I can’t believe February is almost over already!  I really need to sit down and pull the data together for our taxes…  I’ve got all the paperwork from the accountant as well as our W2s and 1099s sitting in a drawer, just need to take the time to organize it as well as all the receipts from our two businesses.  The latter is the biggest pain as it is all sitting in a box and there is a lot of it.

The sooner the better too because if our modified Adjusted Gross Income is low enough I plan on fully funding a couple of Roth IRAs for us.  Those would need to be opened by April 17th even if we end up extending our filing deadline.

Friday was the last day to trade options expiring in February. Since I had some in my portfolio it’s a good time for an update to the experiment.

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I set up a loan request at Prosper for $2500 @ 5%. I picked this rate because it’s a bit higher than what most high yield savings accounts are paying now. I’ve received one bid (an automated one I assume) for $100 of the amount.

My intended use for the money is to turn around and lend it to others at slightly higher rates (essentially doing what the banks do.) In exchange for providing some guarantee of payment I’ll make the spread in interest. If successful I may borrow some more later.

What will be interesting is the tax implications of this. Since I’ll have to pay taxes on the interest income the average rate I’ll need to earn is around 9% or so to break even.  I’m going to speak with my accountant (taxes need to get done anyway) about whether there is a way I could set up a business to make the interest paid a tax deductible expense.  My guess is that doing so would involve some legal hurdles that would make the whole thing not worth it.

I’m still waiting for funds to transfer to my account at Prosper.com. The PFBlogger group I started has been approved. If you’d like to join click here. It is set for 100% sharing of rewards so anyone borrowing as a member will get a slightly lower interest rate.

There are a couple of things with the site I’d like to point out.

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Saw this in the NY Times… prosper.com is a relatively new site which matches lenders and borrowers in an online format.

I don’t currently carry any debt outside of our mortgage so I won’t be likely to use it for borrowing myself but I do plan on spreading some of my risk portfolio into these loans. The idea of being able to help people in need out just fits with where I am in life right now.  My plan is to spread my loans out among many borrowers with a mix of good and bad credit profiles (and lower or higher interest rates).  This should help alleviate risk and provide a better return than a savings account.
I’ve also started a group there called “PFBloggers”. It’s currently waiting for approval. Belonging to a group allows you to share in a payment reward system of up to 5%. This could lower your effective interest rate on the loan.

So, if you can’t get in on the 0% offers we often talk about and are carrying some high-interest credit card debt check it out. I’ll be giving preferential treatment to those who are in my group with the money I have to loan.

I had opened a Sharebuilder account a few months ago with $100 in order to gain a free $50 from a promotion they were offering. My plan was to invest in some ETFs and forget about the money.

I bought $100 worth of PBW which is the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Fund and $50 of EWW which is the iShares Mexico index. By chance today I stopped in and checked on these investments. That $100 is now worth almost $180. ($50 gain from the account bonus and another $30 from appreciation.) 80% return in approximately 3 months…Not bad. I have no intention of selling, instead I plan on leaving the money there for 20 or more years. Should be interesting to see how much it’s worth that many years out.

I plan to start making regular purchases of some other ETFs in this account once my wife’s severance comes in. Will probably buy more PBW (I like the alternative energy angle) and maybe some other sector ETFs.

If you’d like to open an account, use the promotion code: IPLANGIFT to get a $50 account bonus (requires a $50 stock purchase.)

Links to ShareBuilder.com

As Jonathan had suggested I wrote to Netbank’s customer service regarding my inadvertent T-Bill screw up asking them to reverse the $30 NSF charge. Today, I received the following response:

Dear XXXXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting NetBank. In response to your inquiry, as a courtesy to show that we do appreciate your business, we have reversed the NSF fee on your account. Please be advised that overdraft protection only covers checks written on a checking account or a Bill Payment scheduled from the account. It does not cover ATM/VCC transactions or ACH debits.

In an effort to ensure that all the contact information we have on file for you is complete and accurate, please take a moment to verify your correct mailing address, home and work numbers and email address. If you have recently processed a change request on any of these items your account(s), you will not need to send the information again. We certainly appreciate your cooperation.

By the way, are you aware that all NetBank customers have access to a free financial plan? NetBank has a Financial Planning and Investing group available to you. This financial planning system is sponsored by NetBank and is provided by AdviceAmerica, Inc. For more information, please contact our financial advisors at 1-866-NetPlan (1-866-463-8752) and press option #6. Please be sure to use the reference number XXXXXXX when calling.

We apologize for any inconvenience. Please visit the “Help Center” found in the top navigation bar of every screen for valuable account instruction and navigation assistance. You may also find it helpful to select the “Site Map” for a list of links to common account service requests.

If you need further assistance, please contact us. We value your business and appreciate your choosing NetBank. It’s been a pleasure serving you today. Have a wonderful day!

Just checked and indeed they credited my account for $30. So my mistake ended up costing me nothing and I received a few days of double interest on my money (both the T-Bill I hadn’t paid for yet and the money sitting in my account earned interest for 5 days). Not a lot of money but not bad either. Obviously this isn’t something I intend to repeat but it’s nice being appreciated. I’ve been a customer of Netbank for well over five years now.

I may also check out the free financial plan they offer. I have looked over their online tools and they are pretty good. More detailed than most other financial planning tools I’ve seen. If I get time I’ll log in and take a few screen grabs for you all this weekend.

I’ve finished upgrading Wordpress to the latest version.  Seems to be a bit faster.

I am also working on a new design/layout for the site.  So if things shift around over the next few days that’s why…

If you find any problems with the upgrade please let me know.

I’m going to be upgrading Wordpress tonight to the latest version. I don’t expect more than a few minutes of downtime.

I may also look to change the layout/design a bit since I’ve never really been thrilled with this one.