Money 03 - Prospering

Last March, I wrote about taking a chance and investing a few dollars with Prosper. After the initial investment of $600 appeared to be doing well, I added an additional $400 for a total of a $1000 investment. I've received a $25 new lender bonus and so far have collected almost $28 in interest payments for a total account value now of $1058.42. For a three month investment, that's around a 23% annual return. Not bad. It beats the 3% that my ING savings account brings or the 3.3% that my last 12-month CDs offered.

Check out my account status as of 15 June 2008. My average loan is around 14% but I just made another loan at 15% so the average will raise a hair.

I'm staying pretty faithful to my strategy: bid only on 100% funded and soon ending listings. I've also stuck with bidding on B or better credit ratings except for once when I was first setting up my loan portfolio.

I'm happy to report that *every* loan has been paid on time or early. Several lenders have made extra or additional payments. If a few months, I'll post my account again and we'll check the progress.