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Are you a hands-on investor who enjoys evaluating investment opportunities and finding a diamond in the rough? If so you may want to consider investing in peer to peer lending. As a peer to peer lender you have the opportunity to review individual borrower applications and select the ones that you think are going to repay their loans.

What is Peer to Peer Lending?

For those of you not familiar with peer to peer lending (also know as P2P lending), let’s take a moment for a quick introduction. In the past ten years several websites (known as platforms) like LendingClub and Prosper have sprung up offering personal loans to individuals. This is certainly not unique but what makes them different is that they are not banks or financial institutions in the traditional sense. These websites get funding for the loans they provide from individual investors in amounts as small as $2,500. In a sense, anyone can be a banker with just a small amount of money. The signup process is quick and easy, and as soon as you transfer the funds you can start investing.

How Do You Invest in Peer to Peer Loans?

The process for P2P lending investing is pretty simple. Once you have opened and funded your account you will be able to see all of the loan applications that the platform has approved. These loan applications have been evaluated based on industry standard underwriting techniques and many are rejected. The ones that are approved are rated and the highest rated borrowers get the lowest interest rates.

Lenders review the approved loan applications and decide which loans they would like to invest in based on their comfort level with risk and their desired return. Investment in a loan can be as little as $25 and most experts recommend investing the minimum amount and spreading your portfolio over as many loans as possible in order to minimize risk through diversification. This is where you get to Do-It-Yourself. The platform provides dozens of pieces of information from the loan application and the borrower’s credit history. You get to determine which factors matter, how much to weigh them and what a good borrower profile looks like. To some people this may sound boring and tedious but for many investing junkies this is the fun part. You can look at data like length of employment, debt-to-income ratio, home ownership vs. renting, late payments, outstanding debt, bankruptcies and so much more.

There are a limited number of filters available on the platforms that allow you to quickly find loans that meet certain criteria, then you can review them in the more detail individually. Or, for the really hardcore investment analysis junkies, the information for all available loans can be downloaded to a spreadsheet for study and review. There are approximately 50 to 250 loans available at any given time and there are approximately 80 pieces of information available so, as you can imagine, this can be an enormous amount of data to review. However, with some simple sorting and filtering in your spreadsheet you can pretty easily identify the loans that meet your criteria.

There is also room for intuition and past experience in the analysis process. There may be more loans that meet your criteria than you have funds to invest. Ultimately, you may have to ‘go with your gut’ in order to select the loan or loans that you think are most likely to be paid back.

For those who want passive income or do not feel they are savvy enough to select quality loans there is also an auto invest feature that will choose the loans for you based on your desired risk/return level. But for the investment analysis enthusiast the DIY approach is the way to do. All in all, this can be a fun way to achieve a great return on your investment.

You must have sought ways to invest in various asset classes from time to time. You’ll get an opportunity by opting for a Unit Linked Insurance Plan. It will even cover you for certain unfortunate circumstances with a life insurance policy. A portion of the amount that you pay towards your premium may be invested in your hand-picked plans. It enhances your chance to achieve a higher return on investment.

If you’re truly eager to achieve your long-term financial goals, your investment portfolio must comprise of ULIPs. Apart from ensuring a cost-effective way of earning more on your investments, a ULIP plan even allows your savings to grow and accumulate more wealth over time.

Compared to other traditional insurance policies, ULIPs yield a unique opportunity for you to enjoy the freedom of customizing your policy while comparing a plethora of options that match your investment needs. Like any other insurance policy or wealth plan, the features of a ULIP plan get you overwhelmed.

Check Out a Few Points on Why ULIPs Are a Good Investment Option:

Multiple Goals:

ULIPs enable you to invest a portion of your premium towards debt, balanced, and equity funds, while the remaining portion goes out towards life cover. Thus, a single product allows you to enjoy the benefits of investment and insurance at once.

Higher Returns:

By opting for ULIPs, you’re actually investing your money across numerous reliable investment options like equity and bonds. ULIPs are a great opportunity for you to obtain quality returns linked to the share market. You won’t enjoy such returns with any traditional insurance policy.

More Flexibility:

The fact that a ULIP enables you to shift from one investment fund to another is a proof of its flexibility. Facts concerning your market performance and risk appetite will help you to pick any of the balanced, equity, and debt funds.

Economic:

ULIPs are certainly amongst the most inexpensive market policies that yield both investment and insurance benefits. The fact that the latest ULIPs don’t demand any policy or allocation costs often makes them more inexpensive than that of the mutual funds. ULIPs are also quite popular due to their tax benefits.

Tax Benefits:

ULIPs can act as an efficient tax-saving tool. The amount that you pay towards your ULIP policy premiums is entirely tax-exempted under certain circumstances. Being a policyholder, you’ll get more chances of extending your savings at a time when there’s no need to pay tax on the amount of premium.

In addition, the portion of your income that’s taxable comprises of deductibles like that of the maturity and death benefit. There’s no reason for you to be concerned about paying a hefty sum as tax out of your savings.

Long-term investment plans like ULIPs are meant for individuals that opt for financial planning for the long run. There’s a 5-year lock-in period that comes with every ULIP. It helps you set your long-term goals in a proper way. The growth that you achieve with ULIPs can help you meet your long-term financial objectives like that of buying a property or fulfilling your daughter’s wedding plans. These days, you may even pick one out of a diverse range of ULIPs.

Many people simply put their money at stake in Forex by listening to their mind. They do not feel the necessity of analyzing the chart or looking at the pattern and simply place a trade. If you are one of them, you need to read this article. This article will tell you how you can place your trades with confirmation. The confirmation that we are telling is very easy to know and you do not need to ask your broker. They are all hidden in the signals, the indicators and even in the chart you use. All you need to do is open your eyes and you will realize there are many signs that indicate if a trade is good to place or not. Traders ignore them and they trust their inner voices and they lose their capital. We believe you will not do the same mistake and we are going to tell you the signs that can assure you that it is the right time to place your trades.

Learn price action signal

Using the price action confirmation signal is one of the most effective ways to place a trade. The new traders at Singapore often say they have the perfect skill set yet they are losing money. But do you think they are using price action confirmation signal? You have to learn price action trading to trade the market with confidence. The experienced price action traders are always one step ahead in Forex trading profession. They can easily trade the market with tight stop loss without risking a huge amount of money.

Use of multiple time frame analysis

Multiple time frame analysis is another easy way to filter out the best trades. If you do some research, you will understand trading CFDs is nothing but finding the best trades in the random nature of this market. The aggressive traders might have some edge but they will never succeed in the long run. You have to do some hard work and develop your edge. Never let your emotions take control of you. Emotions have no place in the life of a Forex trader. Always believe in your skills and try to keep yourself updated with the latest news release. Never ignore the power of fundamental factors in the Forex market.

The trends are stable and dominant

One of the key indicators of confirmation of a good trade is the trends are stable and dominant. Traders are always advised to place their trades with the trend because the trend appears when there is money. If you simply place random trades, you cannot get to make your profit. You have to analyze the chart and use your skill to find out when it is the right time to place your trades. You also need to check if the trends are dominant and they are showing on the chart for a long time, indicating they will not go away when you place your trades. It is also important that the trends are dominant and they are not some weak movements by the brokers. The next time you are thinking to place your trades, analyze the quality of the trends and to will know for yourself if it is a good decision.

The market does not have a schedule for any major news release

The news release can unstable the market and it can affect your profit growth. If you want to avoid this risks, check the schedule and finds out if there are any major news planned to release at your expected time. A good trader not only practice their own strategy but they also know the news release and the information. The release of major news creates unexpected volatility and changes in trends that are not predicted and may cost money if traders place trades. Only trade when there is no schedule of the news release and the price movement is steadily changing.

Hope sounds very promising but still, it can have negative aspects. If you do not believe us, read this article and you will find out the dangers of hope. Most people lose their money because of they hope for too much. There is no match between their expectation and their work and what they get in return is losses. We know it is important to keep your spirit up but most of the time, it does not work in that way. It leads to believing into something miracle and traders begin to lose their track. This article will tell you how hope can be risky for your career. However, it has mostly positive sides but the negative sides are so strong that it can easily derail you from your tracks.

Emotions have no place

We are the human being and it’s very normal to get emotional after losing money. Trading is such a unique profession where you will always have to lose trade. But does this mean you will only lose money in the Forex market? If you know the proper way to find quality trades and trade with discipline, even after losing more than 50% of the time, you will be able to make money. Trade the market with a high-risk reward ratio trade setup. The successful Aussie traders at Rakuten broker always say that trading is all about risk management. If you want to become a profitable trader, trade with discipline.

Rational logic

Taking logical decisions in the investment industry is crucial for your success. In the investment industry, Rakuten Forex is a very popular name since this broker offers elite class service to its client. Being a matured trader you must find a well-regulated broker where you can trade currency pairs without hassle. During your technical analysis, focus on rational logic and throw away your emotions to execute best trades.

Hope makes the traders change their strategy

Imagine you have invested your money in Forex and it is your first time trading. You have no knowledge of the currency industry and you do not know how the volatility works. You placed some trades with discipline for the first few months and you started getting success. No wonder that you are excited and you want to try something new and more profitable. This idea is backed up by your hope because you have a good experience in the past. This is when the dangers of hope are initiated.

You started making plans in your strategy that has proved successful and effective. For example, you started changing the position of the stop-loss and make them bigger. You know it is risky but you are eager to make a huge amount of profit. This leads to destroying your plan and you begin to make random changes. Even if you do not set a big position size, you started using leverages in trends that had favored your trades in the past. Any changes should be revised before they are used in the live industry and hope makes the traders skip this part. As a result, many flaws get into their trading plan and they start losing their money.

Expect unrealistic outcomes

The most dangerous outcome is you begin to harbor unrealistic expectations. You know it is wrong but you cannot realize it at that moment. You are blinded by your hope and overconfidence and your eyes only get opened after losing the capital. Keep your hope in a limit and expect the worst. The industry may not turn out in your favor and need backup plans.

Should I not be hopeful then?

We are not discouraging you from hoping as it shows you the path in darkness. What we want to tell you that it is risky and can involve with your emotion. When it does, it makes you emotional and your decision becomes questioned. Most good trades are made without emotion and are based on the analysis of trends and by assessing the information of the industry. If you want to hope, make sure that it is not having any effect on your trading strategy.

Every entrepreneur needs to save money for further investment. Even if you are getting lucrative profit in your business, you can’t predict the future. There are several factors responsible for growth of all types of businesses, either a consultancy in Dubai or firm in Nevada, and an abrupt change can suddenly make things difficult for them. There are multiple ways available for people to save their hard-earned money. All these methods have several advantages and shortcomings. After analyzing all these methods, one can say that the ideal one is offshore investment.

In offshore investment, an entrepreneur or any other person keeps the wealth in a country other than country of his/her residence. But not every other country is known as offshore location. There are several countries that provide tax exemptions and other benefits for investors that are not present in most of other places. These offshore jurisdictions get this name due to their location, geography and other legal and monetary benefits that they provide to foreign investors.

Following are main advantages of offshore investment that will make it clear that it is the best way to save your money. You will not get most of these advantages in any other money saving technique.

Tax Exemption/Reduction

It is the primary and one of the most unique advantages that is provided by offshore jurisdictions. These places are usually known as tax havens as they provide either complete exemption from all types of taxes or their tax rate is very low as compared to most of other countries. This is really important for most of businesses. They can easily avoid hefty amount of tax only by paying a fix annual fee for their investment in offshore jurisdictions.

This is really important for large businesses that are also growing rapidly. In most of countries, these businesses can lose even 40% or above of their profits through different types of taxes. But these businesses can save millions of dollars every year by adopting offshore investment. Therefore, if you are growing your business or otherwise facing tax issues in your home country, then the best place to save your money is by investing in offshore jurisdiction.

Confidentiality

In most of countries, it is mandatory for entrepreneurs and individuals to disclose their total wealth and source of income. This information is also available to public. On several occasions, this publically available information creates legal and monetary problems for entrepreneurs and wealthy persons.

It happens as their competitors or relatives would use this information to sue and start legal battles against them. On most of occasions, these legal claims are baseless and its purpose is to harm the business opponent. It is not only stressful but also proves financially harmful for the receiving person.

In order to avoid this situation, the best way is offshore investment. In fact, confidentiality of assets is the second most important factor that attracts investors towards offshore dominions. Offshore jurisdictions don’t disclose details of foreign investors and their businesses. This is really helpful in protecting your money from unnecessary and unethical claims that can ruin ones wealth.

These two factors clearly highlights the importance of offshore investment provides for protection of wealth for entrepreneurs and wealthy individuals. There is no doubt offshore investment is the best way to save your money.

Author Bio: Mona is an experienced content writer working for Dubai-based consultancy firm Riz& Mona Consultancy. She has 6 years of experience in the fields of offshore business, investment, finance, taxation and insurance.