Thursday 4 April 2013

Investing in Peer to Peer Lending

By John Sivills


Why Invest In Peer To Peer Lending?

Investing your money with peer to peer (or p2p) lending is a brand new idea whose time has come. Peer to peer lending is good for both borrowers and investors. As it is new, you might not be clear on just what peer to peer lending is.

Peer to peer is a kind of lending in which the borrower and the lender are private individuals and the transaction takes place without the approval of a lending institution or bank. These transactions can benefit borrowers because they are put in direct touch with investors who lend the money without requiring numerous applications and formalities. Or to put it more succinctly, peer to peer lending cuts the middleman out of the equation. This means more convenience and faster money.

Investing in peer to peer lending is a kind of alternative way to invest money. It's an alternative strategy because there are no traditional banks involved but that can also end up making you a better return on your money. Here are more reasons to consider investing your money in peer to peer lending.

With peer to peer lending you can begin investing with very little start up money. In fact, you can begin with as little as $25. As you probably know, this is far from true with traditional investing. Like mutual funds, for instance, can take thousands of dollars to start at a traditional bank. With peer to peer lending you can get your investment account sooner while investing in smaller increments.

Another good reason to invest in peer to peer lending is because with each investment you can feel good that you have helped someone out. You money is helping people who have fallen on bad luck and are trying to put their lives back together. Your investment may help someone fund a business, or climb out of debt. Because you will be in direct contact with the borrower, able to hear their story first hand, you will be able to choose who you would like to help.

Peer to peer lending is a great way to diversify you investment portfolio. Peer to peer lending is in an asset class, consumer credit, that is not available to most investors. Financial planners say that diversification is a very important part of investing. Peer to peer lending is an investment opportunity that can increase the diversification of you portfolio.

Lastly, we will benefit from p2p lending because it takes back control of our hard earned money from Wall Street and the traditional lending institutions whose greed and poor decisions led to the financial crisis we are still mired in. With p2p the control is ours.




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