10.13.2007
Dream Vacation
One week in New York City or a two week trip snowboarding in the Alps is good enough for me, but not for some.
10.10.2007
10.05.2007
Flightline: Week 1
If it seems like I blog more about money than flying, it's because why would I blog about something that I'm living and breathing for 15 hours a day? But after this first week on the flightline (5 days, 5 flights, flying is fun, but it can get kinda draining, not to mention demoralizing).
Demoralizing. Exactly, because right now, we are all horrible pilots. Sure, some are better than others, but seriously, we'd probably fail as kamikazes.
Some highlights from this week:
Had a good dollar ride. That means the first ride you have in a plane as a pilot.
Didn't get sick. And I mean vomit, because that happens to people, not at all uncommon.
Broke out of the pattern 8 times within 1/2 hour. That'll stir anyone's stomach. I held it down. Good for me and my uniform. And the crew chief.
Pulled 4 Gs. First G-awareness exercise was flown by the IP, then another one by me two days later. It's actually not that bad, didn't even have to strain that hard to keep the blood going to my brain.
I didn't descend fast enough. That was the bad part. Then the IP took the plane and barrel rolled it two thousand feet down. "Um...Sir...I hadn't FENCEd-out yet." "Oh, I thought you did."
I think I can hack it. Sweet.
Demoralizing. Exactly, because right now, we are all horrible pilots. Sure, some are better than others, but seriously, we'd probably fail as kamikazes.
Some highlights from this week:
Had a good dollar ride. That means the first ride you have in a plane as a pilot.
Didn't get sick. And I mean vomit, because that happens to people, not at all uncommon.
Broke out of the pattern 8 times within 1/2 hour. That'll stir anyone's stomach. I held it down. Good for me and my uniform. And the crew chief.
Pulled 4 Gs. First G-awareness exercise was flown by the IP, then another one by me two days later. It's actually not that bad, didn't even have to strain that hard to keep the blood going to my brain.
I didn't descend fast enough. That was the bad part. Then the IP took the plane and barrel rolled it two thousand feet down. "Um...Sir...I hadn't FENCEd-out yet." "Oh, I thought you did."
I think I can hack it. Sweet.
9.28.2007
Prosper vs. Other Investment Tools
How do I have time to blog after getting on the Flightline, you ask? It turned out that our flight commander was nice enough to give us an Intro Day, and today is basically a chaffe day. But my dollar ride is scheduled for Monday...Hopefully I won't throw away the entire weekend.
This post is in response to my friend James' comments comparing investing in Prosper vs. Roth IRA and Thrift Savings Plan, etc.
Both of us are Prosper lenders and Roth IRA investors. I'm a big fan of Roth IRA and have been maxing mine ($4000/yr for us young'ns) for almost a year. I haven't done anything with TSP though, preferring instead high-yield savings accounts (EmigrantDirect, etc.) because I don't have a lot of money, so liquidity is nice. Prosper, though, began as kind of a help-me-help-you type of thing and turned into another investment tool for fun. On LendingStats, Prosper investors with the highest returns on investment (ROI) also take big risks with sub-prime high-interest loans, but I'm not comfortable doing that. Unless one is very lucky, a lot of investment is needed to counteract the effect of even just one delinquency on the ROI.
For the sake of long term investment, I naturally put more weight (=$$) on tax-advantaged Roth IRA. Since my investment horizon is 35-40 years, I've chosen a more aggressive and risky mutual fund for my Roth IRA; I'll choose a more conservative one closer to that glorious day of withdrawal. However, in the short term, Prosper actually seems like a very stable investment, returning at slightly better than high-yield savings, neither one of which is tax-advantaged, but comparatively much more liquid than Roth.
This post is in response to my friend James' comments comparing investing in Prosper vs. Roth IRA and Thrift Savings Plan, etc.
Both of us are Prosper lenders and Roth IRA investors. I'm a big fan of Roth IRA and have been maxing mine ($4000/yr for us young'ns) for almost a year. I haven't done anything with TSP though, preferring instead high-yield savings accounts (EmigrantDirect, etc.) because I don't have a lot of money, so liquidity is nice. Prosper, though, began as kind of a help-me-help-you type of thing and turned into another investment tool for fun. On LendingStats, Prosper investors with the highest returns on investment (ROI) also take big risks with sub-prime high-interest loans, but I'm not comfortable doing that. Unless one is very lucky, a lot of investment is needed to counteract the effect of even just one delinquency on the ROI.
For the sake of long term investment, I naturally put more weight (=$$) on tax-advantaged Roth IRA. Since my investment horizon is 35-40 years, I've chosen a more aggressive and risky mutual fund for my Roth IRA; I'll choose a more conservative one closer to that glorious day of withdrawal. However, in the short term, Prosper actually seems like a very stable investment, returning at slightly better than high-yield savings, neither one of which is tax-advantaged, but comparatively much more liquid than Roth.
9.23.2007
Where will we fight next?
I have no idea why the Ed Center was pushing me to learn Urdu and Hindi, it seems like Korean, Arabic and Farsi are far more likely to be useful over the next 2 decades.
9.22.2007
The Secret Billionaire That Never Was
Chuck Feeney is an amazing man, one who truly lives by the saying "You can't take it with you", or better yet, a Gaelic proverb which he is fond of, "There are no pockets in a shroud."
Which reminds me, if you work for the federal government, Combined Federal Campaign really is a great way to give back to the people. There are more than 10,000 participating charities of all kinds, and you can find the listing here, complete with a short blurb on what they are about, how much of your donation goes toward operating expenses, etc.
Which reminds me, if you work for the federal government, Combined Federal Campaign really is a great way to give back to the people. There are more than 10,000 participating charities of all kinds, and you can find the listing here, complete with a short blurb on what they are about, how much of your donation goes toward operating expenses, etc.
Prosper Risk Analysis: 4 months later
While I was bored in Pueblo, I posted some graphs showing the historical risks associated with Prosper.com loans vs. various parameters. Here's the latest, with data pulled from LendingStats.com. These are all the loans from the inception of Prosper and thus not a snapshot of the conditions now. Compared with the last analysis, there's a general rise in risk levels across the board. Of course, the percentage of Defaulted loans would be higher since the delinquent loans a few months ago became defaulted over time. Use these to modify your search criteria when choosing which loans to bid; my preferences are below.
Disclaimer: I'm doing this mainly for investment, and my comments reflect that. Even though Prosper.com contains an element of people helping people (something that drew me to the site in the first place), I can't be too liberal with my small amount of income, especially after my first and only (so far) default with a high risk loan. The performance of my portfolio can be found here.
I used to search anywhere from AA-D, but now I generally invest in AA-B grade loans now only.
Lower DTI ratio loans are still risky, but notice the higher risk of higher DTI compared with the last analysis. Now I'd probably limit my search to somewhere between 20 to 40, which could substantially limit my options.
Sorry for the lack of title. This is the loan amount chart (of course you were smart enough to figure that out!). It used to be that the higher the amount, the safer the investment, but no longer. I'm thinking $10k to $20k as my new param.
Again, always, always, always bid only those loans with account verified. If some newbie borrower hasn't done it yet, use the Q&A feature to let them know that they should, for everyone's benefit.
This parameter used to not concern me, but now with the risk levels rising all over, I just might start limiting my bids to homeowners. After all, that's a collateral you can count on for small Prosper loans.
Auto-fund means that the loan closes as soon as the amount of bids equals the amount requested; it's for desperate people who can't wait another few days: dangerous investments.
Disclaimer: I'm doing this mainly for investment, and my comments reflect that. Even though Prosper.com contains an element of people helping people (something that drew me to the site in the first place), I can't be too liberal with my small amount of income, especially after my first and only (so far) default with a high risk loan. The performance of my portfolio can be found here.
I used to search anywhere from AA-D, but now I generally invest in AA-B grade loans now only.
Lower DTI ratio loans are still risky, but notice the higher risk of higher DTI compared with the last analysis. Now I'd probably limit my search to somewhere between 20 to 40, which could substantially limit my options.
Sorry for the lack of title. This is the loan amount chart (of course you were smart enough to figure that out!). It used to be that the higher the amount, the safer the investment, but no longer. I'm thinking $10k to $20k as my new param.
Again, always, always, always bid only those loans with account verified. If some newbie borrower hasn't done it yet, use the Q&A feature to let them know that they should, for everyone's benefit.
This parameter used to not concern me, but now with the risk levels rising all over, I just might start limiting my bids to homeowners. After all, that's a collateral you can count on for small Prosper loans.
Auto-fund means that the loan closes as soon as the amount of bids equals the amount requested; it's for desperate people who can't wait another few days: dangerous investments.
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