Welcome to my July 2020 Passive Income Update.

July 2020 Passive Income Investment Portfolio
July 2020 Passive Income Investment Portfolio

This past month went by quickly. Too quickly. As a person who believes in actively and intentionally creating memories (e.g. by traveling, learning something new, exploring new places), the COVID-19 lockdown is tough.

Many of my days in June looked and felt alike. A certain routine has crept into my life. Work, Exercise, Time with family. Sleep. Repeat.

Over the past weeks, I have tried to explore at least one new place per week. Either for a run, for a hike, or just to see something different. It helped!

My passive income update: The pandemic has made many investors more careful – including myself. I shifted my investments to larger platforms, started accepting lower interest rates in exchange for lower risk. I also rather have some balance uninvested in my accounts than investing in projects and loans that I don’t feel 100% comfortable with. The result: Lower monthly returns. While I earned 900+ EUR/monthly at the end of 2019, my monthly returns are now down to around 500+ EUR. But that’s fine, and I expect them to go back up once the pandemic is over!

Overview: My total passive income in June 2020:
– P2P lending: 390.70 EUR
– Real Estate Lending: 21.15 EUR
– ETF Dividends: 64.56 EUR
– Stock Photos/Videos: 32.38 EUR
TOTAL: 508.79 EUR (~571.35 USD)

P2P Lending & Real Estate Lending Update – July 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.
The best place to be at the moment: Outdoors! Here in Sedona (Arizona, US)

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

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

Given the recent scandals around smaller and newer P2P Platforms (see Grupeer below), I decided that – moving forward – I will only invest in/on larger platforms that have been around for many years. Mintos was founded in 2014 and has since funded € 5.3 billion (€ 5,341 million) worth of loans. Twino celebrated its 5-year birthday this year with more than 20,000 investors who helped to fund nearly € 700 million through the platform. Swaper was launched in 2016 and has since funded € 168 million in loans.

  • Mintos: With 32,100 EUR auto-invested on Mintos in loans from 24 loan originators (all with ratings from A+ to B) in 20 countries, my interest income on Mintos in June was 276.66 EUR (=self-calculated interest rate of 8.25% p.a.).

    I adjusted my auto-invest portfolios (primary market + secondary market) last week, lowering the minimum interest rate to 10%. I kept the setting to only invest in loans from loan originators with A+, A, A-, and B+ ratings, with equal diversification across loan originators.

Mintos Auto-invest portfolios (July 2020). Buying loans from the secondary market at a discount and from the primary market
Mintos Auto-invest portfolios (July 2020). Buying loans from the secondary market at a discount and from the primary market
  • Swaper: I lowered my investments on Swaper at the beginning of COVID-19 and currently have 1,400 EUR invested on the platfrom. My passive income from Swaper in June was 20,23 EUR (= 7.01 % p.a.).

    What else? Swaper is currently running a promotion offering new investors who sign up through this link and invest 5000 EUR or more a 16% interest rate on all new investments during the first three months. The bonus will be activated after the first successful payment. In addition, Swaper offers investors the opportunity to earn 2% extra of all investments made by Auto-Invest Portfolio during the period 04.06.2020 to 04.07.2020.
  • Twino: A good month for Twino! I added 6.000 EUR to Twino, which were immediately invested. My total investment on Twino are 13.500 EUR and my monthly interest on Twino climbed to 93.81 EUR (= 8.19% p.a.). The average loan duration of my loans on Twino is 7.91 months. All are with Buyback and Payment guarantee.

    What else? TWINO has launched a referral program. New investors who sign up with this link (https://www.twino.eu/en/join-today?refer_friend=113351) and invest at least 100 EUR, will get a 20 EUR bonus (as well as I receive a 20 EUR bonus).
Twino Portfolio Stats July 2020
Twino Portfolio Stats July 2020
  • EstateGuru: I have build a lot of trust in EstateGuru and have added 11,000 EUR in June. My total investments on EstateGuru are 16,000 EUR which are invested in 32 real estate projects in Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Lithuania. 29 out of 32 loans are performing on time. The other three are 4-30 days late.

    My average interest rate on EstateGuru is 10.97% p.a. For me EstateGuru is a great platform to diversify my risk by investing in real estate loans that are secured with a first-rank mortgage (physical security).

    As I mentioned in previous posts, almost all 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. In June, I received 21.15 EUR in interest payments.

    What else? My EstateGuru review explains details as well as shows how to receive a 0.5% bonus as a new investor in the first three months. I just saw that EstateGuru has some new loans available (10.5% p.a. & 12.00% p.a.).
My EstateGuru Key Statistics as of 2 July 2020 (c) EstateGuru
  • CrowdEstate: As I have mentioned in previous posts, my experience on CrowdEstate is negative and I am on my way out. 3 out of 6 projects are significantly delayed (90+ days) and bankruptcy has been filed against one borrower (H.M Seafood OÜ).

    I suspended my auto-invest on CrowdEstate in January 2020 and withdrew my first 600 EUR in early February and another 450 EUR in March. The transfer arrived the next day, which was great. After my withdrawal, I still have a total of 950 EUR invested in CrowdEstate, which I will slowly withdraw as princial and interest payments are arriving. I have the option to sell my remaining loans on the secondary market for a 2% sell free, which I decided to not do as I am in no rush.
A photo from an early morning walk last week in Phoenix (Arizona, US)

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

Even in times of unstable (stock) markets, I hold onto my opinion that starting 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 passive income from dividends.

Why would I say that? Since I started investing in the MSCI World ETF in 2016, the value of the ETF has increased by 42.56% (despite the recent coronavirus-related shock in stock markets). The shares that I bought originally for 145.09 EUR a piece are currently valued 199.72 EUR.

Coronavirus and my ETF portfolio

The spread of COVID-19 is affecting economies and most of the 1600+ companies that are part of the MSCI World ETF are affected just as much. The MSCI World ETF that I have invested in had temporarily dropped in value from 224 EUR to 164 EUR per ETF share, but is now already back up at 199 EUR.

I am not worried and I feel certain that the MSCI World ETF will continue to grow in value over the coming years. In fact, I wish I would have bought more ETF shares when their value was at 164 EUR 🤪.

My ETF Portfolio since beginning of this year (c) justetf.com
My ETF Portfolio since beginning of this year (c) justetf.com

My 1,000 EUR monthly ETF savings plan

Many of you will know about my 1,000 EUR monthly ETF savings plan which I talked about in my January Blog Post. It’s automated, runs in the background, and keeps buying MSCI World ETFs worth 1,000 EUR on the first of every month. It’s a fantastic way of cost-averaging and keeps me committed to my financial savings goals. More about my ETF savings plan and why it was such a great idea to go back to an automated saving plan in this blog post.

Hiking in Sedona (Arizona, US) last week.

That’s it for my July 2020 Passive Income Update! If you are interested, please follow my journey on my Facebook page Financial Freedom Journey 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.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and please do practice social distancing and save lives!
Peter 👋