Done With Prosper.com

Well, my stock picks are not looking too good at the moment. Who would of thought the market would collapse like that. But, check back in a year or so and they may not look so bad...

In previous posts I have discussed prosper.com (Peer-to-Peer Lender) as a nice alternative to invest your money. Well, due to a number of my loans on Prosper defaulting over the last couple of months, I have decided I will no longer be investing in any loans on the site going forward. Their credit requirements are too lax and their are too many defaults among their borrowers.

If I do invest in Peer-to-Peer Lending in the future, I will be using lendingclub.com where the credit requirements are more strict. I have nine loans with lending club, and so far, for all of them, the borrowers have paid on time.

Stock Picks and Stock Picking

Been a long time since my last post (I have been lazy), but here are a couple of stock picks for Oct 2nd, 2008:

FNM 1.56
FRE 1.80

Both Fannie and Freddie are huge billion dollar companies (backed by the Federal Govt I might add) that I see getting back in their feet in the long-term. I will check back in a year and see how my picks did. I will post more picks in the future as I come across them.

I'm also working on putting together a stock picking program that I have been meaning to design and develop. I think given the current stock market conditions, its time as come. Will update in the coming weeks and months as I begin design and development.

Personal Finance Blogs

Here is a re-post of some of my favorite personal finance blogs. All are very good and very informative. Here are some links to a few of the blogs I read daily:

Get Rich Slowly
Lazy Man and Money
Five Cent Nickel
The Simple Dollar
BripBlap

Lending Club

There is new Peer-to-Peer lending site up and running now called Lending Club. It works similar to Prosper. According to their site, on average, you can earn 12.3% returns as a lender, and borrow money for as low 7.62% if you have a stellar credit. You can bid on loans in increments as little as 25$, or use 500$ and have them create a portfolio for you based on your risk aversion. I have been using Prosper for almost a year now so I'm going to try this site and see how it is.