Economic concerns, inflation, and its impact on everyday commodities have disrupted the markets and how people invest. With new-age investment options entering the scenario that provides higher returns and manages risk in a new age manner, the traditional investments are slowly being steered away from. Let’s explore some of these:
What Are Some New-age Investment Options?
The rise of new-age investment alternatives is causing some exciting changes to the world of investment.Unlike the traditional options, new-age investments change the way one earns from their investments by bringing innovation in the processes involved. When you begin to think about alternative places to put your money, you must avoid scams and get-rich-quick schemes. Instead, focus on investment vehicles that meet your financial goals and are legitimate.
Technology is sweeping the world at a pace much faster than any of us could have anticipated. Every single aspect of human behavior is getting disrupted. The smartphone is killing all traditional touchpoints and folding everything in the palms of customers. Similarly, it has seeped into investments and made them as mobile and user-friendly as possible.
- Peer-to-Peer Lending
Peer-to-peer lending, also known as P2P lending, is the process of directly lending money to individuals or businesses through online lending platforms without the involvement of banks.
Peer-to-peer platforms take the banking model and revamp it entirely to create a favorable investing and borrowing climate. Peer-to-peer platforms function entirely online and help reduce intermediary charges, due to which investors can earn a better rate of interest on their investments.
There are many P2P lending companies to choose from, including LenDenClub.
As investments in peer-to-peer lending are diversified among multiple borrowers, your money is typically pooled with other investors’ money, and together you make a loan to the individual asking for funds. You’ll then receive a fixed repayment each month that includes the interest you’re owed. Usually, the returns you get from P2P lending can be much higher than those you’d get from traditional savings vehicles.
- Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Although real estate fetches good returns, the illiquid nature of funds in the asset class with the volatile valuation of the real estate market makes it a tricky asset class. So, REIT investments help individuals earn from dividends of real estate investments without being directly involved in the same.
REITs pool resources together and own, operate or finance income-producing real estate. They have historically been able to give good returns to their investors due to steady dividends and long-term capital appreciation. Moreover, their correlation to other asset classes is minimal, keeping the portfolio risk on the lower side.
But the real estate market is a volatile one, and the REITs should be invested in requires enough background to it as well. So, it is important to do your own due diligence before you start investing in this asset class.
- Equity Crowdfunding
Equity crowdfunding involves offering a company’s securities to a group of investors for their investments. Startups and other companies that require money offer shares of their companies on equity crowdfunding websites. With a more favorable environment for startups to bloom, there are more such companies being listed in the current market scenario.
This investment can lead to good profits in a short period if the company one has invested in performs well but again depends a huge scale on the company chosen for investment and the market scenario for it to make and provide profits.
The current market scenario has given a favorable environment for different investment methods to crop up and gain enough traction by investors looking to diversify their portfolios and move away from traditional alternatives like FDs and mutual funds.
It is all about identifying what suits your portfolio and risk appetite and making a conscious selection on that very basis itself.