The new year is a special time for financial services. Many people throw their spending discipline out the window during December -- buying gifts, entertaining, and hitting the sales for themselves. Then there's the New Years Resolution game where you vow not to do for the rest of the year what you just spent the past month doing.

So it's a good time for financial providers to remind customers about advanced tools available such as alerts, mobile banking, budget tools and so on.

You can also take the approach of Betterment, and provide a wide-ranging list of apps to assist in achieving goals for the new year. The investment startup sent an email to customers on Dec 27 recommending these 5 apps:

• Runkeeper to track your exercise
• Manilla digital file cabinet
• Skillshare to pick up a new skill
• Goodreads to help you find new books
• Sonar for social and business networking

Betterment closed with a pitch for its own simple investment platform and a free webinar scheduled for Jan 5, and personal finance blogging roundup.

It's a great effort, although maybe a little too much for a single email. I didn't even see the pitch for the webinar and blog compilation until I posted it here. Overall though, a strong A.   

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Betterment New Years email (27 Dec 2012)
Note: Google+ link on top

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Note: For more info on online investing see our 2008 report.