Crowd funding (loans)

Crowd funding (loans)


With savings accounts now yielding at best 1% (and that's if you're very selective where you place your money) which is less than inflation and many markets being close to an all-time high, it was time to look for some diversification and alternative investments.


It didn't take long for me to come across a number of crowd funding opportunities.
This section covers the ones that offered a loan - a next section will zoom in on crowd funding where you actually buy shares in the company.


Being a bit selective in terms of industry (so I could judge the business plans), I found a wide variety of crowd funding opportunities that promised on average 4.5% annually over a period of 4.5 years meaning about 20% return in total.


It's only been 2 years since I invested so too early to draw any conclusions...

• So far 2 out of 8 startups have started to pay back the initial investment plus interest
• 1 startup that was way too optimistic with its payback schedule has asked for 1 year of delay
• 2018 will prove to be an important year as by then 7 of the 8 companies should be paying back their loans although of course such initial payments will not tell much about their ability to pay back the entire investment in a few years time
• To be continued...