If for some reason you find yourself flush while everyone around you is starved for capital, take advantage by extending a loan to a friend, family member or even a third-party. Banks are being stingy, which creates opportunity for you in the fairly new P2P (peer-to-peer) loan market pioneered by Virgin Money and Lending Club. These are often vehicles for extending family members fully documented and collateralized loans at a favorable rate. But if you think stocks are dead money for a while and don't like the looks of paltry money market fund yields, you may be able to do better offering a market-rate loan through this new frontier of finance.