[moneydance] Prosper.com Account Question

[Richard McIntyre]

Loaning money to complete strangers?  No FDIC?  No loan payback
guarantees?  Not for me.  Sounds like a great deal for prosper.com's
owners.  Go to your local gambling casino if you like the excitement of
risking your money -- you'll probably have more fun.



Scott Zahn wrote:
> I set up my prosper.com account as an asset account.  It seemed closer
> to an asset than a bank account when I set it up, probably because I was
> reading an article by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame.  I
> might have to change the account type after I get my first statement,
> but for now it's an asset.  Trying to set it up as an investment account
> just wouldn't work since it's not really an investment in the typical
> sense.  It's more like a wierd capital generating thingy.  I guess
> that's how I describe peer to peer lending.
> 
> cheers,
> Scott
> 
> P.S.  What are your impressions of it as part of an investment strategy?
> My thoughts so far are that, while there are certainly loans to
> consider, most of them are crap.  After the .5% service fee and income
> taxes, any loan under ~13.5% (possibly higher) won't beat stocks over
> the long term, which then provides a real disincentive for me to invest
> in them.
> 
> On Thu, 2006-08-17 at 06:26 -0400, Elana Shenton wrote:
>> Prosper.com is a peer-to-peer lending system and it's new.  I'm trying it
>> out with a VERY small amount of money (as a lender) and was wondering about
>> the best way to track loans with Moneydance.  It's a very interesting
>> concept but it's so new, I'm not sure it's an investment account or
>> something else.  It works a bit like an investment account, but you're
>> investing in people.   They have grades based on their credit score (reminds
>> me of Morningstar) and you make a decision whether or not to invest in all
>> or part of the desired loan.  You can put in as little as $50. You bid on
>> the loan based on interest, so you could bid $50 at 23% on a high risk loan
>> and you'd get 23% back on that loan (as long as it's paid).  Or it can be
>> thought of as a CD with a variable yield and risk you won't get some or all
>> of the money back if the borrower defaults.  As I said, it's interesting.
>> I'm just not sure how to track it in Moneydance.   I do transfer funds from
>> my bank account into my prosper.com account and they have to be available
>> before I can invest in a loan.  Any thoughts?
>>
> 
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