blender
Member of DD Central
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Post by blender on Sept 10, 2014 17:50:29 GMT
Funny you should say that. When I first heard it, it was in the context of electronic exchanges, replacing crossbar. The man and dog was negotiated by the trade union - their compromise proposal.
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Post by reeknralf on Sept 10, 2014 19:24:09 GMT
I'm not that sad that I equate my time in terms of monetary return. I can quite easily understand why you think of P2P as a hobby. I can't begin to understand why you belittle someone else who views it as a means to get richer. An investment strategy which doesn't take into account the time involved is not an investment strategy at all, it's just an exercise in scoring points on an online game. It's like saying your hobby is buying the cheapest pint possible, then driving to john 'o groats to buy it, whilst saying you enjoy driving so the petrol doesn't count. I don't quite agree with the sums in the OP as it is random/passive vs active investment on a given platform that should be compared. My view is that none of the main platforms justify more than a minimal effort to cherry-pick. Can't comment for FC as they won't let ex-pats play. That said I'm very pleased people do spend hours choosing investments. It means I can just watch what others are doing, toss in a smidgen of common sense, and generally do OK. So thanks for your effort, but no thanks for the slight.
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maxmarengo
Member of DD Central
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Post by maxmarengo on Sept 11, 2014 11:46:03 GMT
There is nothing sad about doing the sums on how much you are gaining by spending time on FC. I was very concerned with this when I first starting investing and quickly concluded that with the amount I was willing to invest, I would be earning less than minimum wage (probably < £5/hour). But having worked that out, I decided I wanted to carry on anyway as I found I quite enjoyed it. I have, however, changed my behaviour to try and work in a more time efficient way.
What is important to me now that I am not in full time employment, is that I have control of my time. My motto is "never work when the sun is shining", so FC is something I can spend time on when I have a few minutes with nothing better to do. This means I do not earn the highest rate possible, but I am comfortably in the middle between the 6% autobidders and the 15%+ star investors.
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Post by mead187 on Sept 11, 2014 21:26:01 GMT
I've been using FC for about 18 months and the time I spend on there has drastically decreased. My strategy now is quite lazy, simple and very timely. I only purchase a max of £60 in any loan and don't buy on the secondary market. I only bid on A*-C and more recently Cashback loans. I used to spend time reading each loan, the Q&A's and coming on here to get more opinions on loans but I stopped doing that. I used to flip on a small scale but I stopped that too. For the amount of money I have left in FC I spend about 3 mins a days on there - check balance, invest spare money, scan loan comments for updates and logout. I have one fully defaulted loan and 3 partially dead loans. 102 good loan parts. Net return 6.6%. You don't need to spend a huge amount of time on FC to beat an ISA if that's your goal. If you have other aim's and more money invested in FC then it can become quite a time consuming endeavour. AC takes up more of my time.
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Post by goldservice on Sept 21, 2014 11:23:36 GMT
Thank you for all your comments which on the whole do not take the time spent too seriously. I was not seriously worried about the rate I ‘pay’ myself. For me the significance of the hourly rates I mentioned (RS £120, FC £20) is 1) RS is a much better use of time, and 2) both are well above the minimum wage. I could add that RS is boring (a virtue?)
The OP was about only reinvesting. I started the train of thought when I was investing and trying rapidly to get over £50k into each. For investing, I didn’t log my time but the time spent on FC felt like I was paying myself the minimum wage. But I’m retired so time is not an issue.
I too find the chase exciting and leap to my feet with a cry when I catch an early ender with bids around 13%. For me it’s not a hobby but just a game that sort of pays me and ekes out the pension.
No one has answered the question about the time that scripters spend scripting. Coding can have a thrill of its own so to have a hobby that exploits it must be doubly satisfying.
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Post by GSV3MIaC on Sept 21, 2014 11:58:03 GMT
I must have missed the scripters question. I like coding, so it's a hobby .. probably takes me an average 8 hours a week (since back when the API was announced, ie last October), mostly trying to keep up with FC changes, chase down undocumented features, paper over website bugs, and generally tweak/add twiddly bits (like getting it to email me a sales summary every few hours - quite unnecessary but amusing).
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