Hi everyone,
Heard a lot about Prosper throughout the years but never really took time to look into it until now. My daughter is looking for loan to buy some business equipment. We've reviewed traditional loans and SBA but thought why not try Prosper? I'm also interested in becoming a lender some time down the road. Therefore, I joined the prospers forum to see Prosper from an investors prospective and to learn what motivates them.
-CD
"Why not?" is as good a motivation as any - and better than some.
To answer your question, I've been around since the beginning, and my take is that everyone has their own motivations, intentions, and
expectations for investing. They all expect a return, but, in many instances, the definitions of "return" are as idiosyncratic (and diverse)
as the reasons that people request loans. Some invest purely for monetary gain, some invest for social or affinity reasons (friends, fam,
or supporting people in situations that somehow resonate with them, e.g., successful entrepreneurs investing in budding entrepreneurs),
but, mostly, I think it's a blend of both, for pretty much everyone, since P2P is really a new & unique asset class - as, for most investors,
they've probably never had the opporunity before to invest at such a granular level (into individual people) - on a "case by case" basis...
My old line from 2006, on investing, was: "Do what you were going to do anyway - and if it works, tell everyone you had a 'system'."
Or something to that effect - which I think is broadly what still occurs - as it's too early to truly only invest by the numbers OR the heart.
Welcome.
-t
ETA: I wound up with a net positive return from my early investing - but, here's a note from an investor who had a different outcome...
http://www.prospers.org/forum/new_to_this_site-t23206.0.html
