Friday, January 25, 2008

Affordable Advertising

If you are someone looking for way to advertise and you have a small budget then you might want to try ADEngage.com. It is very easy to use and the price is right, I have been able to run weekly ads for as little as $20.00 a week and you can set it up as a continuous campaign or even a short run if your Ad budget is low for the month.

Above just below the Google search is an a ADEngage.com ad I have set up for a minimum $4.00 a week, an even more affordable advertising campaign, exclusive on my blog. For just $4.00 a week you can run ads through my blog run it weekly as you need it or set it for automatic renewal give it a try, It's easy to use.
If you are trying to monetize you blog or website try using ADEngage.com
I hope this is helpful for my readers and for people new to my blog. I try to find great deals and money saving and wealth building information. If you have a great site of fantastic information please share it by commenting.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Prosper Experiment Jan, 23

Here is my latest winning bid, that is pending review.

Investment House
Homeinvestor74
$14,000.00 @ 10.50%
AA credit grade
30% DTI
100% funded
348 bids
Ended
Pending review
I still have another bid that is still available to bid on. That one I actually had to bid a second time because I was out bid and it is possible I may be out bid again. That is good for the person who wants the loan because it lowers the interest rate for the borrower. The original bid I place was for $50 @ 12.00% interest this was out bid and the new interest to bid at is 10.50%.
Reinvest in Prosper
SJM10011a
$15,000.00 @ 10.50%
AA credit grade
3% DTI
100% funded
344 bids
2 days
Reinvest in Prosper
SJM10011a
$15,000.00 @ 10.50%
AA credit grade
3% DTI
100% funded
344 bids
2 days
Outbid @ 12.00%
Manual bid
Business & Personal Loans. Great Rates. Prosper.

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Friday, January 18, 2008

Get Rich Slowly

I was reading January's issue of Money Magazine. The article "The Future of your Money is Here", was great. The article was about 28 sites to manage and spend your money wisely. The site that I was most impressed by was GetRichSlowly.org go visit it right now.
Here are the other sites to visit and use at your leisure. Personal Finance: Moneycenter.yodlee.com GetRichSlowly.org CNNMoney.com ConsumerismCommentary.com SavingAdvice.com
Cars: ConsumerReports.org Edmunds.com CarDeals.org
Investing: Pimco.com LeggMason.com EfficientFrontier.com DieHards.org
This is my suggestion to the investing section Sharebuilder.com
Networking: Facebook.com LinkedIn.com another shameless choice of mine Yuwie.com
Shopping bargains search SlickDeals.net FatWallet.com
buyer reviews Amazon.com to compare prices PriceGrabber.com Real Estate Trulia.com Zillow.com
check out the neighborhood Outside.in GreatSchools.net lay of the land Maps.Live.com Maps.google.com
Walkscore.com All these site are great places to research and learn more about investing or shopping be it real estate or cars or anything.

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Prosper Experiment Jan 18th

Say Goodbye to LEASING!
luvtogarden
$13,000.00 @ 16.00%
AA credit grade
12% DTI
79% funded
101 bids
3 days
The bid will be finished within three days so we will see what happens.

Yesterday this bid was canceled by Prosper because the income of the borrower could not be verified so I received my $50 dollar bid back and will bid on a new loan.

Dear Eric,

You were a winning bidder on:

Listing title: Say Goodbye to LEASING! Listing number: 264986 Listing created: Jan-14-2008 9:03 AM

However, this listing was cancelled during a pre-funding review for one or more of the following reasons:

  • Income could not be verified.

The funds in the amount of your bid have been returned to your Prosper account, available for further bidding.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely, Prosper

This will be my new bid:

Investment House
Homeinvestor74
$14,000.00 @ 12.74%
AA credit grade
31% DTI
74% funded
165 bids
4 days

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Prosper Experiment

I lost my bid on:
RELIST -Paying off Credit Cards!
RninDebt
$9,500.00 @ 13.20%
AA credit grade
27% DTI
100% funded
150 bids
2 days
$50.00 @ 11.00%
Manual bid
I was out bid on this loan my bid was $50 @ 11.00% someone at Prosper out bid me. Now I went and started a new bid.
Say Goodbye to LEASING!
luvtogarden
$13,000.00 @ 16.00%
AA credit grade
12% DTI
79% funded
101 bids
3 days
The bid will be finished within three days so we will see what happens.
My other bid was successful so now we wait for the review of that bid was, once the review is settled I will wait for my first payback of the loan.
upgrade kitchen
cas157oc02
$10,000.00 @ 10.50%
AA credit grade
25% DTI
100% funded
235 bids
Ended
Pending review

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Bio Fuels, The Enviromental Blog

When you are doing your research on stocks and looking for great green investments be sure to look for companies that are building or using the land we currently have to produce biofuels. Our enviroment is as important as you personal wealth with an awareness to your environment you will instill a future of wealth for generations to come.

BioFuels may do More Harm Than Good

According to the Royal Society and the European Union, unless strict rules are imposed on how biofuels are grown, biofuels have the potential to do more harm than good. Biofuels have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases, however, the devastation to forest lands to clear way for agricultural farming could do more harm to the environment.
blog it

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

Sharing My Prosper Bids: Experiment

I recently bid on two more loans and I thought it would be fun to share those loans and how well they are doing or may not be doing. I really enjoy what you can do with Prosper and I want to be able to show every one how it works.
I want to share the success and failures that may happen while investing in this type of program. Below are my most recently won bids, as I go I will share new bids and the returns I receive on at least ten bids in the next few months.
I will be receiving the first payment on these loans next month and we will see what happens.
clipped from www.prosper.com

Bids

Active Listing Bids
Title / Borrower Amount @ Rate Grade / DTI % Funded / Total bids Time leftBid amt @ Rate / Bid type Status
upgrade kitchen
cas157oc02
$10,000.00 @ 10.50%
AA credit grade
25% DTI
100% funded
176 bids
1 day
$52.00 @ 9.00%
Manual bid
Winning
RELIST -Paying off Credit Cards!
RninDebt
$9,500.00 @ 13.20%
AA credit grade
27% DTI
100% funded
150 bids
2 days
$50.00 @ 11.00%
Manual bid
Winning
2 bids on active or pending review listings
blog it

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Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Repost from Prosper Blog by Wealth Boy

I thought I would repost this on my blog because it is very good information how to build a profitable Prosper portfolio.

Diversification and Setting Limits

01/8/08 posted by WealthBoy

I would like to provide the Prosper community with some of my thoughts on building a profitable lending portfolio. Of course, what such article is complete without mention of diversification? Certainly anyone could tell you that diversifying your portfolio by spreading the risk over multiple investments is a good idea. But how many different loans should you invest in? At least 30!

Diversification

Why 30? A well-known statistical rule of thumb states that you should try to use a sample size of at least 30 in order to improve the accuracy of any analysis performed on normally distributed data. According to the central limit theorem, “as the sample size n increases, the distribution of the sample average approaches the normal distribution with a mean µ and variance σ2/n irrespective of the shape of the original distribution.” That means that even if data is not normally distributed, as the sample size increases the distribution will approximate that of the normal distribution.

It is very likely that the average return for unsecured loans is normally distributed, so the rule of 30 should apply well to peer-to-peer lending. Even if the average return isn’t normally distributed, the central limit theorem states, that the larger the sample size is the better it will approximate the normal distribution anyway. This means that the more loans in which you invest (with equal amounts per investment), the better your chances are in achieving the average expected return. Please note that I stated “average expected return” and not average interest rate. When I say average expected return, it means average interest rate - average net defaults - average fees.

Setting Limits

That brings me to the next topic of setting limits. It is very important to consider potential costs associated with your portfolio when placing bids. You should consider the probability of defaults and fees, as costs of maintaining the portfolio. When bidding on loans with lower debt grades (i.e. higher risk loans), you will need to set higher minimum rates in order to compensate for defaults and fees. Each bid placed should take these costs into consideration, as well as the desired total return on the portfolio. The “Expected Return” calculation on the Prosper bid page is an excellent tool in helping to decide at what interest rate to place your bids. (Editor’s Note: Another great tool is the Marketplace Performance Tool.)

Of course, each individual loan will ultimately either default or be fully repaid. Therefore, on an individual basis the actual cost of a loan default is much higher than the estimated cost. If a loan defaults, the cost will essentially be the original amount lent minus any principal and interest paid up until the time of default. However, if enough individual loans are made with similar estimated costs, the figures on the bidding page should provide a good estimate of the costs on the total portfolio.

Once you have placed your bids in accordance with your desired overall portfolio performance, you need to be patient and wait for the listings to close. If you’ve bid on a good listing, there should be plenty of other bidders on the loan and it should reach 100% funding. Often after a bid has reached 100% funding and it approaches the expiration, a bidding war takes place. I believe that the activity taking place is a result of the actions of two types of bidders:

  1. Those looking for a good deal (that matches their risk profile) that will close quickly.
  2. Those that were outbid and rebid to ensure that they win.

Do not become the latter! If you are outbid on a listing, do not be compelled to rebid. It is not a competition where you win a prize if you win the bid. If you were outbid, it was because the marketplace was willing to take on more risk than you. Besides, at the rapid pace that Prosper is growing, there will always be plenty of new listings to bid on.

It is of the utmost importance to be very patient when investing funds. You should draw the line and never cross it. You should expect to lose a lot of bids. You should also expect to do a lot of bidding before having a winning bid on a funded loan. I’ve found that only about 10% of my bids are being funded, which is just fine with me. As soon as I lose a bid, I look for another loan to bid on with the money returned to me. I think that all too often, lenders cross the line or even worse they never drew a line to begin with.

Prosper

If you properly diversify your portfolio and properly set your limits, you should be well on your way to building a profitable lending portfolio. I would recommend that you invest at least $1,500 and spreading it over 30 $50 loans. If you invest more than $1,500, investing in more than 30 $50 loans will make your results all the more predictable. If you invest considerably more (on the order of tens of thousands or more) it may not be as easy to keep your bids as low as $50. However, if you do keep your bids down to just $50, your results will be much more predictable. It will just take much longer for the large investment to eventually reach funded loans. All it takes is a little discipline and a lot of patience.

—

WealthBoy is a new Prosper lender (BankOfY) and writes the personal finance blog WealthBoy. He performs financial and statistical analysis in his day-to-day job. He enjoys following the financial markets and seeking out new ways to invest. He is well versed in investing in mutual funds, stocks, and options and has found peer-to-peer lending to be another good method for investing. He also loves to watch Florida Football and Florida Men’s Basketball.

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Monday, January 7, 2008

Intel Unveils 16 Next-Generation Processors, Including First Notebook Chips Built on 45nm Technology

Symbol: INTC

Intel Corporation unveiled 16 products today, including the company’s first 45 nanometer (nm) processors for Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology based laptops.

All of these new chips include the company’s new transistor formula and 45nm manufacturing process that boost a PC’s speed, reduces power requirements, saves on battery life, helps the environment and comes in smaller packages for more fashionable and compact computer designs. With the introduction of the new processors, Intel will be offering a total of 32 desktop, laptop and server processors based on these industry-leading innovations.

The company also highlighted how it will take advantage of its transistor and manufacturing advances to spur a category of small form-factor, low-powered, high-performance devices that deliver broadband Internet access “in your pocket.” The processors are up to 25 percent smaller than previous versions, so computer makers can create sleek, new designs for consumers ranging from stylish all-in-one desktop PCs to smaller notebooks.

Among the 16 new products, 12 are designed for new laptops and desktops products and four are for servers. All are now lead-free1 and, starting this year, halogen-free2, making the processors more eco-friendly.

“The new products we’re announcing today provide consumers and businesses with the benefit of sleeker and higher-performing laptops and more powerful and fashionable PCs that deliver for the most hard-core gamer, high-definition enthusiast and just about every other consumer demand,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, mobile platforms group, Intel. “And later this year, Intel will begin delivering the mobile Internet with much smaller, lighter and powerful Internet-enabled devices that ultimately will fit right into your pocket.”

Intel Adds Mobile Processors to Line-up

Intel is shipping five new mobile processors, enabling breakthrough performance and improved battery life, providing consumers with the ability to be more productive or just enjoy their digital entertainment while on the go. Helping to extend battery life is also a new Intel Core microarchitecture design feature for advanced power management state called Deep Power Down Technology that reduces the power of the processor when it’s not running data or instructions to the laptop.

The processors are the foundation for the company’s popular Intel® Centrino® technology for laptops, and deliver improved content and video capabilities with HD DVDa and Blu-Raya support with an optional third-party decoder. Centrino-based notebooks also come with the Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset and wireless networking including the optional support for 802.11n networks with Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N.

Intel has also added new video and graphics capabilities with Intel® HD Boost that includes Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4) for speeding up workloads including video encoding for high-definition and photo manipulation.

Intel will also use this mobile technology foundation and energy-efficient performance to enable a variety of smaller, cooler and quieter, stylish desktop designs. These computers, including the increasingly popular “all-in-one” category, provide the performance to run a variety of digital media and the latest software simultaneously, as well as enhanced high-definition video and smoother playback using Intel® Clear Video Technology.

More Mobility on Tap: in Your Pocket; Wireless WiMAX

Pushing the power of the full Internet “in your pocket,” Intel’s strategy for using low-power Intel Architecture platforms that drastically reduce CPU and chipset power, and package size continues to gain momentum. Intel plans to ship in the first half of this year its first-generation low-power platform chipset that will help deliver a range of ultra mobile and mobile Internet devices from a growing ecosystem of customers.

Intel also continues to work closely with carriers around the world to deploy mobile WiMAX networks. These networks will help deliver true high-speed mobile Internet experiences to a variety of digital devices starting later this year.

Mainstream Desktop PCs Get 45nm Performance and Efficiency Boost

Building on its November 2007 introduction (the Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core processor QX9650), Intel announced three quad core and four dual core 45nm-based processors for mainstream desktop PCs arriving later this month and throughout the first quarter of the year.

The new Intel® Core™ 2 Quad and Intel Core™ 2 Duo processor offerings will speed the transition to Intel’s newest processor line and multicore adoption, and are arriving at a time when digital and high-definition content, including photos, home videos, music, television shows and social networking, continues to grow exponentially.

Consumers will realize more performance at a variety of PC purchase prices as these processors feature a range of clock speeds, large L2 caches, and also come equipped with Intel® HD Boost (SSE4 instructions). These 45nm processors are also a requirement for computer-makers carrying the Intel Core™2 Processor with Viiv™ technology brand, making it easier for consumers to select a great entertainment PC with Intel’s most innovative technologies.

Dual core desktop processor-based PCs using these new processors begin shipping this month; quad core-based systems plan to arrive later this quarter.

The company also introduced four Intel Xeon processors for servers and workstations; they are expected to ship this quarter.

More information is available at Intel’s CES virtual press kit at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/ces2008/index.htm.

About Intel

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

Intel, Centrino, Xeon, and Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

a Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

1 45nm product is manufactured on a lead-free process. Lead-free per EU RoHS directive July 2006. Some EU RoHS exemptions may apply to other components used in the product package.

2 Residual amounts of halogens are below November 2007 proposed IPC/JEDEC J-STD-709 standards.

Contacts: Intel Corporation Connie Brown, 503-791-2367 (cell) connie.m.brown@intel.com

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