This post is a continuation of my previous post. If you haven’t read it, please go here:
https://sailingmarisha.com/?p=686
In this post, I am describing my ways of generating passive income.
First of all, I would like to start with a so-called disclaimer.
Investing is not easy, and it’s definitely not risk-free! I know it does not sound sexy or even remotely attractive, but that’s what it is.
None of the below mentioned investments are risk-free!!! This is not a bank deposit, and your money is at risk. You’ve been warned :).
As with any investment vehicle in the world, you have to be patient. So, I list no get-rich-quick schemes here. Please, decide what your investment time frame is, and, in my opinion, if it’s less than a year, just don’t bother investing in any of the below mentioned platforms.
I am not an investment advisor, and I have never been one. I am an amateur investor who learned along the way to do some things reasonably well. Past results are not and have never been any indication of what the future results will be. There’s a risk with every investment, and you should be really careful with what you do with your own money. Responsibility is key here. Below, I’ll list some platforms I use in order to generate some passive income for my funds. I cannot recommend any of them, but I can share my experience with them, and I can share my past results. If somebody decides to invest with some of them, you and I will earn some small bonus off of these links. Thank you for using these links. Please, note that you (and I) will earn the bonus only if you go through this link and not directly to the website of the platform. Thank you for understanding!
1. Real estate investment. If you want to buy a real estate directly, please do your research very carefully. The current prices are very high in my opinion and unless you already have a real estate, please calculate the annual return very carefully. I consider less than 4% annual yield as not very appealing to me. Again, it’s only my opinion. Sometimes, you can earn substantially more by using short term rental platforms like AirBnb or Booking but I have very limited experience with both of them and I can tell you it does not conform to my criteria as a passive income. It’s more of a full time job, just like the sailing :)!
2. Stock market. If you live outside of EU, your options for investing are much wider than us EU citizen. A few years ago US funds decided that it’s too much hassle for them to make their ETFs compliant with some of the new EU regulations and that’s why we don’t currently have access to hugely popular ETFs as SPY, QQQQ etc. It does not mean that we cannot invest in the US market, it just means that the available funds are priced in EUR or GBP and also it’s a bit more expensive per year. If you decide to invest in the stock market, please send me an email by using the Contact form and I’ll recommend a low cost broker for you depending on the needs you have.
3. P2P platforms. I’ll list them in my descending order of preference – it does not mean that the ones a bit lower in the list are bad, no! It just means that I prefer the rest better. I’ll divide the platforms by the type of loans they finance – personal loans and real estate loans. In general the signup process is very simple – you create an account, take photos of your ID card, selfie, some platforms require you to send them a proof of address document – usually an electricity bill or bank statement and that’s it! The approval process takes (usually) no more than 1-2 business days. After that you can send them money (usually it’s EUR, some of the platforms support only BGN, some support other currencies). Almost all of the platforms have some kind of Autoinvest feature which means that you can select a number of criteria according to your taste and your risk appetite and then you can run this so called portfolio or investment robot. What it’ll do is that when you have free funds in your account, the autoinvest feature will try to find loans to invest in them. In this way, you’ll use your funds more effectively and you’ll not have to waste too much time following up. Of course, it’s always a good idea to check every week what is going on with your portfolios. I am using not one but several platforms since almost all of them have very low threshold to enter – some of them as low as 20 EUR per loan. Never put all of your eggs into one basket :). As a general rule, when you opened an account, you passed the verification process and you’re ready to deposit funds, please read the depositing instructions very carefully. Usually in the Payments Details section of your bank transfer you should put a very specific ID part that corresponds to your account with the platform. That way, the process of funding your account will pass swiftly and without any errors. One general remark about funding. I hate paying unnecessary fees to the banks that’s why I use mainly Revolut as my bank. They are not only very fast with most of my transfers but also their fees are either zero or very low. So, my recommendation is to use banks like this to fund your accounts and withdraw your profits. It’s fast and free! If you would like to open an account with Revolut, please use this link: https://revolut.com/referral/?referral-code=eugenib8mk!JUN1-24-AR-H1
Personal loans
1. Peerberry. Although this platform is currently a bit short on loans supply (meaning it has a cash drag or that not all of your cash gets immediately invested) I like them very much because unlike some other platforms these guys showed great business ethics during the pandemic and when the war started. They had a lot of exposure to both Russia and Ukraine but they did not hide behind “force majeure” clauses. Instead they chose to honor their group guarantee and they managed to return all of our war loans using the profits from operations in other countries. I hope that they will have more loans soon. Just use peerberry.com to open an account. Currently they have loans from 9% with a term of up to 365 days. As I mentioned above, the loans are now short in supply, so I often have cash drag.
2. Robocash. I like this one because they have this quiet operating style. Their website is not sexy, it’s very simple but it does the job. I have had no problems whatsoever with them. Currently they have loans from 8% up to 11% with duration from 30 to 730 days. I tend to keep my loans on the longer side but it’s just a personal preference. They have loans from Asia and Europe. Use this link if you decide to invest with them: https://robo.cash/ref/acBA
3. IUVO. This is a Bulgarian platform that has a very good history. I am really content with them and they have good supply of loans. They have a big variety of loan types, loan interest and this is one of the platforms where you can also actually invest in BGN, not only in EUR. They did not handle the Russian loans very well, as far as I know, but I was lucky and I did not have any of them, so I have no first hand experience with that. If you decide to invest with them, please send me an email and I will invite you because their bonus system is a bit different.
4. Esketit. This is a British registered platform which has loans from Europe and Middle East. I was a bit worried when the war in the Middle East started but up until now I have seen no problem with my portfolio. They currently have loans from 7% up to 12%. I have almost no cash drag, sometimes I do have – mostly during the weekends. They also have loans in USD but to be honest, I have never used them. If you decide to invest with them, please use this link: https://esketit.com/?promo=R575346108
5. Bondora. This platform has a little less transparency for my taste, that’s why I have invested less money. It’s not exactly clear how and where do they invest but in my experience they work well. They offer a yield of a bit less than 7% per year. Use their Go and Grow program. If you decide to invest with them, please use this link: https://app.bondora.com/ref/eugenim
6. Cashlend. This is another Bulgarian platform that allows investing in BGN. I don’t have very long experience with them but so far they look very good to me. They have loans from 8% up to 12% with a duration up to 12 months. If you decide to invest with them, please use this link: https://invest.cashlend.bg/user-registration?ref=O1J84B
7. ViaInvest. This is slightly different platform simply because you don’t actually invest in the particular loans but the platform pools the loans into securities and then you buy the securities with a certain percentage. So, currently they have securities from different countries in Europe with a duration of up to 365 days and up to 12% yield. If you decide to invest with them, please use the following link: viainvest.com
8. Lendermarket. In the past they have operated very well, but lately they have huge delays and they did not honor their buy back guarantee. That’s why I cannot recommend them now. If they improve their return performance, I can start investing with them again.
Real estate loans
Here we have two kinds of platforms – loans for building the property until it’s sold and the other is loan for building or remodeling the property and then renting the property for a certain amount of time.
1. InRento. These guys are my favorites because they don’t have any defaulted loan so far. They are very conservative and apparently they choose their partners well. They usually finance the property and then get profit from renting it. The yields are usually around 8% which I consider really good annual yield for real estate projects. Sometime the investors have the option to participate in the capital gains when the property is sold. The minimum investment is 500 EUR for new investors but considering that it’s an investment in real estate project, I believe it’s prudent. If you sign up with them you have to also open an account with Paysera, which is actually free, if yo don’t order their debit card. If you decide to invest with InRento, please use this link:https://inrento.com/aff/inr7669/
2. Crowdpear. This is actually a real estate platform by the same owner as of the Peerberry platform (see above). Since I have high confidence in this man, I have moved some of the funds from Peerberry (where lately there’s not enough loans available) to this platform and I am happy so far. They finance projects during the construction period with a duration of 3-12 months and yields of 10-12%. If you decide to invest with them, please use this link: https://crowdpear.com/ref/N5ZX1P
As I said earlier part of my monthly budget goes towards investments. I try to invest between 10-20% of my monthly income (which generally comes also from investments) into another investments. I try to do it as automatic as possible. I use a platform (in addition to the other platforms I described above) called Mintos. It’s an EU regulated platform where you can invest in personal loans, real estate loans, bonds and also ETFs. Their ETF is slightly more expensive than if you invest individually but it’s not something crazy. The good part if that you can invest into these individual instruments starting from 50 EUR. Also, since Mintos is regulated, your funds are secure up to 20000 EUR.
https://www.mintos.com/en/l/ref/1MQ7DA
One final remark. Even though these platforms are supposed to generate so called passive income, you have to do your job and decide where, when and how much do you want to invest. After all, it’s your money!