Welcome to my January 2020 Passive Income Update.

December was an incredible month of rest and recuperation. After the busy and hectic fall (October + November), I managed to really slow down in December. I worked less and spend time with my partner and her family in different parts of the US. 🥳

Some of the things we did in December included:

Sunny Phoenix!
  • An RV/Campervan trip through US national parks: A long dream of ours came finally true. We rented/relocated an RV for a week explored the national parks and national forestes in California, Nevada and Arizona. I loved it! 🚐
  • Visited friends in El Paso/Texas: We visited friends of ours in El Paso for a few days and crossed by foot into Mexico/Ciudad Juárez. Super fun! 🚐
  • Spend the christmas holidays in sunny Arizona. Weather and landscape-wise, one of my favorite states in the United States. ☀️

My passive income in December totalled 770,12 EUR (~860.15 USD) which is less than in previous months and was caused by cash-drag and lower interest rates. More below.

Having been paid for a few pending work contracts, I added 9,000 EUR to my P2P Lending Portfolio. I also moved 5,000 EUR from Swaper to Twino to escape the cash-drag at Swaper. Also, I am planning to invest more in the MSCI World ETF to better balance my portfolio and desired invest ratio of 60%/40%, and I am currently waiting for the a good moment to buy the ETFs at a lower price. More below.

Now, on to my passive income numbers for this past month!

January 2020 P2P-Lending Interest Rates
January 2020 P2P-Lending Interest Rates

January 2020 Passive Income Update

My total passive income in December 2019:
– P2P lending: 553.40 EUR
– Real Estate Lending: 13.69 EUR
– ETF Dividends: 96.15 EUR
– Stock Photos/Videos: 106.88 EUR
TOTAL: 770,12 EUR (~860.15 USD)

P2P Lending & Real Estate Lending Update – January 2020

Total Passive Income from P2P Lending, P2P Real Estate Lending, ETF Dividends and Stock Sales.
Total Passive Income from P2P Lending, P2P Real Estate Lending, ETF Dividends and Stock Sales.

P2P Lending PlatformDec'19 Interest IncomeDec'19 XIRRTotal Investment
Mintos€ 259.898.89%€ 32,000.00
Swaper€ 145.8711.12%€ 9,000.00
Grupeer€ 147.6413.54%€ 15,000.00
Estateguru€ 13.697.77%€ 5,000.00
Crowdestate€ 00.0% € 2,000.00

P2P & Real Estate Lending Overview – January 2020 Passive Income Update

As part of my January 2020 passive income update, here is a quick overview of passive income that I am earning from three (3) P2P Lending and two (2) Real-Estate P2P Lending platforms that I am investing in.

  • Mintos: Despite slighly lower interest rates than other platforms, Mintos remains my absolute favorite P2P lending platform. It is by far the biggest in the European P2P Lending market and allows great diversification possibilties.

    I have a total of 32,000 EUR invested on Mintos which represents 26% of my total investment portfolio. The money is spread across 24 loan originators (all with ratings from A+ to B) in 20 countries, which gives me a good diversification. My interest income from Mintos in December was 259.89 EUR with a self-calculated interest rate of 8.89% p.a.

    My Mintos auto-invest portfolio is including loans with interest rate starting from 9.0% (still only acceping loan originators with A+, A, A-, B+, and B rankings and with BuyBack guarantee).
    If you are new to Mintos, have a look at my Mintos review which includes my auto-invest settings.
AltFi Awards 2019
Mintos Platform of the Year at AltFi Awards 2019
  • Swaper: I am experiencing significant cash drag on Swaper with up to 1/3 of my funds awaiting to be invested. I decided to withdraw 5000 EUR and to move the money to Twino (more details about why I went back to Twino in the coming days!)

    My total interest rate on Swaper in December dipped to 11.12% (= 145,87 EUR). I now have a total of 9000 EUR invested on Swaper which seems to be a good amount to avoid cash-drag.

    What else? Swaper still runs their promotion that all investors signing up through this link will receive a “VIP Swaper Loyalty Bonus” if they invest more than 5000 EUR for three consecutive months! This means instead of a 12% profit, you’ll earn 14% if your account balance is above 5000 EUR for three consecutive months! 💸
  • Grupeer: Grupeer is doing great and so I added 3000 EUR to my account. My now 15.000 EUR are fully invested and I received 147,64 EUR interest in December (= 13.54% interest p.a.), which were immediately re-invested (compound interest!) without any cash drag.

    I started investing on Grupeer a year ago. Over the past 12 months, the 12.000 EUR that I invested have grown to 13.327 EUR, which is incredible.

    The Grupeer platform currently grows at around 15% per month, which shows the success of the platform. What is really great is that despite the many new investors, plenty of loans are available (all protected with BuyBack guarantee) and Grupeer works hard to maintain their “zero default” record.

    What else? Read my updated Grupeer review to see my auto-invest settings and to see what to look out for when investing on Grupeer.
Grupeer Times
  • EstateGuru: EstateGuru is great and maintains its good performance: My 6 investments are performing on time. I added 3000 EUR in December, which have been auto-invested in 7 real-estate investments.

    Most of my loans on EstateGuru are either bullet or full bullet loans, which means that either principals or both interest+principals are being paid in full at the end of the loan period. Unfortunately, that means that some months I receive large interest and principal payments, some months I receive nothing. I recently updated my EstateGuru review in which I explain details as well as show how to receive a 0.5% bonus as a new investor.

    What else? I just saw that EstateGuru has some new loans available (10.75% p.a. & 11% p.a.).
  • CrowdEstate: My experience on CrowdEstate has shifted to negative and I suspended my autoinvest. The latest news on my investment portfolio include that bankruptcy has been filed against H.M Seafood OÜ for non-payment of debts ( I have 2 loans with them totalling 400 EUR). Two other loans with other companies are delayed as well (total investment = 500 EUR). Overall I am not satisfied with the performance of the platform, especially in comparison to EstateGuru, which is running like a charm.

    I am planning my exit on CrowdEstate and suspended my autoinvest which means that starting now, no new investments will be made with returned principal and interest. I have a totla of 2,000 EUR invested in CrowdEstate.

Exchange–Traded Funds (ETF) Update – January 2020 🥳

My decision to start investing in the MSCI World ETF back in 2016 was one of the best decisions of my life. I am explaining details in my ETF portfolio post, but in a nutshell, I believe there is no better and more cost-effective way to save & invest long term (e.g. for retirement) while earning some passive income from dividends.

Since I started investing in the MSCI World ETF in 2016, the value has increased by 43%. The shares that I bought originally for 145.09 EUR a piece – and kept on buying more shares of over the years – are today valued 212.77 EUR. Looking at below graph of the MSCI World ETF (UBS UCTIS), I would say it’s hard to find a better, more stable, cost-efficient, and diversified investment. Why? More in my ETF portfolio post. 🥳

Performance chart of UBS ETF (LU) MSCI World UCITS ETF (USD) A-dis
Performance chart of MSCI World UCITS ETF (c) justetf.com

After I had sold my DAX ETF in October (around 14,000 EUR), I am still waiting for a good moment to invest it in the MSCI World. I am hoping that the MSCI World is making a slight dip to allow me to buy 14,000 EUR worth at a slightly lower rate. As the ETF has nothing but climbed since October last year, I am also thinking about an ETF savings plan, which would allow to invest monthly and thus lower the risk of buying at the “wrong time”.

Overall, my ETF portfolio has been doing pretty incredible last year: Over the course of 2019, my ETF portfolio has gained 28,54% in value. Since I started in 2016, the value of my portfolio has even increased by 49.04%. In EUR terms, that means that the 63,000 EUR that I invested over time since 2016, are today valued 82,239 EUR and I received an additional 3033 EUR in dividends over the past three years (which I used and spent as passive income).

My ETF Portfolio since beginning of this year (c) justetf.com
My ETF Portfolio in 2019 (c) justetf.com
Overview of my current ETF portfolio (c) justetf.com
Overview of my current ETF portfolio (c) justetf.com

That’s it for my 2020 New Years Passive Income Update! I hope all of you are enjoy the first days of 2020. If you like to, please follow my journey on my Facebook Financial Freedom Journey page for more frequent updates. And as always: If you have any questions or comments, please pop them in the comment section below or get in touch via Facebook or Email.

All the best and happy January 2020,
Peter 👋