Looks like the peer-to-peer lending buzz is picking up steam!
Just a quick announcement to let everyone know that I am now a contributing blogger at the recently established Prosper Blog. You may want to check out the Prosper community and blog, which will be featuring regular content from several other personal finance bloggers beginning in 2008. You may also be interested to know that the new editor-in-chief at the helm of the Prosper Blog is Kevin from RateLadder.com 
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In addition, Lazy Man and Money is launching a new carnival called the Carnival of Peer-To-Peer Lending, which will have its first show on January 5 next year.
Though I’ve taken a harsh stance on debt, I find that there are better ways to borrow and manage your debt, which these avenues can provide.
Now for some great articles around the financial web:
Personal Finance Reads
- The Simple Dollar: Trent knows how to practice self-restraint when it comes to sizing up potential purchases. I am actually in a similar situation with the few home projects and big purchases I’ve been considering lately, but due to our current budget, we won’t be able to accommodate these plans until a year or two from now.
- Lazy Man and Money: Lazy Man tied the knot last year so now he’s decided to rate his wedding registry experiences and to give out letter grades to the wedding registries he’s had the chance to use. Macy’s is tops while Sears flunks out.
- Money, Matter and More Musings: Golbguru purchased a new car — a Honda Civic. As far as I can remember, our family has owned at least one Honda vehicle so it’s safe to say we’re big fans of this particular car.
- Money Smart Life: Tina discusses how she turned things around for herself when she took a scissors and shredder to her credit cards.
- Gen X Finance: There’s a study that reveals that teenagers just don’t think about retirement. Admittedly, when I was a teenager, retirement was the farthest thing from my mind — unfortunately, nobody taught me how to handle money; it was something I had to deal with on my own. But the point here is that the earlier kids learn about financial facts, the better off they will be financially, since time is on their side when it comes to investing and developing sound saving habits.
- The Sun’s Financial Diary: Here’s where you can find a comprehensive review of the new mutual fund center at Scottrade.
- Five Cent Nickel offers some reminders about the payment of social security taxes for the coming year, particularly for those who are self-employed.
- Blueprint For Financial Prosperity: Want to know how much your time is worth? Here’s how to figure it out easily.
- Mighty Bargain Hunter: Here’s a book review on “A Million Dollars By 30″, by Alan Corey. It sounds like an entertaining read with some pretty good points to ponder.
- Free Money Finance: How much do you need to be happy? How about $40,000 a year for a family of three? I’m wondering if this would extend to around $60,000 for a family of four and whether this is doable in California, given that I came across this report that challenged these numbers as part of the minimum budget.
- All Financial Matters: JLP goes through a very interesting exercise that demonstrates the importance of setting the right withdrawal rate during retirement. He goes through some examples showing the difference to your account when you have a 4% withdrawal rate vs a 5% withdrawal rate.
Additional Readings Around The Web
Use Losses and Unused Credits to Reduce or Eliminate the Tax on Your Roth IRA @ Wisebread
Finding the right house for you–part one @ Frugal Pursuit
Our Frugal Christmas @ Being Frugal
Making Lists Boosts Productivity @ A Financial 180 In The Making
The Story of My First Time Investing @ The Investor’s Journal
Prosper seems like it can be so useful for things like debt consolidation at lower rates–or getting business loans. But there’s also some people looking to acquire more debt. I don’t think I’d lend to them… I actually posted about that this morning.
Thanks for the link!
Good list of personal finance sites. I frequent many of them myself.
It is crucial to learn, especially in today’s financial environment that debt consolidation is not the only answer. My unique debt advisory website promotes the fact that debt consolidation isn’t always a simple solution. It can be difficult to find a consolidation loan if you have quite a bit of debt at a low interest rate. Be careful, you can end up with more debt.