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.

In my recent article, I discussed the frugality habit. I often find myself spending much more than I intend to, so I began asking myself why. One of the major reasons is the internal pressure – temptation, desire, and lack of discipline – that causes us to pull out our wallets and buy something we don't really need. The temptation to spend is fundamental to all of us, so how can we fight back?

Here are four ways to help you develop the frugality habit. Many other blogs offer tips and specific examples of ways to be frugal, but I'm more interested in helping you develop the mindset of frugality. While specific examples are great (and I'll include some in this post), they all emerge from the mindset. Develop the habit, and the individual actions will arise naturally.

1) Understand what a habit really is.

It's tough to develop a habit without understanding the definition. A habit, according to the Princeton dictionary, is "an automatic pattern of behavior in reaction to a specific situation; may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition." This is an excellent definition: it is automatic, unconscious, and it can be acquired by being continually practiced. A habit is really a feedback loop: You can develop the frugality habit by being frugal, and you act frugally by developing the habit (see figure below). Thus, you must really take it to heart to become frugal: begin acting frugally until it becomes unconscious.

2) Change your outlook towards spending.

At a certain point, you must make the decision to become a frugal spender. This means that you must evaluate your current spending and decide that you don't need to spend like you used to in the past. For example, in a recent article, Frugal Dad asked himself what “rich” meant – and he decided that he had enough money, so he didn't need to spend as much as he had been.

3) Condition the habit.

Make a serious effort, daily, to act frugally. Look at lists of potentially frugal things to do (such as here at The Frugal Duchess) and try to find ways to cut your spending. Consider subscribing to thrift and personal finance blogs (like this one!) and doing your best daily to…

4) Continue the habit until it's unconscious.

Refine and improve your frugal actions until being frugal has become completely habitual. By acting frugally, you will become frugal.

Read up on Scott Young's method of habit-introducing here. This is a good introduction to developing habits that you might find helpful.

By following these steps, you will be able to make yourself surprisingly frugal. By developing these protections against internal pressures, you won't be affected by your desires and temptations as much as before.

Is 2008 turning out to be the year you expected? Or has it been a total surprise? After making an end of year review, you can make 2009 a better year by listing your goals, making a plan and starting on that plan now.

Why plan now?

1. You have better perspective. Plans should be made ahead of time. You cannot plan while in the heat of battle. You need the outside perspective that comes with planning ahead of time. This also allows you to visualize different scenarios and better plan for alternatives.
2. There will be no time during the holidays. Many people think that they will have time off during the holidays that they can use to plan. Only the most disciplined people accomplish this. The rest allow the time to slip and end up with no plans at all. Put it on your calendar now to make goals and plan them out for 2009.
3. You can plan for alternatives. Plans will not always turn out as you envision them. Especially when you are relying on external factors. So it is beneficial to think of alternatives when you find that your initial plans will no longer work. If you are able to think of alternatives now, they might end up costing you less and be more effective. You don’t want to have to pay the high price of convenience.
4. Keep yourself accountable. Make your plans ahead of time, print them out and put them somewhere where you will see them every day. If you haven’t made your plans yet, put a blank piece of paper or an empty binder on your desk. The physical presence of your plans will remind you every day that you have plans and that you should be working on them. You can also review details and mileposts to make sure that you are on track and nothing is being missed.

Giving some of your hard-earned money to charity is a personal decision that many Americans choose on a regular basis. In additional to feeling good about giving back, donors generally receive a tax deduction as well. In order to maximize the benefits of donations, you can use a donor-advised fund.

There are many donor-advised funds available, Fidelity’s Charitable Gift Fund or Vanguard’s Charitable Endowment Program among the more popular ones. These programs work using a three-step process.

Step 1: Donations are made into your program account rather than directly to the charity. Since you can never get the money back, and it will eventually go towards charity, you are able to take a tax deduction when you make contributions.

Step 2: You advise the program how to invest the money in your account. Each program has different investment vehicles available. You can use prearranged set-it-and-forget-it lifestyle funds or choose more customized investments as you see fit.

Step 3: You request that a portion of your account be granted to the charity of your choice. After ensuring that the destination is a qualified charity, the plan administrator makes the donation in your name.

So basically, donor-advised funds allow you to invest your charitable contributions and distribute not only the donation, but also any gains you earn on the donation. Available programs all have different requirements for initial and subsequent contributions, different fee structures, and other rules. Look into a few different programs to find the one that best matches your giving goals.

Donating directly to charities lets your contributions be used right away. By using a donor-advised fund, you delay the aid until a later date, but may be able to build a lasting legacy that continually helps those causes that are important to you. Such an arrangement may allow your fund to give much more to charity than you ever would have been able to do on your own. Before making any sizable donation, investigate whether you and the charity could get more from your donation by using a donor-advised fund.

Four weeks after completing our federal registration with the SEC, we are ecstatic to announce that the wonderfully creative and sunny state of California has decided to promote financial innovation at the time the country and the state need it the most, and cleared our securities filing this morning. As residents of the state dubbed in its early history as “Cornucopia of the World”, Californians can now invest in loans made to Lending Club members.

Since California hosts more than 25% of our lender members, we thought we’d edit our orange map to make that clear:

More from our feed soon…