I joined Prosper last month and I have lent out $100 to people. $50 to two different people.
Here's a quick refresher since it's been so long since I have talked about Prosper. Prosper is a place where people fund loans for other people, taking banks and credit cards out of the equation.
One of the things about Prosper is the diversification of risk. You don't normally fund a loan in it's entirety. Most people buy $50-$100 of a loan so several people take on the risk in small amounts. They lend to a large number of people (or 2 in my case) to spread out their personal risk.
Like I said, I'm not going to get rich by doing this in $100 increments. There are lenders at Prosper who have tens of thousands of dollars invested so it is possible to make it work for you.
There are two things that I am getting for my hundred dollars.
1. I am still making money as long as they pay their loan. 24% interest between the two loans. One of the things that my wife and I wanted to focus on this year was getting interest paid to us, no matter how small. We are trying to reverse the financial inertia of interest so that it's coming in instead of going out.
2. I am also learning things. There is a forum where people talking about borrowing and lending money. You start to look at things from a banks point of view. Some of the people trying to borrow money are laughable. I'll go into that more tomorrow.