LendingClub.com $25 Signup Bonus

LendingClub, a P2P lending site similiar to Prosper.com, is offering a $25 bonus for new accounts after you deposit at least $1 into your account.

As you know I have quite a few loans out with Prosper.com. I like the idea of P2P lending and am looking at putting some more money out there. Now that LendingClub has come around, I am thinking of trying them out with the money I would have directed toward Prosper. I recently signed up with them to get in on this bonus and am waiting for my Bank to be verfied.

You can then increase your earnings from Lending Club by refering others to receive referral bonuses. Here are the details:

When you refer friends to Lending Club and they become borrowers or lenders, we will deposit a bonus into each of your Lending Club accounts. You will each earn:

• $25 when your friend successfully submits a loan application
• $25 when your friend opens a lender account with $1-$999
• $50 when your friend opens a lender account with $1,000 or more

There is no obligation here. At worst case you at least get a free $25 if you decide not to be come a lender or a borrower, just add that $1 to get your $25. And hey, that is FREE MONEY!

Sign Up Here!

EDIT: My $25 bonus was paid today.

If I Hate Stocks, Where Else Can I Put My Money?

So you don’t want to touch the stock market with a 10 foot pole? Lately I don’t blame you! So what else can you do with your money rather thank stuffing it into your mattress? Well here are some ideas for you. Obviously the more risk you take, the greater reward….

P2P Lending Sites: (High Risk)
P2P (Person To Person) Lending Sites are becoming very popular for people to invest money. These sites give you the chance to act like a small bank and loan money out to indivuidals at a specified interest rate which is paid back over a certain period of time. I currently have money loaned out at Prosper.com. Prosper only does 3 year loans with a minimum of $50 per loan. You can get a great interest rate here, but that does not come without risk of the borrower defaulting or filing for bankrupcy. Prosper does give you credit information on the indivuidal which should help you narrow down your decision. I also suggest that you only loan the minimum of $50 for each loan that you do so you can spread the risk among many different borrowers.

High Yield Savings Accounts: (Low Risk)
If you are not a high risk investor, why not stuff all that money into a Federally Insured High Yield Savings Account? Many of them are still offering in the upwards of 5% APY. One of my favorites is UFBDirect.com. (See my Post) They are currently offering a 5.31% APY with a $1 minimum balance. This is definetly better than keeping it in the Free Checking account!!!

US Savings Bonds: (Low Risk)
Another possibility is investing in the good old US of A. US Savings Bonds are a pretty safe investment since they are backed by the full faith of the US Government. Treasury Direct is an online service offered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Public Debt as an easy way to purchase and sell bonds online. Depending on the Savings Bond you can probably see interest rates in the 3-5% range. The great thing about savings bonds is that these are longer term savings tools, so if it is hard for you to put money into savings and not spend it, savings bonds can force you to save since most can’t be sold for one year after purchasing without some sort of penalty.

Collections: (Medium Risk)
Many people invest their hard earned money into collecting things. This can be tricky since you need to collect something that will increase in value over time. I used to collect baseball cards, but once people found out that old cards were worth a lot of money they started to collect current year cards which ultimately devauled them. Ebay.com is a great place to help you seek out items for your collection as well as give you a good idea of what you could start collecting. Some things that are poplular these days are old Coca-Cola memorbilia, Hello Kitty Items (don’t ask me why!) and Matchbox Cars.

Item Flipping: (Medium Risk)
Sites like Ebay.com and Craigslist are great ways to buy an item, then turn around and sell it for a profit. Many things that I see do well are cars and furniture. The reason is that the base prices for these items are high enough where you can buy an item, add $200 to the price and resell. But this can be done with anything from baby clothes to antique arcade games. Things you need to consider when item flipping are shipping costs, taxes, and payment methods as they tend to cut into your profits.

Real Estate: (Low Risk)
The reason that I marked this as low risk is that I am assuming that you are investing in your primary home and you are planning on living there for a while. If you are looking to buy and flip land or houses, than that would increase the risk. If you are currently renting, now is the time to buy a house. Prices have softened all over the country and mortgage rates are approaching their historic lows again. If you currently own a house and are looking to move, selling that house could be your biggest challenge. In Chicago, the average house is taking in the upwards of 9+ months to sell.

The above are just a few alternative ways to earn a little extra money on your cash. If you have a great way to invest your money why not comment at let us know! I am always looking for different ways to make some money.

Loanio.com - New Person 2 Person Lending Site

I just stumbled across Loanio.com. They appear to be a pre-launch person to person lending site similair to that of Prosper.com.

There isn’t a whole lot of info out there on Loanio, but you can sign up for Loanio’s mailing list and they will send out an email to you as their launch approaches.
It will be nice to have some competition here. I am hoping that Loanio builds on some of Prosper’s weaknesses. I have had my issues with Prosper early on, but things seem to be looking better lately. Just 2 bankrupicies to deal with at the moment.

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