Mint.com spices up advice offerings, while Prosper.com gets a second wind

As of this week, ten percent of the members of Mint.com's personal-finance site are gaining beta access to a slick new tool that evaluates their financial picture and guides them through the months- or years-long process of getting financially fit. Meanwhile, for those for whom financial fitness requires some help, one of the Web's first microloan sites is back in the saddle after a six-month quiet period.

The Financial Fitness feature works as much like a personal trainer as a financial advisor -- not just suggesting wise paths down which you can take your money, but standing there with a clipboard and a checklist and a scale. The model's deliberate, according to fonder and CEO Aaron Patzer: "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."

If you're one of Mint's million-plus members -- an estimated 1% of all American households -- the system already has a great deal of information on you and your spending habits. The new tools help users pinpoint and undertake tasks that'll improve their fiscal fitness, alerting them when they're getting out of shape (e,g., spending too much, not keeping an eye on their credit rating) and rewarding them with feedback and an improved "grade" when they're on track and reaching milestones.

It may sound a bit like Wii Fit for your money -- not that there's anything wrong with that. But the five principles at the core of Financial fitness are in fact quite traditional: know your money, spend less than you earn, use debt wisely, invest your savings, and prepare for the unexpected. With regard to those principles, Financial Fitness gives you tasks that can earn points that'll improve your 0-100% score, explaining how often you should do those tasks and why they're important. For instance, under "Know Your Money," I'm reminded today that this is the week to do my annual credit-report check and awarded 100 points for reviewing my monthly spending; under "Spend Less Than You Earn," I am complimented for saving money each month, having a credit card that pays rewards and having a no-fee bank account; I am chided for not coming in under budget this month (new computer!), and the system suggests that I look into getting a savings account with a higher yield.

Overall I have a 62% score for the month -- 3,350 points out of a possible 5,350 -- but that'll improve to 71% as soon as I tell the site I've done that free credit check. (No, that's not my account in the screenshot.) As the site moves through beta, I'd love to see it give points to those of us who check our credit report monthly, but I'm pleased that it correctly parsed my automatic monthly transfer from checking to savings.

The site also "knows" that I've slacked on getting health insurance. (One thousand points off for being an idiot.) In my defense, it's complicated and I procrastinate a lot. Mint, however, has built a number of procrastination-smiting tools into the Financial Fitness report, sending me to the government's AnnualCreditReport.com site and, for my insurance needs, to eHealthInsurance. There are calculators and other budgeting tools for other tasks, and good explanations of why various actions are suggested.

Assuming beta continues to go well, Mint expects to launch the Financial Fitness feature this summer.

Meanwhile, Prosper.com is on the march again -- if you're a California lender, anyway. The site, which specialized in highly transparent person-to-person loans, has been in lockdown a quiet period since October, while it waited for approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. That process isn't completed yet, but the California Department of Corporations has given its stamp of regulatory approval to the site in order to get the money flowing again. (Disclaimer: Your reporter is a Prosper lender not based in California, so the money I have to lend is currently just sitting there doing nothing. I'm not bitter.) Borrowers, on the other hand, can participate from anywhere in the US.

On his blog, Prosper founder Chris Larsen celebrated California's decision to expedite the process. "We remain hopeful that the SEC, which until now has effectively hamstrung the growth of the peer-to-peer and micro-lending industries in the US, will start applying the same common sense approach as California's regulators," he wrote. "California has recognized that Internet auctions, just like the Google IPO, are the most efficient means of price discovery; that loan level transparency is better than the opaque loan pooling that brought the financial system to its knees; and that requiring regulatory filings every other day of Web site transactions that are already visible in real time, is redundant and cost prohibitive."

Prosper is also building out past its original person-to-person model, launching the Open Market Initiative. That program will allow Prosper lenders to bid on existing loans made by lending banks and credit unions (again, Californians only for now). The plan gives Prosper lenders another type of loan (professionally underwritten, pre-funded, less "personal" than the usual Prosper loan) to buy into, while freeing up some capital for the institution that made the original loan. It's securitization, sure, but done far more transparently than the kind of securitization that got us into this mess, with information about the loan and the originating institution prominently posted.

Prosper is also adding a secondary-market-style ability for Prosper lenders to sell their loans to other Prosper lenders, implementing a better credit-grading system and requiring that individuals seeking loans have a minimum credit score of 640. That's a definite change; previously, credit rating information was noted, but "high-risk" borrowers were free to ask and gutsy lenders were free to say yes. Times and lending climates have changed, of course; it'll be interesting to see how Prosper maintains its goals of openness, transparency and durability as the new economic reality unfolds.