Alternative Investments

How to Screen Loans on Lending Club for Big Returns

June 16, 2013

Screening and scrubbing through available loans on Lending Club is a lot easier once you know what you’re doing. Using the net return and default rates screener at Nickel Streamroller, one can quickly “backtest” various selection strategies to find the loans with the best ROI. I’ve tested a few different ways to weed out Lending [...]

Read the full article →

5 Reasons You Should NEVER, EVER Sell Your Pension

June 2, 2013

Over the past several years, we’ve seen every manner of “financial innovation” which ultimately led to hardship. We’ve seen the securitization of mortgage loans which helped fuel the housing boom/bust, we’ve seen reverse mortgages leaving many seniors and heirs in the dust and now, there’s a major move afoot to buy pensions from Americans. Sure, [...]

Read the full article →

Investing in Tax Liens for Substantial Returns

September 30, 2012

What if you could turn $1,000 into a $100,000 home? Controversial as it might be, thousands of real estate investors are doing this every day of the week. It’s become a common topic in the media, which frequently runs stories like this one from CNN that profiles one person who lost her $85,000 home to [...]

Read the full article →

Why Target Date Bond Funds Beat Bond Index Funds

September 23, 2012

Picking a stock fund is fairly easy – a stock index fund built around a market index like the S&P 500 should do just fine. Bonds are a different animal, however, and index funds may not be the best choice for your investment dollars. Bond Funds vs. Target Date Bond Funds In general, there are [...]

Read the full article →

Brokered CDs: 8 Things to Consider Before You Invest

September 9, 2012

Brokered CDs give banks the chance to raise capital from far-flung corners of the country, and investors the opportunity to earn better than average returns on their savings since 10 Year Treasury Yields are driving all traditional income investments to near zero yields. But there are a few things you should know before you buy [...]

Read the full article →

Investing in Art and Collectibles

August 12, 2012

There is something about art that I just can’t describe. I hear the words “fine art” and think immediately to cigars and wines, golf and polo – old wealth “stuff” that is more than a way to cover a wall. Art is a unique kind of investment. It never generates an income (unless you have [...]

Read the full article →

Target Date Funds: Is Convenience Worth the Cost?

June 18, 2012

Target date mutual funds seek to make retirement planning as easy as ever. Simply pick a date and a contribution level to let the target date fund manager do the rest for you. The goal for any fund company is to become a “one stop shop” for their clients. A target date fund gives much [...]

Read the full article →

Pairs Trade: Real Examples and Profit Potential

April 3, 2012

Pairs trades can be a great supplement to your investment portfolio if you’re just a passive investor or an active trader.  I’ve personally done several different types of pairs trades over the years and have had varying degrees of success.  Below, I’ll lay out some real-life examples and some recent trades in the news that [...]

Read the full article →

Diversification Strategies for Better Bond Upside

February 5, 2012

Fixed-income investments like bonds may have beaten equities (stocks) over the past 30 years, but there are few analysts who would expect the same performance over the next 30 years. Fixed-income investors benefited from perennially falling interest rates, which send bond values higher as interest rates drop (read more on bond strategies and how they [...]

Read the full article →

US Debt Now Equivalent to Entire US Economy – Investing in This New Era

January 9, 2012

The United States has just reached the dreaded 100% Debt-to-GDP ratio with its $15.2 Trillion debt level surpassing the value of all goods and services produced in-country.  This is important because it vaults us into a whole new echelon of debt-ridden societies with financial crises of their own: only Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan and [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries