FiLife venture opens personal finance site

By Michele Gershberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - FiLife, a personal finance venture from IAC/InterActiveCorp and Dow Jones & Co, will open its site to a public test on Wednesday after a year in development and much media speculation over its future.

The aim is to help consumers who want to improve their financial situation figure out how they stack up against their peers when it comes to income, household debt and savings.

FiLife enters a competitive market for personal financial advice, including large players like Yahoo and sites like Mint.com that offer money management tools.

FiLife's potential audience will likely include people who do not frequent finance sites, but would listen if someone suggested ways to pay less in bank fees or earn more interest.

"They have a nagging thought at the back of their minds: 'I ought to get my wallet in order,'" FiLife President Dave Kansas told Reuters. "People want to know where they stand ... how am I doing and how can I get better?"

The site's tools allow a user to compare their personal financial situation, based on eight parameters, against those of people in their state, city or even closer to home. Once that data is entered, the site responds with suggestions such as how to ask for a raise or how to put aside more savings.

Kansas, a former editor at Dow Jones's Wall Street Journal and TheStreet.com, said FiLife would expand that to as many as 20 potential parameters over time, to give more specific information to users.

On a community level, the idea is to get users talking about and reviewing different financial products, from savings accounts to CDs and credit card offers, not unlike sites that already rate hotels or restaurants. FiLife's business will depend on advertising and sponsored listings for financial products.