Safe Investment No. 4: Peer-to-Peer Lending
For boomers already holding a great deal of their portfolios in the stock market, Jeff Rose, a certified financial planner and owner of investing blog Good Financial Cents, recommended safe investing through peer-to-peer lending.
“Sites like Lending Club and Prosper give you the opportunity to invest in loans to people and small businesses while giving you credit and investment risk information. You can invest as little or as much as you want into any one ‘note,’ allowing you to diversify inside of the peer-to-peer lending network,” said Rose. In addition to Lending Club and Prosper, Forbes also recommended Upstart and Funding Circle.
Joseph Hogue, a chartered financial analyst and founder of personal finance blog PeerFinance101, also recommended peer loan investing for boomers.
“[These loans] are not closely correlated with stocks, providing some protections from market ups and downs,” he said. “Since peer loans pay off completely over the life of the loan (three to five years), they provide more cash flow than traditional bonds that only pay interest until they mature.”
