Category: Money | Page 25

Beginner’s Guide To Website Flipping: How To Start Investing In Digital Assets

Last updated: May 09, 2023Leave a Comment

I’ve been involved in the web industry for around twenty years, and one thing that’s always fascinated me is the possibility of buying and selling websites. I’ve touched on this in my guide to investing as well. While this has perhaps been the domain of technical people 10+ years ago, in the last few years we’re seeing this type of investment hit the mainstream.

I’ve seen funds operating exclusively in this niche, whereby cash-rich investors would pour money into the fund, and the fund would then have its management team that would work on growing the portfolio of sites and then resell them for a profit, thus providing returns for investors.

The other option is to buy a website directly and either manage it yourself or build a team that can manage it for you. I’m seeing more and more people take the dive. As the web has become more user-friendly, non-technical people have built up the courage to learn the skills needed to manage a website and thus be able to switch industries or else build a profitable side income to supplement their day job.

I’ve written a post on the best places to buy and sell websites but I recently came across the new project of Andrej Ilisin: Investors Club.

So when I heard about his new project that aims to make buying and selling websites a more pleasant and safer experience, I reached out to him to see if he would be willing to share his knowledge on the topic.

So without further ado, here’s Andrej’s guide to website flipping and investing in digital assets. Both myself and Andrej look forward to reading and replying to your comments.

[Read more…]

💳 N26 Review: Mobile Banking at the Click of a Button

Last updated: October 27, 20205 Comments

The challenger banking space has grown to exponential heights in recent years. No longer are you required to visit an outdated banking branch to open an account, nor do you need to submit countless forms. Instead, it’s entirely possible to facilitate most of your everyday banking needs from your mobile phone.

With that said, the likes of N26 – a German challenger banking app that’s since expanded to multiple European countries and the US – now boasts a customer base that exceeds 3.5 million users. In a nutshell, N26 offers a number of localized bank accounts that allow you to send and receive money – both domestically and internationally.

On top of fee-free accounts, a fully-fledged MasterCard debit card, and instant transaction notifications sent straight to your phone – the account opening process takes just minutes.

If you’re keen to find out whether or not the challenger banking app is right for you – be sure to read my in-depth N26 review. We’ll explain the ins and outs of what you need to know – such as how the app works, what it allows you to do, fees, payment methods, regulation, and more.

[Read more…]

🍓 PeerBerry Review 2026 – The Best Mintos Alternative?

Last updated: January 15, 20262 Comments

Launched in 2017, PeerBerry has been gaining quite a lot of popularity among peer-to-peer platforms recently. As with many crowdlending platforms, PeerBerry originated in the Baltics – specifically Riga, Latvia.

At the time of this review, the platform has an average annual investment return of 11.51%, a solid return for most platforms. With more than 18,000 investors and over €212 million in funded loans, PeerBerry is certainly making some waves in the peer-to-peer business.

Let’s delve deeper into how PeerBerry operates, its transparency, risks, and returns.

⚙️ How does PeerBerry work?

PeerBerry works in a similar way to Mintos, in that, it is a loan aggregator. The platform started out in 2017 with loans originated solely by Aventus Group – a group of digital loan originators with short-term, long-term, and leasing loans across Europe and Asia.

Ever since, PeerBerry has continuously expanded its loan originators network to include others such as Gofingo (another group of loan originators) and their subsidiaries.

In 2019, GofinGo Group saw an increase in issued loans (2.4 times more than 2018) and had a net interest income of €11.06 million. This translated into a total loan portfolio of €6.6 million at the end of 2019, with equity standing at €4.1 million. This is 3 times higher than all the liabilities to investors who invested in Gofingo Group loans through PeerBerry.

This increase in loan originators allows for a diverse portfolio. PeerBerry claims to offer a wide variety of loans – short, long, real estate, leasing, and business loans – although, the available investment opportunities at the time of this review were mostly short term, with most maturing at one month. This means that most of the loan originators are operating with payday-style loans.

The platform offers loans from:

Lithuania
Poland
Belarus
Czech Republic
Kazakhstan
the Republic of Moldova
Russian, and
Ukraine

It is important to note that all of PeerBerry’s loan originators offer a BuyBack guarantee, meaning that the loan originator is obligated to buy back the claim, should the payment be delayed by more than 60 days.

There are currently 12 loan originators in total, and they all publish their financial statement, the majority of which have been audited for extra peace of mind.

✍🏻 Registration

Now let’s take a look at the online interface.

The website is clean, straightforward, easy to use, and comes in three languages:

English
German
Spanish

Registration should take you no longer than a couple of minutes, you just need to fill in a few details and you’re in. Although there is no tedious identification process upfront, the platform requires it eventually, when you decide to withdraw your funds.

You will be asked to scan and upload your identification document (passport or ID card) as part of the platform’s anti-money laundering and terrorism process. Once this is done, you will then have to make a transfer to the bank account from which the deposit was made. Withdrawals can only be done in Euro.

This is the first time I’ve ever come across this sort of set-up. All other P2P platforms require you to verify your identity at the get-go, thus ensuring that the funds used to power their investments are coming from lawful sources.

It is certainly odd that you are only required to verify your identity at the withdrawal stage. As an investor, I want to make sure that I will be able to transfer my funds without any identity issues at a later stage.

Upon contacting the platform, PeerBerry has announced that it is currently working on implementing new identification and KYC processes.

PeerBerry makes it possible for both private individuals and companies to open accounts. Keep in mind that any investor should be at least 18 years old, with a bank account registered in the European Union.

The next step is to transfer your funds, which can be as little as €10, to PeerBerry’s bank account in order to start investing.

The platform accepts transfers in Euro only using SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) transfers. This provides further protection for European investors against currency swings.

Processing may take up to 2 working days. PeerBerry then sends you a confirmation e-mail stating that your deposited funds were added to your Investor Account and you are now able to start making investments.

👥 What can I invest in?

PeerBerry offers mostly short-term loans on the consumer marketplace. The platform presents you with an overview of each loan, including the loan originator, amount, interest rate, remaining principal and days remaining for investing in the loan.

Borrower details are also available. These include the borrower’s country, city, age, gender and number of loans taken.

Since most of the loans available mature in around 30 days, they are often considered to be Full Bullet loans. This means that the investor would receive the principal and interest at one go, through one payment, at the end of the investment period, as illustrated in the schedule in the screenshot below.

On the other hand, the platform’s long term loans are paid back every month through an Annuity Type Schedule, where the principal and interest are paid back periodically over the investment period. PeerBerry offers a breakdown of the returns for each investment available.

Auto Invest

The platform allows investors to make use of their Auto Invest feature which uses the returns in your account to automatically invest in active loans, based on your preferences.

You can activate, pause, or cancel this feature at any time. Simply set up your preferred criteria for investing and you are good to go.

The possible setting options are listed below:

The total amount of funds you wish to reinvest using the Auto Invest strategy.
The maximum amount of investment in one loan.
The annual interest rate.
The remaining loan term.
The remaining principal amount.
The minimum amount of funds you wish to retain in your account.
The loan status (Current or late).
The country of issue.
The loan originator.
BuyBack guarantee.

Interestingly, even though PeerBerry states that all its investments come with BuyBack guarantee, their Auto Invest asks whether you prefer a BuyBack guarantee or not. This seems to suggest that the platform has plans to include investments without BuyBack in the future.

Auto Invest is great for those of you who do not wish to spend time keeping up with all the available investment opportunities on the website, while still achieving a diverse portfolio.

🕵️ Transparency

The About page, shows a team of four, including Arunas Lekavicius, the platform’s CEO, who has been working in the financial industry since 2007.

The profiles are accompanied by working LinkedIn profiles, however, no further information is found on the platform’s website. It is strange that the rest of the team is not shown here, especially with respect to the CTO, Marketing Managers, and Lawyer.

On reaching out to the platform, PeerBerry has clarified that the team is made up of a total of 9 employees:

Arūnas Lekavičius, CEO PeerBerry
Viktar Kamiahin, CTO
Inga Zubanovė, COO
Rūta Zenkevičienė, Head of Customer Care
Rita Simanavičiūtė, Head of Marketing and Communications
Karolina Staugaitė, Digital Marketing Manager
Rasa Paškevičiūtė, Customer Care Manager
Milda Martišiutė, Customer Care Manager, and
Tadas Bulota, Lawyer

The team was quick to answer any of my queries in detail and in record time, which reflects positively on the entire company. The website has an online chat function for any customer queries. Should you have a number of questions, you will most likely be instructed to send an email to [email protected].

🌟 Loyalty Program

PeerBerry offers a loyalty program to investors who have been members for more than 90 days. The program is based on the amount of money you have invested and comes in 3 levels:

Silver: for an active investment portfolio above €10,000 you will get 0.5% on future investments.
Gold: for an active investment portfolio above €25,000 you will get 0.75% on future investments.
Platinum: for an active investment portfolio above €40,000 you will get 1% on future investments.

This means that if you are a member of the Silver Program, for instance, and invest in a loan that provides an 11% return, you will automatically be upped to 11.5%.

💡 Potential Risks

One of the main risks with any peer-to-peer platform is Loan Originator default. PeerBerry offers an additional guarantee, further to the BuyBack guarantee mentioned above, specifically for such potential cases.

The platform stated that their main partner, Aventus Group, has signed an additional guarantee agreement. This means that in case of loan originator default, Aventus Group and Gofingo will “do everything … to protect your investments, maintain transparency and good reputation of all partners – loan originators”, as A. Lekavičius explains on their blog.

80% of total loans on the platform are accounted for by Aventus Group, with Gofingo following at 15% and Lithome at 5%.

It is important to note that in 2019, Aventus Group posted a net profit of €12.6 million, whereas their equity stood at €14.3 million. These figures suggest that the company would be able to cover any liabilities, should they come up. A comprehensive article with Aventus Group CFO comments can be found here.

Coronavirus Effects

All P2P platforms have been affected by COVID-19, and PeerBerry are no exception. The positive side, however, is that they have maintained a good level of communication with their investors.

🙋 FAQs

Who can invest in PeerBerry?

Investors must be 18 years old and over, with a European bank account. Both private individuals and companies can join the platform.

Who are the loan originators?

PeerBerry provides a comprehensive list of loan originators, together with a description of each originator. You can view the whole list here.

Does PeerBerry have a Secondary Market?

No, PeerBerry does not have a secondary market at the moment.

Do I get the same interest on overdue loans?

Late or overdue loans generate the same interest per annum as current or active loans. They cover the delayed period, until the borrower makes a repayment or until the loan originator buys back the investment.

Do I pay taxes on my returns?

Taxes are not deducted by the platform on investments made by private individuals. It is the investor’s responsibility to pay the taxes on any income made through the platform. Taxation is based on the legislation of your respective country of residence.

Can I cancel my investments?

PeerBerry does not offer this option at the moment. They are, however, working on implementing this functionality on long term loans in the near future.

Will I be notified of any new investments?

PeerBerry sends out newsletters to whoever signs up to the service. They include monthly reviews, as well as alerts for any new investment opportunities and new loan originators.

Alternatives to PeerBerry

At the moment, the most popular alternatives to PeerBerry are Swaper and Income Marketplace. Have a look at those platforms if you want to diversify your funds across multiple sites.

📍 Conclusion

PeerBerry offers a multitude of investment opportunities, specifically with respect to short term and long term loans. The platform has been continuously expanding its loan originator network, which I believe is a step in the right direction.

As with many peer-to-peer platforms, PeerBerry offers an Auto Invest function and a BuyBack guarantee. Unfortunately, however, no secondary market is available yet.

The platform presents you with daily/weekly summaries of your transactions, as well as the ability to generate tax statements. This is a great tool to facilitate the monitoring of your investments. Keep an eye out for their blog for any important and new information they may publish.

Join PeerBerry

💰 Should you Buy Gold as an Investment?

Last updated: March 15, 2022Leave a Comment

One of the decisions to make as an investor is whether to invest in gold and other precious metals. Gold has been a highly valued, precious metal for most of human history. From the Egyptians, to the first Roman gold coins, right through to the current day; humans continue to have a fascination with the dense, yellow metal.

During the last financial crash of 2008 and shortly after, we saw many people hype up gold as the best investment of the time. It’s true that for a number of years the price rose sharply as people were looking for something stable to put their money into and there was a lot of doom and gloom due to the state of the economy.

Unfortunately, most pundits and advisors recommend gold before a big gold crash. It’s latest heyday was 2011, after the price had increased 24 percent in 2009 and 29.3 percent in 2010. Until the average investor got to know about the “opportunity” and made arrangements to invest, however, it was already too late. Institutional investors had already made their money and started to sell, helping gold drop 37 percent in 2013 from its 2011 high.

Can we consider Gold an Investment?

If we take a sensible look at gold in 2020 and look back as far as we can, it is very clear that gold has not produced good returns that can compare in any way to other investments such as real estate or stocks.

Professor Jeremy Siegel, of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, looked at the data from 1802 to 2008 in his investing classic “Stocks for the Long Run”. He found that if you invested $10,000, and reinvested all the dividends and interest, this is what you’d have (adjusted for inflation).

Stocks: $5,600,000,000
Bonds: $8,000,000
Gold: $26,000

Investing $10,000 in stocks would give you $5.6 billion, bonds $8 million, and gold $26,000. This is because stocks return about 7%, bonds 3.5%, and gold, well, it’s not very good. So we know gold isn’t the best investment.

We can, therefore, extract our first important conclusion.

Gold considered purely as an investment is not an attractive proposition.

Why has gold generated such low inflation-adjusted returns over the long-run?

The reason is simple. Gold has no intrinsic value. It isn’t a productive asset.

What’s a productive asset? When you own an asset that produces goods and/or services to consumers, we can say that it is producing value and that it is a productive asset. A good business generates a profit and we can either start such businesses ourselves or invest in them through the purchase of stocks and bonds.

Gold returns in recent decades

I would say that if we’re looking at gold to make good returns, the only way to do so is to speculate, and that’s more akin to gambling than investing.

It is an asset that can fluctuate wildly and generate huge opportunities for those who are analysing the markets and the political situation around the world.

But in terms of productive growth, gold is a dead asset that will eventually return to its baseline. It produces nothing. It creates nothing. The inflation-adjusted returns of the past 200 years reflect this reality.

[Read more…]

Why You Shouldn’t Ask For Financial Advice Online

Last updated: October 23, 2020Leave a Comment

In a recent post, I told you about the fact that I don’t attach much importance to income and net worth reports from financial bloggers and entrepreneurs who choose to share them with the whole world.

I simply don’t think they are relevant or useful to me. On the contrary, I might also risk being swayed into doing something rash with my money if I did follow these reports closely. It is human nature to want to do what others are doing, especially if it sounds like they’re getting everything right, while we, as readers, are losing out on some important opportunity.

A topic that is closely related is that of asking for financial advice online.

Since business and investing are two of my biggest passions and I write about those topics quite a lot on this blog, I also get a lot of requests for financial advice.

I wanted to put this post out there so that I can refer these people to it when they email me.

While I commend people for taking an interest in their financial situation and for the humility and courage to reach out for help to someone who they deem to be more knowledgeable or experienced, it is simply not a good idea for either of the two parties.

Let’s call the two parties as follows:

Aspiring investor
Typically a young person who wants to grow his wealth and possibly aim for financial independence; or someone nearing retirement with a lump sum to invest.
Experienced investor
Typically a finance blogger, startup founder, venture capitalist, etc.

The first important thing to consider is that every single person is different in his capabilities, interests, family situation, etc. We all live incredibly complex lives intertwined with those of our family and people close to us, as well as our jobs or businesses, not to mention the countries and economies we live in.

The best way for an aspiring investor to not lose money and make long-term profits is to educate himself as much as possible. This can be done in various ways, including reading blogs of experienced investors, reading educational books, going to conferences, and myriad other ways.

I stress that it is of paramount importance that you read as much as possible, and adopt a skeptical attitude. When you feel that you know enough to make your first investments, start small and give the investments some time to see if you were right in the first place, or whether you have further learning to do.

An ethical seasoned investor will never dish out financial advice. They know that it is not responsible to tell anyone where to invest their money without spending hours studying their financial situation. That is a full-time job, one that is performed by a financial advisor.

If you want to invest your money and you don’t want to spend a ton of time learning about investing, the second-best thing would be to go to a good financial advisor and let him guide you. You wouldn’t ask for health advice online if you are sick (I hope), so do yourself a favor and pay someone to help you with your financial matters if you think that you need this help. It is far better to invest some money to get a professional’s advice than to invest irresponsibly and lose your money later.

I hope that this post helps explain why I don’t give financial advice. All I can do is write about my experiences and opinions, and the best thing you can do is to read those articles as part of your overall journey in educating yourself about personal finance, taking small steps and thinking twice before taking action.

This is a long journey and the most important thing in investing, as Warren Buffet says, is not to lose money. If you manage to avoid losing money, you’ll already be ahead of most people, so don’t feel pressured by what you read or what people say. More importantly, do not let this push you into making speedy decisions to avoid the so-called fear of missing out (FOMO).

To wrap things up, I feel privileged and honored when people email me to share their financial situation or investing experiences, however, please understand that it would not be in your best interest if I were to give you advice on your financial matters.

As always, your views are very much welcome.

What to do instead

If you want to learn how to invest and manage your money in a better way, I suggest doing the following:

Read as many books on the topic as you can.
Network with other investors and find masterminds of like minded people.
Get coached and mentored by an experienced investor. My friend Shlomo Freund offers such a service, so check that out.

⚙️ How does PeerBerry work?

✍🏻 Registration

👥 What can I invest in?

Auto Invest

🕵️ Transparency

🌟 Loyalty Program

💡 Potential Risks

Coronavirus Effects

🙋 FAQs

Alternatives to PeerBerry

📍 Conclusion

Can we consider Gold an Investment?

What to do instead

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