With the holidays passing behind us and the new year dawning, many people transition from consuming to investing. Gustatory indulgence gives way to new diets and resolutions to exercise. We refocus time spent relaxing with family and friends toward re-establishing productive routines. This time of year also finds us assessing, retrenching and plotting the way forward for our spending, saving and investing.
At GROUNDFLOOR, we believe everyone deserves equal access to
financial opportunity. In 2013, that commitment led us to launch in Georgia.
The state’s innovative regulatory construct set the stage for us and a few other crowdfinance pioneers to start serving more than the accredited top 2% of investors. For 2014, we’re preparing to expand into additional states, as we continue to broaden the types of properties and loans available for you to crowdlend. That’s our own focus on investment as we turn to the new year.
It’s a good time to be thinking: What’s yours? By many accounts, 2014 promises to bring a
broad wave of innovation in crowdfinance. Experts expect nationwide implementation of Title III of the JOBS Act. Numerous states have declared their intention to follow in Georgia’s footsteps. There will undoubtedly be new opportunities to invest in asset classes that have heretofore been inaccessible to the non-accredited 98%. It could be a coming of age for crowdfinance. A phenomenon that started with backing independent projects of interest for early adopters on Indiegogo and Kickstarter could now expand into taking equity in startups, funding the growth of small businesses and earning secured interest in direct real estate investments for a new mass market of savers and investors. No one can know for sure how quickly this new market will take shape, or what shape it will take, but it
is quite evidently upon us.
As you make your own transition into 2014, have you determined how the new crowdfinance options for investing fit with your financial strategy? Is there a particular type of opportunity you’re anticipating? If so, we’d like to hear about it in the comments below or by email at founders@groundfloor.us. We’re curious what types of crowd investments you see as the
most promising. And of course, if you have questions, comments or critiques about the particulars of crowdlending with GROUNDFLOOR as represented in our first property offering in Midtown Atlanta, we’d be grateful for the opportunity to discuss those with you too. Happy New Year!