Received a check today from my wife’s former company. It seems one of the patents she submitted before being layed off was selected for filing. It’s not much ($157.86 after taxes) but was a nice surprise. If the patent ends up issuing I believe she gets more cash as well. I think she has one or two other submissions pending as well. (She was in research and has 6 or 7 patents to her name - yes I’m bragging but I’m proud of her… :))

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The second late loan I had at Prosper just flipped to current. Apparently the late was due to a transfer error. My orgininal late is still just that, late. No payment in transit etc. Looks like I’ll get to blog about how the collection agency does its work.

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I now have two loans late on Prosper…  The second is from a C credit borrower.  I felt good about that loan too.  A payment is showing as being made the day after it was due.  I hope this is truly the case.  Needless to say, this is shaking my confidence.

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It looks highly likely that the Fed will continue to raise interest rates in the short run. Too bad too, I think the economy is slowing somewhat. Most of the inflation we’re seeing is either tied directly to energy or is a part of it. Slowing the economy down is not truly going to help with that without seriously hurting the economy as a whole. So, it’s time to start getting a bit defensive.

I made a couple of moves this past week, both of which were on the bullish side.

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Tricia at Blogging Away Debt has a listing up on Prosper for $3,500. The listing number is 18825.

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I was speaking to a representative from a local bank here in Michigan on Friday.  He was in my office trying to sell the employees on switching to his bank as they are offering free checking with no minimum balance requirements.

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The payment on the late Prosper loan apparently failed.  The loan is now marked “late”.  Looks like this one might turn into a default after all.  This is sort of screwing with my mojo as I try to place the $750 I just transferred…  I find myself only looking at lower risk loans with less attractive returns.  Maybe I’ll just wait a day and get my perspective back.

Overall you can still get an attractive rate of return by investing in A and AA credit loans.  However, I am prepared to take a bit more risk in search of a higher return.  I just need to settle down and quit second guessing myself.

I’ve still got a couple thousand dollars from our last 0% balance transfer sitting at Netbank earning a yawn-inspiring 3.52%. I’ve been moving it to HSBC in $5,000 blocks by buying 28 day T-Bills every week. This is a great way to avoid losing interest on the money in transit, though I probably break even by keeping it at Netbank for the extra few weeks…

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I haven’t made any trades since my last post, I’ve come close but the stocks never seem to find a solid bottom. I’m not going to bother posting individual write ups for each of my holdings, suffice to say that I still think I have great companies in my portfolio, but the entire market is getting hammered and showing no leadership.

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About every two or three years we meet with our insurance agent and make sure our homeowners and auto coverage are appropriate for our needs. Personally I think it’s a way for our agent to try and sell us some more coverage, and it usually works out for him, but I can’t really say anything he’s suggested has been something I hadn’t considered.

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