Alternative Investments

With current intrest rates, traditional fixed income investments are a poor option. Investors are looking for better returns in other investments.

Improving Your Lending Club Returns

Lending Club

I’ve been a Lending Club investor since July 2009. In the three years I’ve been doing P2P investing, I’ve learned a lot since I first started. Some of lessons you see discussed with my quarterly updates, but not comprehensive enough for someone new to peer-to-peer lending.

Lending Club (April 2012 Update)

Lending Club

Time for another Lending Club update. As of today my return is 9.96% NAR, $7,383.95 invested, and over $1,220 in interest. I have over 360 active notes. Since my last update, I now have ten charged off loans, five 31-120 days late notes, and two 2-30 day late notes. The defaults have changed my return [...]

Are Your Collectibles Really an Investment?

Star Wars Burger King Glasses

How many times, have you heard as a justification for buying something, this excuse: “It’s a collectible! In a couple of decades it will be worth something!”

Lending Club (January 2012 Update)

Lending Club

Here are my current Lending Club results. As of today my return is 10.59% NAR, and have $7,264.59 invested, and almost $1,000 total in interest. I have over 340 active notes. Since my last update, I now have six charged off loans, and currently seven 31-120 days late notes. The increase in defaults obviously decreased [...]

Investment in Physical Gold?

Gold Bars

Gold seems to be all the rage these days — especially physical gold. Whether you are investing in gold coins, or whether you are investing in gold account, receiving a record of numbered gold bars that belong to you, it’s important to understand the challenges that can come with investing in physical gold.

Lending Club (October 2011 Update)

Lending Club

Another three months, and another Lending Club update. I’m now past the active 300 note club, and hopefully on my way to the 900 note club. Current NAR is 11.31% or 0.01% lower than the last reported summary.

Lending Club vs. Prosper

boxing-gloves

Investors looking to take advantage of the great returns offered by peer to peer lending have two choices: Lending Club and Prosper. Both offer excellent potential returns for investors but they do operate differently. What follows is a guide that will help investors understand the differences between these two companies.

Buying Gold Online

Gold Coin

Gold has been on a multiyear bull run. Investors that purchased the metal have benefitted as the price has rapidly gone over $1,900 an ounce. There are a lot of people that believe that the run up in gold is just beginning. They feel that the precious metal is still in the mid stages of [...]

REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) Investing

Monopoly House

REITs or Real Estate Investment Trusts investments are an alternative to purchasing real estate directly. It’s owning real estate without the hassle. A REIT is similar to owning a stock, where it can be publicly traded on the stock market. There are also REITs mutual funds, and ETFs that diversify by investing in many individual [...]

Is Gold Really Money?

Gold Bars

Texan Senator Ron Paul asked this very question to the head of the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last week. Ben stated flat out “no”. Gold (and silver for that matter) for thousands of years was excepted as a form of money. Only until the last 100 years have we’ve weaned ourselves off of the [...]