Mint.com Users Have Questions: White House Has Answers

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Obama Advisor To Answer Mint User Questions at Economic State of the Union Round Table

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Austan Goolsbee, chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, will answer questions about the economy submitted by Mint.com users from 11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Eastern time today, as part of the first White House Economic State of the Union Round Table. For the last week, Mint.com users have submitted questions at Mint Answers (answers.mint.com) to be presented at today's round table, which can be viewed online at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Nearly 5 million people use Mint.com to gain unparalleled insight into their saving and spending habits. Armed with personal financial details, many still have questions about how the specifics apply to their own lives and situation. To fill in those gaps, Mint.com has updated Mint Answers, where experts inside and outside of the Mint community answer questions about financial issues.

"Once people have a basic understanding of how they spend, more complicated issues and questions often emerge," said Aaron Patzer, general manager and vice president of personal finance at Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) and founder of Mint.com. "Whether it's a question about new legislation, investments, unemployment, credit or home ownership, users everyday have the chance to have their financial concerns addressed by experts in the field. Today, their questions about the economy are taken directly to the top."

In addition to supplying questions for the State of the Union Round Table, the newly enhanced Mint Answers allows users to: 

    --  Set up e-mail alerts for notification when questions are answered.
    --  Create enhanced profile pages and follow helpful users.
    --  Share questions and answers on Facebook, Twitter or via email.
    --  Tag more questions and answers, and monitor trending topics.
    --  Find more information by easily searching through existing questions.

Mint Answers joins the site's other educational resources, including the award-winning MintLife blog and an official curriculum recently launched with Scholastic to help people make informed financial decisions.

MintLife articles cover topics about money concerns in all stages of people's lives. Tips provided throughout the site point out personalized, in-product savings opportunities available to users. The new mint.com/blog/education site includes formal lessons tied to national educational standards to be downloaded by middle-school teachers, parents and students.

"If the Mint tool is a financial compass orienting people to their actual spending, Answers could be considered a practical field guide to help people find their way and avoid pitfalls on their financial journey," continued Patzer. "The evolution of Mint's educational resources follows the progression that our users' experience, from initial discovery and budgetary insight to long-term planning and savings decisions."

The Answers platform is provided by Sponge, a white-label question-and-answer platform that helps sites capture high quality content optimized for search traffic.

About Mint.com

Mint.com is a leading online personal finance software service from Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), providing almost 5 million users a fresh, easy and intelligent way to manage their money. And it's free. Launched in September 2007, Mint.com has quickly grown to track nearly $200 billion in transactions and $50 billion in assets and has identified more than $300 million in potential savings for its users. Mint.com's innovation is in applying advanced technology to deliver breakthrough ease-of-use. Using patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms, Mint.com allows users to see all their financial accounts in one place, makes it easy to set and keep to budgets, and helps identify money saving ideas. Mint.com is so effective that more than 90 percent of users say they have changed their financial habits as a result of using the service. For more information on Mint.com's free online personal finance service, please visit http://www.mint.com and follow Mint.com on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mint.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks(R), Quicken(R) and TurboTax(R), simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries(R) and Lacerte(R) are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. The company's financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.5 billion in its fiscal year 2010. The company has approximately 7,700 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com. 


    Source: Intuit Inc.

Released January 27, 2011