What's been happening with me lately? Quite a bit actually.
- Breached 600k in net worth - and then some
- I started a position in Reinvest24.
- Sat back and let my P2P portfolio do its job.
- Got a raise at work.
- Have made some stellar moves on the stock market.
Continue reading to learn more 😊
Less than 40% left to double-comma
It was actually May that I reached 600,000 € net worth. And now, only a few months later, I'm already closing in on the next milestone: 700k! I started tracking in end of 2010 and have had my ups and downs, but mostly ups. Here's what it looks like.
- Because I'm so well diversified (check Modern Portfolio Theory for why this is wise)
- Because I put a lot of effort to managing risk. (check my P2P lending risks article for instance)
Going into 2020, a significant portion of my wealth was in P2P lending. Not in the highest yield loans, but in the 10-12% consumer ones. While stocks took a beating, I was able to divert cash from peer lending platforms into the stock market, resulting in my wealth growing from 442k€ in March 2020 to 681k€ in September 2021.
Now as the Shiller PE predicts a negative -4.6% annual return for the stock market for the next 10 years, it's probably a good time for you to also start thinking about diversification into something else than just stocks. Maybe?
How does Reinvest24 feel after a couple of months?
The first big thing that hit me with Reinvest24 was that a minimum investment on the primary market is 100€, which gives you 100 shares. However, on the secondary market, you are allowed to purchase even 1 share at a time. The trick is though that the platform takes a small piece and the seller usually as well.
Thus far the repayments have been on time and the internal return rate has been around 10%, but to be honest, I'm not yet convinced there's anything there that's better than Estateguru - my no. 1 favorite.
The P2P portfolio is doing well
| Platform | Return | stake | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mintos ⭐ | 12% | review | ✔ |
| Estateguru ⭐ | 12% | review | ✔ |
| Lainaaja | 10% | ✔ | |
| Swaper | 12% | review | ✔ |
| PeerBerry | 12% | review | |
| NEO Finance | 12% | review | |
| RoboCash ⭐ | 11% | review | ✔ |
| Crowdestor ⭐ | 10% | review | ✔ |
| Bondora | 9% | review | ✔ |
| October | 4% | review | ✔ |
| Trine | 7% | review | |
| Sun Exchange ⭐ | 7% | review | ✔ |
| Reinvest24 | 10% | ✔ |
I have a little over 100,000 € invested in the platforms marked.
The thing that needs to be said about P2P platforms is that it is very easy to destroy your gains by losing your capital. You need to thoroughly understand P2P lending risks and you need to diversify. But not diversify on bad platforms just for the sake of diversification. And even still, you need to periodically follow your investments and how the platforms are developing. Things are constantly changing and if you're not paying attention, it might cost you.
Not so passive anymore is it? There's no such thing.
In the previous update from June, I described how I like to think of my P2P portfolio in categories. The categories and my favorites from them are
- Long-term consumer loans with buyback: Mintos, but could be also PeerBerry
- Direct consumer loans without buyback: Bondora (but beware, there be dragons)
- Short-term consumer loans: Swaper
- Sustainable investing: Sun Exchange
- Real estate: Estateguru
- High-yield business loans: Crowdestor
- Low-yield business loans: October
Got a raise 🙌
Income matters. A LOT. In fact, reaching financial independence early-ish is almost impossible without high income. There's a lot of talk nowadays about multiple income streams and I too have my own list of passive income ideas. Yet, the truth is that my salary has always been my largest contributor to wealth. And while my stocks have so far gained over 88,000 € year-to-date, it looks like my salaried income will eventually be close to beating it (unless the stock market continues to perform extremely well until the end of the year).
I'm now grossing a little over 100,000 € per year from my work, something I truly enjoy doing too. I'd recommend heavily focusing on your income until you get to at least halfway of your goal. But at the same time, not neglecting learning. While your stakes are small in comparison to your income, you can afford to lose larger. You can always start over. When your stakes get bigger, it starts to be more and more important to learn to protect your capital, even with the expense of returns.
My savings rate was 59%
My net income was 5,603 € that included a special, extraordinary lump sum. My expenses were 2,314 €, which meant that my savings rate got up to 59%. That's quite nice.
My savings rate took a plunge in March, but luckily I've been able to climb over 50% since. That's kind of a target for me: to be able to save more than half of my net income.
A huge chunk of my expenses went into income taxes. Usually I would count my net income the way that income tax has already been deducted, but for a planning failure, I'm still paying for tax debt for last year. If I were to deduct the income taxes from both net income and expenses (which I should), my savings are would go even higher.
I also cannot believe I'm paying more than 500€ for food every month. But I guess it's less than 20€ per day. I guess that's alright.
Got 88,000 € so far on the stock market this year
This year has the potential for my stock portfolio to contribute to my wealth more than my salary.
By far, the most profits I've made on my $UPST investment that is up still +170% from June when I mentioned it last. They're a AI-driven credit scoring company founded by ex-Googlers.
For the rest of the year, I have high hopes for these:
- $CELH Celcius holdings is a fast-growing "clean" energy drink producer that is growing significantly faster than the category as a whole.
- $DNMR Danimer Scientific produces compostable "plastic" and was recently chosen as a partner for PepsiCo
- $DMTK Dermtech produces skin cancer detection patches that have a high accuracy to test for melanoma.
- $SOFI Sofi is a company I would have wanted to found. They develop a personal finance platform that helps individuals stay on top of their financials. And they're growing like crazy.
- $ROKU is taking the streaming industry by storm in a setup that actually benefits from the rivalry of Netflix, HBO, Disney and the like. Roku brings all of that together in one device, has their own "channel" and gets revenue share by recommending the other streaming platforms.
My portfolio is close to 30 positions now, but the above in total represent 25% of my whole portfolio.
What's next?
Well, the 700,000 € mark is coming up real soon. I think I will make an update in October - unless the economy goes down the crapper before that. There are signs of that possibility too. If that happens, I'll go on a buying frenzy on margin.
Otherwise, I'm quite well on track to reach my 1,000,000 by 40 and what I think I'll do is just focus on living a life while I'm at it. There's a project at work I'm absolutely excited about, that will take a couple of years. By the end of that, There's a good chance I'll be handsomely compensated, which will take me over the finish line.
Wish me luck!
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