Dear Plenty Community,

Emily here, I’m CEO / cofounder of Plenty (alongside my husband). Today, I’m excited to share that we’ve rolled out Plenty to our waitlist. 🎉

One of the first decisions we made when we started the company, was that it would not be “free”. We were going to have a $200/year/couple membership + 0.20% investing fee, and be transparent about when and how we made money. Like Costco, if Costco only sold Kirkland products: quality, cheaper products conveniently in 1 place. That way, we didn’t have to find other ways to make money by promoting credit cards/loans, selling your data, or selling ad placements.

It’s been a few weeks since Mint officially shut down, and migrated folks into Credit Karma. To understand a company, I’ve always believed in the importance of following the money.

In our featured blog post, I get behind the proverbial pen and go deeper into how Mint + Credit Karma made “free” work, why Mint got shut down, and how Plenty is building a business model for the long run.

- Emily, CEO/cofounder of Plenty

Why Mint was shut down

Mint was launched in the era of “free” products, like Google, Facebook, Mint, and Credit Karma. It’s “free”. The narrative was simple: don’t stop to think if you want to pay $10.99 for this per month, it’s free… there’s nothing to lose by trying it out. Then once you were on the product, they made money some other way to cover their costs, and build their business.

“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product” - Netflix’s Social Dilemma

Unlike Google, Mint had some big costs for each customer they supported: account connections with the big banks that customers wanted data automatically connected to. So they needed more than just regular advertising, to make the numbers work.

Read this week’s blog post to go behind the scenes of mint, credit karma, and the world of financial product referrals.

Doing well by doing good

In a NerdWallet survey from 2020, more than half of Americans responded that they don’t know what their investments are in. Yet over 60% of millennials responded to a US bank survey that values-based investing is important to their portfolios and 80% of those respondents said they’d sacrifice some return for that (fortunately, Schwab found that ESG portfolios perform as well or better). It’s not always easy to know where to start, but Plenty makes values-based investing as easy as pressing a button.

An example of an industry that has become increasingly controversial: CoreCivic and GEO Group are two of the largest companies operating prison centers and detention centers in the US. This industry “incarcerates nearly one-tenth of the US’s total prison population and over 80%  of immigrants in detention” (Forbes, 2020). The release of the Netflix documentary, Thirteenth, contributed to increased scrutiny by millions of Americans.

Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America were amongst the banks who began pulling back from business relationships with both CoreCivic and Geo Group. Interestingly, ownership has stayed constant amongst the largest ETF providers in the game, incl. Blackrock’s iShares and Vanguard which own a 17% and 11% stake respectively in CoreCivic alone (Yahoo, 2024).

As more millennials start to ask where their investments dollars are going and voting with their dollars, it’ll be interesting to follow along if Vanguard or Blackrock will make any changes. Whatever your values are, Plenty’s premium portfolios makes personalizing your portfolios a few button clicks away.

Plenty is a wealth platform helping modern couples invest and plan for their future together. We bring the investment strategies and products of the wealthy to the everyday household. For more information, visit withplenty.com. If you ever have any feedback or questions, please do reach out to us at [email protected].

At Plenty, no financial topic is off-limits for modern couples. We offer straight talk and judgment-free guidance to help modern couples navigate the tricky and important intersection of money and relationships. Join thousands of couples who’ve signed up for our free newsletter today.

Plenty Financial RIA, LLC is an SEC-Registered Investment Advisor. All investments made are legally owned by you. Investing is inherently risky and Plenty does not guarantee positive performance. Investments are held in accounts at BNY Mellon | Pershings, the world’s largest securities servicing company and are SIPC insured. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal, and there is no assurance that the investment will provide positive performance over any period of time. Please see Plenty Financial’s general disclosures. Brokerage services are provided by Atomic Brokerage LLC "Atomic Brokerage", member FINRA and SIPC. Clearing and custody services are provided by Brokerage firm BNY Mellon Pershing, member SIPC. Plenty Financial RIA, LLC has a relationship with Atomic Brokerage to manage and execute investments on behalf of customers. Subadvisory services are offered through Atomic Invest LLC ("Atomic Invest"), an SEC-registered investment advisor, member SIPC. Atomic Invest was formerly known as Helium Advisors LLC. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a particular level of skill or training.