Archive for the ‘ College ’ Category

Hello and good morning to all our readers. Welcome to another edition of the Prosper Roundup. We have lots in store for you today, including a large section for our small business entrepreneurs and for those looking to create their own start-up during this economic situation. Drop us a line when you’re through to tell us what worked for you!

Peer-to-Peer Lending:
• Business Network blogs tips peer to peer lending to have a bigger impact on financial services than file sharing has had on the music industry.

Stock Market and Banking Industry:
• What a tumultuous year – Market Watch says don’t panic and batten down the hatches.
• Wall Street Journal writes Wachovia talks snag over assets.
• Forbes focuses on some of the fastest-growing industries.
• Would split of Wachovia really work, asks the American Banker? (subscription)

Auto, Home, College:
• Tire Track blogs how to finance a car.
• CNN Money proclaims pending home sales rise.
• Students face steep lending curve announces Smart Money.

Small Business:
• Economy stalling your small business? Shift gears with these 4 tips from NYT.
• Kiplinger presents the Small Business Survival Guide.
• Business Week writes Starting a Business in a Downturn.
• Start your own ‘hot’ business says Hattiesburg American.
• Calgary Sun declares business success bolstered by planning.
• Check out the good and bad of unsecured business loans by Global Finance.
• There are three things you must have to have a chance at building a successful business says California Construction Loans.
• Los Angeles Times presents looking for loans in new places.

Prosper Gets Mentioned:
• CNN Money Special Report: America’s Money Crisis - Cash crunch: small businesses get creative
• Prosper.com in New York Times Small Biz Special Section - Likes Taking Risks, Profitable Returns
• New Age Borrowing: Peer to Peer Loans
• Prosper on US News & World Report Blog - Credit Crunch? Your Move, Peer Lending

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RateLadder is a Prosper lender and has been since July, 2006. He has a passion for p2p lending. He owns RateLadder — My Prosper.com Journey and other P2P Lending Adventures, P2P No Bank the P2P Blog Aggregate, and ProProsper — Professional Tools for Prosper Lenders featuring SQL access to Prosper data.

Welcome to this latest edition of Prosper’s Weekly Roundup. The title for this week’s roundup comes from a Forbes headline. There’s a lot going on in the news! Be sure to check out the Stocks and Banking Industry section for more information.

Peer-to-Peer Lending:
• TNL.net presents fast pace look into the History of Currency. P2P Lending is thought to be the ‘uncurrency’ for the lack of a better word.
• Sredel.com muses on P2P Lending - Counter to the Sub-Prime Loan Crisis?
• Peer to Peer Lending and P2P Loans writes Peer to Peer Campaign Finance.

Home and Auto:
• Real Estate Lens discusses VA Loans in VA Home Improvement Loan.
• Business Week Debates the Mortgage Bailout.
• Market Watch presents Best used-car bang for your buck!

Stocks and the Banking Industry:
• Wealth Weekly writes Financial Markets- Just What Went Down Last Week.
• Forbes on Bottom-Feeding Billionaires.
• Seeking Alpha discusses EarthLink options in Making the Best of a Difficult Situation.
• Fix My Personal Finances blogs Chicken Little and the Money Market.
• Yahoo Finance on Largest U.S. bank failure ever.
• Smart Money writes about the bailout in One Baby Step at a Time.
• New York Times with Bailout Talks to Resume After Impasse.

Student Loans:
• Freedom Rocks talks about Federal Student Loans.
• FiLife says Have a Student Loan Question? We Have Answers!
• There are Many Different Kinds Of Student Loans! School Work ugh! goes into a few of them.
• Student Loan Online presents Student Loans Terminology.

Business:
• Blogging Stocks interviews Thomas O’Keefe owner of Bizak in so what are startups worth now?

Taxes and Politics:
• The Wall Street Journal gives a break down on how our taxes will fare under Obama, McCain.
• The Tax Lady Blog provides the Latest from the Candidates on 10 Important Economic Issues.

Prosper Gets Mentioned:
• Regina Lewis talks about P2P lending in Got Cash?
• Banktastics posts a video with a brief write up of market and p2p lending at The Burst - Discrimination & Wall Street (Ep. 34).
• Komo News in Two Quick Ways to Get Hard Cash.
• Small Biz Bee writes So You Need Some Money?

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RateLadder is a Prosper lender and has been since July, 2006. He has a passion for p2p lending. He owns RateLadder — My Prosper.com Journey and other P2P Lending Adventures, P2P No Bank the P2P Blog Aggregate, and ProProsper — Professional Tools for Prosper Lenders featuring SQL access to Prosper data.

Prosper roundup gets switched around! Easy to read categories are going to be our new way of organizing the roundup.

Categories may change from week to week, but overall the feel of the roundup will be the same.

Business Loans:
• SFGate posts an article this last Sunday on how right now it’s a hard time to get new credit. Article discusses housing loans in depth and briefly touches business and personal.
• Commercial Loans Source lists types of commercial loans and provides a succinct overview for beginners.

Mortgage Loans:
• Business Week says subprime mortgages–good luck getting one!
• The Consumerist blogs 12 confessions of a home mortgage collector is an article containing insider knowledge of the system and could help you out.

Student Loans:
• TheState.com writes this article, student loan availability squeezed, which explains how the nationwide credit crunch is affecting higher education.
• Continuing this point of view is Guampdn.com in student loan options shrinking and offers some excellent advice for those worried about paying this semester’s tuition.
• Check out 25 tips, ideas, resources for paying back student loans at Broke College Grad is a consolidated collection of blog articles for paying student loans in a variety of ways.

Small Business Entrepreneur:
• Tips for small business startup by Wealth, Success, and Women is a nice little starter post. What tips would you add?
• These 7 lies that prevent Your Great Idea from becoming a Real Business by Internet Redux might sound like commonsense, but in reality more people than you know believe in them and never try.

P2P Lending:
• Money Crashers writes a scathing review in Richard Branson Makes It Easier To Borrow Money From Your Family. What are your thoughts on loaning money to friends and family?

Prosper Gets Mentioned:
• The Wall Street Journal Small Business Site lists Prosper in Four Sources of Alternative Funds
• At the Active Rain real estate blog Prosper Marketplace is written as an example of alternative funding a down payment for a mortgage extension.
• At Site Point in 5 ways to fund your web startup for online business funding.
• NBC Action News aired a segment on Peer-to-Peer Lending
• KGBT4 features Prosper in their Show Me the Money Segment: Personal Loans
• Barron’s article feature Web Lenders See Opportunity in Bank’s Woes
• More Prime Borrowers at Prosper Site in American banker (subscription required)

Photo Credits: 1

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RateLadder is a Prosper lender and has been since July, 2006. He has a passion for p2p lending. He owns RateLadder — My Prosper.com Journey and other P2P Lending Adventures, P2P No Bank the P2P Blog Aggregate, and ProProsper — Professional Tools for Prosper Lenders featuring SQL access to Prosper data.

Believe that preparing for your family’s financial future is little more than setting up your new baby’s college savings plan? Think again. Parenting comes with a whole host of new expenses and considerations, each rife with potential conflict. If you are expecting a child, therefore, use this time to talk with your partner about the following five topics. Finding common ground before baby arrives will help avoid serious problems later.

1. Stay-at-home-parenting. Not everyone wants to be a full-time parent, so discuss your personal desires at length. If you do want to resign, draw up a detailed budget to know if living on a single income is feasible. In many cases, it requires significant downsizing, so be sure you are both committed to living within tighter financial constraints.

2. Your spending habits. Whether one or both of you will be earning an income, you are now a family and must act as a unified force. Talk about and set spending limits, keeping your partner’s level of comfort in mind. There are a lot of new products you’ll be buying for the baby and it is easy to have conflict over what you need versus what you want.

3. Credit and debt. If ever there was a time to get a handle on debt and credit issues, this is it. Even if you are in the black now, babies come with a lot of new expenses that can easily wind up on plastic. Commit to never charging more than you can afford to repay in a few months’ time. If you are currently holding onto consumer debt, concentrate on repayment.

4. Money management. Who is taking care of the bills in your home - the person who has the opportunity and know-how, or the one who always seems to lose the paperwork? Choose the right money manager. As new parents, you’ll soon be lacking sleep and concentration, making even simple financial tasks challenging. While you’re at it, streamline your finances. Set up online bill-pay and direct deposit with your bank and arrange an automatic savings plan.

5. Your family’s future. Now is the time to dream and plan. Do you want a new home or home improvements, a better or second car, to take exotic vacations, or pay for private schools or higher education costs? Discuss and prioritize your goals, and then start funding them with regular contributions. While you are at it, don’t forget an emergency account – it’s an essential part of every family’s savings plan. Aim for at least three months’ worth of essentials tucked away.

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Erica Sandberg is a nationally recognized credit and money management authority with over a decade of experience delivering personal finance and industry information to consumers, businesses, the media, and courts of law. She recently published a book: Expecting Money: the Essential Financial Plan for New and growing Families

You can visit her website at http://ericasandberg.com/index.html

As Chief Marketing Officer at Upromise from 2002 - 2004, I had the good fortune to meet Michael Bronner, who founded the company, and to work with Senator Bill Bradley, who sat on the Board of Directors.  Both shared my passionate belief in the right to a college education and saw the impending shortfall in funding coming a mile away.

Bronner founded Upromise with the mission to make a college education more accessible and affordable. Senator Bradley has a long track record of support for higher education and continues to put the issue at the top of his agenda, as he did once more in his recent Salt Lake City address. The two were a perfect match and an inspiration to work with. They both care deeply about preventing young people from being forced to choose between work and education.

The Upromise business model is brilliantly simple:  Every time a member buys something from a participating company, that sponsor company contributes part of the purchase price to the member’s tax-deferred college savings account.  Not only is Michael Bronner an impressive brand loyalty pioneer, he’s fundamentally changed the way families save for college.

I now work for Prosper, but I’m a still a member of Upromise and look forward to being prepared when I send my son to college. I also have a Citi MasterCard that puts dollars into our college savings account every time I use it.  And use it I do!  Lest I forget, my son is sure to remind me-he wants to go to college as much as we want him to.

Prosper is also committed to helping people get loans to assist them in their endeavors.  Founded by Chris Larsen and John Witchel, both believe in the philosophy of letting people help people by being able to determine how and where their money gets allocated and at what price.  Prosper is based on an auction-style system which allows a person with funds to commit to select borrowers that are suitable for their degree of risk tolerance.  It’s important to me that we, the people, are stepping up to help those students put education first when banks are closing their door to funding.

American families today are more worried about being able to send their kids to college than they are about their own retirement. Three cheers for innovative tools for college funding like personal loans for students on Prosper and college savings networks like Upromise. Three cheers for people like Michael Bronner and Senator Bill Bradley, and Chris Larsen and John Witchel, who bring them to fruition.

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Catherine Muriel is the Chief Marketing Officer of Prosper.