September 19, 2019September 19, 2019 csmboto

GRUPEER: 1 Year as Investor

On August 2019 I realized that I’m investing for 12 months on Grupeer. Being one of my Top 10 P2P CrowdInvesting platforms, I felt this to be the right moment to share my experience and explain why investing in Grupeer offers a consistent source of fixed returns to my portfolio.

Grupeer Platform Quick Review

Grupeer is one of the most stable players in the P2P lending business ecosystem. You can invest in real estate projects and business loans and earn around 13% per year in interest. The minimum investment required is €10 and all loans in Grupeer have a buyback guarantee in case of borrower’s payments is delayed for more than 60 days (if the lender can’t pay, the loan originator company repurchases the debt).

Available to the public since February 2017, Grupeer works on a business model similar to Mintos: they are a marketplace where loan originators offer their pre-funded loans to investors like me. By doing this, they have more money available to fund new loans so they can leverage their businesses. Making a checkbox on my investment principles, Grupeer only fails one: early exit. I know they are working to have a secondary market available, but until then it is important you know that you cannot cancel or sell your investments once you commit to them.

Nothing wrong with that if you as an investor follow a strategy that does not require quick liquidity on your investment assets. In my particular case, Grupeer is the only platform present on my Top choices that do not provide early exit and even so is among my favorites. It is a great way to invest your money in medium-term loans in a totally automated manner. It could be an ideal starting point for a new P2P lending investor, but it’s all about what works for you!

A key aspect when considering investing in Grupeer is the recurrent cashback campaigns offered from time to time. They can have a significant impact on your portfolio returns if used wisely.

Creating a Grupeer investor account is very straight forward and it’s very easy to invest. The website is very simple and easy to navigate, invest and manage your portfolio. The auto-invest tool makes investing at Grupeer truly passive.

During the first year, Grupeer provided me with €598.83 in interest for a total investment of €4.043,72. A return of ~13% in 12 months.

Analysis Topic	Personal Take
Type of Loans Available	Real Estate \| Business
Average Interest Rate	~13%
Buyback / Secured Loans	Yes
Early Exit / Secondary Market	No (under development)
Auto Invest Feature	Yes
Control over Loans Invested	Yes, you choose
Money Drag	No
Hidden Fees	No
Loan Duration	3 to 36 months
Reporting Tool	High Quality
User Experience	High Quality
Sign-up Bonus	In case you employ my referral link to invest in *Grupeer* you earn 1.25% on all investments* over the first 6 months in cashback*
Overall Evaluation	8/10

September 4, 2019September 16, 2019 csmboto

Savings4Freedom August 2019 Portfolio Update

August was a crazy month for Savings4Freedom! Everything happened so fast that almost feels like I was writing the July portfolio update yesterday.

The speed of the P2P lending industry is incredible. The amount of information required to access, process and decide over in order to take informed actions grows faster than my capacity to deal with it.

Based on this reality, I decided to set up a group of P2P lending investment principles that will make much easier for me to take action in the future.

Invest @ Savings4Freedom — Defining your investment principles makes every decision easier

My P2P Lending Investment Principles

If I was starting all over again today, I would follow in a religious manner my P2P Lending Investment Principles:

Buyback Guarantee: Only invest in P2P loans that provide Buyback Guarantee (for security reasons);
Minimum Return: Only invest in P2P loans that offer an interest rate above 12% per year (the ROI and Yield need to justify the risk);
Early Exit: The majority of my investments should have available some type of early exit from the P2P loan position (through buyback or secondary market, for liquidity reasons);
Cashback and Bonus Offers: I want to maximize cashback and bonus opportunities to leverage my P2P lending returns (at the end of every platform month overview, I share the cashback and bonus opportunities available in case you use my referral links, that I really appreciate if you do to support this blog).
Diversification: I want to distribute my funds across different types of loans, geographic locations, maturity and mainly P2P platforms (diversity is king).

Please let me know your thoughts on this subject. Do you agree with these principles? I welcome any ideas that can help me improve this list.

How I Would Invest 10K in P2P Lending if I was Starting Today @ Savings4Freedom

I recently published one of the articles that more fun offered me writing it. I was challenged by some Savings4Freedom readers to reflect on what I did wrong and how I would do things differently if I started from scratch investing in P2P lending. It was a really important exercise for me in order to conscientiously realize the progress I have done until now. But the best part was realizing in a positive way that I’m really looking forward to experiencing what the future will bring in my path towards financial freedom.

You can read the article by clicking the figure above.

But, without any further due, let’s check Savings4Freedom returns!

August 10, 2019August 14, 2019 csmboto

Savings4Freedom July 2019 Portfolio Update

With a small delay, here is our Savings4Freedom monthly update!

I’m really happy with the way my P2P investments are evolving this year. By choosing to invest in P2P lending, every single day I’m confronted with the need to learn new aspects of the industry and improve my processes for efficiency and security.

As I described in my previous update, I’m continuing to shift funds between P2P platforms to diversify and increase my average portfolio interest rate results. In July, I opened accounts in Monethera (very good experience so far) and iban Wallet (a nice complement to my P2P portfolio for money liquidity reasons). You can check my first impressions on both platforms later on this publication.

I also want to share that from now on, I’m sharing with the community my Financial Literacy Video Library to FIRE (financial independence and retiring early). I love to learn and I want to share some of the best videos I found with you.

Loan Originator Issues: Aforti

P2P platforms such as Viventor and Mintos shared this week that one of their Loan Originators (Aforti). One of the risks of investing in P2P lending is the loan originator. You can check the Risks section on this dedicated page to learn more about other aspects to consider before investing.

Mitigate Risks of P2P Lending @ Savings4Freedom — Identify the Risks in P2P Investing

But, without any further due, let’s see the numbers!

July 7, 2019August 10, 2019 csmboto

Savings4Freedom June 2019 Portfolio Update

And now is the time for a monthly update!

After the amazing P2P Conference in Riga last month, I revisited my entire investment strategy towards financial freedom. One of the most relevant lessons was to balance correctly the effort and investments made into P2P crowdlending platforms on my overall investment portfolio.

Below I will show how that will reflect for the future.

Savings4Freedom in Portuguese

Brazil Brasil Portugal Bandeiras @ Savings4Freedom — The Savings4Freedom blog is now available in the Portuguese language

I’m also very excited to publish the blog in Portuguese! I’m looking forward to your comments and suggestions on how the contents can be improved and how I can share better information in the future.

Understanding P2P Crowdlending

Based on messages from people asking questions about P2P Crowdlending, I decided to create a dedicated page that will be continuously improved based on the best available industry information. The initial information source for it was a White Paper published by Grupeer in the fall of 2018.

P2P Lending Platforms Comparison

I really need to thank all the feedback received over the last month regarding the P2P Lending Platforms comparison. I read all your messages and decided to simplify the way the information is shared. I hope that now it could be easier for you to check the best P2P platforms to invest. Let me know what you think!

N26, Revolut and Transferwise

In order to simplify my investment strategy, I decided to create dedicated accounts to manage my P2P investments. Now I follow the 3 buckets account approach:

One bank account for my daily expenses: Revolut;
One for my savings and emergency funds: National Traditional Bank;
And I just opened an N26 account to manage my P2P Investments.

N26 Bank @ Savings4Freedom — Just opened an N26 Account. Photo: N26

This approach, combined with the use of Transferwise when I need to exchange currencies is simplifying my life and increasing my visibility over all transactions.

But, without any further due, let’s see the numbers!

June 11, 2019July 4, 2019 csmboto

Conference Report: Summary of the P2P Riga’19 Conference

On Friday the 7th of June, over 240 people among P2P platform representatives, P2P investors, and bloggers came together in Riga for the 1st edition of the European P2P Conference. This P2P Conference was certainly a memorable one! Taking place at the wonderfully unique RISEBA Architecture and Media Center H2O 6, this event brought together people from 24 nations representing the entire community to display just what makes P2P crowdlending so unique – its diversity, its cross-sectoral nature, and its collaborative spirit.

The event, hosting interesting keynote speakers, an array of informative presentations, and topped off with a fun evening and second-day entirely dedicated to networking opportunities.

April 3, 2019 Carlos

P2P Conference Riga’19

The European P2P investment community is gathering in Riga next June 7-8 to discuss the future of the industry.

You can join the conference buying your ticket here: https://bit.ly/2UtHuUZ

This is a great opportunity to learn and meet with leading platforms, investors and experts!

#S4F #Savings4Freedom #P2P #Peer2Peer #Investments #Riga

March 5, 2019May 1, 2019 Carlos

Portfolio Update: April 2019

Hi Savings4Freedom friends!

February was a specially painful month for me. The loss of a very important family member is always a defining moment in everyones life… apologies for not publishing last months report. I updated all information on the blog over time, but not a post… thank you for understanding.

Live goes on and here is the April 2019 S4F report.

February 14, 2019February 14, 2019 csmboto

Investing in Crowdlending: some important notes…

Hi Savings4Freedom friends!

Some quick notes before you start investing in crowdlending platforms…

When you research a new crowdlending platform, it is not only important to look after the expected return and platform usability… There’s quite a few other, more relevant details to evaluate before investing:

How old is the platform?
Who is the management team?
How do their financial reports look?
Is it a single- or multi-loan originator platform? How many loan originators do they have?
Do they offer buyback guarantee on your loans?
What is the minimum investment in loans?
Which loan types do they offer?
Do they have autoinvest functionality?
Do they accept investors from your country?

For each of the platforms I present on S4F you will find a review in their info pages, based on my experience. It is a mix description based on credibility, size, functionality and support as criteria for the review. I also try to read what is the word on the street from other investors in the personal finance ecosystem.

Please feel free to contact me over email [email protected] and share your opinion, comments or suggestions on the topic above.

If you enjoyed this post, please hit the like button below and/or share it with your friends. Thanks for the support!

February 2, 2019July 8, 2019 csmboto

Portfolio Update: January 2019

Hello Savings4Freedom friends!

It is great to share with you the January 2019 S4F monthly update.

Before going to the numbers, I really want to thank all the comments and suggestions from people all over. I really appreciate the support!

Let’s go to numbers!

January 1, 2019July 8, 2019 csmboto

Portfolio Update: December 2018

Hello Savings4Freedom friends!

For the first time I’m sharing my monthly update.

I will try to offer you these updates on the 1st day of every month. The idea is to provide you with a transparent manner to check my monthly returns and the cumulative results of my investments.

Over the next month I will work to improve the blog layout and structure. I welcome any suggestions you may have to enhance how the information is presented. If you are here for the first time, please check out the other pages on the blog and let me know your opinion. Thank you for your support!

Without further due, let’s check the results.

December 27, 2018January 1, 2019 Carlos

Telling my story towards financial freedom…

I’m Carlos, a 33 years old PhD, and startup founder. I live in Portugal with my wife. I always had the mental drive to save money, but never with financial independence in mind. Only at the beginning of 2018, I decided to structure my efforts towards freedom. This blog tells you all about my path, decisions, and mistakes.

I face strong limitations regarding my financial freedom, however, I don’t have any doubt that I will be able to achieve this personal goal of becoming financially free. Anyone can reach financial independence. It’s all about the way you wish to live and the costs necessary to sustain such a living standard.

I learn to save money with my Father. He was a hardworking and honorable man, entirely committed to supporting his family. I saw his effort to support my studies and his energy to provide me the opportunity to fly high without financial concerns. My Father is my hero.

There are many different ways to achieve financial independence, but you always will need to follow these:

Keep a simple lifestyle.
Maximize your income streams.
Save and invest wisely.