.
A simple example illustrates just how daunting personal finance can be for millennials, and how useful LearnLux can be. Say an undergrad makes a few thousand dollars during a summer internship and wants to invest it. How do they start?
Here’s what comes up when you Google “how do I invest money?”:
For someone new to investing, that’s an intimidating result. What’s an online savings account? A CD? Mutual fund? Index fund? ETF? It’s no wonder millennials cite “don’t know about stocks” as a primary reason for not investing.
LearnLux is more approachable and translates financial jargon into understandable terms:
LearnLux was a 2015 MassChallenge finalist and won the FinTech pitch competition at SXSW. Rebecca is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
We expect LearnLux to do big things, so keep checking in! In the meantime, check out their website and follow them on Twitter. Learn more about Rough Draft here.
