{"id":859,"date":"2011-04-13T09:24:24","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T16:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=859"},"modified":"2011-04-13T09:24:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T16:24:25","slug":"spring-forward-day-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-24\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

New York
\nApril 5, 2011<\/h2>\n

The Bank of Ray<\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve been interested in microloans for some time.\u00a0 Are you familiar with the concept?\u00a0 You make loans in tiny amounts to people across the globe that you\u2019ve never met.<\/p>\n

I finally decided to take the plunge.\u00a0 I joined Kiva, an organization I highly recommend (www.kiva.org<\/a>). The site is well-organized, which makes it easy to zero in on what kind of loan you\u2019d like to make.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My client Sugar in his grocery store in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He is bringing computer gaming to his community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I skipped over the boring stuff like farming and manufacturing and went straight to Entertainment.\u00a0 Hey, just because I\u2019m being altruistic doesn\u2019t mean I have to stop being shallow.<\/p>\n

After only a couple of minutes of searching I found my guy:\u00a0 Sugar Ayush, a married father of one, wants to raise money to expand one room of his small grocery store to make a PC gaming center.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s <\/em>an idea I can get behind!\u00a0 Just because a kid lives in Mongolia shouldn\u2019t mean he can\u2019t get his Gears of War on, right?<\/p>\n

At first I was worried, because I was the very first person to loan Sugar a chunk of the amount he was trying to raise.\u00a0 But in just a week, other wise lenders had followed my lead and I was delighted to see that his loan amount had been met!\u00a0 I\u2019m actually quite proud that my name is listed as the first lender right on his page.\u00a0 The smug feeling of righteousness I feel when I think about Sugar\u2019s PC game room is well worth the $25 I lent him to expand his business.<\/p>\n

So.\u00a0 The next time you\u2019re in Ulan Bator and you have a hankerin\u2019 for some Halo<\/em><\/strong>, go see my client Sugar and tell him Ray sent you.<\/p>\n

Other Microloans I Should Make<\/h4>\n