Reinvested ongoing Lending Club cashflow in a new investment loan at 17.19%

Cashflow from my portfolio of Lending Club investment loans ("notes") over the past eleven days has given me enough cash this morning to invest in yet another consumer loan. My current Net Annualized Return is now at 15.02%, which is still a bit short of my goal of 15.5%, so I picked a pre-approved loan at 17.19% that is already 78% funded with nine days left in the two-week funding period. I expect that this loan is likely to reach full funding within a couple of days.

The loan grade for this loan is E3 (on an "A" to "G" scale), which is moderately risky. Lending Club says that the historical default rate for loans such as this one is about 3.74%, so that my projected return is about 12.73%. That includes Lending Club taking 0.72% as a servicing fee. In truth, my goal of 15.5% should factor in a default rate of about 3.5% or so, giving an expected return of about 12%. That is still quite respectable, especially in this economic and financial environment.

My goal is really a 15% return, but I figure I need a little buffer so that repayments (and maybe even defaults) don't push me below my goal too frequently. I may in fact keep pushing upwards with loans in the 16% to 18% range until I get my return up to 16% and then gradually work the average back to 15.5%.

So far, my Lending Club portfolio has been perfect, with no delinquencies or even late payments. I started investing with Lending Club back in June.

This is still just an experiment for me since I have no prior experience with this type of investment, but so far in has been very encouraging. I intend to double the size of the experiment in April (assuming my work income continues.)

-- Jack Krupansky