Monthly Report October 2020 – €700 Extra Income

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

As I do every month, I’m publishing my income and expenses here. It is a great way to keep me accountable to track my journey to financial independence. Even though I love working on my personal finances, it is a great way to keep tracking it. 

October went by fast. At the company I work at, around 30% of our finance department was let go. That means a lot of extra work for me, as the two members in my team are let go as well. 

They are reorganizing to save costs and to make sure that we won’t go bankrupt. As we’ve already cut 30% of our department out, I don’t expect they will cut more in the upcoming months. Of course, this all depends on the coronavirus and the lockdowns.

All restaurants and bars are closed again. Plus, you are only allowed to invite up to two people in your home. They are talking about a curfew at night in regions with a lot of infections. The area I live in had the most new infections in October per 100,000 inhabitants. Good times!

Highlights of my October month:

💸 Expenses of €806

👉 76% savings rate

🌟 Extra income of €699

💰 23% to FIRE

October Expenses

Here you can find the details of my October costs: 

October gives me a monthly savings rate of 76%. My goal for 2020 is to have a savings rate of 75%. I’m right on track with my yearly savings rate of 79%.

October Income

Here is a breakdown of income per source:

Source	Income	XIRR
Blog	€500
Website Testing	€49
Reselling & Flipping	€14
Dividends	€67
Crowdestor	€40	9.56%
EstateGuru	€15	8.6%
Mintos	€9	11.96%
Funding Circle	€3	5.16%
Reinvest24	€0.6	6.13%
Total	€699	P2P: 9.20%

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

October 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 October, I got a total of €135 in passive income. Here is a breakdown of all my passive income sources:

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

Many peer-to-peer platforms have had some coronavirus difficulties at the beginning of the year. Now most of the projects are restarted or refunded. It is important to know the risks of peer-to-peer lending before you start investing. 

To summarize for the different platforms I’m invested in:

• Grupeer has its bank accounts frozen, meaning nothing can be paid out to investors. It’s not clear at this point what will happen. Also, Grupeer has a KYC procedure going on to unfreeze their bank accounts. They seem to do their best to resume operations. You can read their FAQ here.
• Crowdestor had a three month period in which projects were evaluated. Many projects got a couple of months extensions for the repayment (up to 3 months). Payments are coming in, and no investments have defaulted yet. 
• EstateGuru and Reinvest24 have continued to pay according to schedule. 

Crowdestor

Portfolio Value: €4,108

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 9.56%

Passive Income: €40.21

Crowdestor is back on track with their projects. The fluctuation in payments is due to the projects I’ve invested in that are paying irregularly. 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 €4108, which has yielded me €40. That’s a 9.56% yearly interest, which is a great return. 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: €1,478

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 11.96%

Passive Income: €8.93

Mintos is currently one of the biggest peer-to-peer platforms in Europe, which makes it a great 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 €1,478 invested with Mintos. That gave me €9 passive income in October, which is a 11.96% average annual interest rate. 

🔥If you’re not using Mintos yet, check it out. You can read our 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: €1,189

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 8.60%

Passive Income: €15

EstateGuru is a way to start real estate investing with a low barrier. It’s one of the biggest real estate crowdfunding platforms in Europe, and you can start investing from €50. 

EstateGuru is one of my favorite real estate crowdfunding platforms. Since I started investing with them in November, I’ve had between 9-11% return. 

I’ve recently invested in a couple of new projects. Two of them are paying all interest and principal at the end, which means my interest payments will come in bulk. 

Currently, I have €1,189 invested in EstateGuru, with €15. That’s an average return of 8.60%. 

🔥 Sign up using this link to check Estateguru out yourself or read our EstateGuru review!

EstateGuru is currently giving 0.5% cashback to my readers, in the first 3 months, if you sign up using my link. 

Join EstateGuru Today >>

Funding Circle

Portfolio Value: €613

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 5.16%

Passive Income: €3

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

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

🔥 I have a list of platforms best real estate crowdfunding platforms that I recommend. 

Reinvest24

Portfolio Value: €98

Average Interest Rate (XIRR): 6.13%

Passive Income: €0.57

A year ago, I started investing with Reinvest24, a real estate investment platform that allows me to invest relatively low amounts. I like that they pay a yield plus capital gains when you sell like you’re receiving monthly rental income. 

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

Open An Account At Reinvest24

October Goals

• Optimize mobile site speed – FAIL. I looked at mobile site speed, but it’s more complicated than just adding a couple of plugins. 
• Work ahead 2 weeks in posts – FAIL. I didn’t write as much as I would like in October. I was busy with work, some freelance writing, and relaxing on the weekends. 
• Plan content for the rest of 2020 – PASS. Yay, I passed at least one goal for October. I planned content for the rest of 2020. Now all I have to do is write that content, and stick to the plan. 
• Create Pins for old posts – FAIL. Creating Pinterest pins is something that I find quite hard. I am not particularly creative with visuals, so it takes quite some effort. I’ve made a couple of video pins, but found out that you couldn’t schedule them yet with Tailwind. In November, I will take an entire day just for making pins, it needs to get done someday!

November Goals

• Optimize mobile site speed
• Work ahead 2 weeks in posts
• Create pins for old posts
• Take a real estate course – I’ve purchased a Dutch real estate course. I’ve saved enough money to invest in real estate, but the prices in my area are insane. As I’m still renting myself, I’m looking at the options and would love to increase my passive income!

How was your October? Let me know below!