Investment strategy
The best strategy on how to invest my money so far.
0) Just starting investing?
If you are starting building your portfolio, be careful about your money and NEVER invest everything at one time. You will not miss any opportunity, and if you miss something, there will be millions of new opportunities later. Just keep your eyes open. I recommend opening the first account on Mintos put there as much money as possible (that means maybe 20-40% of your investment assets, not really everything) to get the highest bonus money for a first month period.
After this period ends, take some money out and open an account on another platform. Invest in the new platform as long as you get the bonus for registration; most of the time, there is some bonus. Invest in many projects and diversify your money in the platform you chose, even with a small amount as 100 Euro. After the registration bonus ends, open account at another platform and invest just there and so on… Until you become satisfied with your diversification. In this scenario, you will use all the bonuses at best. The period of this can be even a few years.
Another important thing you should do is to read the Long-term strategy below and modify this to your ideas. After you will choose the right platform, look under the Short-term strategy to avoid stupid mistakes. Then do your research on Google and make careful decisions. Good luck!
Long-term strategy
1) The right assets
P2P < Shares & ETF < Real Estate 
P2P is still quite a new platform and way of investing. Also, it is quite dependant on a few people and factors that may easily change as it is still not well established. Whatever has survived for X years will last another X years. And P2P is here just for a short time. Therefore, my trust in the long-run is not so strong in P2P.
On the other side, the Stock market is harder to beat and has a stronger position. Also, it depends on more people, and the companies are usually making something physical, so the barriers to entry are even higher. That provides, in some sense, more safety.
And on top of it are Real Estates. In my small country, it is quite unlikely that the largest city and capital – Prague – will fall. There is cultural, political, finance (and so on) center. All of those centers would have to move to other cities, to lessen the importance of Prague. So if I buy Real Estate here, it is almost like betting on the whole country or almost continent to live in peace and prosperity. Therefore, it is again much stronger than P2P or Stock market investment.
2) Diversification
Diversification answers for the following question: ‘If X will not exist tomorrow anymore, will I feel it in my finance?’
I’m focusing on putting on the place of X those aspects at least:
- Investment instrument (P2P, Shares, ETF, Real Estate, etc.)
- Field (Technology, Energy, Finance, Healthcare, etc.)
- Countries & Currencies (Dolar, Euro, my home currency, Crypto, dependency on cuntry – USA, Czech, Estonia, etc. )
- Investment platform (Different for shares, P2P, Crypto, Real Estate, etc.)
(More you can read more about diversification in my post)
3) Money movement
Virtual transfer
When I want to transfer my money to a different currency, I will use Revolut for this purpose or any other different fin-tech startup with similar low exchange rates. Just be careful as Revolut* change their fees during weekends (and British holidays) for almost 3-4%! That’s a lot, so keep it in mind. Then send it from Revolut to any other place you need.
Physical transfer
When I need to exchange cash, I will avoid physical exchange offices. Even if they are a 0% commission fee, their exchange rate will always be worse than Revolut‘s* one. Therefore, it is best to arrive in the desired country and withdraw money from the first ATM you will see via Revolut card and use my bank exchange rate option on ATM while doing it. This way, you will use Revolut low exchange rates (So still try to avoid weekends).
I want to warn you against one ATM. It is from an American company called Euronet Worldwide. You can find theirs ATMs all over Europe cities, and they have high fees, unfairness exchange ratio, and force you to withdraw a ridiculous amount of money. And on another video where you can see more problems they cause with their ATMs.
Short-term strategy
P2P WINS
It is more than ten years since the last recession. And as regression to the mean taught us the same as history, the stock market will likely turn from tops to lower numbers again. And you decide about profit mostly when buying shares or Estates, so there is no reason not to wait for better times.
I think the best strategy is now putting more money into P2P. When there will be stumbling in the stock market, I will withdraw my money and put it in the stock market as it will offer suitable times for getting into the right positions.
4) How to invest in P2P
P2P – general
Summary:
- Diversify in loans and time
- Register through a referral link on the platform -> Send money to your fin-tech startup -> exchange your money to desired currency (avoid weekends) -> send the money to your platform of P2P.
P2P – Crowdestor
First, read the general recommendation for P2P.
The only thing I would add is to invest less money in 16+% loans and more in around 13% return as they should be less risky.
P2P – Mintos
First, read the general recommendation for P2P.
I recommend you set up an Auto-invest option, not the Invest & Access option. I don’t have experience with I & A, but I read the loans have a lower interest rate there. For me, it makes sense – You write value you want to invest, click on one button, and that is all – you don’t need to do anything more. Attractive and easy to use option as there is no need to ‘complicate’ setup of Autoinvest where you can say you don’t want those 7% loans which you will get in Invest & Access option.
Auto-invest setup:
No need for alchemy here. I just canceled all loans without buy-back guarantee, all loans with rating B- and worse, and that is it.
I have those two strategies here:
First, invest in loans for less than three months. Because of this, I will be able to cash out soon and move my money elsewhere for the price of slightly less interest.
Second, invest in loans for as long as possible with the highest interest rate. My money will be fixed for a long time but also provide higher returns. I will switch to this option after a few years with Mintos.
Secondary market:
I don’t use it. People say you can find a nice 0.5% bonus there for loans, but it is just not worth my time.
5) Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies – general
Coinmate.io + Binance.com
Here I found only cheapest Cryptocurrency Exchange – Coinmate.io* – where I buy bitcoins for Euro (or my home currency CZK or Polish Zloty). If I want to buy anything else than Bitcoin and I can’t buy it on Coinmate.io,* then I would buy the first Bitcoin and then transfer them to Binance.com* where I would exchange it for any other Cryptocurrency I want.
Consider registering through my links and support this blog! Register on Coinmate.io* or Binance.com* through these links, please. Thank you!
Coinbase.com + Pro.coinbase.com
I must admit thou that register confirmation on Coinmate.io* is not the most comfortable. Then I would recommend pro.coinbase.com*, which is also a great option. First, register through my link on pro.coinbase.com*. Trade buy or sell of $100 within 180 days of opening your account, and we will both receive a $10 as a bonus. Then forget about Coinbase.com, and from that moment, use only pro.coinbase.com as there are smaller fees for trade. It is one company but two systems. On non-pro site, the user interface is friendlier, and there are higher fees for trade (But if you will get $10 bonus you don’t have to care about it in fact, as $10 will cover the expenses and you will still earn something. Registration bonus is not applied to pro-version). On pro site, the user interface is not so friendly (but it is still stupid simple after you find the one button you need), and fees are waaay smaller.
Summary:
Register thru refferal link -> Trade $100 on Coinbase.com -> get 10 USD bonus -> forget about Coinbase.com and use only pro.coinbase.com where are smaller fees.
On non-pro site, the user interface is friendlier, and there are higher fees for trade
Other strategies
I’m not actively doing those things, so there may be a smarter way of doing it. Hopefully, you will find some interesting information for you as well. If you know about a better way, let me know in the comments.
Forex
I don’t invest in forex (i.e., I don’t buy different currencies and expect to earn through different exchange rates in time). But if I would do it, I would do it this way – First, open a savings bank account in required currency with the highest interest rate and lowest fees. Then exchange my money using some fin-tech startup with a small exchange fee, like Revolut* and transfer my money to that saving account I opened earlier. Left there, my wealth and when I am rich enough, I will do it vice versa to get my money out. In this way, what I will pay for exchange, I will most likely get an interest in the bank. So even if my investment was not smart, I might get a little better position.
Note: Actually, what I did was not sending my money into saving account, but on Mintos and get higher interest rate there. This way, it will offer a higher interest rate, but either higher risk, so keep it in mind.
Summary:
Open saving account in desired currency -> Send money to Revolut* -> exchange them to desired currency (avoid weekends) -> send them to your new saving account -> vice versa to get back your money.
Did you find a more efficient way of investing? Or do you think some information here is outdated? Please help me and other, to keep the highest efficiency possible by sharing your knowledge in the comments!
(I may even share your referral link for some time as you helped us all!)
* If you register thru links marked with * (star) I will get some referral bonus. Bonus helps me to keep this blog up to date and create new content. Also, I would appreciate your support a lot if you do!