Jean Galea

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Should You Diversify Across Several P2P Loan Platforms?

Last updated: November 21, 20197 Comments

Diversification is one of the basic tenets of investment, and in general, it’s a good idea to invest.

Rich and successful investors typically diversify across the following:

  • Stocks and bonds
  • Real estate
  • Ownership of businesses

Others might diversify further into commodities, cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer loans, precious metals etc. but the above three are the really big ones.

On this blog, I’ve written quite a bit about the high returns that can be obtained on P2P loan platforms, and if you read other European FIRE and finance blogs you will see that platforms like Mintos, Grupeer and Peerberry are all the rage at the moment.

A frequent question that new investors have is the following:

“Should you diversify your investment across many P2P loan platforms?”

Now, if you read some other blogs you will see that these bloggers keep investing in new platforms, claiming that they want to try out more platforms for the benefit of their readers.

However, you should be aware that keeping a handle on your investments is a time consuming task, and is exponentially more time consuming the more platforms you add.

I would therefore be of the opinion that you should select a maximum of 5 platforms to invest in, and that is only if you have a substantial amount to invest, say €100,000. For smaller amounts reduce the number of platforms accordingly.

If I had €10,000 I would only put it on one platform, and that platform would be Mintos.

If I had €25,000 I would spread it across 2 or a maximum of three platforms. They would probably be Mintos, Grupeer and Bulkestate/Peerberry.

Keep in mind that your reporting costs will also increase with each platform you add. At the end of the year you will most likely engage an accountant to help you prepare your personal tax return, and the accountant will bill you according to the time spent. He will most definitely spend more time on your tax declaration with every platform you add.

If you’re investing through an audited company, every platform you invest money in (irrespective of the amounts invested) will increase the cost of your audit, as the auditors will need to spend time getting to know the platform and performing impairment checks on the loans invested in. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to invest small amounts in any platform as the audit cost per platform might actually be higher than the expected returns.

If you see bloggers that are invested in more than 10 platforms, you can be pretty sure that the only reason they are doing so is to be able to review all those platforms and land more affiliate commissions from new investors. So their main goal is to make money through affiliate commissions not from the investments themselves. The potential returns from affiliate commissions are many times the multiple of what they can get from the interest on their meager investments, hence it justifies the long hours spent every month in compiling detailed reports and regular reviews of all these platforms.

Best Essential Oils in Spain

Last updated: November 19, 2019Leave a Comment

I like using essential oils or blends of them in diffusers while I work. The world of aromatherapy and oils is quite an interesting one, although it can also be quite scammy in terms of claims and products.

When buying essential oils you need to make sure you’re buying the right quality, which means products that are 100% natural. If the price looks too good and it comes from suspicious vendors (looking at the Chinese ones on Amazon especially here) you should look away.

In the United States, companies like Doterra have quite a bad reputation due to their MLM-type structure and outlandish health claims, so be aware of things that are too good to be true.

In Spain, I’ve encountered a few reputable brands:

  • Essenciales – only available from their online store
  • Sisen – high-end brand with excellent info about each oil
  • Phytofrance – very good French brand
  • Pranarom – French brand found in many local shops
  • Terpenic – a Spanish brand

In Barcelona a good shop for essential oils is Arke.

The Best WordPress Themes for 2020

Last updated: November 14, 2019Leave a Comment

Looking for a new theme for your WordPress website or getting started with WordPress? There are thousands of themes out there and your website creation journey can get stalled right there as you search and search for the right theme, possibly making some bad choices.

I’ve been in the WP space for more than ten years now so I’ve seen it all.

Here’s what I consider the best themes for 2020:

  • Astra
  • GeneratePress
  • OceanWP

I would pair these with a page builder, and the number one choice right now is Elementor.

If you can’t decide between the three themes above, consider the following:

  • OceanWP has the most design options and flexibility, although the others come close.
  • Astra and GeneratePress focus more on being lightweight and speed optimized.
  • Astra has integrations that the others don’t yet offer, for example, LifterLMS and LearnDash.
  • GeneratePress has the best public support forum so if you’re a beginner building your first site this could be an important consideration.

In the end, you won’t go wrong with any of those three themes.

Recruiting Successfully

Last updated: November 12, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently made it to DCxBerlin and took some notes on a good talk by Mads Singers on recruitment.

Needs

Focus on the needs of each person you’re interviewing. What is the role, skill set and type of personality you’re looking for? If you hire people for a role they like doing, it’ll be a success. 

Essentials

Be very clear on the essential qualities and tasks that you can’t live without. Don’t make the mistake of falling in love with a prospect and consequentially waiving away the essential qualities that you were looking for as not that important after all.

Description

Take a look at the Empire Flippers job descriptions as they are some of the best around. When recruiting your job is to sell your company. Be realistic but talk about your company, who are you, what’s your culture like. Make it very clear that it’s a tough job. You don’t want to be selling a “relaxed, work from home job”. Better to make it sound tougher than it really is than the other way round.

What to look for

Where to look

The best people are already employed. Networking is absolutely key. The bigger your network is the more likely it is that you already know the person you want to employ. Knowing someone means you already have a good idea what you’re getting.

When contacting people on Linkedin they tend to hire one of those people’s contacts rather than the person they originally contacted. If you’re approaching someone from a competitor, you don’t need to be afraid of being seen as a poacher. You can ask: “hey we have a cool job opening, would you happen to know anyone in this field who would be a good fit for this?”

What to look for

Focus on personality and culture before skillset. You can always train the skills but the mentality is much more difficult to train and is the sum of the person’s genetics and life experiences which is very very had to change. A good rule of thumb is 10% skills, 90% personality. Unless you’re looking for highly specific roles like a programmer; there you want skills.

Focus on full-time as it costs less to train and they are much more likely to be looking for other jobs and eventually leave.

How to ask

Use job posting sites and sites like LinkedIn. If you want to hire from competitors you could ask those people whether they know anyone who would be interested in the job.

The Last Steps

Sorting candidates

Make sure you have a good pile of candidates so you can have a full choice for filtering and choosing. Check for trust and honesty. Job hopping is a no-no. People who have lived in several countries are favored.

Interviews

Ask everyone the same questions. Ask stuff that helps understand who they are. Ask about their weaknesses. Try to understand if they’re telling you the truth or bullshitting. What you’re looking for is whether this person can be honest or not. Another good question is: “Do you prefer working by yourself or in a team? Many candidates stumble on that one.

Hire the right one

People hire the best person if they’re not good enough. This is one of the biggest mistakes in recruitment. Don’t hesitate to avoid hiring any of the candidates if none of them make you excited to work with them.

Let people know that they were not suitable for this job but leave the door open for them to apply for future jobs, if that’s what you want.
“We don’t think you are a good fit for this company” means don’t apply again.

“We don’t think you are a good fit for this role” means we might have another job that is indeed suitable.

Bonus trick:

Call previous companies they worked for, especially those ones they didn’t list any references for. The ones referenced are usually going to provide a glowing review, so they are not very helpful.

Careful with Buying the Digital Nomad in Thailand Dream

Last updated: November 07, 2019Leave a Comment

Being a digital nomad for several years was one of the most enriching experiences in my life, and I would say our time spent living in Chiang Mai in Thailand were an essential part of that whole experience.

Chiang Mai was ground zero for digital nomads back then, although now there are many other good options. It was the platform we needed to both launch me and my wife’s life together as a couple as well as grow our business.

No wonder I think back very fondly of our time in Chiang Mai and Thailand in general.

However nowadays I’m seeing a trend of too many people being sold the dream of living in paradise and earning money with little or no skills.

I also think that perhaps the Thai government have not handled the increased interest from foreigners that well. People wanting to go to Thailand and work from there have a harder time now getting visas and the exchange rates are not as good as they once were, decreasing the overall attractiveness of the place.

My word of warning is that Thailand and other Asian countries are not necessarily the paradise that Instagrammers describe. Life is rougher there in many ways than what you are used to back home in Europe or the US. You will need to adapt and you better have some savings and skills if you want to live comfortably without worries and actually enjoy the good sides of these places.

I think the video below sums the point I’m getting to quite well:

Basically, if you want to be a digital nomad, by all means consider it and explore the options, but do it because it actually fits in with your goals and ideals and not because other people are promoting it as the ultimate lifestyle.

What works for them will not necessarily work for you, reality is not always what it looks like on Instagram, and nothing comes for free. You will have to work hard and adapt yourself in many ways, but if you can do that it can be a very enriching experience that will serve you very well for the rest of your life, whether you decide to become a permanent traveler or settle down back in a more conventional place in the West.

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Jean Galea

Online Entrepreneur. Global Citizen. Padel Player.
Founder of WP Mayor & WP RSS Aggregator.

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