For years I thought, "One day, if/when I'm well off financially I want to use some of my hard earned money to help other entrepreneurs get their dreams off the ground." 

Have you ever had a similar thought?  Well, guess what? You and I don't have to wait any longer. Not with Kiva.org around.  Their 'tag line' is 'Make a Loan, Change a Life,' and we're not talking about thousands of dollars, not even hundreds. 

These are micro-loans, many of which are only for a few hundred, but you don't have to loan the full amount. In fact, you can't.  The most you can loan to any one entrepreneur is $25. Hell, you can hardly even go out to a nice restaurant for that here in the US.

So, essentially what happens, Kiva creates these teams of lenders who are willing to put at risk $25 to help an entrepreneur somewhere in the world to build their dream, like Patricia.

This is what Kiva shares about her: "Señora Patricia Yersina Aleman Altamirano is 26 years old and lives in the neighbourhood of El Tejar in the town of Tarija. She is married, has no children, and lives with her parents.
Patricia runs a phone centre, a job she’s been doing for two years. She has been given the opportunity to buy two phone booths, and she would use the loan for this purpose, giving her more income for her and her family."

So, I don't have to wait until I'm 'well off' to invest. Hell, by most of the rest of the world, I'm already pretty darn well off, so I guess it's time to put some of my money where my mouth is.
How about you?

P.S. Here's a quick update from Kiva.org:

Thanks to you and 16 other Kiva Lenders, the $500.00 loan
request in Bolivia has been 100% funded.

This loan will be used for the purpose of: to buy telephone booths

Over the 12 months of this loan, Kiva's Field Partner in Bolivia,
CIDRE, will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting
progress updates on the Kiva website:

http://www.kiva.org/lend/212735

Very cool!