On Sunday, 18 September 2016 at 16:13:55 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu
wrote:
Wouldn't that be risk from the unsecured personal lending
business, which although numerically similar has a different
dynamics?
In my head, I was imagining an efficient frontier and where a
5-7% return would get you.
I've been looking at their historical numbers. Their accounts
didn't lose money even during the trough of the recession. At
that time they were one of the best places to invest out there.
There are challenges in the world of marketplace lending, but
as far as I understand it sure is a solid choice.
They have different ratings for loans. The favorably rated
investments did well, but the lower rated stuff lost money. So at
least that provides some guidance.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure longer-term Treasuries had even better
returns during the financial crisis (b/c of the price change as
yields fall) and you could sell a fund containing them at any
time.
Regarding the stock market, IB is quite attractive, and has an
incredibly low margin rate.
Frankly, this comment makes me cringe.
s/cringe/curious to know more/
The basic idea here is to have a buffer for short-term
borrowing. For example, for DConf we'd need to plop down some
money for renting a conference hall until proceeds from
registration roll in. The notion of being able to take a 1.60%
APY for that is quite attractive. Sadly, I've looked at IB
since and they don't offer any checking or general banking. I'm
not 100% sure, but I assume they'd lend money only for
investing; they wouldn't allow you to transfer cash on margin
into your bank. Does anyone know exactly what the case is?
I suppose this makes sense if they let you do it. I was thinking
you were going to use margin for investing, which did not seem to
fit with your goals.
