Getting Referral Bonuses for Advertising for LendingClub is Lucrative. "Investing" in LC Loans is Bad. "Investing" in LC Stock is Worse.

A popular blogger whose stated goal is to retire before his dad writes a lot of posts about LendingClub (LC) filled with referral links to open accounts with the same, even though he no longer invest in any more new LC loans due to poor returns. I too have an LC account and likewise no longer investing in any more new LC loans due to poor returns. I believe LC loans are a bad deal for lenders (so called "investors"), and the business model is broken, making its stock an even worse investment, as the stock is currently down 78% from its IPO price of $15. I did subscribe to the LC IPO and got 250 shares at $15 each. Fortunately, I sold them shortly afterwards at around $27. I was in it for the anticipated IPO pop, which was pretty nice.

Income & Expenses For April 2018

Since 2014, I have been tracking my monthly income and expenses. You can see a breakdown of every penny I earn and spend. For perspective, this budget is for a household of two in a small US city. By documenting my journey, I aim to demonstrate the feasibility of saving a significant portion of your income and provide some ideas and inspiration for your own budget.

Below are my income and expenses for April 2018. You can see all my monthly budgets here.

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Portfolio and Net Worth Update April 2018

The time has come for my monthly portfolio update. At the end of every month, I will update my portfolio and comment on any changes. I do that for accountability and also so you may glean some ideas on how I allocate my capital. You have the opportunity to learn from what I do well so you can do the same, as well as what I do poorly, so you will not have to repeat my mistakes.

Follow my real-time portfolio here. Below is a snapshot of my stocks and ETFs portfolio as of 4/30/18: