Crowdlending
Crowdlending means that you invest in loans. This is how it works. A person somewhere in the world needs a loan for something, whether it be a car, unexpected expenses, or anything else. They choose to take a loan from a company called a loan originator. This company, known as the loan originator, disburses the loan to the customer and then decides to sell a portion of the loan to a loan aggregator. This is where you have the opportunity to purchase a share of the loan and earn interest on it.
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Why would the loan originators do this? To simply be able to fund more loans and generate more revenue. Isn't it risky? All investments come with risks. However, as I mentioned in the paragraph above, in this case, they only sell a portion of the loan. Therefore, they have an interest in collecting the money from the customer. The portion of the loan that companies need to retain is called "skin in the game" and consists of 10% of the entire loan. Besides that, you set up parameters in order to make it even safer..
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Advantages of Investing in Crowdlending:
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Easy and fast to set up. Just sign up here and follow my guide below to learn how to use my strategy.
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You do not have to endure the volatility of the stock or crypto market.
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It compounds automatically without you having to do anything. Look at the example below.
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Once you have set up the parameters, you can sit back and enjoy what Einstein called the most powerful force in the universe: compound interest. Compound interest means you earn interest on your initial investment as well as on the accumulated interest over time. Let me give you an example. Suppose you choose to invest €1.000 in crowdlending, and let's say you receive an annual interest rate of 10%. After one year, you will have €1.100, which will be reinvested. This means that after two years, you will have €1.210. In ten years, your €1.000 will have turned into €2.395. In twenty years, it will be €6.727, and in thirty years, it will be €17.449. This trend continues, and you don't have to do anything but wait!
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If you are interested in learning more about Crowdlending, you can refer to my guide to Mintos below. Mintos is the site I use personally.
Start right away by creating a profile at Mintos here (you do not need to deposit funds to get started). It takes approximately 5 minutes, and you can do it by clicking on "Create account" when you click on this link (it will open in a new tab, so you can do it while following my guide).
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Once you have created an account, you will need to deposit some funds. You can do this by clicking on the two arrows in the top right corner and selecting "Add Money."
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And click on "Add Money". Depending on your country of origin, you now have different ways to deposit funds. If you, like me, live in Denmark, we can transfer funds through a bank transfer.
Once your funds have been added to your Mintos account, it is time to put the money to work for you. You can do so by clicking on "invest" in the top menu.
In order to make your money work for you, you will need to create a strategy for selecting the loans in which you would like to invest. You can do this by clicking on "Add strategy". In the top right corner.
Mintos have made some premade strategies. And if you feel good about any of them, you can use one of those. I haven't used it myself, as I prefer to make my own strategy. It is completely up to you what you prefer. However, I will share the strategy I have chosen with you now. In order to create your own strategy, click on "Select" under "Custom automated".
You will now have to choose between "Automated" and "Manual". Click on "Create Strategy" under the "Automated" section.
You now see a lot of loan originators. I am very conservative when it comes to investing, and I prefer to eliminate anything that does not have a rating of 7 or higher. However, it is up to you to choose for yourself. The lower the credit rating, the higher the interest rate. However, it is important to note that this also entails a greater level of risk.
Once you have chosen the Loan Originators that you like, you need to click on the small arrow to the right for each of the selected Loan Originators. Under "Investment Structure," you should remove the option for "indirect" and only select "Direct." Meaning that you invest directly in the loan at the Loan Originator.
Now, you have to decide on the interest rate and terms. Ideally, you would like to earn at least a 10% interest rate. However, you can set it at 9% in order to get your money invested faster. Regarding the terms, there are no advantages to choosing longer terms, but if you choose 12 months or less, you may not get all of your funds invested. In case you want to exit the loan before the term ends, you have the option to sell the loan on the secondary market in Mintos. However, it is important to note that this should be considered as a long-term investment. Currently, I have set mine for a duration of 24 months. It is up to you to decide what you prefer.
Now, you will need to provide some general information about your portfolio. You have to give it a name, which is entirely up to you. I have named mine "Core Strategy". It is my only strategy, so I just set my portfolio size slightly higher than the total amount in my account to ensure that the interest is reinvested. For example, if I have €1.000 in my Mintos account, I would set the portfolio size to €1.100. I prefer not to be too heavily invested in each loan. So, I have set the terms that each loan should be a minimum of €50 and a maximum of €110 (10% of the portfolio). However, if you don't mind investing more in a single loan, you can increase the amount. You can set the "Diversification" to "Dynamic" on Mintos, and it will automatically diversify your investments based on the available loans. If you prefer a more conservative approach, you can select "Custom" and manually set the level of diversification yourself.
If you decide to choose "Custom" in "Diversification", you now have to decide how much of your portfolio you are willing to allocate to each Loan Originator. It is a good idea, as you will only risk a certain percentage of your portfolio with that specific Loan Originator. Ideally, I would keep the allocation at 10% or lower.
In the end, you just need to click that you accept the terms of the Assignment Agreements and click on "Save and Activate." Once you have done that, you can sit back and relax. Your funds will be invested in loan originators that meet your specified parameters. Once you receive your principal and interest back, they will be automatically reinvested. You can always change your strategy if you want, and it might also be a good idea to increase the number in your portfolio once in a while.