Should I be a lender?

Anyone who has some money in savings knows that while interest rates are still low/reasonable for borrowing that it means the rates for savings accounts, cd's and things of that nature are pretty much terrible. Most banks I have checked into are offering less than 3%. CD's are slightly better but of course you lose the liquidity. Nothing is going to get better about these until interest rates rise.

So I have found two websites that allow me to be a lender instead of a saver.

The safest and likely easiest one is TreasuryDirect where you can create an account and fund the deficit of the United States government. Rates of return are pretty decent for only having to have your money illiquid for as little as 28 days. (around 4.5%)

A second, more interesting source is Prosper.com where you can bid to give private loans to individuals and have them repaid in three years. You even get to select your own collection agency if they fall behind. It shows you the persons credit grades, loan to income ratio, their currents, delinquents, etc. and allows you to choose to fund their loan by bidding in terms of amount and interest rate. Here you can assume more risk to get a higher return. However you can also try to stick with folks with good credit scores and history. (wanna risk a 22.5% return or stay safe for say 8%)

What are your thoughts on this? Vote and share.

Nick

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough on this but I already have very clear strategies for all my long term investments. I also already have a stock portfolio for anything that is going to be held for a medium range view (10+ years in my book) I'm talking about what I should do with money that is for a short term (less than 5 years) and largely liquid.

The strategy I've read about with t-bills involves stacking t-bills at different experation points so that you have some level of monthly liquidity if an emergency comes up but so it is also possible to get 4-4.8% return on this money.(If I remember correctly the interest on t-bills is exempt from most taxes and thus helps the rate of return as well)

The prosper.com site is basically a three year commitment which I consider to be short-term. There is more risk, but also a higher possible return. Rates are around 8-10% for folks with grade A and AA credit. These are typically 700+ credit scores and folks who pay with no lates.

Glad for all the current input and it is appreciated.

Nick

When I looked at a couple banks, the rates for personal unsecured loans with 36 month repay rates were above 13%.

Nick

Just an update, I tried both of these. I'm of the opinion so far that both of them are pretty interesting ways to invest.

Prosper.com has been a lot of fun. You set up an account and then fund it with a transfer from your checking account. Afterwards you can bid the money out for lending using any number of criteria. The amount loaned can be small and that way you can spread your risk over several lenders. When making a bid, it shows you the persons credit grade and also a chart showing the typical default rate for each credit score.

After you win your various bids, the money is loaned out and tracked much like how your stock portfolio might be tracked. It shows the status of each loan, the interest accrued, the average interest rate for your loan portfolio, and the value of your loan portfolio including accrued interest. (always nice to have the big picture)

On really interesting feature about Prosper.com is the ability via groups to literally put your money where your mouth is regarding who or what you support. There are groups by ethnicity, by sexual orientation, but educational level, by political orientation, you name it. You can make your loans to single parents, transgendered asians, even Mac users! (The craziest bunch of all or course.)

Treasury Direct isn't much fun because, well t-bills are pretty damn boring. However it has been incredibly easy and might be worth a look for those who want to get a better return than a savings account. The account set up is similar to Prosper.com. You set it up and then the account is verified. You then tell the account what you want to buy and for what term. The money is withdrawn on the auction day and returned with interest at the end of the term. I tried a 28 day t-bill. It was purchased for $996.40 and 28 days later it dropped an even $1,000 back into my account.

Anyone else have any other similar websites that they recommend?

Nick