Invested with LendingClub or other P2P?

[CBartowski]

Has anyone here had any experience investing with the P2P lending site LendingClub or similar?

How was your experience and return?

Thanks!

[Revelate]

I'm getting out of P2P lending.

Takes too much time to do it well playing in the lower tiers (where the money is), and playing in the A paper you can do better elsewhere return wise for similar risk and similar effort.

I did well on my first 5k in Lending Club (~10%), then did decently with the next 20k I put into it (~8%)... then things started sliding badly and there's not much in the way of secondary market compared to other options.  I'm about breakeven over the last few years after a lot of my paper defaulted... which is to say, I should've been invested elsewhere.

Ah well, was a diversification play which didn't pan out for me, and the market is not what it was now that so many others have started lending in the same space.

[CBartowski]

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@Revelate wrote:

I'm getting out of P2P lending.

Takes too much time to do it well playing in the lower tiers (where the money is), and playing in the A paper you can do better elsewhere return wise for similar risk and similar effort.

I did well on my first 5k in Lending Club (~10%), then did decently with the next 20k I put into it (~8%)... then things started sliding badly and there's not much in the way of secondary market compared to other options.  I'm about breakeven over the last few years after a lot of my paper defaulted... which is to say, I should've been invested elsewhere.

Ah well, was a diversification play which didn't pan out for me, and the market is not what it was now that so many others have started lending in the same space.

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Fair enough, thanks for the response! May not be worth it, or just play around but sounds like not worth anything serious.  Thanks again.

[mongstradamus]

I used prosper with the ultra conservative settings and still had a lot more defaults then I would have liked. For me the annual returns were negative for what its worth. A lot more risky then i would have thought since i was comparing it to a 5 year cd when i first started it. 

[CBartowski]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

I used prosper with the ultra conservative settings and still had a lot more defaults then I would have liked. For me the annual returns were negative for what its worth. A lot more risky then i would have thought since i was comparing it to a 5 year cd when i first started it. 

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Sounds good, I'll continue looking for new options. Thanks!

[mongstradamus]

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@CBartowski wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

I used prosper with the ultra conservative settings and still had a lot more defaults then I would have liked. For me the annual returns were negative for what its worth. A lot more risky then i would have thought since i was comparing it to a 5 year cd when i first started it. 

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Sounds good, I'll continue looking for new options. Thanks!

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Yes I think 5 year cds are probably better overall options for most people. Or short term tbills under 1 year. 

[Ardecko]

To tag on, has anyone done FundRise or diversify or anything like that, where you're specifically buying into real estate or real estate funds?

I'd like to get a little more for my money than 2%, and I'm already playing the open markets (probably not successfully) enough with my IRAs.

[iced]

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@Ardecko wrote:
To tag on, has anyone done FundRise or diversify or anything like that, where you're specifically buying into real estate or real estate funds?

I'd like to get a little more for my money than 2%, and I'm already playing the open markets (probably not successfully) enough with my IRAs.

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I almost took the plunge into Fundrise but backed off after reading a bit more about it. It turned out to be just like all of the other startup crowdsourced investment programs out there designed to lure people in with the promise of being different and/or disruptive to established markets. The risk/returns aren't really any different than investing on the open market, and I personally would rather stay with the established (and at least somewhat regulated) markets. The devil you know and all that.

As you know, the basic lesson in investing is that you can have good returns or you can have low risk. You cannot have both; in the rare moments when such a thing does exist, everyone immediately moves into it, floods it, and the returns fall, thus returning the balance of risk versus reward. 

If you are more than 10 years from retirement and/or can leave cash in long enough to weather the markets, stocks are one of the best games in town. About 95% of my portfolio is stocks, and quite a bit of that is external to my traditional retirement accounts.

[CBartowski]

I was getting ready to throw some cash into Fundrise as well. There are some pretty solid reviews out there; though it is the internet sooo...who knows.

An alternative I've also been looking into is ETFs with REITs (Real estate investment trusts). Conceptually they seem similar (tho if Im wrong Im sure someone will let me know) and I can use funds from my brokerage account.

[Revelate]

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@Ardecko wrote:
To tag on, has anyone done FundRise or diversify or anything like that, where you're specifically buying into real estate or real estate funds?

I'd like to get a little more for my money than 2%, and I'm already playing the open markets (probably not successfully) enough with my IRAs.

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I don't have anything serious in Fundrise but over the last 18 months I'm up 11%, West Coast fund, California's loopy stupid Prop 13 (imo) makes housing an attractive option.

Not sure if it's liquid frankly, primarily dividend income... I'm going to expand my position some once I blow through my current revolving debt, but like iced the vast majority of my non-retirement assets are in the equity market.  Maybe up to 10% of the non-retirement assets or even less: I have my condo which is doing absurdly well as an investment play, so I'm not looking to heavily swing towards REITs as that's enough diversification.  Arguably I should be investing in one of the other regional funds there but w/e, confident in the California market.