25 year old Ellie Kirby isn’t a stereotypical peer-to-peer lender. She’s young and female, but she does own her own business, Exhibition Plinths, and has been investing in rebuildingsociety’s businesses since March 2014. This is how she describes her motivations and her lending journey.
[caption id="attachment_232404" align="alignleft" width="200"] Ellie Kirby, who has been lending through rebuildingsociety since March 2014[/caption]
“As a natural born spender, the idea of saving money didn’t exactly excite me, investing therefore was way out of the question!
I was recommended to read the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, which is a story about a boy who is brought up by his natural father, and his Dad’s father who both teach him and his friend whilst growing up, very opposite and different beliefs about money.
I learned from that book that I need to find investments which pay ideally 10% or more, not the 0.5% that the banks interest rate is (interest rate at the time of writing, in August 2014) and that we must be creative in finding those investments if we want to eventually have our interest from our investments paying for our day-to-day expenses. (My definition of financial freedom)
After only a small amount of internet research I came across rebuildingsociety. A platform where lenders loan money to businesses, which is paid back to you with an interest rate is matched to the level of risk of the business. The interest rates of the businesses that I have loaned to range from 6% to 20%, my average net return being 16.43%.
I put my first £10 into the system in March 2014. (The minimum loan amount) This £10 formed part of a loan which went ahead and the repayments plus the interest, are paid back to me monthly.
My first goal, was to have a £10 loan to 30 businesses, which meant I was making some interest every day of the month.
Once I had 30 loans, I decided to make my investments a bit more in value and start to put in £15 per week. I also had £2,000 in savings which I decided to invest and split into many smaller chunks to loan to make up parts of loans to different businesses.
At the time of writing, my invested capital is £2,608.89 (I have re-invested all repayments and all interest payments) and my interest earnings are £47.02.
According to Jeff Olson in his book The Slight Edge, if you invested £250 per month, from the age of 23 years old to 39 years old, into an account with 8% interest, which then once you reached 39 you stopped paying into and allowed to continue to just compound and grow, by the time you reached retirement age you would have a £1million pension pot. This calculation is at 8% and remember, my average return is 16.43%.
I am highly motivated to spread the word about how successful peer-to-peer lending is becoming, and how it is really simple to get involved. Soon these earnings will also be tax free, when peer-to-peer lending becomes part of the NISA, which is another reason I am investing through rebuildingsociety."
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IMPORTANT: These views are those of the individual and do not reflect those of rebuildingsociety. rebuildingsociety does not offer investment advice.
Past returns are not a guide to future returns. Any unrepaid capital is at risk of arrears or default. rebuildingsociety.com is regulated by the FCA, uncovered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.