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Does anyone remember back when I was talking about microloans (friends-only link)? Well, I did do some research and found a few funds that are fronts for microloan-based investments, but I never found anything that let me be more personally involved, and I never bothered to invest.
Enter a post on sowhatcanido at blogspot that told me about Kiva.org. Unbelievable... it's EXACTLY what I was looking for. It lets you, as an individual person, choose the micro-businesses you would like to micro-support (and these are masons, shoe sellers, fishmongers, haircutters) even if you only have $25. You can see pictures of the people. When a loan is fully funded the entrepreneur gets the money, and over the next few months the lenders get emails on how the businesses are doing. After the loan is paid off in full (and while this is not guaranteed, repayment rates are extremely high), the money is returned to the lenders, who may withdraw the money or re-invest. Loans are mostly for less than a thousand dollars total.
I'll mention the one downside now: these are no-interest loans as far as the lender is concerned. However, in my opinion the power of choosing who you're supporting, and actually hearing about how they're doing as time goes on, makes up for that. I am looking right now at a woman in Honduras who wants to buy more stock for her tiny grocery store and still needs $200. Yeah! Why not?
A CNNMoney article on Kiva
I've been interested in this sort of thing for what feels like ages now. It may come as a surprise to hear me say this since you all know how much I hate being in debt, but I think loans are wonderful. Money (like water) is most powerful when it's swishing around, and loans are a way to swish money between those who'd rather have it now and those who would rather have it later because, like me, their imaginations are failing them for now. Without loans I'd never have gotten the education I did. And being on the other side of loans like this is a pretty cheap way to potentially do a lot of good. Assuming you get your money back, all it costs is the interest you would have gotten... and, although interest matters when it comes to retirement savings, it's not that much if you think of it as a charitable contribution. And your bank is giving you crap for interest rates anyway. :)
I want to keep the focus on Kiva, but ( surely you know that once I start talking about finance I don't shut up THAT quickly. )
Discuss!!
Enter a post on sowhatcanido at blogspot that told me about Kiva.org. Unbelievable... it's EXACTLY what I was looking for. It lets you, as an individual person, choose the micro-businesses you would like to micro-support (and these are masons, shoe sellers, fishmongers, haircutters) even if you only have $25. You can see pictures of the people. When a loan is fully funded the entrepreneur gets the money, and over the next few months the lenders get emails on how the businesses are doing. After the loan is paid off in full (and while this is not guaranteed, repayment rates are extremely high), the money is returned to the lenders, who may withdraw the money or re-invest. Loans are mostly for less than a thousand dollars total.
I'll mention the one downside now: these are no-interest loans as far as the lender is concerned. However, in my opinion the power of choosing who you're supporting, and actually hearing about how they're doing as time goes on, makes up for that. I am looking right now at a woman in Honduras who wants to buy more stock for her tiny grocery store and still needs $200. Yeah! Why not?
A CNNMoney article on Kiva
I've been interested in this sort of thing for what feels like ages now. It may come as a surprise to hear me say this since you all know how much I hate being in debt, but I think loans are wonderful. Money (like water) is most powerful when it's swishing around, and loans are a way to swish money between those who'd rather have it now and those who would rather have it later because, like me, their imaginations are failing them for now. Without loans I'd never have gotten the education I did. And being on the other side of loans like this is a pretty cheap way to potentially do a lot of good. Assuming you get your money back, all it costs is the interest you would have gotten... and, although interest matters when it comes to retirement savings, it's not that much if you think of it as a charitable contribution. And your bank is giving you crap for interest rates anyway. :)
I want to keep the focus on Kiva, but ( surely you know that once I start talking about finance I don't shut up THAT quickly. )
Discuss!!
