Betterment Review – An Easy Way To Start Investing

Betterment

Betterment is an investing website that tackles the perceived complexity of investing head on. I hear it time and time again from the readers of Money Q&A and even my own family members that they simply are scared to invest because they think that it is too complicated. Betterment works to break down that notion and makes investing a simple process that is goal oriented. While Betterment is essentially a stock brokerage firm, it takes the title to a new level targeting the segment of potential investors that have been sorely lacking representation, the new or novice investor. While even experienced investors can receive a lot of value from the company’s approach, the company’s niche is the new investor who … Read more

Dissecting My Twelve Loans That Defaulted On Lending Club

Lending Club Passive Income With Automated Investing

Lending Club Passive Income With Automated InvestingLast week I made a horrible confession. I am a greedy investor, or more importantly, I WAS a greedy investor when it came to my Lending Club account and investing in peer to peer lending loans. But, I have learned the errors of my ways. I love Lending Club and the idea of earning a great rate of return by investing directly in peer to peer loans of people who need funding and may not otherwise receive it.

So, I’m not giving up on investing in peer to peer lending through Lending Club. I’m trying to be a better loan picker and evaluator. So, here are a few areas that my Lending Club default loans have in common. Maybe by understanding a little more about why these may have defaulted, I can avoid making similar mistakes going forward in the future with new peer to peer loans.

Traits Of My Defaulted Peer To Peer Lending Loans

36 Month Maturities

Every single one of the 12 loans that I have that defaulted have a 36 month length of maturity. This is a little hard to gauge because I started investing in some of these peer to peer loans before Lending Club started offering five year loans.

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How I Got Greedy and Lost My Shirt with Peer To Peer Lending Loans

I completely messed up investing in peer-to-peer loans through Lending Club because I was greedy. Jim Cramer is famous for saying that both bulls and bears can make money, but pigs get slaughtered. What he means is that it is one thing to make money or make a living with your investments. But, to try and make a killing on them, you will often be crushed by those very same investments. I’m ashamed that I got greedy with my Lending Club investments, tried to push the envelope, and got burnt. Keep reading to see what happened and what I’m doing now with the new loans I’m investing in through Lending Club. Peer To Peer Loans And Lending Is Awesome I don’t … Read more

How To Using PE Ratio And Growth Rate To Find Cheap Stocks

There are many different ways that investors use to try and determine a stock’s share price and what it is really worth. Typically, investors fall into one of two categories. They are either financial analysis investors or technical analysis investors.

Investors who use financial analysis use many means to price a stock’s shares. Two of the most popular methods are the price to earnings ratio simply called the PE ratio and growth rate.

What Is A PE Ratio? And, How Do You Calculate It?

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (Ticker Symbol = DPS)A PE ratio is the value of the price of a share of stock divided by the company’s earnings per share. For example, if you look at one of my favorite stocks that I personally own, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (Ticker Symbol: DPS), its current PE ratio is 15.67 as of September 25th, 2011.

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