We are 3 months into COVID-19 lockdown and we are continuing to practice extreme social distancing. It is a totally different world that we are finding ourselves in. I have accustomed to certain things (working from home vs. coffee shops) but I am still missing many other aspects of life (traveling, booking flights, workout classes)
The pandemic has also brought some good to my life. Never in my life have I spent so much time:
Reading the newspaper
Working out (running, spinning, HIIT)
Cooking meals
Spending time outdoors (hiking, walking)
I have to say that I have been fortunate to be able to keep my part-time job, which (a) gives me something meaningful to do and (b) covers my living expenses in addition to my passive income.
June 2020 Passive Income Investment Portfolio
June 2020 Passive Income Update
My total passive income in May 2020: – P2P lending: 426.05 EUR – Real Estate Lending: 23.68 EUR – ETF Dividends: 64.56 EUR – Stock Photos/Videos: 75.05 EUR TOTAL: 589.34 EUR (~668.11 USD)
P2P Lending & Real Estate Lending Update – June 2020
Total Passive Income from P2P Lending, P2P Real Estate Lending, ETF Dividends and Stock Sales.
This past month was all about hiking and spending time outdoors.
P2P & Real Estate Lending Overview – June 2020 Passive Income Update
As part of my June 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 uncertainty around the short- and long-term economic ramifications of COVID-19, I believe that there is a real chance that lenders will struggle to pay back their loans, which in turn could lead to delayed payments, P2P lending platforms and loan originators struggling with payback guarantees, etc. For that reason, I am reminding myself that I should only invest what I can afford to lose. P2P lending is a form of high-risk investment which remains to large extend unregulated.
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 from Mintos in May was 287.18 EUR (=self-calculated interest rate of 8.63% p.a.).
I had switched to only buying loans with a discount from the secondary market in March (to benefit from investors panic selling). It seems that investors have since regained confidence as fewer loans are sold with discounts. I adjusted to buy loans with a discount from 2% up.
Mintos Auto-invest portfolios (June 2020). Buying loans from the secondary market at a discount and from the primary market
Swaper:After I had decided to pause my auto-invest portfolio at the beginning of March, I have now started it again. It turns out that Swaper is fully honoring its buyback and buys back loans that are more than 30 days late.
This being said, since March I withdrew incoming interest and principal payments in batches and have “cashed out” 9,800 EUR out of my 9,000 EUR total invested. Every time I made a withdrawal transfer from my Swaper account, the money arrived in my bank account within 48 hours. My current account value is 1,462 EUR, which I am now reinvesting.
My passive income from Swaper in May was 67,48 EUR (=13.07 % 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.
My Swaper monthly income and interest rates
Grupeer: Grupeer is facing allegations from investors about fake loan originators on the Grupeer platform. Grupeer notified investors on March 31 that all payments to investors of Grupeer are currently suspended, with the official reasons stated being the state of emergency declared in the European Union and worldwide regarding the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
A number of investors are preparing legal action against Grupeer. Any Grupeer investor is able to join the legal action/law suit. More info here: https://grp5612.org/armada
I have 12,600 EUR invested on Grupeer and have accepted that either some or all my investments on Grupeer might be lost. I will update my blog with any information or updates that I receive.
Twino: A good month for Twino! My total investments of 7.500 EUR on Twino are fully invested and I decided to add 6.000 EUR (Total investment = 13.500 EUR). Given the recent scandal about Grupeer, I have decided to focus on larger platforms that have been around for many years. Twino celebrated its 5-year birthday in May with more than 20,000 investors who helped to fund nearly €700 million worth of loans.
As the P2P lending industry is growing rapidly (while being largely unregulated), new platforms with are popping up like mushrooms left and right. I decided to not invest in any young/new platforms.
My May income from Twino was 71,39 EUR in interest payments (= 11.17% interest p.a.). The average loan duration of my loans on Twino is 6.25 months. All with Buyback 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 June 2020
EstateGuru: A good month on EstateGuru. I am fully invested in 16 real estate projects in Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Lithuania which are all performing on time.
My average interest rate on EstateGuru is 10.82% p.a. For me EstateGuru is a great platform to diversify my risk by investing in real estate loans that are either secured with a first-rank mortgage (physical security), personal guarantees, or are backed with a mortgage.
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 May, I received 23.68 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 portfolio as of 5 June 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 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 decided to not offer my remaining loans on the secondary market (2% sell fee).
A socially-distant visit of the World’s Tallest Fountain (Fountain Hills, Arizona)
Exchange–Traded Funds (ETF) Update – June 2020 🥳
Even in times of unstable (stock) markets, I hold onto my opinion that 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.
Since I started investing in the MSCI World ETF in 2016, the value of the ETF has increased by 40.14% (despite the recent coronavirus-related shock in stock markets). The shares that I bought originally for 145.09 EUR a currently valued 201.39 EUR.
Coronavirus and my ETF portfolio
The spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is severely affecting global economies and the 1600+ companies under the MSCI World are affected just as much. The UBS MSCI World that I have invested in since 2016 had temporarily dropped in value from 224 EUR to 164 EUR per ETF, but is now already back up at 201 EUR. In total numbers, that means that my ETF portfolio (~73,000 EUR) has lost 5,86% of its value this year, but is already on its path to recovery. I am not worried!
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.
That’s it for my June 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, Peter 👋
