Finance and Fat

Some people seem to love lending and borrowing money on Prosper.com. The only problem is, a lot of people don’t get around to paying back the money they borrowed.

I like to follow Fred 93’s blog to get a good look at what is happening with bad loans at Prosper. The most recent post tells us that Prosper is finally filing lawsuits against some of the borrowers who aren’t paying back their loans.

Prosper.com - the lawsuits begin

The good news is that legal action is finally happening.  We’ve waited a long long time for this, and its good to finally see some serious action against deadbeats who have stiffed us.  Prosper’s collection activity up to this point has consisted of phone calls, with the recently added modern technological innovation of a letter asking deadbeats to repay.

The bad news is that the legal test project is very small, and is moving at a snail’s pace.  Lets review the schedule, so you can see what I mean.

Second problem is that Prosper is only suing 66 nonpaying borrowers in this project.  They think of it as a test.  If it goes well, maybe they’ll do more someday.  Today there are 1187 more Prosper loans that are more than 4 months past due (not counting the 66 in this test).  These loans are on a fast track to nowheresville.  If Prosper follows its standard procedure, these 1187 loans will be auctioned off for pennies on the dollar.  This could happen to the majority of them within days.

If you use Prosper, be sure to read the whole post for more informative details.

This highlights nicely one reason I never wanted to risk my money with Prosper- It’s far too easy for borrowers to simply not pay back their loans and there is almost nothing Prosper can do about it.

My question for anyone lending money on Prosper or considering it- why would you want to get involved in such a mess when you have proven investments available such as stocks and bonds?

That isn’t a typo, I need to train just to prepare to begin ‘official’ marathon training. Yesterday I started day 1 of a 10 week plan with a goal of jogging for 30 minutes straight at the end.The plan for week 1 is 3 days of walking, for 30 minutes, at a pace of 17-20 minutes per mile. My wife and I have been walking for 30 minutes somewhat regularly, but we weren’t focused on the pace before. That made a huge difference as we walked the same distance we had been walking previously in 30 minutes versus the old pace of about 35 minutes. Doing that in 30 minutes made for a much better workout. We went 1.54 miles in 30 minutes, keeping us just under the upper limit of 20 minutes per mile. About half of our walk is uphill so that helps to add a little challenge to the walk as well.

I am following the Preliminary Training Program from The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer. The plan can be found on page 9. This plan is intended for those of us who aren’t running at all right now and really have a long way to go just to begin ‘normal’ marathon training. Here is what life is going to be like for the next 10 weeks:

• Week 1 - Moderate walking pace (17-20 min./mile), 3 days, 30 minutes per day
• Week 2 - Moderate walking pace (17-20 min./mile), 4 days, 30 minutes per day
• Week 3 - Fast walking pace (13-16 min./mile), 3 days, 30 minutes per day
• Week 4 - Fast walking pace (13-16 min./mile), 4 days, 45 minutes per day
• Week 5 - Jog 5 minutes, walk 5 minutes, repeat 2 times, 3 days, 30 minutes per day
• Week 6 - Jog 10 minutes, walk 5 minutes, repeat once, 3 days, 30 minutes per day
• Week 7 - Jog 15 minutes, walk 5 minutes, repeat once, 4 days, 40 minutes per day
• Week 8 - Jog 20 minutes, walk 5 minutes, repeat once, 4 days, 50 minutes per day
• Week 9 - Jog 25 minutes, walk 5 minutes, 4 days, 30 minutes per day
• Week 10 - Jog 30 minutes, 4 days, 30 minutes per day

It’s a long road to marathon day on December 7th, and we really couldn’t have started too soon. I will likely sign up for a smaller event (such as a 10K run) after this 10 week training plan in order to stay active before starting the real marathon training, which will go for 16 weeks prior to the marathon. I’ll be back with more updates as I work on this crazy plan.