Filife.com is a personal finance Website created by The Dow Jones Company and IAC. Filife contains personal finance content from the Wall Street Journal and interactive tools provided by IAC. Filife uses modern Internet social networking tools to help members improve their financial situation and to acquire personal financial information in a one-stop shopping area. Filife stands for “Finacial Life” (as in “get a”).

Upon signing up for Filife, the new member is invited to provide certain financial information about themselves. This information includes household income, car value, home value, credit score and other pieces of personal financial information. Using this information, Filife allows one to compare their financial situation using a tool called “The Stacker” to groups of people such as the United States as a whole, everyone in one’s age group, everyone in one’s zip code and so on. The information one provides to The Stacker can be used to direct the member to posted deals and content that applies to them.

Filife, like Gaul, seems to be divided into three parts. These parts of Filife are Fideals, the Blog and Reviews.

Fideals consists of financial deals that are either offered by Filife’s various advertisers or noticed by other members. Examples of such deals can be good terms on checking accounts, insurance policies or new credit cards.

The blog consists of short articles on personal finance, complete with comments. Examples of articles include a piece on new credit card limits, a piece on the financial health of hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and a piece on the use of Ebay to sell counterfeit goods.

Reviews consists of reviews of certain financial goods and services such as banks, insurance companies, 401Ks, credit cards, financial planning services and so on. Various financial goods and services are rated by Filife and reviewed by members. In addition, one can ask a specific “guru” or financial expert vetted by Filife questions about the financial good or service being reviewed.

Filife seems to be easy to navigate for anyone with a little Internet savvy. The most useful part of Filife is very likely the review section. Amazon.com helped to pioneer customer reviews of products that its sells and it has proven invaluable to the Internet shopper. Customer reviews of financial goods and services should be equally useful, coupled with Filife’s rankings.

Filife is said to be a work in progress, “like a gothic cathedral,” with new features being added all the time. Filife has the potential of becoming to financial services world what Amazon.com has been to consumer goods.

Source:
Filife.com

Submitted By: Mark Whittington