SmartMoney Launches LifePlan, Free Online Tool for Organizing and Managing Your Financial Life

Last Updated on Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:15 Tuesday, 09 March 2010 23:15

Smart Money Magazine SmartMoney, the personal finance magazine from The Wall Street Journal, has launched a free online service called LifePlan (www.smartmoney.com/lifeplan) to help consumers take control of and actively manage their financial lives.

The new tool will provide personalized guidance, worksheets, calculators and action items in four key "pillars" -- investments, health care, real estate and legacy issues -- supported by ongoing LifePlan-related articles in the magazine over the next year. The April issue (on newsstands March 16) will feature four LifePlan-related covers, in a unique tabbed design, each corresponding to one of the four pillars. Advertising sponsorship for LifePlan is provided by Fidelity Investments.

LifePlan is the first free online service to go beyond budgeting and financial product recommendations to enable better financial decision making across all areas of consumers' financial lives. Getting started takes less than five minutes: consumers simply register a username and password and answer some basic questions about their financial lives.
LifePlan then provides a personalized financial roadmap, including:

-- A to-do list of tasks, customizable with due dates and personal notes, which can be filtered by urgency, pillar affiliation or stage of completion.

-- Relevant articles from SmartMoney in each of the four pillars, updated on a regular basis, and selected based on the user's financial profile. For example, homeowners might receive information on whether to refinance their house, while renters would see stories on lowering their rent or determining whether now is a good time to buy.

-- Worksheets and checklists to help with key decisions, for example choosing the most economical health plan for your family or determining your 401(k) asset allocations.

-- Short videos, hosted by SmartMoney columnist Stephanie Auwerter, introducing each area and giving instructions on how to get the most out of the tool.

-- Email reminders of upcoming task due dates.

SmartMoney is enjoying success within the magazine category. March advertising pages were up seven percent versus March 2009, and April ad pages showed a 44.3 percent increase over last year. SmartMoney has a readership of 800,000.

SmartMoney (www.smartmoney.com), the personal financial magazine from The Wall Street Journal, was launched in 1992 to service the need for personal finance information among a group of affluent and sophisticated Americans. The SmartMoney editorial team has won three National Magazine Awards.

SmartMoney.com was launched in 1997 to reflect the magazine's strong background of personal finance, as well as to provide users with innovative interactive tools and worksheets. SmartMoney.com has become the most comprehensive resource on the Web for private investors, providing top-quality financial reporting, commentary and analysis, and decision-making tools. The site features a portfolio management system; a subscription-based product, SmartMoney Select; and its signature product, the Map of the Market, which allows users to visualize the wide-ranging market in a single view. The site was awarded the 2001 National Magazine Award for "Best Interactive Design" from the American Society of Magazine Editors and has been praised by Forbes, Fortune, PC Magazine and The Web Marketing Association.