It’s my favorite time of the month! – Time to look back on the month that passed!
I was really feeling the heat in February (it was double digits outside!) – and it was not just because of my vacation. The weather once again broke all sorts of records. On the financial front however, no records were broken.
February proved to be yet another stable passive income stream month – while not quite reaching the all-time high from January.
It’s also the blogs 6-months anniversary (YAY! I’ve made it this far, and I feel like I’m still going strong! No blogging fatigue here!). My visitor stats however DID break a new record, albeit my views dropped significantly. I think this is to be expected. It’s my first time really tracking these metrics, and it’s really only due to my competitive nature that I even bother looking at these figures.
Anyway, let’s get to the fun stuff!
Here are the numbers from the (spring?!) month of February:
| Platform | Value last month | Current value | Change (+/-) | Change (%) | Expected yearly return |
| Bulkestate | € 3.525 | € 3.525 | € 0 | 0,00% | 14% |
| Crowdestate | € 301 | € 305 | € 4 | 1,33% | 11% |
| Crowdestor * | € 405 | € 510 | € 5 | 1,23% | 15% |
| Envestio * | € 3.124 | € 3.125 | € 51 | 1,63% | 16% |
| Estateguru | € 202 | € 203 | € 1 | 0,50% | 11% |
| FastInvest | € 202 | € 204 | € 2 | 0,99% | 14% |
| Grupeer | € 1.072 | € 1.088 | € 16 | 1,49% | 13% |
| Mintos | € 936 | € 945 | € 9 | 0,96% | 10% |
| € 9.767 | € 9.905 | € 88 | 0,90% | 13% | |
| Bank #1 cash (main savings) | € 40.000 | € 41.000 | € 1.000 | 0,70% | |
| Bank #2 cash (emergency fund) | € 13.333 | € 13.333 | 5% | ||
| € 54.333 | |||||
| Total balance | € 64.238 |
All platforms paid out a little something this month (except for Bulkestate – they only pay interests when a project finish – which is not until October. I stand to receive €489 in interest from Bulkestate this year. I could thus add €40,75 to my monthly earnings for Bulkestate, but I don’t like to count unrealized earnings).
I did not receive any bonus payments at Envestio this month, but they are not due until the 5th of the month, so there might drip in a few extra € later on. Thanks again for your support, guys! It’s much appreciated. I did however receive my first principal payment back at Envestio. €500! So now I have a little extra pocket-money, to maybe make some new investments at Crowdestor, Grupeer or Crowdestate (maybe all of them!). I’m thus going to continue to diversify my Crowdlending portfolio in March. I’ve kind of regained my trust in Mintos, so I might add a couple of € to Mintos as well!
In total I made a profit of €88 from my crowdlending investments.
I also added €1000 to my savings (which was a little less than last month, but it’s on target for my yearly savings goal – sort of). All in all, not too shabby I think! If every month was this average, I’d be quite content in 10-15 years time 😛
I fell a little behind on my Total Balance target, but only by about €100, so I should be able to make that up next month 😉
Looking at this graph I definitely feel like, I need to do something to add to my dividend intake! Next year, I will not be able to stay on target, just by my savings deposits alone (which is pretty much what’s going on right now…). I’m now however 16% of the way towards my Total Balance goal! Up 1% from last month! YAY! (because I don’t round up/down – I passed 16% this month)
I’m lazy by nature, so I’m no longer going to include any fancy graphs in the monthly update (boooooo!). Relax. You’ll still be able to enjoy my mad graph-skills if you go to The Portfolio 😉 (which will of course be updated every month, with the latest numbers).
Unfortunately, I also received some disturbing news this month!
Remember how I’ve been awaiting that perfect real estate investment opportunity from a developer? Well, it turns out that the authorities (Finanstilsynet/Erhvervsstyrelsen) have decided to re-interpret the law on these type of investments (this is not the first time they’ve done this!) – so the buy-in has now (again) been fixed at €100.000+.
I currently have just over half of that in the bank! It’s going to take me at least a couple of years to scratch together the other half…What’s even worse about this, is that I think this might be the same reason why brickshare.dk has been “shut down” for the last couple of months. Their business case rely on the same fundamental principles as Imbro, Koncenton, Crescendo, Difko, Gefion Group etc. Of course, this is only speculations. I’ve contacted brickshare to get an explanation, but I’m honestly not expecting much to come of it…No news is good news?
Anyway, this does not change my overall strategy – but it does put me in a bit of a pickle. If I’m to spend the next couple of years trying to accumulate enough cash to make that €100.000 cash-drop (to buy 10% of a rental property), should I invest (at least some of) that cash while I wait?…Hmm. Decisions, decision. Any input is greatly appreciated (hit me up in the comments – what do you think?).
This is getting kind of tedious, Nick – how about them blog stats?!
Oh, yes! For 5 consecutive months, I’ve had a nice steady incline of both views and visitors on the blog (thank you, viewers and readers!). My symmetry-loving brain was over the moon! But then, this happened:
Aw, man! Still, 350+ visitors in one month is pretty awesome, I think! I didn’t really have any expectations when I started blogging, so seeing that people actually visit on a regular basis is amazing! Again, thank you for stopping by! I hope your visit was pleasant and/or informative 😉 (unfortunately the stats also reveal that the majority of my visitors never make it past the front page – but a visitor is a visitor! 😛 )
I now find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I don’t intend to monetize my blog (at least not for now – I feel it would somehow take away some of its charm) and I certainly don’t intend to start twittering or tweeting or whatever the hell the youngsters call it (watch out, grumpy old man coming through! 😛 )! – But what can I actually expect, if I don’t somehow try to market my blog? I don’t know, but I guess we’re gonna find out 😉
Anyway, that’s it for this months update! See ya’ll next month! (Texas forever, baby! – Yes that was a Friday Night Lights reference. BAZINGA!)
Congratulations on your success!
Consistency will make the numbers rise – whether we talk about visitors or your total balance goal.
Speaking of your goal, I wanted to ask you about it: why did you set it to 400k when your yearly expenses are 50-60k?
And a follow-up, since your returns are more based on cash-flow rather than capital gains (usually coupled with 3-4% rules or similar withdrawal strategies), why have a full portfolio value as a goal at all (instead of having your returns matching your expenses or something similar)?
Cheers!
I’m so glad you ask! 😉
– And thanks for noticing!
When I began this journey, I focused solely on accumulating enough money, to bridge my way to retirement (between my 50’s -> 60’s). Then I came up with the clever name “Total Balance”. Much like yourself, I believe this journey is about more than finances! I then sold the idea to my OH, and she liked the “simple” idea that if we had a big enough nest egg, we could quit working in our 50s – instead of our 60s. I obviously did not consider the effect this would actually have on our pensions (having “missed” 10 years of payments – how would our pensions actually look, when we turned 60?). This is only something I’ve come to realize after I set myself my Total Balance goal 😉
I started investing, not really knowing what the plan was (I’m being brutally honest here). I now see (also what others are doing) that building a passive income stream is the obvious way to go, if you want to become FI for life.
In honor of the blog name, I’ve chosen not to change this goal – for now. I actually do believe that when you’re in the beginning of this journey, capital growth should be your main goal – not monthly payouts (like I’m doing atm…), because you should attempt to defer your taxes for as long as possible.
Once you’ve built up a nice nestegg – THAT is when you start to “create” your passive income streams. So really, I’m doing it the opposite way around. The problem is, those monthly interests are a great motivator for me. I love them! 😛
I am planning to invest in “capital growth” assets – eventually 😉 I figured that if I one day should reach my Total Balance (hopefully within the next 10ish years), I would still be a lot better off, than if I had just kept doing what I did, before I was introduced to FIRE.
Does it make sense?…Anyway, I’m planning to invest the majority of my cash in Real Estate (eventually!). Hopefully this will be the beginning of a passive income stream that will eventually make me FI for life – and not just bridge my way to retirement 😉
EDIT: About my yearly expenses: we are planning to downsize our home, once our daughter move out (in 15-16 years) so we are planning to cut our expenses in our early retirement 😉 (current estimates is that we can live on something like €30-€40.000, provided that we move to a cheaper home).
Congratulations on your viewing figures. Have you discovered problogger,com, an amazing website and podcast all about blogging? I am making my way through the podcasts, of which there are over 250. Now I am only just starting out – been going two months, but the site has lots of great ideas for blog posts and although they do have e-books, you can just read the blog and listen to the podcasts for free. It may help you to get people past the front page.
Thanks, Sam! And Thanks for following my ramblings 😉
I think I have a pretty good idea of what it would take to bring in more “quality readers”. The problem is, I’m not really sure that I in fact wish to bring in more traffic…I’m quite content with my current audience, and having witnessed the organic growth of the blog, I’d really like to see how far it will go, without having to “market” it.
I believe if people can benefit from reading my crazy writings, they will find it eventually…in The Universe I trust 😛
Congrats on your 6 months aniversary Nick! I’m glad you have no blogging fatigue, I expect to read your words for the long run.
Nick, come and join the Twittersphere, how else can the people that love you retweet your wisdom? 😀
Even if you just use it to automatically tweet out post updates and occasionally check what’s up, it’s better than nada!
Congrats on another positive month, hopefully it will keep in the green for a while 🙂
Awww. I will take that as a compliment, coming from you 😛
A while back I decided that I was done with social media, so I deleted Facebook and LinkedIn from my phone. I still check both every now and then, but not nearly as much as I used to. I feel pretty good about that actually, as I genuinely believe that I’m (and the world) is better off without it. Nobody really needs Twitter either? I mean, just look at how many people are using Twitter, who really shouldn’t be! 😛
It might be some weird form of self-sabotage, but I genuinely did not imagine that 300+ people would visit my blog on a monthly basis. Yes, maybe really only 100 of them stay to read more than the front page, but still – to me that’s a big (enough) audience. I noticed that I started to spend more time tracking my stats – and I honestly didn’t care for it. I’m not blogging for stats. I’m primarily blogging for me. It’s wonderful if others find inspiration in my ramblings, but I do not really wish to “get as big an audience as possible”. I’m quite content, having my little quiet corner of the Internet for myself and my “cult following” (too much? 😛 ).
If someone is out there seeking wisdom (FIRE/Balance wise), I’m sure they will stumble upon my blog eventually, should The Universe intend so 😉 (In The Universe we trust!)
Congrats on another good month, Nick. Even though you fell an itsy bitsy part behind on budget, you managed to grow your total balance which is what counts! Only 84% to go 🙂
Crazy to hear the news of the 100.000 EUR requirement. I also understand your dilemma of investing a large sum of money to get a return while you wait and risk coming out with less. I would always say invest (!!) as you are otherwise losing money everyday. However, I would probably be hesitant to put a large chunk of money into the stock market at the moment, but you could invest parts of it over time to dollar cost average while you wait to accumulate – this way you are less likely to have a bad timing of the market.
Thanks, Carl!
I secretly dream about never having a month of negative growth 😉 This obviously means that I would have to shy away from the stock markets – or at least only invest a minority of my portfolio in stocks 😉
It’s funny you should mention being hesitant to put a large chunk of money in the stock market. This is exactly how I feel at the moment – I sense trouble ahead 😛
After reading this analysis from the Monk http://monkwealth.com/become-an-investor-part-6-bulls-bears-market-cycles-and-recessions/ I’m even more convinced that a recession is looming right around the corner. It’s time to play defensive 😉
I am seriously considering moving all my cash into gold. Just because it would be kind of cool, if the shit were to hit the fan 😛
Haha, I’m not sure I agree moving all your money to gold would be a good idea 😉
The problem with waiting on the stock market is that you never know when the crash will come, so there might be plenty of returns left in the market before it happens. I have felt confident that the market would crash any minute since 2012 😉 And if you don’t need the money in the short-term, the market will (dare I say this?) always go up anyway 🙂 If I were you, I would start investing small amounts slowly, so you don’t risk an unlucky timing of the market with all your savings – perhaps even gradually invest some in stocks and some in gold?
(I know this comment will come to haunt me when the market crashes tomorrow 😉 )
I hear you!
The idea of owning gold coins appeals to me – just because it’s kind of cool 😛 I might buy a few, just because I can 😛
I’m definitely not going to throw a big chunk of money at stocks (or Gold) at the moment. Like you, I believe that the dark clouds are indeed forming ahead (we’re overdue for that recession everyone has been talking about for years now).
I might do some small investments here and there, but nothing major right now. I’m warming up to the idea of FX trading via algo (like Tony does) 😛 It seem like a lucrative business, and I like the idea that the volatility can work FOR me, instead of against me (like in the stock market).
We shall see what the future brings us!