Financial Fellow

Written by J.P. Wicklein
     I picked up a book recently entitled “The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me” by Richard Paul Evans.  At 106 pages, it’s a pretty quick read.  For a small book it packs a lot of useful advice. 
Win in the Margins
     One of the author’s five lessons is to “win in [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein
     I’m earning over a 9% return on my money through Lending Club.  (Currently the average annual return for all of Lending Club’s 25,000+ investors is 9.6%.)  By offering a $25 bonus, Lending Club is inviting new customers to give their service a try for free. 

What is Lending Club?
     Lending Club [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein
     Zecco Trading just announced a promotion awarding new customers 20 free online stock trades.  Here are the details: 
·         The account must be opened by Sunday, September 13, 2009 using promo code “bonus1” (case sensitive).
·         The 20 free stock trades will be granted on or before September 16th, 2009. 
·         Any [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein
     Whether you’re looking to create wealth, or just add a few bucks to your bottom line, I’d suggest exploring sources of residual income. 
What is residual income?
     Residual income is money you earn over and over again without performing any work.  A common example of residual income is the interest paid [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

This is the 100^th post since FinancialFellow.com was launched in October 2008. In light of the milestone I thought it fitting to call attention to my 5 favorite articles. Some articles offer my perspective on retirement savings, others provide suggestions on how to save, or earn, hundreds of dollars with minimal effort. Enjoy!

10% Annual Return is Unrealistic When discussing how much money you will have at retirement age many financial articles assume that you will attain an average annual return of around 10%. This assumption is misleading for two reasons…

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Written by J.P. Wicklein
     A few sites have popped up that connect shareholders of private companies with individuals seeking a piece of a company before it goes public.   Typically shareholders of private companies, often employees, are unable to cash out their shares until their employer goes public.  On the other side of the fence are [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

Several months ago I signed up as an investor with a peer-to-peer lending company, Lending Club. Presently I’m earning a net annualized return of 9.89%. This rate of return crushes anything I’m making through a traditional CD or online savings account. My rate of return is comparable to the historical returns offered by stocks - without the volatility.

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

     I’m a big fan of Warren Buffett and an avid reader of his biographies.  I find the combination of his investing genius and folksy, down-to-earth personality fascinating.  Recently, I came across an interview he gave to Fox Business. In the interview Warren shares his insight on how to determine if a stock is worth buying. Check it out!

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

     Recently I received a couple questions from readers about how I invest my retirement funds. I thought it would be useful to share my answer with everyone. Don’t view my approach as advice on how to invest your retirement money. When investing you need to weigh factors such as your age and level of risk tolerance. As such, what’s best for me, may not work for you. Hopefully, though, reading about my approach will help you to consider some things when determining how to allocate your retirement dollars. Here’s how my retirement asset allocation shakes out:

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

With the best savings accounts paying a little over 2%, and long term CDs paying under 4%, I decided to explore other ways to invest my money. Recently, I came across Lending Club. Lending Club is a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered, peer-to-peer lending network that boasts an average annual investor return of 9.05%.

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