The year of 2008 has been an incredible year for us.  Since starting the program, in late January 2008 we have gotten rid of $53,754 worth of debt.  We want to thank God first and foremost for giving us the strength and foresight to start John Cummuta’s TDIW program.  We still can’t believe that we have really reduced our debt by $53,754 in 1 year.

We have paid off 7 credit cards totaling $13,997.28, a car payment totaling $11,500, which is now paid off.  When we started we owed $29,950 on a timeshare and we have that down to $5459-WOW!  We have also paid $3756.56 towards our 2 mortgages. 

How in the world we have done this is beyond us—we we are so far ahead of our initial projections.  If you remember we didn’t even apply our 1st accelerator payment until Feb. of this year.  At first we were hoping to come up with an extra $400 per month or $4800 for the 1st year.  We had our projections for the entire year paid for in the 1st couple of months and the acceleration began and took off like a rocket.  With the help of our coaches we restructured our mortgages, home and car insurance to help increase our accelerator payment.

If it wasn’t for us needing a water purification system for our entire house we could have added an additional $5400.  We also put insulation in our attic costing $1000.00 and we bought a pick – up truck and maintenance on it had cost us $3000.00.  The total unplanned extra expense we had was $9400.  This doesn’t include our vacation we took this past summer, which was paid in full with cash for the 1st time ever for us!  No stress vacation!  We had money left over.

We only have 2 credit cards left and our timeshare.  If everything works out, we will have this paid off by June of 2009 and then we can start on our 2 mortgage payments.  We are still committed to our $400 accelerator margin.  Over the past year we have actually paid an average of $4479.62 per month extra on our debts! 

Soon, in 2009, we are planning to have about $2000 in accelerator margin.  Thank you so much for your help and guidance, we could not have done this without you and John Cummuta, and Prosper.

Ed and Fannie M
Washington Crossing, PA

Prosper Inc. is partnering with personal finance expert JJ Childers, an attorney whose practice focuses on asset protection, estate planning, and tax reduction.

Prosper has transformed Childers’ insights and techniques into a curriculum and combined it with a one-to-one mentoring program that can help people eliminate, rather than just “manage,” their debt. In addition to being a practicing attorney, Childers is also an author, most recently of Real Wealth Without Risk: Escape the ‘Artificial Wealth Trap’ in 48 Hours… or Less! He has helped thousands of clients accomplish key financial and legal objectives through proper wealth structuring. 

“Reducing debt and increasing wealth is always wise, but is doubly important in a down economy,” Childers said. “Because Prosper has a proven track record in personal finance mentoring, I know they will help me reach many more people who are looking for ways to eliminate their debt.”  

“Debt relief is a very important topic right now, so we are looking forward to offering JJ’s special expertise in this area,” said Ethan Willis, CEO of Prosper. “With partners like JJ, Prosper will continue to lead the way in personal mentoring.”

At the start of the New Year, we at Prosper noticed that the most common resolutions were:

1. Lose Weight/Get Fit
2. Advance in Career/Make More Money
3. Get Out of Debt
4. Spend More Time With Family and Friends
5. Learn Something New/Take a Class/Go Back to School
6. Find True Love

Prosper may be the only company in the world that can help people accomplish four out of the first five. The last item is a bonus. 

We have recently updated our mission statement: Helping People Prosper. That says it all. Our students, our partners, and our employees can tryst Prosper to help them prosper. Our personalized programs can have a tremendous impact on lives.

Utah Business magazine selected Aaron Peterson as one of its annual 40 Under 40 honorees in the current (February) edition of the magazine. View it here (registration and login required), or see his profile below 

Aaron Y. Peterson | Executive VP of Sales – Satellite Offices & Owner, Prosper, Inc. | Age: 33

“I would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city in the world” —Steve McQueen 

Aaron Y. Peterson learned to work from sunrise to sunset while growing up on a farm in Idaho. And he’s applied that work ethic to every aspect of his life, knowing that a challenge can be defeated with a little hard work. “I think any challenge can be made into a great opportunity to learn and grow.”

As EVP of Prosper, Inc., Peterson raised the company’s revenue from $25,000 to $1.5 million in less than 5 years. In the same time frame, he grew the company’s staff from 15 sales representatives to nearly 200. “Aaron strives to provide a clear direction and vision…he has a track record of solid results,” says Jason Russell of Prosper.

When Peterson’s not working or spending time with his family, you’ll find him casting a line on one of the state’s pristine rivers.

We joined the Finish Rich Program because we wanted to create financial intimacy in our relationship. I attended a David Bach seminar in December 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and signed up to be interviewed for the coaching program.

Our desire to be coached was our way to create and educate ourselves so we could move forward together with short and long term goals accomplished and a positive understanding on how to become debt-free, create cash flow management, create additional investments in multiple ways, and build our retirement within the next 10-15 years.

We’ve learned to pay ourselves first consistently, pay for our purchases with cash only, not credit, because of that, we’ve created more cash flow, added to our investments, expanded our business ventures, and overall created a better understanding as a couple how to communicate together for our greater financial goals.

We took our credit card debt, assessed how much debt we had, stopped using our credit cards all together, consolidated some of our credit and changed the overall APR from 30% interest rates to 8.99% interest rates and transferred other cards from 9.99-12.99% APR interest rates to 0% APR interest rates. We have paid off most of our credit cards within the last 4-5 months. We have tracked all of expenses since the end of January and for the first time know exactly how much money we spend a month, need to make ends meet, and how much goes out vs. how much we create, save, and invest.

We have begun to meet our goals by getting a hold of our debt. We have learned how to assess the difference between want and need when it comes to our purchases and pause and discuss whether it is an impulse or planned purchase, and whether we have the money or not already put aside to actually be able to afford it without going against our overall plan which is to be completely debt free. It has definitely made a difference in our spending patterns. We still have leaks to plug, but feel confident with the tools we have been given that we are on the same page and can openly discuss together which naturally creates a positive cash flow management for our present and future.

We loved working with our Financial Coach. He really helped us get real with our spending practices, helped us to recognize our patterns, and shared with us what we would need to do if we really wanted to achieve our goals. It wasn’t always easy listening to what he had to say, but the truth of the matter is that these lessons repeatedly mentioned in David Bach’s series of books have proven to work. Our coach mentored us weekly and managed successfully to always make us accountable and realize how our little shifts in our minds and our actions added up to many positive results.

Felicia & Randy
Los Angeles, Calif.

Utah Business magazine, which has a circulation of 100,000, is featuring an article written by Prosper Inc. CEO Ethan Willis on its blog. Read it here.

The article discusses key traits that can help anyone be an entrepreneur. These traits are based on what we have seen exhibited by our students.

I just received an email from a good friend and former (or ongoing) client. This is what it said:

Nate,
I just went out and got six local businesses to let me look at their websites and make recommendations, in return they will give me ringing endorsements and testimonials so I can [get] started… I also posted on craigslist, and applied for my local Rotary…Nate when I started I was shaking in my shoes! By the end of my trip down main street with my 6 yes and 2 no’s, I was singing!! I gave out my business cards to everyone and I now remember how good all this feels!! (emphasis added)

Thanks again, I’ll keep you posted!

What can we learn from this email? How can it relate to your business? Why is having a positive attitude crucial to your business success? Is a positive attitude enough?

The point is, in order to see success in any endeavor, you have to learn to not let fear hold you back. I recently read an article that said “fear is the antithesis of faith.” Faith is confidence; confidence is key! The only way to gain confidence, in my opinion, is by making a few mistakes, learning from them, making adjustments, and then taking the “bull by the horns” and making it happen.

As you can see by the quote above, my friend was “shaking in her shoes.” Like all of us when we do something new, she was nervous—afraid of the unknown. What were people going to think?  What if they said no? My answer to those questions…WHO CARES! Nike’s “Just Do It!” slogan is so fitting for business owners. You just have to step out, take a risk, and expect success. Having a positive attitude, in and of itself, will not pay the bills—you have to take action and DO!

– Nate Moller, eCommerce Division manager

On Monday, Dec. 8th, noted author and speaker Mark Sanborn spoke to all Prosper employees at a special meeting in Orem, Utah.

Mark’s expertise is in helping people see how they can make a difference no matter where they are in an organization. He brought the house down and there was a real buzz after the event. Here are some comments:

“What a great speaker: entertaining, informative, and fitting for what we do at Prosper. I look forward to reading his book and applying it to what I do.  Thanks Prosper!
– Nate Moller, eCommerce Division Manager

“I really enjoyed the fact that Mark shows, through his words and actions, that he’s all about serving his clients. I was very impressed that he actually chose to be a part of the awards ceremony and took part in shaking the hand of the award winners. He wasn’t just here to speak to us and then leave.

“I was very touched that Mark expressed how important it is that our families should come first, that we should always find time to be with our children and put other things off, not our children. This hit home to me, as a single parent raising three little girls on my own. I had always been telling my girls, “I don’t have time for that” or “maybe later.” I was very touched by this concept because my girls are growing up and one day it will be to late. Make time now!”
– Michelle Minzghor, Real Estate Resource Advisor

 Mark Sanborn speaks with members of the Lifecycle Marketing Team.

Laurie Hightower shares her insight with Jared Richards and Mark Sanborn

Mark Sanborn and the Prosper Executive Committee. 

Another year is ending and I think many of us will be happy to see it all behind us in the rear-view mirror. But even looking back on a less than perfect year, I find so many good things that I don’t know where to begin. Every time I sit back and begin to reflect on my last seven years at Prosper, I am flooded with gratitude for our students and the people I work with to help change people’s lives one person at a time.

Here are a few more of the things I’m thankful for this year: My wonderful wife of more than 21 years. Her birthday was on Thanksgiving this year. There hasn’t been a single day since then when I wasn’t thankful that she married me. Julie has taught me so much about what real love and I appreciate the joys of our life together.

One of the greatest privileges of working at Prosper is that people share fears, their failures, their dreams and their hopes with us. Yet the most wonderful part for me isn’t just the trust involved in these conversations, but the joy of their success that changes lives in a deep meaningful way. So, I look back with happy thoughts and look forward to the great challenges that will help me grow.

Devin Willis
Prosper Student Care

On Friday, Dec. 5th, George Brunt, executive vice president of legal and human resources; and Jason Russell, manager of public relations and marketing communications, presented a check to Jim Thomas of the Community Action Services and Food Bank in Provo, Utah.

The check was in the amount of $475 and represented donations by Prosper’s employees.