Take Two: Thrive on Behavioral Budgeting and the Future of Financial Management

This is the followup to our interview with Thrive CEO and Founder, Avi Karnani and Lead Scientist, Matt Wallaert.  In our first installment, which you can read here, we talked to them about their work in financial literacy, competition with popular money management site, Mint and how they differ from other financial service companies.  In this installment, we’ll find out more on behavioral budgeting and how it works, and how Thrive is working to make banking a better service industry. Read more

Monthly Mashup: July Edition

The emergence of summer means many things, one of which is lots of free activities.  Summer in New York is filled with many a bargain pleasure, including free outdoor kayaking, movies, concert series and physical activities.  So instead of just focusing on our past stories, we decided to spotlight a few other sites as well that focus on free and budget living information.  A few of our favorite posts are below.

How to Do Broadway on a Budget – Go Frugal in NY, a new budget NYC blog, is the spawn of the Free Shipping blog that focuses on getting companies to offer free shipping and who also mandated a Free Shipping Day in December.  Check out their post on how to score Broadway tickets on the cheap.

Reimagining Breakfast for the Summer – Eating Well on $50 a Week is a cool blog that covers lots of cheap ways to eat on fifty bucks.  While not based in NY, they have awesome suggestions on how to creatively use vegetables and whip up dishes that look pretty darn amazing.  Plus, their food photos look so good, I’d be lying if I said my recent food pictures on Twitter weren’t somewhat inspired by theirs.

Our Favorite New Retail Addiction – Brokelyn - An awesome website that spotlights places in Brooklyn that are staples for living cheaply.  Check out this post on a little known BK shop in Midwood that offers up designer duds for practically nilch.  This one comes close to beating out Housing Works.

Money Management Startup, Thrive, Talks to Us About Behavioral Budgeting, Financial Literacy and the Future of Financial Management – We spoke to Avi Karnani and Matt Wallaert about Thrive’s work in the realm of Gen Y’s financial literacy and what they’re doing to get young adults active in managing their finances.

8 Tips to Save on Apartment Living – Another excellent post by the Go Frugal blog which gives tips on how to save on apartment expenses when looking for and moving out of an apartment.

10 Free Things to do in Queens – FrugalNYC is a website that, like us, is dedicated to frugal living in NYC.  Check out their listing of 10 free things to do in queens, and their follow-up with more free Queens activities here.

How to Play NYC Tourist this Summer – Not enough New Yorkers take advantage of all the city has to offer, and it’s no surprise with long work hours and a seemingly chronic of exhaustion (or is that just us?).  Regardless, we show you how to take back all the city has to offer and enjoy your vacation time in the heart of the universe.

5 Reasons Why You Should Drop Everything and Sign Up for a CSA Right Now – I’m a huge advocate of the city’s 80 CSA programs for a multitude of reasons expanding beyond the most obvious — healthy food.  Check out our 5 reasons to join one ASAP.

The Skint – Every frugal-minded New Yorker should be checking out this site.  A bare-bones listing of tips and freebies in the NYC area, the best way to take advantage of this site is just to subscribe and get a daily listing of cheap things to do each day.

Thrifting Online:  Tips to Mastering the Craigslist Domain – Ever wonder why you’re not finding cool stuff on Craigslist?  It’s probably because you’re not going about your search in the most productive way.  Craiging is an art form — not unlike sifting through the crap at a yard sale to find the diamond in the rough.  Mastering Craigslist is a learning process, and we’ve got the tips to help you up your game.

Thrive on Behavioral Budgeting, Financial Literacy and the Future of Financial Management – Part 1

We recently sat down with Thrive (a free online personal finance manager) co-founder, Avi Karnani and Lead Scientist, Matt Wallaert to talk about Thrive’s offering to the rapidly evolving world of personal finance.  We met up in their office in Chinatown to discuss their recent acquirement, current work in financial literacy, and their competition with one of the most recognized financial management site, Mint.com.  Since we covered a lot of ground, we’re going to publish this interview in two parts:  the first of which is below.  [Part 2 is here] Read more