Lending Club

5 Ways to Layoff-Proof Your Job

DebtKid — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:52:53 +0000

Are you vital to your employer?

If your answer is, "absolutely!" then congratulations, your job is probably safe. If you hesitated, it may be time to look at how to layoff-proof your position. With companies laying off workers across a broad spectrum of industries, if you're not vital you just might be expendable.

Make yourself absolutely vital to the success of your company… or, at least their survival during these difficult economic times.

1. Be a Da Vinci

Leonardo wasn't just a great painter. He could sculpt, sketch, and if you're a ninja turtle fan, clean up with swords as well.

The point is that knowing how to just do your job isn't enough. To truly layoff-proof yourself you need to know how to do other positions within your company. Take the initiative and start learning the daily tasks you would handle if you had other job titles.

2. Take on a new project

If you have to create a new project to take on one, do it. If a new project needs volunteers, volunteer. Heck, volunteer to lead the search for volunteers.

If there is anything new happening at your company, you want to make sure you are an important part of it. This may mean taking on responsibilities beyond your normal routine or job description.

3. Generate revenue

Often when a company is looking at cutting jobs, the absolute last cuts happen to the sales department. Why? Because without them, the company wouldn't bring in any money!

If you're a secretary, find a salesperson to help out. Can you help manage or optimize their leads? If you can't be generating revenue directly, become absolutely essential to someone who is!

4. Embrace change

Instead of complaining of the "good ole days", embrace any change that your workplace is going through. Not only will it be good for your mental health, you'll be seen as a good team player as well.

Note: This does not mean be a suck-up. This just means roll with the punches. Change happens. You might as well go with it.

5. Share your 100% commitment

Have a serious conversation with your boss (or higher up if possible) about your commitment to your company. Don't do this in an email or over the phone. Even if it's just stopping their office for a few minutes one afternoon, have this conversation in person.

When it comes to making cuts, they will remember the personal conversation that you initiated. It may not sound like much, but little details like this can make all the difference.

Share your best tip

How are you layoff-proofing yourself?

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Categorized Receipts Simplify Budgeting

Mike Smith — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:25:23 +0000

Receipts from certain purchases are easy to enter into budgeting software because the entire purchase tends to be in one category. I know that a receipt from a restaurant will go into my Food: Dining Out category regardless of the items on the receipt. Grocery store purchases might be that simple as well, depending on the level of detail in your budget. Department stores can be much more time consuming to categorize, though at least one store is doing something to help.

I do a lot of my shopping at a Super Target, which has just about all of the products and food our family needs on a regular basis. When I enter the receipts into our budget software, I generally split the transaction into Groceries, Household, Baby Supplies, etc. It isn’t particularly difficult, but it does take some time and I probably miscategorize some of our spending on occasion. That’s why I was so pleased to see that Target has started categorizing receipts for its customers.

Categorized receipts have been common at grocery stores for some time. There, your dairy, fruits and vegetables, dry goods, etc., were all subtotaled separately. While such detail is great for those with highly categorized budgets, it wasn’t so important to me since I consider all of those items as part of my Grocery category. Categorized receipts from Target are much more useful. My latest receipt shows items in the Grocery, Home, Cleaning Supplies, Baby, and Cosmetics categories. Though subtotals are not produced, I am still able to quickly determine what I’ve spent in each category. I also combine certain groups in cases where Target uses more detailed categories than I do. I budget Cleaning Supplies in my Grocery category, for example.

I can only imagine that the economic downturn’s pressure on higher cost consciousness and revival of frugal tendencies prompted Target’s newly categorized receipts. Whatever their reason, I personally find these categorized receipts very useful. Have you noticed any other stores adopting a similar feature?

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Finding the Right Notes to Invest In

Mike Smith — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:23:21 +0000

Lending Club offers three methods for finding suitable notes to invest in. The method you choose will largely be dictated by your investment objectives including the amount you would like to invest, the time you have to screen notes, and the level of control you’d like to have in the process.

LendingMatch™ is the automatic method for finding notes on Lending Club. To harness the power of this proprietary technology, you simply enter the amount you’d like to invest and set a risk level. Your risk level will determine the mix of credit grades you will invest in and the corresponding interest rate you might expect to receive. The mix will take into account the potential number of notes that you can purchase with your investment amount. With a $100 investment, for example, you could buy 4 notes, so a low-risk LendingMatch portfolio might have two A-grade notes and two B-grade notes. Once you are presented with a LendingMatch portfolio, you can add or remove notes and update investment amounts before committing to an investment. This tool is most useful for investors looking to invest in a large number of notes, but can be used by anyone looking for automation.

One alternative method to LendingMatch is to browse individual notes and choose those that are attractive to you. You can limit the notes shown to only include those that meet your specifications of average rate, credit score of borrower, debt-to-income ratio, number of delinquencies in the last two years, and funding status. After reviewing individual notes, you can select those that interest you and commit to investing in them. Though this method could become tedious for investing in many notes, it gives full visibility into investments and is an option regardless of your investment amount.

A final method is available to investors interested in purchasing notes that were already issued. Those notes can be found on the Note Trading Platform operated by FOLIOfn, a Lending Club partner. In addition to screening notes by average rate and status, notes with varying numbers of payments remaining can be shown. Notes that meet your criteria can be sorted by additional parameters, such as Yield to Maturity or Markup/Discount. Selecting a note shows the relevant information, including a link to the original listing as well as any changes to the borrower’s credit score since the note was first issued. Since note trading is a new feature for Lending Club investors, the number of notes available for trade is growing every day.

Once you’ve made the decision to invest in notes with Lending Club, the next step is to find the right notes for you. Whether automating your investments through LendingMatch, fully controlling note selection by browsing individual listings, or screening for tradable notes on the Note Trading Platform, Lending Club offers many ways to match investors with suitable notes. Explore all three of these choices to see which method, or set of methods, works best for you.

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