August 2020 Monthly Report – 84% Savings Rate

What will you read in my August 2020 monthly report? We will go into August expenses, August passive + side hustle income, and August goals.  

Personal Update

Personally, I love working from home. I could work from home every day. It frees up so much time in the day and it is more relaxed than going to the office.

Currently, I am going to the office twice a week. Hopefully, we will stick to twice a week for quite some time. Working with the entire office seems crazy and I don’t see that happening in the upcoming months.

Investment wise, I’m investing in stocks and peer-to-peer projects for passive income. 

Highlights of my August month:

💸 Expenses of €460

👉 84% savings rate

🌟 Extra income of €373

💰 20% to FIRE

August Expenses

Here you can find the details of my August costs: 

In August my partner and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary. We went out to dinner, for the first time since March. It was lovely and we had a great time. There was 6 feet between all the tables and there weren’t too many people, which made the entire experience very comfortable.

Overall, August gives me a monthly savings rate of 84%. My goal for 2020 is to have a savings rate of 75%. I’m right on track with my current savings rate of 79%.

August Income

Here is a breakdown of income per source:

Source	Income	XIRR
Blog	€274
Reselling & Flipping	€45
EstateGuru	€21	9.38%
Crowdestor	€19	10.43%
Mintos	€10	12.93%
Funding Circle	€4	3.65%
Reinvest24	€0.6	5.93%
Total	€373	P2P: 9.51%

Let’s get into my passive income, side hustle income, and my other income for the month.

August Passive Income

Every month I try to grow my passive income. Passive income means you’re making money without actively putting in hours of work. My peer-to-peer investments and quarterly dividends are my current sources of passive income. 

Do you want to start investing in peer-to-peer platforms? Check out which P2P platforms give a sign-up or cashback bonus!

In August, I got a total of €52 passive income. Here is a breakdown of all my passive income sources:

Note: I’m not a financial advisor, and I’m not giving you any financial advice. I’m only telling you what steps I’m taking. The biggest part of my investment portfolio is peer-to-peer lending or crowdlending, which means higher risk and higher return. 

While the first wave of coronavirus patients is over, there is still the possibility of a second wave. The majority of the peer-to-peer platforms seem to do well at the moment. However, that is no guarantee for the future. 

I am aware of the risks of peer-to-peer lending and I want to be open about the scenarios. 

To summarize:

• Grupeer has its bank accounts frozen, meaning nothing can be paid out to investors. Communication towards investors is there, whether it’s genuine is not clear at this point. Also, Grupeer has a KYC procedure going on to unfreeze their bank accounts. They currently are looking into a solution to pay investors (partly). You can read their FAQ here.
• Crowdestor has resumed payment for all projects. Payments are coming in as usual, and no investments have defaulted yet. 
• EstateGuru and Reinvest24 have continued to pay according to schedule. 

Crowdestor

Portfolio Value: €4,207.62

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 10.43%

Passive Income: €16.78

Crowdestor is back on track with their projects. As their projects pay irregularly, I expect earnings to fluctuate going forward. As I am not living from my passive income yet, regular payment is not something I am currently looking for in projects. 

I currently invested €4207, which has yielded me €19. That’s 10.43% yearly interest, which is a great comeback. I will continue to diversify among platforms, and Crowdestor will remain one of the main ones. 

Check out my Crowdestor review 🔥 for more detailed info.

Open An Account At Crowdestor

Mintos 

Portfolio Value: €1,457.81

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 12.93%

Passive Income: €10.23

Mintos is currently one of the biggest peer-to-peer platforms in Europe, which makes it a good platform to start building up your passive income streams. 

Mintos is a great place to invest if you know which loan originators to choose. These loan originators are reliable and will be generally safer than a loan originator with a low(er) rating. 

I currently have €1,457.81 invested with Mintos. That gave me €10 passive income in August, which is a 12.93% average annual interest rate. 

🔥If you’re not using Mintos yet, check it out. You can read a detailed Mintos review here or you can sign up directly.

When you sign up with Mintos using my link, you get a 0.5% extra return on any investments made within the first 90 days!

Try Mintos Now

EstateGuru

Portfolio Value: €1,170.96

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 9.38%

Passive Income: €10.64

EstateGuru is my path to real estate investing. It’s one of the biggest real estate crowdfunding platforms in Europe, and they have a great track record. At the moment of writing, they have not lost a single euro for their investors since their start in 2014. 

EstateGuru is one of my favorite real estate crowdfunding platforms. Since I started investing with them in November I’ve had great returns. Up until now, the platform is performing as expected.

I’ve recently invested in five new projects. Two of them aren’t paying anything until the loan ends, which means that there will be ups and downs in my return rates. 

Currently, I have €1,171 invested in EstateGuru, with €11. That’s an average return of 9.38%. 

🔥 Sign up using this link to check Estateguru out yourself or read my review here!!

EstateGuru is currently giving 0.5% cashback to my readers, on any investments you make within the first 3 months if you sign up using my link. 

Join EstateGuru Today >>

Funding Circle

Portfolio Value: €656.10

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 3.63%

Passive Income: €3.94

Funding Circle was the first crowdlending platform I invested in back in 2018. Their returns aren’t great and they have no buyback guarantee. I wouldn’t recommend them. 

All the other platforms I have mentioned have a far greater risk-reward ratio, so check them out instead.

🔥 If you’re interested in real estate crowdfunding, I have a list of platforms that I recommend here. 

Reinvest24

Portfolio Value: €98

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 5.93%

Passive Income: €0.57

In October 2019 I started investing with Reinvest24, a real estate investment platform that allows me to invest relatively low amounts. 

The thing about Reinvest24 is that they give you yield on your investment, just as if you’re receiving rental income. On top of that, property gains will be calculated when a property is sold. 

🔥 If you want to give Reinvest24 a try, sign up here or check out my complete review here!

Open An Account At Reinvest24

August Goals

• Move daily – PASS. I am going to the office twice a week by bike. The days that I work from home, I either work out or go for a walk.
• Work out 3x per week – PASS. It’s great to be sticking to my working out habit again. I’ve also started a beginner plank challenge to strengthen my core and get even fitter.
• Optimize site speed – PASS. I’ve deleted over 7 plugins and I’ve moved away from Sumo, as they are known for slowing down websites. My speed score has gone from somewhere in the 60s to 77.
• Read 30 minutes before I go to bed – PARTY FAIL. I haven’t exactly read every single night before going to bed. I have read daily, which was mostly my goal.

September Goals

• Move daily
• Finish the beginner plank challenge
• Optimize mobile site speed
• Work ahead 4 weeks in posts
• Read 30 minutes before I go to bed

How was your August? Let me know below!

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