This is a follow up post to the interview that I did with Lending Club and their operation. You can read that here. The below is a transcription from the screen cast below.
Hey everybody. Jeff Rose, goodfinancialcents.com with a special treat today. I want to do a little screen cast to talk about an investment strategy or an investment option that I have been fairly partial to over the last couple of years.
I want to introduce to you for those of you who haven’t heard of it. I don’t view this as a supplement to investing in the stock market and individual stocks, mutual funds, etc., but I definitely think that it could be a complement or something to add to your investment pie. That’s why I want to talk about it today. So without further ado, what I am actually talking about today is what is called Peer-to-Peer lending or P-to-P lending as it sometimes is abbreviated.
As you’ll see here, jumping the gun one of the top peer-to-peer lending companies is Lending Club.
First I want to go to Wikipedia and just read to you what exactly peer-to-peer lending is. As Wikipedia states, it says
peer-to-peer lending is a certain breed of financial transaction, which occurs directly between the individuals or peers without the intermediation of a traditional financial institution. Person-to-person lending is for the most part a for-profit activity that distinguishes it from person-to-person charities, person-to-person philanthropy, and crowd funding, which also creates connections between donors in recipients of donations, but are non-profit movements.
Basically, what peer-to-peer lending is or what I think of it is we have all had the family members or friends who have asked us for money. Maybe you haven’t; I know I have been in that situation on more than one occasion and it’s not a very fun situation to be in by the way. Essentially peer-to-peer lending is you have individuals that need to borrow money for whatever reason. [.....]
Having a healthy nest egg for retirement can be boiled down to three factors: how much money you set aside for retirement, how much growth your investment generates, and how long you have the money invested.
While earning significant growth on your assets is needed, it is not easy to control because you can’t control the stock market. Having a long time to invest is easy when you are younger, but progressively that factor gets worse as the timeline gets smaller; plus you can’t really control the passage of time. [.....]
Not everyone plans for their financial future as they should, nor do they think about their savings and retirement at an early age.
Unfortunately, many people don’t wind up considering these things in their lives until they are a bit older, and then they have less time to plan and save up. As this is never good no matter which gender you are, for women it is generally a more dire matter than for men.
This is mainly because on average, women are outliving men and are in retirement longer with more time to deplete what they have saved up.
When your workout program has a mascot and his name is “Pukie the Clown” you realize two things about yourself really quick:
I’m an idiot for putting myself through this crap.
I LOVE being an idiot and putting myself through this crap.
In this context, “crap” refers to the workout program Crossfit and yes; I am in love with it.
I didn’t hit the weights until I was 19 years old graduating high school and at a whopping 160 pounds – look out! But once I started I really loved it. I would always try new programs just to “switch it up”.
Low reps. High reps. Olympic lifts. Super sets. Complex sets. X reps.
You name it, I tried it. In college I was in great shape and then “it” happened: I graduated college and got a job.
My workouts suffered and it didn’t take time for me to start losing the physique that I had grown accustomed to. Then another “it” happened. This “it” involved me being deployed to Iraq in 2005.
Crossfit Baghdad 2005. Like my haircut?
While conducting our training before being deployed, a buddy of mine, Ryan, had told me about this workout program that he had been doing named Crossfit. The only thing that I remember him telling me about the workout was that typically at the end of it he was always laying on the ground in a pile a sweat. [.....]
One of the ways that you can build wealth for your future is to invest.
In the past, investing presented problems for those who didn’t have a large chunk of capital. Now, though, investing is possible for just about anyone. Thanks to the rise online brokers and increasing popularity of funds, it is possible for you to get started with $50, and a relatively small amount of money each month. [.....]
My family is my everything. I would do everything for them and would want to do nothing without them. That remains true as my family grows (note the 3 little devils pictured above).
What also remains true is to support them in all I do. I’m not just talking about buying my son the latest Transformer (his favorite is Octatamus Prime as he would say it). I’m talking about laying the foundation of making good financial decisions. Even as a financial advisor background, I realize I have a tough road ahead.
With Family and Finances, there are so many areas to cover: budgeting, frugality, investing, etc.
I knew that I could not cover them all alone, so I hit up some of the best personal finance bloggers to offer their best post as it pertains to family and finance. So here are the Top 67+ family finance articles.
Why do I say 67 “+“? Because I know there are plenty more that were not included and I want you to add your favorites to the comments section. Please share your favorite articles or resources that revolve around families and money below! And now for the articles…. [.....]
Many people who are saving money for a child’s college education are familiar with 529 Savings Plans. But what if you want to send a younger child to private school? A 529 Plan only covers expenses for higher education. In this article I’ll tell you about a lesser-known tax-advantaged vehicle that you can use for any level of education—from kindergarten through graduate school—called a Coverdell Education Saving Account. [.....]
Underlying all of the controversy surrounding the United States federal budget deficit and the debt ceiling is the simple concern as to how it will affect everyday life for Americans. Although the sun will still rise in the east and trees will still grow new leaves in spring, the financial markets that determine, among other things, what your gasoline costs and what mortgage interest rates will be, are going to change. [.....]
