The first month of 2020 is over. And there was quite a lot happening in P2P lending business. Kuetzal is called scam and broke down, as well as envestio did. Both P2P lending platforms went apart and you are no longer able to invest. Unfortunately the first losses are reported. Until now there were just a few losses concerning separate loans. But now it looks like as if two platforms are not able to refund the invested sums of their investors.

Honestly, I am really sorry for all of you, who lost money. I had both P2P platforms on my list to invest some money, especially for diversification reasons. This chance now disappeared and I am quite happy I was not invested. I was never able to understand, why those two were able to offer such high interest rate. Any other platform I checked were hardly able to offer around 10-11%.

But nevertheless, that is what moved the P2P lending sector especially in December and January.

Three words about January: sunny, inspiring, English

On January 15th I left by plane to visit Langkawi. This tiny island is somewhere in Malaysia and I wanted to visit a conference there. Everything went fine, also around 30 hours of travelling are quit challenging. But it makes me feel young, also I looked very old and tired.

For me this moment of heading barefoot to the beach, having around 35 degrees and a lot of sun opens my mind. I really enjoyed those days over there meeting a lot of interesting people. Every six months those conferences are held and they are somehow fixed points in my life, where I charge myself with a lot of energy for the next six months.

And as I am member of a small project team we were asked to present it on a small booth. This was somehow very weird, as I was not really happy with my English. But hey, just have a try – and it really worked out. I think it was this step out of the comfort zone, which everyone is talking about.

Passive Income in January 2020: 68,34 Euro!

I did not change anything since December, so the height is quite unusual. But it comes from an extra payment on Bulkestate, where a loan was repaid earlier. The same procedure as in November, where it happen the same way.

Mintos is still running in a mode with is acceptable for me. Sometimes for me communication could be a bit more offensive, when it comes to problems. I really like Mintos, especially for their size and options to diversify. And of course their interest rate is still above my required 10%, but somehow … I do not know how express it, but it could a bit more communication to me feel better as an investor.

Mintos: 46,04 Euro and a slight increase of interest rate

The “more” of passive income at Mintos is based on a higher interest rate. There was just a small amount invested as I described it in my last report. I will regularly invest small amounts here. But this amount does not affect the passive income that much.

The interest rate raised a bit and it is about 4 Euro more of passive income this month. That is okay and I will just keep investing here. My personal target is to hit the 100 Euro of interest income at Mintos.

DoFinance: 10,24 Euro and increasing

I am still quite happy with the performance of DoFinance. Meanwhile I am able to invest another 10-11 Euro per months from interest income, which increases the interest rate. But it is also very manually. Maybe DoFinance will be able to work on an option for investors to reinvest their interest income.

Overall there is nothing more to say about DoFinance. As every month the return is steady and growing in a small way, as I am investing the received interest rate.

Debitum: 3,18 Euro are not enough

In January the calculated interest income was 3,84 Euro. That is just around 7% of interest rate. Additionally there were just 3,18 Euro paid due to loans being overdue. That is okay so far, as it is my risk as investor. But somehow the interest rate if just between 6-7% overall.

I need to figure out why there is such a drop in my interest rate at Debitum. I already was around 6 Euro per month with a rate of approximately 10%. But since September the interest rate is dropping slightly and I am not reaching my goals here.

But stil, Debitum offers B2B-loans to my overall portfolio, which are very important for me. I would not recommend the P2P platform for investing big amount as a standalone investment. But for an Addon their loans and interest rate is still okay.

Bulkestate: 7,95 Euro and a cancelled investment

Funny, how the good things and bad things come together in the same moment. In January an investment was repaid earlier including the interest income. This made about 7 Euro and a bit to my account. I am quite happy with Bulkestate after now more than half a year.

And the same time an investment was cancelled. There were faked documents with an criminal intent as Baiba from Bulkestate reported in the investors forum on this investment. I am not able to rate it anyway, so I am trusting Bulkestate here. Seems like a happy day for investors.

IbanWallet: 0,93 Euro and still no answers

I am still not really happy with this investment. I do not know how many times I asked them about their loans, but there is no answer until now. As I expected them to give some information in time of bad stories about Kuetzal and envestio – but still nothing!

Still I will keep my investment here, but I think it is time to get going. There is a lot of advertising from IbanWallet, but without any new information. Do not know what to do and I will wait a bit. Transparancy and accurancy nowadays works in a different way than IbanWallet is doing it.

What is going on February?

Well, at work the project will be launched in February. This will be a lot of work for me. But it will be also the time where we can check, whether we built bullshit or something good. We believe it is a great solution as we developed it with the people now forced to use it. But still there is some excitement.

And financially?

Well, as I mentioned in my last report I made a quite strict plan for 2020. Until now it works more or less. I am currently in my plan, but the goals are extending quite fast.

Do you know the idea of saving one penny at first and doubling the amount every time? Save one penny on the first day, two pennies the day after and four on the third day. Those days are easy, but on day 30 you need to save among 5 million US-Dollar.

Of course I did not take this Penny Challenge into my financial plans. But it is based on a lot of work in the first quartile to make its first payouts from the second quartile on. So there are a lot to dos which I have to work on beside everything else.

My first sprint is nearly halfway through

Some of you know that I am working in 90 day sprints. There are goals to meet inbetween those 90 days and everything is just focused on those targets. By 16th of February the first sprint will be half done – and I am a bit behind my own plans.

How do you solve this feeling of getting behind your plans?

I hate it really. Was thinking of taking some days off to solve the “problem”, but this is quite challenging when we are inventing our projects. I guess I have to perform at any time at my very best – and I mean, this is where I want to be.

Looking forward seeing you in Riga

In June there will be the second P2P Conference in Riga. Will you join it?

Here you can find my review from last year. And it was really worth any time and money travelling there. P2P lending gets real when you are able to talk to the P2P platforms. So it is not just a nice interface or GUI you are investing in, but you are able to get in touch with those who take care for your money.

If you want to join it, just grab your ticket here.

Hope to see you in Riga in June!