Myndnet Referrals – How much are your contacts worth?
Myndnet is a DEFUNCT website that positions itself as an intermediary between information seekers and information owners. It seeks to leverage the knowledge of its members (potentially you) for persons or companies that are looking for specific contacts within an industry, typically business leads or job candidates. For your knowledge Myndnet pays you a set amount based on each request. Payments are paid out on a monthly basis for account balances of at least $20. Currently there are several requests for information paying over $200 per contact.
So, what do I think? I think it’s an interesting idea, but it currently lacks the members as well as the information seekers to fully reach its potential. In the months that I have made money on this ($16 so far) and will continue to watch for the right opportunities, but I don’t see this as a sustainable business model at its current size and with the current heavy tech and B2B focus. I’d love to hear from any others who have tried it out.
UPDATE: Myndnet FAILed.
Prosper.com – A Year of Peace and a New Loan (1st in a series)
Those who recall my last Prosper post know that I’ve had an up and down relationship with the site and its borrowers. I’m happy to say that in the past year, I’ve participated in the funding of 12 loans, and none of them have defaulted. In fact, I can’t recall any of them being late even once on a payment. Two folks even paid off their loan in full early. This is truly a breath of fresh air compared to my loans prior to that point where basically 10 out of 24 (over 40%) defaulted.
I know, I know the cynics among you are saying sure Slug but these are all newer loans less than a year old. They’re going to default just like the others. Au contrair I say. My lending style as previously discussed has changed. My current style focuses on much more credit-worthy borrowers which brings me to the reason for today’s post and a new feature on my blog. From here forward, each time I have $50 available in my Prosper account as a result of loan payoffs and interest, I will come here and discuss several loans I considered/am considering and which one I decided to fund. Today I have 4 prospects to share with you:
1) Helping Son With Business And Education – This is probably a fine loan to be in. It easily passes muster on my screening criteria and it’s 100% funded with a rate that’s been bid down from 17% to 12% at the time of this writing. My issue with this loan is that I don’t like people who take loans for others, even when it’s a family member. It just gripes me. Also, the family member who wants the loan has their MBA from the University of Phoenix. Not to be an elitist bastard, but that’s not a real school. I know it’s a bit petty, but it’s my money. So I’ll pass on this one.
2) Paying Off High Rate Credit Card – Again this one easily skates through my search criteria. This person has a very high income and unfortunately the credit card debt to match. They have an A credit grade, and the loan is fully funded down to 16% from 25%. Normally, these things would result in a bid from me, but something gripes me. They claim $25k in income per month. That’s not a typo. $25k per month. Are you kidding me? The frugal bastard in me just tells me that someone who makes that much money should not be capable of carrying credit card debt. And, if you are, there’s simply something wrong with you. Not only should you not have the debt, you should have a large emergency fund to tap if something does go awry. No bid.
3) Business Start-Up & Working Capital – OK, this is probably a solid loan. AA credit. High income. Keeping his current job while he opens a restaurant. Bid down from 14% to 13.5% at the time of this writing. I’m passing on this one only because I don’t feel good about restaurant loans due to the high percentage that fail in the first year and because I think I found a better place to put my $50.
4) Help me make my 1954 Spartan a home! – My winner! I chose this loan to fund for a variety of reasons. Like the others, it basically skates through my search criteria. She has an A credit rating. She has a steady job. She has very low credit utilization. The money is for her use. She has a clear plan for its use. And, here’s the kicker that puts her over the top, she already has a Prosper loan that she’s paid on time everytime for almost a year. The only worry would be if she broke up with her boyfriend who’s supposed to help with the work. Hopefully they stay happy! I bid at a 10% to insure I wouldn’t get outbid in the final hours. If it falls below 10% I can always talk to the chicken restaurant guy (#3). Note that this loan offers the lowest interest rate of the 4 described, but it still won me over.
I hope this article helps in understanding my thinking about my loan positions. It’s based on quantitative principles then flushed out with qualitative impressions. Like any good decision it’s a little art and a little science.
Treasury Bill Ladder Investing for the Common Man
Last Friday the Treasury Dept. announced that they were lowering the minimum amount necessary to buy treasury bills from $1,000 to $100. This is great news for the common man wishing to start investing in treasury bills because the cost of entry has just fallen 10-fold!
Why invest in T-Bills? Read more
Bear Stearns Put Options
Dear readers,
Did you own Bear Stearns put options? If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section. How did you identify this opportunity? Did you buy any calls or do any levering to reduce the risk?
Congrats on making a killing!
Roth IRA Investment (cash, commodities, Berkshire, ETF’s, mutual funds)?
I’m considering putting some of the cash in my Roth (currently earning 2.4% in a money market), and I need your help. I have a 20-30 year time horizon. Any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
My current allocation looks like this:
ADRE 10%
ATSI 5%
COV 3%
EWZ 6%
HHJ 2%
ILF 13%
RMG 2%
SPY 17%
CGMFX 11%
OAKLX 4%
Cash 26%
I have sell orders in ATSI and HHJ. In retrospect, I should have never bought them. That will put an additional 7% in cash soon.
I will also not hold COV or RMG long-term. I do believe their prospects this year are pretty good though.
I have pretty significant international exposure with ILF (Latin America), EWZ (Brazil), and ADRE (Emerging Mkts.) making up 29% of my portfolio leaving 45% of it more domestically focused. But, where do I go next?
So my new investment ideas in no particular order are:
Berkshire Hathaway – I could put some in Berkshire and let the oracle of Omaha work for me. That’s a huge chunk fo change though at $4500 per class B share. Isn’t it time for C shares at 45 bucks each?
CGMFX - Yeah, I’m already in it, but it’s done well for years, and it’s down 8% YTD making this a nice buying opportunity. Maybe just a little more…
BRSIX - This is Bridgeway’s Ultra Small company fund. I’m potentially under-exposed in this area. Minimum entry here is $2000. It’s got a good expense ratio and like CGMFX is down about 8% for the year.
FXI - This would increase my exposure to China and the rest of Asia Pac. I’m a little hesitant to go here because these areas could easily start to slow down. Could just put in a little and see.
GEX - This is an alt. energy global ETF. I will probably drop in a little here no matter what. It won’t be a long-term hold, but it’s hot now and could boost my overall return. Others I considered were PBW and QCLN
What about Individual Stocks?
COMV - Interesting alt. energy play sitting near its 52 week low. I wouldn’t touch it until after the 3/24 earnings call. Probably not after either but its on my watch list. I could get some exposure through PBW, but PBW is highly correlated with GEX and has underperformed it at 1 year and 6 month examinations.
ENOC - Another alt. energy play. Better for me to quote than try to explain, “The company’s demand response capacity provides an alternative to build conventional supply-side resources, such as natural gas-fired peaking power plants, to meet infrequent periods of peak demand. It also offers meter data gathering and storage services for advanced meters; energy analytics and control services; energy procurement service; and emission tracking and trading support” This could be interesting but feels to risky for my retirement portfolio.
JOE - Interesting company providing exposure to Residential Real Estate, Commercial Real Estate, Rural Land Sales, and Forestry. I’ll probably pass.
GOOG - What is the right price to enter Google? I still don’t know.
PFE - Pfizer. It’s yielding 5.8% as of this writing and sitting close to a 2 year low. The just met with the investment community today and basically said nothing meaningful again. They will have to make a move soon. Buy Biogen? Buy Bristol-Myers? Major cuts at the home office? Cut sales force again? There’s lots of choices. None are great, but most offer upside to $22 bucks.
So, the question is where do I go from here? Is now even the right time/when is this knife going to hit the floor? Am I overlooking commodities? Should I accept some European exposure beyond what I get the through large caps in the SPY?
I’d love to hear other’s thoughts. My lean is towards some in GEX, SPY, PFE and CGMFX.
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