Alexa Von Tobel

Growing up in a family of doctors, I wanted to be a brain surgeon for a while. But ultimately, I get most excited about creating things, which is why I decided to become an entrepreneur.

It's important to have a really clear strategy so when you are in business, you only have to make micro-strategy changes.

This isn't like cancer, where we don't know the solution. Financial planning is math. We have the answers, yet it's this huge cause of stress.

We're providing planning to a huge audience who's never had access to financial planners before. This was always my plan for LearnVest. It was in my very first pitch deck.

At LearnVest, we're working to make financial planning both accessible and affordable so that everyone has the opportunity to get on track financially.

A good financial plan is a road map that shows us exactly how the choices we make today will affect our future.

When I was planning LearnVest, everyone told me I had to talk to Ann Kaplan, one of the first female partners at Goldman Sachs. Within five minutes of our meeting, she totally got the idea - and by the time I left, she was a seed investor.

The time to save for the future is now. Thanks to compounding interest, the earlier you start putting money away for the future, the more you will save.

My ultimate goal is to create operating systems for myself that allow me to think as little as possible about the silly decisions you can make all day long - like what to eat or where we should meet - so I can focus on making real decisions. Because mental energy is a finite quantity.

I always encourage people to pay themselves first, so I really advocate setting up direct deposit for your paycheck and establishing an automatic transfer so that part of each paycheck goes straight into your savings account.

I am so organized that it's dysfunctional. Everything has a place. I am a very visual person, so my environment is important to me. If my environment is messy, I can't think clearly. I don't like clutter. A clean desk is a clean mind for me.

It is critical that kids start to learn the value of money, short-term and long-term saving and budgeting at an early age.