Highest Echelon

It's November 7th. And in an attempt to outstage others once again, Britney Spears files a petition for divorce from Kevin Federline. Normally I don't really care, but I feel they could have held on to those news for 1 more day. It seems more like a diversionary tactic aimed at drawing attention away from the vote than anything else. Where have all the voters gone?

It seems like once Halloween is over the stores immediately shift right into the Christmas shopping season. So in the spirit of frugality and in an effort to not spend anything on presents for a few more days, Happy Halloween Week.



I'll put some pictures from Salem Massachusetts up when I get them back from my artist.

The Festival of Frugality is up at No Credit Needed.

When I checked my Prosper.com account late last night I expected to see all 13 of my active loans to be Current. Was I ever shocked to see that 1 loan was Late (<15d). This is the first time I had seen this, but it means that this person's repayment is late by more than 1 day but less than 15 days.

I didn't want to be bothered by something like this too much so I simply sent an inter-Prosper mail saying:

Please make every effort to make the payment on this loan.

And I left it at that.

This morning I delved a little farther. At the origination of the loan, this person had 1 current delinquency, 10 past delinquencies, only 3 lines of credit, and wasn't a member of any group. Shame on me!

Credit grade:	C
Now delinquent: 1 Delinquencies in last 7y: 10 Public records in last 10y: 2 First recorded credit line: Jul-1990 Total credit lines: 3 Inquiries in last 6 months: 0
	Debt/Income:	4%

This was one of my first loans so I still didn't know what I was doing. I have since increased my standards. I now no longer lend unless the person is a member of a group and has significantly less delinquencies. The good part about the loan is that it is a C credit rating at 22.90%.

Later this morning I got an email back from this person.

Payment was made yesterday. Sorry, I changed jobs and my first payday fell on the 2nd of the month. I am in Iraq working so there shouldn't be any more problems. It just took a while to get my first paycheck. Thought I had it covered.
Thanks,
[Name withheld]

I confirmed his payment by looking under loan details. There is a small † next to today's date.
^† = in transit.

Date	Payment number	Amount paid	-	NSF fees	-	Group reward	=	Amount received	Fees	+	Interest	+	Principal	-	Service fees	-	Collection fees	=	Net received	Resulting principal balance
Nov-07-2006†	307336	$1.93	-	$0.03	-	$0.00	=	$1.90	$0.00	+	$1.44	+	$0.46	-	$0.03	-	$0.00	=	$1.87	$48.36
Sep-21-2006	222981	$1.93	-	$0.00	-	$0.00	=	$1.93	$0.00	+	$0.75	+	$1.18	-	$0.02	-	$0.00	=	$1.92	$48.82

From what I can tell there is a $0.03 NSF charge that he also has to pay. But it seems like it may go to Prosper not me.

RaidenX is a remake of the classic Raiden IIS series. I vaguely remember playing something similar to this on an arcade system. Now I can play on the computer for free. What a world we live in.

I only died once on normal.

The Carnival of Debt Reduction is up at We're in Debt.
The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at City Girl's Financial Blog.
The Carnival of Investing is up at All Financial Matters.

Not too much is happening with Prosper.com right now. But I'll share what I'm bidding on.

• We don't want to have to choose! Credit rating of AA with 0 delinquencies. Current apr is at 20.99%. They are not part of a group, but I already emailed them about that. I bid $50.
  

• Initial Medical Expenses Credit rating of B with 1 current delinquency but no past delinquencies. Current apr is at 25.50%. Homeownership not verify and I sent her an email about that. I bid $50.

Happy (belated) Halloween! I just got back from my week long trip. One of the stops was Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween evening. I had a really great time and I got a lot of complements on my costume. I was the Phantom of the Opera. I got compliments like: "Yo, Phantom of the Opera. What's up!?" I think I was the only Phantom that didn't go without a girl.

For girls the most popular costume this year (and every other year) was the slutty nurse or firefighter. Lots of short skirts and exposed cleavage.

For guys the most popular costume (and I can only assume this trend will continue) was the gangsta. Lots of huge fake gold chains and unshaven faces. These were great, so believable.

Besides driving the wrong way onto the 128 onramp because of one bent roadsign, I had a great time!