For those of you who are regular readers of the site, you will have noticed some changes in the past week. For one, I did a complete overhaul for the site design, including a svelte new web font and logo (hit refresh if you don’t see it). Less noticeably, I gave the site a speed and security upgrade, moving to a sorta-dedicated LiteSpeed server and fine-tuning the way it executes CSS/PHP. I may add a CDN in the coming year, but for now the current setup seems to meet the site’s needs.
Nov 1 Update: Congrats to our winners: Alex and Bob.
The Extinction of Traditional Investing
It is my belief that investing as we know it is dying. The typical method of passively trusting our retirement to some faceless mutual fund manager seems less and less fruitful (or sane) with each teeth-grinding year that goes by. The country is growing tired of being told to have blind faith in a market that looks like this:
Traditional investing is proving itself to be unrewarding, unstable, laden with hidden expensive fees, and choked by inefficiency. Investors are calling the last 10 years a lost decade. Will it take another ten lost years before we declare our most popular form of investing dead in the water?
The Need for a New Financial Medium
There is no silver bullet answer to this collective national groan (IE: investing in alpaca farms). No, the answer is to the change the game as we know it – to change the medium itself. Why has the nation continued to prefer investments in companies rather than people? After all, consumer lending is far more stable and rewarding than the stock market (see: The Fertle Fields of Consumer Credit).
We need an overhaul of how we invest, and I believe peer to peer lending is a harbinger of a wider financial renewal that will embrace the fabric of the internet. Peer to peer lending is efficient and rewarding, simple and stable, and it rewards active self-direction over passive ignorance. And while online lending is currently geared toward consumer loans, it is really just beginning. Nearly all avenues of investing seem like they will eventually migrate to this fresh new medium.
A beautiful thing has followed the advent of the internet: financial empowerment. Twenty years ago, success and failure were often determined by the broken systems people were born into. Yet today through online lending, a twenty year old kid in Walla Walla who makes sandwiches at Subway can (if he possesses the desire) earn a stable 9-12% return by becoming knowledgeable in peer to peer lending. This kind of return has, for the majority of our nation’s history, solely been possible through financial professionals. No longer.
LendingMemo’s Goal: The #1 P2P Education Site in the Nation
LendingMemo is aiming to be the primary education portal for peer to peer lending in the United States. Both Lending Club and Prosper, while doing a passable job at lender education through FAQs and blog posts, simply do not need to cater to retail investors like ourselves. Their energies are better spent elsewhere.
As a result, a large need exists, a need that LendingMemo hopes to provide: information for self-directed individuals nationwide to become knowledgeable in peer to peer lending, promoting the earning of stable, socially-responsible, lucrative returns.
$1000 Reader Giveaway: Enter Four Times
To celebrate this renewed mission and new design, I have two $500 Amazon gift cards to give away. Similar to our last contest, each person can multiple times (through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and on this site).
Entry #1. Like LendingMemo on Facebook here
Entry #2. Follow LendingMemo on Twitter here
Entry #3. Follow LendingMemo on Google+ here
Entry #4. Leave a comment below
Thanks for Reading
The purpose of this giveaway is twofold. For one, I am eager to raise awareness of peer to peer lending though promoting this site across social media, and widening LendingMemo’s social community accomplishes this. Secondly though, this giveaway is simply returning $1000 of this site’s affiliate earnings, and doing so out of gratitude. To all of you who have followed along this past year: thank you. It has been a honest pleasure to collectively explore the ins and outs of this fabulous new financial alternative together.
PS: Official rules here (pdf). In two weeks from today (Nov 1), two winners will be randomly selected out of all entries and emailed a $500 Amazon gift certificate. In our last giveaway, just 13 people entered – pretty good odds!
[image credit: prettywar-stl “Tough Guys” CC-BY 2.0]
Glad I found this website. I’ve enjoyed the articles so far and I always look forward to new ones. Could use one of those gift cards! Would sure make Christmas shopping easy!
Congratulations on the new design, and please keep writing those great articles about Peer Lending!
Interesting assertion about traditional investing.
I’m glad I found your site while browsing reddit’s subreddit /sociallending! I’ve been very interested in investing via P2P lending and your site & ebook was a great way for someone like myself to grasp this “new” style of investing.
I’ve even open an account with Prosper and can’t wait to start! I would like to start with LendingClub but my State isn’t qualified.
Anyways, your ebook flows perfectly and is really easy to understand.
Thanks again, wish me luck!
I’ve been investing with LC for a few years now, I’m glad I finally found a website as informative as this one about P2P lending.
Like the new look Simon, much improved. Keep up the great work – you have come a long way in a short time. You can exempt me from the contest, though, better to give it to a real reader :-).
Thanks Simon. I am new to P2P, my IRA at Lending Club is finally almost fully funded, and this month m annualized return is 9% and continuing to rise! At 59 years old, I see this as a perfect retirement “job”.
Great blog and enjoyed your ebook. It’s maddening how long it takes to get funds into both Prosper and LendingClub through bank transfer, but they’re finally there and I’ve just started picking up some loans. Thanks for the information.
Hi Simon,
congrats to the new design. Looks good!
I started out with P2P lending a couple of months ago with a regular account and have since moved an IRA into it. I have been concerned recently that both the equities and traditional bond markets can both move down at the same time (mainly because of Federal Reserve panics). I am happy to find a new type (for me) of investment so I can get some more diversification.
In considering your article, I had to wonder if eventually we’ll see professional lending groups that manage your small personal loans. I’m sure that not everyone is savvy enough or disciplined yo make these p2p loans.
Love the new look, streamlined design, logo, and of course, peer-to-peer lending. Good luck on the mission of widespread peer-to-peer lending education and knowledge.
As a new member to the P2P community, I’m eager to learn more and believe that LendingClub and Prosper offer great alternatives to traditional practices. Congrats on the new site design – simple, clean and easy to use! I have several other friends that are interested in P2P lending and I’ll recommend your site as another valuable resource to them.
Thanks for all the great work, Simon! Look forward to continuing to follow your thoughtful posts.
I’m new to P2P investing, and I appreciate the insights you are sharing on your site!
Also very much enjoy reading your articles. Best of luck with obtaining your site goals. You have my support :)
The new site looks awesome Simon!! I like your facebook and google plus and could REALLY use some new running shoes off Amazon ;)
Great articles, I’ve enjoyed them a lot while investing in Lending Club and Prosper.
I found LendingMemo to be a great source of material to start and maintain my P2P investment strategy. Thanks, Simon!
Love the new design, Simon. The mission isn’t all bad either… ;)
The new website looks good. I have enjoyed reading your articles and learning about the details of peer to peer lending. Your writing style is easy to read and understand for people of all levels of knowledge. I learn something new with every new article. Keep up the good work.
Great blog! I look forward to learning how to maximize my investments.
I like your new blog look Simon. I read your blog regularly and have you in my RSS list. And I am always eager for news and perks about Lending Club investing or P2p investing in general. As you may remember I invest actively (unlike Peter Renton whose passive approach is however very valid to me) and I am totally baffled by the results of my P2P lending. I bet this would be a new way of retirement investing. Banks have been doing this for years, so why not we. Hope LC or Prosper won’t screw us on the way by making the platform for big players only.
My NAR got close to 16.20% my XIRR dropped to 11.77% but I added new funds recently and I am enjoying doubling my account every 6 years!!!
Waiting for funds to go through and then let the fun begin!
Fantastic,
I’ve been looking for better short-medium term investment opportunities for a while. CDs, savings accounts and short term bonds are a joke, and I have no desire to put anything into the stock market that will be there for less than 15-20 years (a QE meltdown is inevitable).
I am not sold on it being a better long term investment than low fee mutual funds yet, but it may be. Although the compounding interest may be as good or even better for P2P lending, I don’t see the effects of dollar cost averaging playing out with P2P lending as it does for Stocks/Mutual funds over the long run.
I came across P2P lending by accident recently and it immediately captured my attention. >6% yearly returns on a 3-5 year investment is unheard of nowadays without unrealistic risks. And to think that it can be around 12% or higher is just amazing.
I think the potential of P2P may be even greater than we yet realize, and the impact more profound. I just hope institutional investors don’t ruin it.
I just found via a Twitter recommendation when I was looking for non-boring investing blogs! How fortuitous that you happened to be having a giveaway :). I entered all 4 ways and I look forward to reading your stuff!
Throwing my name into the hat. I enjoy reading your posts!
Same here. Looking forward to learning even more about P2P lending. My LC acct has been ‘prospering’ since early-2013.
The new design looks great!
I look forward to learning more about P2P lending.
Just started a Roth IRA with LendingClub and am trying out P2P lending for the first time. I’m interested to see if the returns are as good as advertised. You’ve got a nice site and I appreciate the information you offer. Keep it up!
Just found your site today and bookmarked it, thanks for all of the great info!
Very informative, and very needed! Thanks!
Interesting and insightful! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the information!
New to P2P lending, but I think it’s certainly an exciting opportunity. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Like the site revamp…keep up the good work!
Nice update and thanks for the great info on P2P. I’ve been active on LC for 4 months and pretty happy the way things are going. Keep up the great work!
Just discovered your site. Looks great, with lots of interesting information. New to the P2P Lending, but excited to learn more about it.
Love the site- I’m relatively new to peer to peer lending, but the free ebook helped me get up to speed in one afternoon! Looking forward to digging deeper and refining my skills..
I’m hoping that the volatility is the new norm. Peer lending works well in different economies it will interesting to follow it here.
I really like the look. I’m a fellow p2p blogger and it’s been great following your posts! We certainly have an interesting topic to write about.