I remember graduating from college and getting my first “real” job. I was so excited to finally be considered an adult and start the next phase of my life. And then, reality set in. I have to find a place to live. Should I get renter’s insurance? What do I put on this W9 form? What is a 401K?
Thankfully, I had people in my life whom I could trust to help me make wise decisions and get me started as I began this new thing called “adulthood”. But it seems as each new generation of graduates enters into the workforce, more and more know less and less about how to navigate the responsibilities of being an adult. One reason could be that schools no longer offer classes that teach life skills. I learned how to write a check and balance a checkbook in high school. Skills, which by the way, have become almost obsolete due to credit cards and online banking.
Another reason could be that parents do so much for their children, the children never learn how to do for themselves. Parents mean well, but when you help the butterfly break out of the cocoon, it doesn’t learn how to exercise its wings. Whatever the reason may be, the fact remains.
Our young adults are faced with making decisions that could impact them for the rest of their lives, and instead of making wise decisions, they are left with more questions. So, what do most of us do when we need to find answers to our questions? We Google it. And Google, or just about any other search engine, can offer us great and valuable information, but more times than not, the number of results we get can be overwhelming. Which leaves one back to the same place they started.
When Genevieve Ryan Bellaire graduated from law school and began working at an investment bank, she realized how much basic life skills knowledge she lacked. She then discovered that many of her friends were in the same boat. After gathering as much information as possible and educating herself, she decided she wanted to share what she’d learned with others so that they could benefit from her experience. Thus, the Realworld app was created.
This app is known as the “Mary Poppins of adulting”. The free app provides tools, guidance, and exhaustive resources that center around all kinds of major life topics. It guides users on how to choose the right credit card, renters insurance, and countless other issues. The primary goal is to simplify adulthood by educating people on matters that are critical to successful living.
Ms. Ryan Bellaire has plans for the app to make money by having vetted service providers pay to be featured on its platform. The great thing about her plan is that the endorsements would not appear until after a user completed the chapters on a given topic. This, she says, would help them make choices that are more informed.
Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, was one of several investors who recently closed a $3.4 million round of seed funding with Ryan Bellaire. It seems to me, this young butterfly learned how to exercise her wings and has plans to fly high!
