On to the fun stuff now. Now that we’ve covered mainstream investments, the next few investments we’ll talk about are either new, or considered “niche.”

The cool thing about these is they’re sexy, have cool websites, and can make you good profits. The bad news is, they’re risky — meaning there’s a higher chance you could lose your money.

First up is Peer-to-peer (P2P) Lending. Did you know there are already six licensed P2P Lending platforms available in Malaysia? These companies match Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who need to borrow money with individual investors like you and me. They’re basically helping to collect sums of money from lots of people, and then package it into loans for these SMEs.

The SMEs get their loan (because you know, sometimes banks make it hard to borrow money), the investors usually get paid with good returns, and the platforms take a small fee. Everyone’s happy.

It’s a brilliant business model, and the good news is the Securities Commission of Malaysia regulates P2P Lending, along with her more mysterious older cousin Equity Crowdfunding described below.