Recently I wrote in this blog about educating Generation Y and X women on retirement and I suggested that the Department of Labor create an app to go along with its Wi$e Up financial literacy website for young women. After further digging, I came across a a few iPhone apps (titled Women, Wealth and Wisdom) that help young women envision their retirement and start planning today. So I thought I'd give one of them a test drive.

The app is Women, Wealth and Wisdom Retirement Income Calculator created by AXA Equitable Financial Services back in 2009 as part of a suite of financial apps for women. The app does what it's supposed to do, nothing more and nothing less. Users can type in some basic information about their retirement savings and the calculator spits back some estimated answers to questions like "How much money will I have to spend each month of my retirement?" Users can adjust things like rate of return and years of retirement.

Although not particularly specific to women, I found this app to be functional and generally helpful in answering the basic questions. There was one minor oddity, though. The default answer for the "current age" section of the form is 60. Yikes! I thought we were trying to get women to start planning for retirement early? Still, unlike your real retirement numbers, the defaults in this app can be easily changed.