What will you read in my January 2020 monthly report? We will go into major life updates, January expenses, January passive + side hustle income, and January goals.
January was great! I got an assignment at a client who is very close to my house, so only 20 minutes of driving instead of the usual 1 to 1.5 hours.
Besides that, I got a new job! 🤩
At the office I work at, things are not running smoothly. There is a new manager who doesn’t get along with the other manager, which creates some tension. The other manager even dislikes it so much that he has resigned without anything else lined up.
When you’re in the office you notice the tension. It’s crazy! I decided to look for something new that was closer to home and had a pay rise of course. I’m happy to report I got a 34% pay raise as I get to work 2 hours less each week.
I am still dreaming about my mini-retirement and how it all went. It really gave me a taste of early retirement and motivates me more to get there faster!
To fast-track my way to financial independence, I am building passive income besides my nest egg. When my passive income exceeds €1000 monthly, I would have enough to quit my job.
Highlights of my January month:
- 😎 I’ve got a new job as of April 1st!!!
- 👉 Expenses of €578.59 (76.18% savings rate!)
- 💰 Passive income of €150
- ✨ Side hustle income of €255
- 😵 Loss of €1333 with Envestio
January Expenses
No extremely crazy things happened on the expense side in January, some things are worth noting though.
I started to pay back my student loan debt, which will deduct €22.41 monthly for the next 35 years 😅. I won’t pay back my student loan debt faster since I have 0% interest I have to pay.
The only thing is that I can get less mortgage with my student loan debt, meaning that I will probably pay it off once I want to buy a house. It will probably still be a couple of years so I’m taking it easy.
I also spent a lot on entertainment aka parties and bars. I visited a lot of friends throughout all of the Netherlands this month. This means a lot of money spent on drinks and public transport. I’m okay with that, it will slow down again in February.
This gives me a monthly savings rate of 76.18%, which I’m very content with.
My goal for 2020 is to have a savings rate of 75%, which should be very manageable given that my income will increase by 34% and my expenses will stay the same.
January Income
Here is a breakdown of income per source:
| Source | Income | Annual Return |
|---|---|---|
| Blog | €174 | |
| Ebay Selling | €68 | |
| Cashback Groceries | €13 | |
| Grupeer | €59 | 12.82% |
| Crowdestor | €56 | 10.36% |
| Mintos | €24 | 11.74% |
| Funding Circle | €5 | 6.73% |
| EstateGuru | €5 | 7.78% |
| Reinvest24 | €1 | 6.88% |
| Envestio | €0* | -100% |
| Total | €405 | P2P: 12.66% |
*After the escalation with the Envestio case, it’s unsure whether we will get some money back. If we will get it back, it can last a whole lot of time. Therefore, I’m writing off the entire amount that was Envestio – €1333.
My sources of income are growing, which is great! I enjoy seeing them grow and I love to put money into growing them more and more over time.
Let’s get into what happened with Envestio, my passive income, and my other income for the month.
January Passive Income
I’m very grateful that I get to earn passive income every month, adding money even when I’m sitting on the couch doing nothing. My peer-to-peer loans are the biggest contributor to that.
If you’re looking for an overview of all peer-to-peer platforms INCLUDING sign-up bonuses, look no further
What Happened With Envestio?
The issues with Kuetzal at the end of 2019, were also happening with Envestio. People started to think that their projects were not solid. Envestio in response let everyone buy back their loan against a small discount, to show people it was okay and they could handle it.
Turned out, they could not handle it. They probably paid the money back to investors with the money of other investors, which is unacceptable.
After that, no one has heard from them. There is complete silence from their side and a criminal investigation going on.
Actions I took related to the Envestio case:
- File a police report by going here
- Join the lawsuit that is going on GoFundMe
One thing is for sure: the entire market is going to be more careful now. There are regulations coming in 2021 until then we need to sit tight and hope this will not happen again.
For me personally, I will do everything I can to prevent something like this happening again to any platform I am using and talking about.
I wanted to check whether or not these issues will prevail in the entire market or not, which is why I’m relatively careful with my peer-to-peer investments now.
It is a risky market for sure, and currently it is an unstable risky market. Not the ideal situation.
That’s why I have decided to not add any money to my peer-to-peer portfolio this month.
It seemed to have calmed down, so I will slowly start adding funds to Mintos and Grupeer in February. Also diversification is important, so I am planning to look at additional platforms. Any suggestions?
Besides that, my plan is to do additional research on all P2P platforms I’m currently invested in and talking about on the blog. I want to make sure that there are no red flags along the way.
Back To The Passive Income..
In January I got a total of €132 passive income for the month. Of course, Envestio is influencing those numbers, making it -€1201.
My January passive income means that I am 13% into my goal to reach €1000 passive income.
[wppb progress=50 option=”animated-candystripe blue” text=”€150/€1000 Passive Income”]
Here is a breakdown of all my passive income sources related to Peer-to-Peer lending or crowdlending:
The biggest part of my portfolio is coming from peer-to-peer lending or crowdlending, which means higher risk and higher return. Generally in investing, the higher returns you have the more risk you take. Make sure you know the risks associated with peer-to-peer lending to make a fully informed decision!
My posts are no investment advice, please perform your own due diligence before investing in any platform.
Grupeer
Portfolio Value: €5,500.70
Average Interest Rate: 12.82%
Passive Income: €58.77
Grupeer is by far the platform I have the most invested in. Every month I add more money to the platform to let my passive income grow. Especially in the last part of 2019, lots of money have been added. I’m taking it slow in February and let’s see if I want to add more money in March.
Grupeer as a platform has a lot of potentials to grow, I’m convinced it will be as big as Mintos someday. They just need to sophisticate their platform a little more, plus they need to spread information about their loan originators.
The Grupeer management has reacted to the unrest in the peer-to-peer sector currently, stating that they will increase transparency in 2020. They will disclose more about their team members, their loan originators, and their practices overall. That’s definitely a good thing!
I have a simple Grupeer strategy that is easy to replicate: invest in loans with 13% interest or higher. Considering everything they offer has a buyback guarantee, this is an awesome deal.
At this moment I have €5500 invested with Grupeer, which gives me €58.77 passive income – an average rate of 12.82%.
🔥If you’re not using Grupeer yet, I highly recommend you check it out. You can read my Grupeer review here or you can sign up directly.
Mintos
Portfolio Value: €2,500.04
Average Interest Rate: 11.74%
Passive Income: €24.45
Mintos is currently one of the biggest peer-to-peer platforms in Europe, which makes it a great platform if you want to start building up your passive income streams.
As Mintos interest rate went back to old levels, I’ve added some new investments to the platform early January. I will still practice what I preach and only invest in Mintos loan originators that have a good track record.
I use auto invest to get maximized return on investment with minimal time investment. Check my exact auto invest settings you can use to maximize your passive income with Mintos.
If auto invest is too much hassle for you, there is also Mintos Invest & Access. You just click one button, type in how much money you want to invest, and Mintos invests it for you. It’s really straightforward and simple to use.
I currently have €2500.04 invested with Mintos. That gave me €24.45 passive income in January, which is an 11.74% average annual interest rate.
🔥If you’re not using Mintos yet, I highly recommend you check it out. You can read 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!
Funding Circle
Portfolio Value: €933.75
Average Interest Rate: 6.73%
Passive Income: €5.24
Funding Circle was my first crowdlending experience, back in 2018.
They have no buyback guarantee, no secondary market, and below average interest rate for the risk you are taking. It is not my favorite platform, but I’m patiently sitting out the loans that I have invested in.
All the other platforms I mentioned have a far greater risk-reward ratio, so I would recommend checking them out instead.
🔥 If you’re interested in real estate crowdfunding, I have a list of platforms that I recommend here.
EstateGuru
Portfolio Value: €784.86
Average Interest Rate: 7.78%
Passive Income: €5.09
EstateGuru is my latest addition to diversify my portfolio and get more into real estate investing.
I’ve gotten my first payout in January. I’m excited to check this platform out, see how to use it, and have collateral as a back-up of my investments. A review will be written soon!
Currently, I have €784.86 invested in EstateGuru, with a €5.09 return – which is not with my entire amount invested. Next month I expect to be invested in another probperty to up my return.
🔥 If you sign up using this link, you get a 0.5% cashback bonus for 90 days!
Reinvest24
Portfolio Value: €99.38
Average Interest Rate: 6.88%
Passive Income: €0.57
In October I started investing with Reinvest24, a real estate investment platform that I am still in the testing phase with. I love that I can start investing from a relatively low amount and see how the platform is performing before I invest more.
The thing I love about Reinvest24 is that you get a yield on your investment, as if you’re owning the property and getting rental income. Besides that, they offer capital growth gains when the property is sold at the end of the term.
On this specific investment, I get 6.98% yield as if I really own the property and I am renting it out to a tenant. At the moment of selling, I get another 5% yearly capital growth gains. This will bring my total return on almost 12% annually, not too bad!
🔥 If you want to give Reinvest24 a try, sign up here or check out my complete review here!
January Goals
Here they are:
- Get €170 income from passive sources – FAIL. I only got €132 passive income as I didn’t invest extra in my peer-to-peer platforms. I wanted to be careful and see what happens with the market.
- Read through June-July posts for spelling and grammar – FAIL. I don’t enjoy doing this, so I decided to skip it and pick a couple of old posts that I will pimp every month instead.
- Design new front page of Radical FIRE – FAIL. I looked into it and it seemed like a lot of work, then I discovered Elementor and I’m hooked. I’m going to try it out this weekend so be on the lookout for a new front page!
- Get back to working out three times per week – PASS. I’m running with a friend every Monday and doing some yoga on and off. I enjoy doing this and I feel good about it!
- Get back to my morning routine and try out journaling – PASS. I enjoy journaling a lot, even though I’m not sure what to write about some days. It helps and I want to keep it into my morning routine.
- Get back to posting three times per week – PASS. Until now I’ve posted 3x per week in January. I am not so strict with my times as last year, but I got it done and that’s the most important thing.
- Write one book review post – PASS 2x! I’ve even written two book review posts. One about The Law Of Attraction and one about The Four Tendencies.
February Goals
- Get €150 income from passive sources – I’m going to just aim to maintain for February. No further additions.
- Get €250 side hustle income on top of that
- Design new front page of Radical FIRE
- Try out if Tailwind lives up to the hype
- Improve 5 articles
- Write one book review post
- Work ahead 2 weeks in posts
How was your January? Let me know below!
Founder of Spark Nomad, Radical FIRE, Journalist
Expertise: Personal finance and travel content
Education: Bachelor of Economics at Radboud University, Master in Finance at Radboud University, Minor in Economics at Chapman University.
Over 200 articles, essays, and short stories published across the web.
Experience: Marjolein Dilven is a journalist and founder of Spark Nomad, a travel platform, and Radical FIRE, a personal finance platform. Marjolein has a finance and economics background with a master’s in Finance. She has quit her job to travel the world, documenting her travels on Spark Nomad to help people plan their travels. Marjolein Dilven has written for publications like MSN, Associated Press, CNBC, Town News syndicate, and more.
I like Triple D’ Anvers. I always visit Bier Central and Billie’s Bier Kafetaria when I’m there.
OT: Since crowdlending is still a volatile and relatively new market, I have a max of 10% invested there. The rest is mostly good ol’ stock etfs. For my Mintos I only use the A rated loan originators, still giving me 9%+.
Oh wauw! Chill zeg. En wat fijn van je nieuwe job. Ik heb elke maand rond de €150,- passief inkomen en dat moet ook omhoog.
Yess we also checked out Bier Central, it has a great atmosphere and very tasty beers of course!
The crowdlending market is relatively new and volatile for sure, I now have around 15% of my portfolio invested there. I will invest the upcoming months more in ETFs to bring down this percentage. My goal is to still have passive income, so I’m going to look into dividend paying ETFs and REITs. Let’s see where that brings us, so much to learn!
Congrats on your pay rise Radical Fire, I liked the way you calculated it, having more free time is indeed a rise. You can use this two hours to work on other side hustle that will produce extra income.
Have a great February:)
Hi Dio, dank voor je berichtje! €150 is al een goed begin, maar dat kan inderdaad omhoog. Mijn doel voor het eind van het jaar is €300 passief inkomen, kijken of we dat voor elkaar kunnen boxen
Congrats on your new job and pay increase! Crazy about the stuff with Envestio, but you seem to be bouncing back alright. 🙂
Thanks Tony, appreciate it! I am looking forward to going home a couple of hours early on Friday or going to work later for some days. It is not much less working but it is a good start. Have a great February yourself 😎
Thanks Ms FOGA, I appreciate it! Let’s hope this is the last platform to go bankrupt. We’ve started a legal procedure to get out money back, fingers crossed that works out all right