Have you ever heard of peer to peer lending or P2P lending? Today’s guest is the founder and CEO of LendingMemo Media, Simon Cunningham, who runs a Seattle-based company that promotes peer to peer lending education, also known as P2P lending. It is exactly what it sounds like – it is the practice of lending money to unrelated individuals, or “peers”, without going through a traditional financial institution such as a bank. In other words, people are able to sidestep the banks to lend and borrow directly to one another. P2P lending typically offers more attractive terms to a borrower than a traditional unsecured loan or credit card and can be a godsend if you have multiple high-interest debts and need to consolidate. P2P lending is a full-fledged, fast-growing business and a part of the whopping $3 trillion consumer debt market.

Simon thinks peer to peer lending is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He’s a little biased, of course, but we’re going to talk about the challenges and opportunities as both an investor and borrower in this market and of course, learn more about Simon’s relationship with money, his greatest success, failure and much more…

Three takeaways from our interview:

— Making a 10% annual rate of return on his P2P investments

— Key benefits and risks P2P offers both borrowers and lenders

— Downsides to the frugality movement

If you’d like to learn more about Simon Cunningham, visit his website lendingmemo.com and follow him on Twitter @LendingMemo.

My favorite quote from the interview: “Americans are scared of the truth ab/ their own spending habits.” – Click to Tweet