Do well by doing good

Below is an email I received from Prosper, and I agree with is whole heartedly. I love 'It's a Wonderful life'.

As financial institutions continue to tighten credit guidelines and restrict credit, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to get a personal loan in many states. Where can they go for relief?

People Helping People They can come to Prosper. Prosper takes us back to a time when helping your neighbor was the cornerstone of community. People looking for personal loans can now go to a new community--Prosper--and appeal to the George Bailey of It's a Wonderful Life in all of us. Just people helping people...and all without a bank.

With the new lending and deposit landscape, people can now use P2P lending to bridge many of the gaps between large banks and Main Street. And people-to-people lending adds new checks and balances to the few powerful banks that remain by giving everyone a new choice. People's sense of "doing well by doing good" will become more important than ever to ensure that tomorrow's entrepreneurs, students, and homeowners aren't paying the price for today's market downturn.

If you have some extra cash or idle money sitting on Prosper, revisit the site and see if you can help out someone in the community. And why not tell your friends about helping others out through Prosper--suggest they become a lender. It can be a rewarding experience.

It's nice to know there's still a little bit of Bedford Falls out there.

Prosper: Let's bank on each other.

Regards, Prosper

Your Children are at Risk

This is an article pulled from a special report from Identity Theft Shield.

Theft of children's IDs are increasing, and a University of Florida (UF) consumer education expert says the problem can actually be worse for younger victims."many parents don't even realize that child identity theft exists, which means the crime often goes undetected for years," says Mary Harrison, a professor with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Science.

Identity thieves treat personal data from children and adults the same way, with one important distinction. That is, thieves create new credit accounts for child victims, whereas most cases of adult identity theft involves existing accounts. That can make the crime worse for child victims.

In July, Utah's Operation Protect the Children uncovered an alarming crime spree involving identities stolen from victims under the age of 12. In a joint investigation by the Utah Attorney General's Office, the Office of Inspector General for Social Security Administration and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigators checked Utah state records and found that approximately 1,800 Social Security numbers belonging to children under 13 may have been compromised.

"Everyone is doing everything possible to protect the identities of children," says Resident Agent in Charge Ron Ingleby, Office of the Inspector General for the SSA in a pres release. "Identity thieves could get away with destroying a child's credit for years unless we stop them".

Parents should protect documents and other information of their preschool-age children. They should not carry their child's Social Security card, and should complain if their child's school uses Social Security numbers to identify students.

For older children, the popularity of personal computers in homes and schools creates a risk they will be victimized by Internet scams such as "phishing," says Harrison. "Even bright children who are very computer-savvy may not understand the dangers of being too free with their personal information." Harrison recommends that parents monitor their children's Internet use, talk to their kids about identity theft and tell them what information they should and should not share with others.

My Pre-Paid Legal Start

I have recently joined Pre-Paid Legal, something I have been wanting to do for some time. Usually the start up cost for this business is $249, I believe as of August they started promoting the startup cost at $49 dollars making this home business even more attractive.

The other benefit I found was Pre-Paid Legals Identity Theft Shield with the growing string of identity theft in the world I thought that this made for a very very attractive home business.

If your want to learn more here are two places you can check out. View the movie one is for those who wish to be associates and the other is for those who want to be members.

Associate site

Member site

Things to consider when diversifying

This was an email I got from Prosper and it has some great insights from Prospers CFO Kirk Inglis

A common subject our community members talk about is: how many loans does a lender need to be diversified? As far as a number is concerned, based on my review of marketplace data I believe that that a minimum of 100 equal sized loans achieves effective diversification. In fact, I believe there are still diversification benefits up to 200 equal sized loans. But there is more to diversification to consider.

Equal bid size Keep in mind that diversification is not just about the number of loans, but also the fact that the loans are of equal size. If you are in the habit of varying bid size, your loans will become less diversified. Although many lenders employ a strategy of bidding larger amounts on loans that they deem of better relative quality, there is no evidence these lenders have lowered their risk. In fact an analysis of lender returns shows that diversified lenders with equal bid size carry the least risk.

Planning It is always a good idea to do some planning before you start deploying your funds. A key piece of information to consider is the maximum amount of money you are likely to deploy on Prosper's platform. If you are likely to deploy less than $5,000, you should strongly consider only bidding $50 per listing. Even up to $10,000, lenders may want to stick to a $50 bid size, even though a slightly higher bid size would allow the lender to deploy their funds more quickly.

Of course, there may be circumstances that call for exceptions to this minimum bid size strategy, such as in cases where a lender is bidding on a borrower who is a friend or family member, but if your goal is diversification it's best to stick to a minimum bid size as much as possible.

Other diversification considerations

In addition to loan size, lenders may want to consider other types of diversification. For example, lenders may want to make sure that the loans they own span across many geographic regions to reduce their exposure to a regional economic downturn. Other potential sources of diversity may be occupation of the borrowers or loan purpose.

Discipline and patience are important characteristics of successful Prosper lenders, and nowhere is this more important than with respect to diversification. If you want to learn more about diversification and becoming a better Lender please consider attending one of our webinars.

Sincerely, Kirk Inglis

Propser Commercial

Here's one of the Prosper commercials that have been on TV

Krav Maga. What is it?

I have recently taken great interest in the martial art of Krav Maga, the contact combat system of the Israel Defense Forces.

My interest took shape when I saw Krav Maga on "Human Weapon" on the History channel and then again on Discovery channels "Fight Quest".

My blog is called "Share The Wealth" not just for finance but for anything that brings wealth of knowledge to an individual. I like to encourage people to share with others to build wealth mentally, physically, spiritually and financially. I welcome all kinds of comments and thoughts that inspired everyone to be come wealthy with knowledge. I have stated this very thought numerous times and hope that I have touched many people with something that has inspired them.

Now Krav Maga is very new to me and it is something that I have found very inspiring and I hope you find it inspiring too.

Zlio

“Zlio” - have you heard of this useful little e-Hobby that’s currently working wonders on the internet?

It’s a weird name for a cool service which I’ve started to use, which allows you to create your own shop in less than five minutes! Yes Sir - all in five minutes, and no need to know HTML or even to deal with the usual headaches of creating a website!

And now, I have my own online shop which I can personalize as much as I want and on which I can sell products which I’ve selected from a database of over three million - the only really tough thing was to think of a good name for the shop!

All I really need to do, now, is to advertise my shop to other people and let them now about it, because I get a very cool commission (2% to 15%) every time someone buys something from me! But of course, I never need to handle the items myself - all of that’s dealt with for me!

Wondering what it will take to become a millionaire?

Here is a nice tool to help give you a picture of what it will take. The Millionaire Tool

Wii Internet Channels

This is the first time I have use the Wii Internet Channel to write a blog. It is still easier to do this via the computer but for sheer laziness it is very convenient to sit and switch between watching T.V. and seeing what's online right from your couch. The biggest downside is the you do not have an up to date flash video software to enjoy some sites the good news I can still enjoy Youtube.

CNBC's Million Dollar Challenge

It is that time of year again CNBC's Million Dollar challenge is back. To learn more and register click here