LearnVest – Did you ever take a personal finance class back in school or college? Neither did I, and quite frankly, it’s surprising it’s not a degree requirement in universities and colleges in America. Alexa von Tobel felt the same when she was a Harvard Senior. A few years and lots of research later, Alexa has created LearnVest, “an online platform to help women everywhere gain control of their finances.”

I have to admit, I had some problems with the fact that this site targets women and their implied inability to control their spending. Having that said, I do believe personal finance sites on the Web fail to address the special concerns and issues of women when it comes to staying on top of expenses. So, what’s so special about LearnVest? It’s a full blown wallet watcher if you please, that also offers regularly updated content on living richer and better.

Sign up with Facebook and start exploring LearnVest: there are bootcamp programs (many are free!) such as how to get out of debt, cut costs, build health and more. There is also the Money Tuneup which offers a comprehensive resource on investments, retirement, insurance and loans, and my favorite: Living Frugal which shows you how to spend sensibly on fashion and beauty, eating out and entertainment, even on styling your home.

In short, LearnVest is a blessing, and I’m already subscribed. Here’s a fascinating article I found on LearnVest and wanted to share: How to Splurge Right.

True Life Costs – This amazingly designed and executed website by Volkswagen brings an entire town to life to teach us the concept of good value and expenses over time. Once you arrive in town you are invited to explore a variety of expense categories, including vacation, house, food, family, and of course, car -after all, it’s Volkswagen’s website and they do a terrific job at showing their cars’ good value.

Putting marketing agendas aside, the True Life Costs project is fun to explore, it’s beautifully designed and it does succeed to send the message of calculated spending.

The startup Daily – Many entrepreneurs seek tips and advice from the books of experienced, successful CEOs who have alredy been there, done that. Knowledge is always one of the most powerful tools you can have before embarking on a business adventure, but reading books from start to finish can be time consuming. The Startup Daily is “a short daily email with the best tips, ideas, and advice from great books on entrepreneurship, business, marketing, management, etc.”

Get the gist of entrepreneurial wisdom with this laid-back, bite-size (yet dead-serious) email newsletter. You will find large doses of inspiration and great ideas. If a certain idea made you long for the book, you can always buy it and read it from cover to cover. As for my personal favorite idea, here it is: Stop Waiting for the Right Time, from Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky.

EnergySavvy – What if there was an easy way for you to learn not only how to make your house more efficient in terms of energy and sustainability, but also how to save big bucks along the way? Now you can with EnergySavvy. This handsome website will guide you through the various aspects in your home that could be improved to save on energy and cash. No download is necessary. Simply insert your zip code and follow the questionnaire. Don’t worry. It’s not the boring questionnaire type you have in mind. This one’s colorful, interesting and over in a breeze.

Apart from making energy efficiency easier to homeowners, EnergySavvy exposes users to financial incentives that bring down energy use, provides additional tips, and offers listings of “the best energy efficiency contractors in the industry.” You can rely on EnergySavvy for speaking the truth; some of their partners include the US Department of Energy, the Energy Trust of Oregon, and other organizations.

NFB/Interative: Crash Course – Brought to us by the National Film Board of Canada, Crash Course is the creative project of Nobu Adilman and The Secret Location, exploring innovative perspectives on the US recession, in Argentina. Sounds crazy? Wait till you find out the connection between Tango lessons and a slow economy. Prepare yourself for an amazing interactive experience. This is simply a must.

Every year it’s the same story; we promise ourselves this time we’ll get a grip and stop smoking, lose weight or better manage our expenses. For some reason, most New Year resolutions end up being nothing more than a good intention listed in our to-do tasks, but never really coming into fruition. Well, this year we have some excellent Web aids to help you stick to your resolutions and make them happen.

43 Things is a great site we’ve already recommended as a useful New Year resolution helper, and for a good reason. It’s a well known fact that kicking a deep-rooted habit is difficult, especially if you’re doing it on your own. 43 Things offers the community support -the ‘buddy system’- to make sure you make that change successfully. 43 Things is a terrific New Year resolution tool since it’s your security net, regardless of what change you vowed to make in your life.

The relevance of Match.com and other dating sites to New Year resolutions is, on one hand, redundant but on the other, extremely important. Don’t let bad date stories scare you when it comes to online dating. Match.com is one of the best you can find, and there are many happily married couples who have met each other right here on this site. Give it a try, you might find the love of your life!

One of the most effective personal finance tools you can find on the Web, Mint.com (an Intuit company) is a top-notch (and free) budget software to help you better manage your funds, expenses and future financial plans. We’re not the only ones who think Mint.com is a champ (we’ve listed it on our Business page under Personal finance)- this site received high-profile coverage from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and it received prestigious awards from TIME, PC Magazine, and CNN’s Money Magazine. Let’s put it this way; if you’re looking for a simple and efficient tool for managing your money, Mint.com is your answer.

If you’re a smoker, there’s no need for me to list the life and money loss you’re risking by keeping this literally dirty habit. If you decide that 2011 will go down as the year you quit smoking, make use of the government site SmokeFree.gov to make this a clean-lunged reality. This portal is packed with practical tips, facts, starter kits and lots of support to help you in every step of the way (including well after you’ve stopped smoking). Here’s to a better and longer life.

Going green used to be an expensive ordeal, but that was years ago. These days minimizing your ecological footprint is so feasible it’s a crime not to do it. The Daily Green is your one-stop place for living better, healthier, and helping the planet. Although the site’s news section is fascinating and inspiring, the Daily Green’s Tips & Advice page offers all the info you need to change your life for the better, both now and in the future. It’s all very easy and not as expensive as you would think. Go Green and be happy!

Getting fit is perhaps the most challenging New Year resolution of all, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. That’s Fit, a  comprehensive diet and exercise blog from AOL is a perfect starting point for losing weight and instilling a regular exercise routine in your life. Explore the variety of diets and workouts, see what tips celebrities share, and most importantly, check out That’s Fit’s success & motivation section to help you stick to your plan.

Learning something new or simply reading more, the Google eBookstore takes care of both New Year resolutions. Whether you’re interested in science, science fiction, history, art, business or anything in-between, the eBookstore by Google has a world of knowledge waiting to be explored (and read). It’s super accessible, and the reading interface Google has created makes the experience all the more wholesome. What a great example of some seriously good reads!

The 2010 PNC Christmas Price Index – For 27 years now, PNC Bank has been keeping this wonderful tradition of tracking price fluctuations of the gifts mentioned in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” song. This year they’ve created an enchanting interactive website to visualize the 2010 data in comparison to the gifts’ prices in 2009.

See the price change of a partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds and so on, right up to the 12 drummers in 2010. The PNC Christmas Price Index site is so engaging, stunning and fun, learning about the percentages of increase or decrease in the prices of the gifts of Xmas is merely a secondary attraction. Enjoy this one.

Expensify – Owning a business is challenging in an of itself, but keeping a close eye over your company’s expenses is even harder. Expensify is here to treat many small businesses’ Achilles heel by offering a sophisticated yet easy to use expense management tool. It lets you “automate expense entry and recording by importing expenses, many with an eReceipt, directly from a credit card or bank account. Track mileage, log cash expenses and their receipts on the go with our mobile expense apps on the iPhone, Android, Palm Pre and BlackBerry phones or on the iPad.”

The Expensify system is so beautifully designed and executed, its complexity is left behind the scenes so you, the business owner, can have a seamless and super efficient expense management experience. Track your credit card expenses (the system is highly secured, so don’t worry about providing your credit card info), produce reports, allow other employees of your company to access the system, upload receipts, set up an expenses policy (for contractors, etc.) and connect to your QuickBooks/FreshBooks to sync expense accounts. You also have the option of customizing expense categories.

This huge bundle of goodness comes free -as part of the basic Google Marketplace app– and more active submitters are welcome to check the paid track (which is ridiculously cheap and totally worth it). If you are a small-medium business owner, Expensify is a must!

Kickstarter – Claiming to be “the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world,” Kickstarter is all about joining hands for good causes. It’s the perfect place for autonomously run pledges “to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.”

Kickstarter seems like the perfect venue for project funding thanks to its zero exploitation policy. That is why each funding goal must be reached within the set deadline to avoid scams and abuses.

So what kind of project do people use Kickstarter for? Think of it as a small portion investment center for tiny yet promising startups. See the TikTok + LunaTik Multi-Touch project as an example, and the project’s video is embedded below.

Do you have a creative project you need genuine funding for? Start your own Kickstarter project page and see the money roll in!

VisualEconomics.com – Investments, loans, consumption expenditures and saving are financial terms we hear and read about everyday. But do we really understand what they mean? Excluding the professionals involved in the finance field, most laypersons often find it difficult to truly grasp the meaning behind published financial data, despite the increased accessibility we all have to related reports, numbers and information (thanks to the use of the Internet).

VisualEconomics is here to simplify our understanding of the financial market by offering down-to-earth content and explanations of some of the most complicated economic concepts and implications. Although VisualEconomics includes an abundance of break down information on various financial terms, it is their infographics section that truly makes them shine. Think of it as the cumbersome world of financial concepts, simplified. The infographic “How Much Americans Spend on Shopping” is but one example of the VisualEconomics magic. Enjoy and learn.

CarWoo! – Buying a new car seems easy; about every other TV commercial advertises a new car model, and promises easy financing (do you manage to read the fine print in less than 10 seconds?). But if you’ve bought a new or pre-owned car sometime in the last 10 years, you know it’s not that easy, and if you don’t do your homework properly or know how to negotiate, you might pay too much for your car or find yourself overwhelmed with car debt.

CarWoo is here to make the entire process much simpler and easier, by taking the load of price negotiation and dealer deals off of you. This way they allow you to be choosy, and you can be rest assured that you are presented with the absolute best deal options for your desired car. Although the service costs between $19 and $39 (basic and plus CarWoo deals, respectively) for a 2010 Toyota Prius, CarWoo is worth a shot, especially if it’s such a cash saver! Plus, if major publishers such as Wired.com, Forbes and BusinessWeek praised CarWoo, I think you should give it a go the next time you plan on buying a car.

To learn more on how CarWoo works, see the video below. The site is beautifully designed and the interface is easy to work with. Great job CarWoo! For more top notch car related sites and resources visit our Cars Mini Faves page.

56 Sage Street – Brought to us by Barclays, this super fun game will teach you how to earn money the right way, avoid scams and fraud, and save up. Play this mission-based game and help your character earn money and rewards within a givin time period. During that time, you will have to work, find a place to stay for the night and eat so you’ll have the strength to work again… The superbly executed game, 56 Sage Street is an innovative way to teach us all on how to live within budget, and how to save up for what’s important.

See if you manage to score all 50 rewards and show your Facebook friends how well you did on the game (sign in with Facebook Connect). And most importantly, enjoy!