Would I invest 127k EUR in P2P platforms like Bondora, Mintos, Twino?

Received an email from Mark, who asked for advice about investing in P2P platforms:

Basically, ~127k EUR is sitting around and not working. I do have Bondora and I was one of the early investors in 2012 when it was called Isepankur. Problem there is I don’t understand what’s going on there-it is displaying my ROI as 15% but everyone is saying that it’s not real because they don’t calculate defaults correctly and real returns are ridiculously low.
Considering all of the above, do you recommend investing in Mintos and/or Twino?How would you suggest getting enough math skills to be able to figure out what’s going on with my account at Bondora, how to calculate XIRR(not sure?) etc.
If not Mintos/Twino, what passive strategies would you recommend to put the capital I have sitting idle to work.

Continue reading Would I invest 127k EUR in P2P platforms like Bondora, Mintos, Twino?

Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu – DNB, Swedbank, SEB, Nordea vai Citadele?

Iepriekšējos 3 rakstos detalizēti apskatīju piecu banku piedāvājumus 50k EUR kredītam. Šoreiz apkopošu visu vienā rakstā ar dažiem secinājumiem. Zemāk saņemtie piedāvājumi:

Fiksētie % Papildus % Komisija
DNB 1.89% 3 mēn. EURIBOR + MFL 1%
Swedbank 2.40% 6 mēn. EURIBOR 1.5%
SEB 2.40% 12 mēn. EURIBOR 1.2%
Citadele 2.50% ? 2%
Nordea 2.70% 12 mēn. EURIBOR 0.50%

Continue reading Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu – DNB, Swedbank, SEB, Nordea vai Citadele?

Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu? 3. daļa – Citadele, Nordea, SEB

Šoreiz apskatīšu uzreiz 3 bankas un sākšu ar tām, kur līdz līguma izpētei nemaz netiku, jo piedāvātā % likme likās pārāk liela.

Citadele piedāvājums

Fiksētie % Papildus % Komisija
2.50% ? 2%

Continue reading Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu? 3. daļa – Citadele, Nordea, SEB

Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu? 2. daļa – Swedbank

Swedbank līgums ir garš, sarežģīts un pilns ar visādiem brīnumiem, piemēram – aizņēmējiem paredzēts arī pārbaudes laiks.

Swedbank piedāvājums

Fiksētie % Papildus % Komisija
2.40% 6 mēn. EURIBOR 1.5%

Continue reading Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu? 2. daļa – Swedbank

Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu? 1. daļa – DNB banka

Tie, kas ir saskārušies ar kredīta ņemšanu nekustamā īpašuma iegādei, droši vien zin – ka izvērtēt un salīdzināt banku piedāvājumus nav viegli. Lai nedaudz vienkāršotu šo procesu pārējiem, aprakstīšu – kā man gāja un kam jāpievērš uzmanība. Šajā gadījumā runa ir par kredītu ap 50k EUR vērtam īpašumam, tātad – ja pirmā iemaksa būtu 20% jeb 10k, tad kredīta summa sanāktu 40k EUR.

DNB piedāvājums

Fiksētie % Papildus % Komisija
1.89% 3 mēn. EURIBOR + MFL 1%

DNB bija viszemākā fiksētā % likme un to piedāvāja samazināt vēl par 0.2%, ja noformētu kredīta maksājuma apdrošināšanu.

Continue reading Kur ņemt hipotekāro kredītu? 1. daļa – DNB banka

How I lost $3700 and made $1500 with 3x leveraged ETFs

Long $UWTI

When I opened my DNB Trade account in 2015, my first trades were a bit crazy, among them:

  • $YHOO –  lost only 4%, but should not have touched it at all
  • $NBG – National Bank of Greece, lost only 25% (now delisted)
  • $CHAD, $CHAU – ETFs with 2x leverage that follow CSI 300 Index
  • $SUNE, $ZINC, $VRS – lost nearly 100%, delisted or went bankrupt

I tested my risk tolerance by starting with the most risky stuff I could find and when I got burned, moved to more safe things like sector ETFs with no leverage.

My most expensive lesson was from buying $UWTI – where I managed to lose about 80%, which amounted to more than $3700:

uwti Continue reading How I lost $3700 and made $1500 with 3x leveraged ETFs

How to avoid high fees when investing in stocks?

My experience with banks

I did my first stock trades in 2009 – used Swedbank and bought stocks in Baltic stock market. Later I also made couple of trades in US market, but was not happy about it. Paying $25-27 per each trade seemed too high. If I invest $1000 in one company and pay $50 in commissions to Swedbank, then I need to get at least 5% return just to cover trading fees. Not cool. Spent 250 EUR in fees.

fees

Continue reading How to avoid high fees when investing in stocks?