I find it ironic on this day, the fourth anniversary of Prosper.com’s inception, that I’m paying off my loan with them in total (paid $1,430). Next stop on the debt freedom train is my Lending Club loan which has less than $450 remaining to be paid. Repaying early penalizes the lenders for believing in the viability of a concept I can no longer support. May they see the folly of their ways. Reform and accountability must appear in P2P immediately.
It’s been over a week since my open letter to FolioFN… No reply. The result? Epic failure of service and complete distrust and distaste of P2P Lending. Hope the SEC (when they aren’t downloading copious levels of porn) will investigate and close down the secondary marketplace structure held by Prosper.com and LendingClub.com since it has many issues that need to be addressed.
I’m working to wind all of my P2P accounts down to $0 as soon as possible. Also going to payoff my Prosper.com loan later this week. So fed up with irresponsible behavior (FolioFN, Prosper, etc) in this social lending scene. Congress or the SEC needs to open an investigation ASAP into the shady practices in this new industry before people get serious screwed over.
My thanks to the fine people over at Prospers.org for taking the discussion further to include other issues I have no touched upon. I figured if I was going to lure a skunk out I would tempt it with something it was more likely to address vs. the issues you guys and gals were able to drum up. Still nothing from the people at FolioFN I’m afraid to report.
http://prospers.org/forum/trouble_brewing_in_the_secondary_market-t18480.0.html
Disclaimers…
Free registration may be required to access discussion.
A warning to those who ‘believe’ in P2P Lending…
They follow P2P like it was God, but from an Atheist’s point of view.:p
Dear FolioFN,
Thank you for attempting to contact me regarding the issues I have brought to your attention with regards to the trading marketplace at LendingClub.com. First, let me say that A) I will not be returning your messages and B) propose a simple solution to the entire issue. First, let me put the issue into perspective for those who aren’t aware of it. FolioFN is LendingClub’s designated trading platform partner and as such allows for the purchase and sale of tradeable notes within its marketplace. This allows the seller liquidity while allowing the purchaser an entry point into the marketplace (when primary marketplace access is forbidden due to state regulations, etc). FolioFN has a flaw in their system however which reduces the liquidity and actually screws up the buyer and seller of said notes. The flaw? If a note is pending payment the note can go up for sale, however, FolioFN doesn’t screen for this and allows the offer of sale to post on their site. The problem? Well, the note sits for anywhere from a day to several (if purchased on the weekend) and then gets canceled because the note has a payment in process. My question and overriding concern is this… Why can’t they block the listing of such notes before they stop up the entire system with useless note listings that prevent the flow of capital within the marketplace? I haven’t gotten any email, message or anything from FolioFN that leads me to believe the problem is something they can fix or even desire to fix. I’m no programmer, but I do know that flags can be set up within any database structure to allow for the de-listing of any note that migrates into the ‘payment pending’ category. This prevents the potential buyer from waiting upward of days before being away that their money is stagnant and not earning them a dime which is the case with the current set up. I want someone at FolioFN to post, in the comments, an open response which I believe the users of LendingClub and FolioFN (which charges an outrageous 1% seller fee for services, which should only be around 0.0002% or less based on what I’ve seen on the ’service side’) would like hear in response. I had several (more than a dozen) notes cancel on me over the past year without so much as an email or flag on the account to notify me of the cancellation. Lack of courtesy and a properly functioning marketplace let me to sell all of my notes recently until this issue of validation is resolved.
Myself and others in the peer lending industry await your response to an issue which makes the failure of the secondary marketplace a more likely event. I personally don’t want to see that as it means the demise of the primary marketplace is sure to follow. This concerns both Prosper.com and LendingClub.com as they both use FolioFN for trading services.
Sincerely,
thelittlevc
P.S. Can we also get better functionality on the search features, some saved searches, filtering, etc. Your interface is so 1997 it’s embarrassing.
purchased several shares of Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU) this morning. This rounds out my four fund portfolio of real estate, large cap dividend, small cap dividend and utilities. The work now is to feed these positions and recycle the dividends.
Great ETF article by Stan over at ‘Money Under 30′ on the future of ETFs. http://www.moneyunder30.com/future-of-etfs
Transferred some money for use on Monday AM for some bargains in the market. People get so freaking scared whenever Gov’t wipes it’s nose with an alleged cold. Get your priorities straight with your investment strategy and even the Gov’t can fuck it up (unless of course there is a coup or it goes bankrupt)! Going to add to my positions and ride the fear wave back up.
Why is it that every time Obama opens his mouth it wipes out stocks? Shut up already dude and let the market do the correcting it needs to do without you messing around with it! Otherwise voters (who work for a living) in 2012 will show you the exit…
I don’t use retirement accounts for two three reasons… I don’t believe in retirement, which is by definition the stagnation of life placing you one step away from the graveyard and secondly, who can guarantee that Congress won’t change the rules or the tax rate (now historically low) by then?Finally, the fees they charge for my work’s retirement account and the insane costs of mutual funds (2% is about the average annual expense) in that account are ridiculous! My wife’s 401k isn’t any better!
I prefer to have access to money NOW and LATER to live life NOW and LATER! I use tax efficient ETF funds to acquire dividends which can either be use to cover expenses in life (travel, emergencies, etc) or reinvested to create more dividend payments in the future. Be in control of your finances and stop listening to the noise! Investment firms have it in THEIR best interest to have you keep your money in a retirement account so they can collect fees, fees and more fees!
Stop the fees, keep expenses on your investments low and focus on a core portfolio of ETF’s which trade like stock, but are pools of stock like mutual funds (at many times less on the expense).
Three core funds make for some remarkable dividend payments in my portfolio… A large cap dividend fund, small cap dividend fund and a REIT fund. Staying away from bond as interest rates should start climbing soon which will crush bonds. Plus, in my opinion, if health care reform passes, this country will be bankrupt before the end of 2011 as the Chinese and others will protest by not buying our debt. The era of lavish living on the backs of future debtors will come to a crashing end if it comes to pass.
I’m slowly scrubbing away the original theme of this blog which was peer lending (P2P lending) as I’m done with it altogether at last. New year, new strategies!
My portfolio currently consists of DES, VNQ and VYM. All dividend-based, low cost, high cash flow funds. I’m about the ‘flow’ and less about the appreciation of assets. If it puts regular cash in my pockets, it’s a good investment!
Blog is being retooled to reflect new path with investments.
I’m currently reading ‘The ETF Book’ by Richard A. Ferri. What personal-finance-based book are you currently reading?
I’m looking into dividend strategies for the new year. So this site just may evolve into a dividend stock/fund discussion in the near future.
I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.
Pablo Picasso
As promised, my first book review on the site. I give the honor to none other than Gary Vaynerchuk, the master of social media and life passion. So first, who is Gary Vay-ner-chuk? He’s the high energy madman who helped launch WineLibrary from a small business to a $60 million+ a year monster for his family! How did he do that? He crushed it by tapping into his personal strengths and creativity and sprinkled in a liberal amount (much like dumping a bucket of salt into a soup dish) of passion for his, what I would call, life product. Starting with a modest project called WineLibraryTV which was a video blog (vlog) about wine. It wasn’t just about any particular label or vintage it was about the love of the product, the knowledge… THE PASSION for it! He grew up in a small immigrant family with barely two nickels to rub together when they arrived, but Gary’s father Sasha knew America was the place and away they went to pursue life in the land of opportunity. Hearing about Gary’s antics as a child and his realization of business acumen he had been born with thanks to the pairing of his passive-strategist father and firebrand-of-passion mom he was a literal firecracker. His book focuses in on the core reasons people go into business, should go into business, the tools the modern internet era provide to ignite your own fuse easily and how to locate that inner explosive power to, well, CRUSH IT! Gary points to social media resources such as Facebook and Twitter as well as useful website creation tools like WordPress and Tumblr for building your personal brand from scratch and into a powerhouse. His best chapter is his shortest and it’s a true message about customers and why you should tattoo it onto your forehead. Whether your passion is custom birdfeeders, toilet seat covers or manure Gary has a striking message for all of you. His ideas are fresh even for the business skool’d crowd and his examples, thought processes are nature and welcomed now matter how old hat you are or how big your biz. His thinking-process will take your business from drab to fab with a laser-like precision.
Gary’s book is short, sweet, concise and encompassing for the moment. I can see Gary having to revisit his book in as little as a year as the internet always puts even guys like him behind the times of the latest trends and tools. I would recommend this book as a welcomed addition to the college student looking inside to find their calling or the Vice President of Global Conglomerate, Inc. as there are lessons to be learned from the trenches and Gary has worn the boots for us all and calls on us to jump in and dirty our faces as well (did I tell you, he ate dirt on the Conan O’Brien show… no worms to be seen however)!
I would give Crush It! a 4.8 out of 5 and hope Gary does an expanded version in a year or so with updated content and reader follow-ups on how they crushed it! I’m sure Gary’s past year with baby Misha being born and the ever-pressing demands of WineLibaryTV have been the best ride he could have ever hoped for. I don’t think Gary will be a flash in the pan as far as personalities go. He’s a crockpot and will continue to innovate and inspire for decades to come. Go get a copy of the book and let me know if you agree. This entire site is a by-product of his call to action and I don’t intend to let ol’ Gary down or myself for that matter! ‘Go Crush It’ for yourself!
