TorstenInLosAngeles

I wasn’t sure at first but I finally transferred my first $1200 to prosper. I had signed up first with lending club but I think the number of people using this new site is just too little for right now. I looked at the number of total lending opportunities and of today I just found 117 loans compared with more than 2000 listings in prosper. So for right now I will stick with prosper. I can start making my first loan on Wednesday when the money will be transferred. I am quiet excited and I will definetely try to limit my lending amount to $50/bid to reduce my risk. I still have another $900 left in my Scottrade acount that I could use but I think I will leave that amount for some stock trading

The last days I was busy to sell all my bad investments of the last year. Sharebuilder, as I mentioned earlier, did not work out for me and I sold it. I lost about $150 on my original investment of $1300 (or $1248 after fees) and even with the Costco sign up bonus and some interest I am still under water. I also sold my Scottrade shares of Fremont (FMT). That too, cost me about $2000 and that really hurts. At least, I can claim some losses in my Tax Return but it won’t help much. For the new year I look forward to engage in online lending with either Prosper or Lending Club. I signed up for both but yet undecided which one is the better choice. I will transfer my Sharebuilder money to on of the accounts and plan to make small lendings of not more than $50 to restrict the risk. Hopefully the new year will bring some better investemt return. In the meantime I am continuing to put money in my online savings account with fnbodirect which is at 5.05% and still on of the best money market/savings accounts.
Happy New Year !