Lending Club has just launched a new tool that allows investors to compare their loans’ performance with other lenders. This tool is part of Lending Club’s regular improvement of its site. From my experience, Lending Club has managed to create an incredibly easy to navigate site for both borrowers and lenders. In some ways, it reminds of Discover Card’s site, which is hands down the best credit card site in the industry.
Lending Club has figured out exactly what information users need, had has made that information easily accessible on its site. But back to the new tool, here’s what it looks like in my account:
So in my case, net annualized return is about 5% above average. While that’s great, even one default and the return would come down significantly. So far I’ve been fortunate. But it is remarkable that the average return across all Lending Club investors is 9.94%.
This past week I had the opportunity to discuss my Lending Club experience with Barbara Bryn Klare, a journalist who writes two columns for the examiner.com. Here article, P2P Followup: Growing up is hard to do is a good read. Barbara also mentions my good friend Pinyo, who is a Lending Club investor and runs a wonderful personal finance blog.
If you’d like to become an investor in Lending Club notes, you can do so at www.lendingclub.com.
And if you are wondering how LC calculates net annualized return, the formula is really, really simple:
Hmm, well maybe not so simple.
Popular P2P Investing Platforms
Let’s forget about that, and take a look at some great articles and blog carnivals that were published this past week.
Personal Finance Articles
- Top 50 Frugality Blogs that Will Help You Save Money (@Frugal Dad)
- Readers Share Lending Club Returns (@My Dollar Plan)
- The MOST important Making Money 101 tool of them all … (@7 Million 7 Years)
- The Big Bing Theory (@One Mint)
- 30 Things I Do Daily To Spend Less Money (@Domestic Cents)
- Saving $71,000 on Your Mortgage (@Bad Money Adcvice)
- Don’t let low interest rates make you stupid (@Wise Bread)
- Make Your Own Dog Food (@Bargaineering)
- How Much is Your Time Worth? (@Cash Money Life)
- Joining An Investment Club? Watch Out For Groupthink (@The Digerati Life)
- 20-Somethings Who Invest Learn Lessons Early (@Alpha Consumer)
- SEP IRA: Self-Employed Retirement Plans (@Lazy Man and Money)
Personal Finance Carnivals
- Festival of Frugality: “The Baseball Edition” (@Personal Finance Analyst)
- The 208th Carnival of Personal Finance: Lobster Roll Edition (@Money Under 30)
- 195th Carnival of Debt Reduction (@Green Panda Treehouse)
- Dollar Frugal (@Dollar Frugal)
- Festival of Stocks #144 (@Fat Pitch Financials)
- Economy and Your Finances Carnival June 7 2009 | OneMint (@One Mint)
- The 40th Bankruptcy & Debt Carnival. (@Bankruptcy Access)
Lending Club Disclaimer:
Thanks for checking DR!
I’ll let you know if it shows up.
Keep up the great blog and happy 4th! : )
I finally took the plunge and signed up for Lending Club!
I’ve been reading your blog for a while so I used your referral code too. How long until they deposit the $25 bonus in my account so I can start trading?
Modough, that’s a good question, but I’m not sure how long it takes. I’ll send an e-mail to LC today to find out, but I probably won’t hear back until next week. If you get the deposit before then, please let us know.
Lima, 8% is good for super low risk. My 14%+ is with D and E rated loans, so I’m taking on a lot of risk. And it’s always important to look at risk-adjusted returns, not just raw numbers.
Thanks for mentioning OneMint!
I’m sitting pretty at 7.98% I know it’s on the low side (compare to others), but I’ve kept it super low risk so far… After a year, only a couple of defaults (out of hundreds of loans). Seriously, who would have thought?