You started a new job.

You lost your job.

You realized your credit card debt is insurmountable.

You just got engaged.

Do you know what to do next? Aside from celebrating or lamenting with friends, panicking or living in denial, what practical steps should women take with their finances when dealing with both life-altering and quotidian events?

Upon graduating from college, 85 Broads member Alexa von Tobel faced this very dilemma when she realized that nobody had taught her the basics of managing her personal finances. The issues were myriad: renting an apartment, opening a retirement account, properly filling out her W-4 form at work, etc. The traditional venues for information, such as the library or friends, were of no avail. Books were pretty much outdated from the minute they were published, and friends were just as hungry for trustworthy advice. Alexa took charge and decided to start LearnVest, a website designed to help any woman savvy enough to use the internet master her personal finances.

[learnvest.com], launched in beta form on November 17, 2009, aims to empower women with both general and customized advice on a wide range of topics relating to personal finance. The website employs a friendly, non-judgmental tone of your most proactive and knowledgeable friend. It won’t berate you for having purchased that expensive bag…or five of them. Moreover, the advice can be as minimal or as comprehensive as the user desires. For instance, the website currently contains 40 checklists organized into 10 categories, such as taxes, retirement, and credit cards, which walk users step-by-step through how to approach and tackle each problem. Those who want more tailored advice can join the website, enter information on their present circumstances, then receive a personalized action plan. For the voyeurs among us, a “financial confessions” page allows users to share their personal stories. The interface is welcoming and easy-to-use, thanks in part to the expertise of the same team that designed Hulu.com.

LearnVest aims to become the most trusted tool for any women interested in (or intimidated by) personal finance. Currently, it sends a “personal finance meets DailyCandy” email everyday to nearly 1,500 subscribers with tips on how to save money and methodically handle their financial situation. In the new year, just in time for all those resolutions, LearnVest plans to launch a financial “bootcamp” that will teach users how to revamp their finances each day over a 30-day period.

I sat down with both Alexa von Tobel, the founder and CEO of LearnVest, and Allison Fast, its Director of Sales & Marketing and an 85 Broads member as well, at their bustling office in Manhattan.

Can you walk me through how LearnVest developed? I know that Janet Hanson (the founder of 85 Broad) played an instrumental role.

Alexa: I met Janet when I interviewed her for an article for a magazine at Harvard, my alma mater. At the end of the interview, Janet asked me to come and intern for her at 85 Broads, which I did. We went on a trip to Lwala, Kenya, to film a documentary about the AIDS crisis in that region. Over the next six years or so, Janet continued to be a steadfast mentor. When I spoke to Janet about LearnVest, she was immediately interested and became our first investor.

I started to develop LearnVest when I was at Harvard Business School, as I realized that I didn’t know enough about how to manage my own finances. In the course of researching this subject, I found that personal finance is not taught in any colleges or high schools.

We received a lot of attention right away, and won the Astia award (a coveted award honoring women innovators). About when Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, I realized that there would be no better time to launch LearnVest and decided to drop out of school. Four of my previous professors supported my idea. Since then, we have closed on $1.1 million in venture funding, and we were recognized as a TechCrunch 50 site a month and a half ago.

Can you compare being an entrepreneur to your experiences in the corporate world?

Allison: I was at the trading desk at Morgan Stanley. My sister and I started an accessories company specializing in belts, so I have some entrepreneurial experience. Nonetheless, this has been thrilling. Unlike the corporate world, there are no roadmaps and you have tremendous freedom to chart your own course. We’ve been very fortunate to have some fantastic mentors, including Ann Kaplan, the first female partner at Goldman Sachs, who is on the board of the Red Cross and Columbia University; Lee Barber, CEO of Investools.com; Peter Kellner, founder of Endeavor Global, Inc.; and Bill Campbell, the Chairman of Intuit, among others.

Alexa: I was a trader at a hedge fund at Morgan Stanley. Like Allison, I have been an entrepreneur in some capacity throughout my life. I built an AIDS clinic through Lwala and started a magazine when I was at Harvard. Still, as Allison said, this has been an exhilarating experience, and one that has moved very quickly.

What else is in the pipeline?

In addition to our popular checklists and the upcoming boot camp, we are developing a “LearnVest Lab,” where a private community of users and advisors who can test and develop new ideas. We have been astounded by the user feedback and we want to encourage it.

Finally, why women?

We focus on women because they are a vastly underserved market when it comes to the world of personal finance.

There are plenty of personal finance websites out there but majority of them are targeting men. When it comes to reaching women, there are books which quickly become outdated and there are media personalities like Suze Orman, who is great and helps people get out of debt. We wondered, though, why not prevent them from being in that situation in the first place by arming them with the best information possible? Our website is aimed at any woman who can use the internet and it’s not targeted at any specific income or educational level. That being said, our product is agnostic, men can and have used the tools on our website. Our goal is to educate and empower as many people as possible by arming them with the best information.