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It is clear that your financial life is the product of your financial habits. The rules for financial stability and prosperity are: try to multiply your income sources; spend smart; spend less than you gain; every month make sure your balance (revenue - costs) is positive; constant saving; invest the savings. These actions, repeated every month, creates habits. Habits, repeated every month, accumulate and provide a stable financial status and, in time, produce prosperity.

MoneyMetro changes its name to VIZIA

As of March 26, 2018, the brand MoneyMetro has changed its name to VIZIA. The name of the brand was changed because its consumer lending operations were moved into a fully online environment.

The company believes that brand VIZIA has a better position in the competitive online lending market in Latvia. The name change of MoneyMetro to VIZIA will have no effect on loans issued under the MoneyMetro brand.

If you currently invest on Mintos peer-to-peer lending marketplace in loans from MoneyMetro your investments will automatically update with the new name.

VIZIA (previously MoneyMetro) is fully owned by ExpressCredit Group, the leading consumer financial services chain in Latvia. ExpressCredit was founded in 2009. Operating under different brands, including Banknote and VIZIA, it has become a trusted partner for more than 300 000 borrowers across Latvia.

Source: Mintos.com

Sofcom Joins Viventor p2p lending marketplace

Viventor logo

 

Viventor announce another partnership with an established lender – Sofia Commerce Pawnshops (SofCom) from Bulgaria.

Founded in 1993, Sofia Commerce Pawnshops is the biggest pawnbroking lender in Bulgaria. It currently operates 130 pawnshops and has expanded to Macedonia. Sofcom is the only pawnshop chain that has been listed on Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE Code: 6SOA).

In addition to the traditional pawnshop business model, Sofia Commerce Pawnshops has developed a unique digital pawnshop which allows their costumers to gain access to funds under 24 hours without leaving their home.

Over the years, Sofcom has maintained stable profitability with profit per share of BGN 42.7 in 2016 and BGN 55.4 in 2015. Due to their large reserves and undivided profit, their current D/E ratio is at astonishing 5.5% (Q4,2017). To learn more, you can find their financial statements in our Loan Originator section.

Sofia Commerce Pawnshops loans on Viventor marketplace

  • 250-2500 EUR in size
  • 7-30 days in duration
  • 7%-10% projected annual return
  • 60 day Buyback guarantee

Sofcom will offer its pawnbroking loans from Bulgaria secured by borrowers’ personal assets. Operating at low LTV ratios, underlying collateral provides liquidity in case of borrower not being able to repay the loan.

The company will maintain 5% skin in the game stake in every single loan and start by offering an introductory projected return of around 10%p.a.

Mogo has expanded its cashback campaign on Mintos p2p lending marketplace

Mintos logo

Mintos have great news for the investors who have been enjoying Mogo’s cashback campaign! From April 5, 2018, until April 16, 2018, Mogo has expanded its cashback campaign and now offers you the opportunity to earn a cashback of up to 5% if you invest in its loans with a maturity of one year or more.

You will now get a cashback of:

– 1% for investing in Mogo loans with a maturity of 12 to 23 months;

– 2% for investing in Mogo loans with a maturity of 24 to 35 months;

– 3% for investing in Mogo loans with a maturity of 36 to 47 months;

– 4% for investing in Mogo loans with a maturity of 48 to 59 months;

– 5% for investing in Mogo loans with a maturity of 60 months or more.

If you have already invested in Mogo’s cashback campaign, your account will be automatically updated.

If you haven’t participated in Mogo’s campaign, then make sure you enrol in the campaign first before you make your investments.

Only investments made on the primary market qualify for this campaign.

 

For other bonuses visit our Cash-back & Bonuses page.

Debifo tripled the number of its clients in 2017

In 2017, the invoice financing company Debifo earned even more trust from both clients and investors – the company improved all key performance indicators and attracted new clients, thus becoming the largest non-bank invoice financer in Lithuania by the number of clients.

The number of Debifo clients grew from 50 in 2016 to 153 last year. According to Justas Šaltinis, Director of Debifo, active adaptation of services to the needs of small and medium-sized business could be pointed out among the key reasons for this growth.

“Last year, flexibility, transparent price and speed were our key priorities. We approve financing within three days; however, there have been cases when we have approved financing on the same day.

“Our ability to quickly approve financing is particularly appreciated by small companies with the turnover of up to EUR 1 million, yet there has been an increasing interest from larger medium-sized companies,” says Mr Šaltinis.

In total last year, Debifo financed invoices for almost a triple amount than in 2016. The value of invoices financed last year accounted for EUR 20.5 million. The average amount of Debifo financed invoice reached EUR 3500.

Last year, Debifo managed to expand the circle of its clients, attracting much more clients oriented to export markets – in 2017, they accounted for 32 percent of clients, whereas in 2016 – as few as 1 percent. The majority of Debifo clients are from wholesale trade, logistics, medicine, construction and other sectors.

Last year, the company also succeeded in gaining investors’ trust. It signed a financing agreement with the UK investment fund Advance Global Capital (AGC), reached 4500 investors on the peer-to-peer lending Mintos marketplace. At the end of the year, Debifo controlled an active portfolio of EUR 3 million.

“Conclusion of an agreement with AGC, which is one of the key players in the non-bank factoring market, is an important step in guaranteeing uninterrupted financing from a reliable partner as well as proof that we have been gaining more trust and recognition in the international market,” notes Mr. Šaltinis.

Last year, Debifo was also recognised as the TOP Company in the assessment of business credibility implemented by Rekvizitai.lt. This recognition, achieved by as few as 5 per cent of the most credible and economically stable companies, is highly significant for innovative and ambitious business. The award of the TOP Company is not the first achievement of Debifo. In 2016, Debifo won the award of the financial service of the year in the Service of the Year competition organised by the Lithuanian Business Confederation (LBC). The company has also been mentioned among 5 most promising financial sector start-ups in the prestigious business publication Forbes.

Source: Mintos.com

Aasa signs the Diversity Charter

Aasa, an international fintech company, has signed the Diversity Charter in its Polish, Estonian and Swedish affiliates. In this way, the company committed itself to promoting cultural, ethnic and social diversity in its work environment.

The Diversity Charter is an initiative promoted by the European Commission at the pan-European level. It constitutes a commitment of organizations to counteract discrimination and, at the same time, take action aimed at creating inclusive jobs open to diversity. Signing the Charter has also a broader dimension as its Signatories work for social cohesion and equality.

Aasa, a fintech company specializing in the provision of instalment loans for individual clients and small businesses, joined the group of such companies. Aasa has recently signed the Diversity Charter in Poland, Sweden and Estonia. This is another initiative of the company, implemented as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development projects.

This way, Aasa committed itself to protecting employees against discrimination based on nationality, race, sex, health, religion, beliefs, political views, psychosexual orientation or marital status. To this end, the company will implement the principles of diversity management and the policy of equal treatment.

“Signing the Diversity Charter is an expression of our values. Our biggest advantage is the fact that we are an international and a very diversified team whose members support and respect each other on a daily basis. With this thought in mind, we can better understand the needs of a contemporary and increasingly diversified society,” says Ovais Siddiqui, President of the Management Board of Aasa Polska.

“We cordially congratulate Aasa on the implementation of provisions of the Diversity Charter wherever it is possible. We encourage all signatories of the Charter, many of which operate in many European markets, to take such broad measures. Unfortunately, this is not a common approach, which is a pity. The coherence of a company’s corporate policies is a good testimony. Above all, however, it highlights the importance of certain values for the organization such as the attitude of respect and openness towards other people. Due to close cooperation with the European Commission, we know that soon also Romania will have its Diversity Charter and I am sure that Aasa will be one of its first signatories,” says Marzena Strzelczak, Director of the Responsible Business Forum.

Aasa employs in its international branches people from Poland, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Romania, Ukraine and Great Britain. According to the results of the Top Employers survey, conducted by Aon Hewitt in July 2017, as many as 83% of the company’s employees say that diversity is its strongest advantage.

This is confirmed by their statements in the “Aasa Family Movie”, which shows their experience related to work at Aasa. They believe that the company is driven by values such as diversity, teamwork, trust and development opportunities. In their opinion, it is these values that create a friendly working atmosphere and contribute to the development of the organization.

The Polish branch of Aasa Polska also carries out other numerous activities in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Since June 2017, it has run a nationwide social campaign Aasy Net, whose aim is to counteract digital exclusion of mature people with the support of younger generations. So far more than 30,000 people have benefited from free educational materials made available as part of the campaign. Last November, Aasa Polska joined the group of strategic partners of the Responsible Business Forum — a platform associating over 150 companies and organizations from various industries and regions of Poland, which supports companies in CSR activities and enables the exchange of their experiences in this field.

Source: Mintos.com

Varks.am attracts long-term capital that will provide additional security for Mintos investors

Mintos logo

Varks.am shareholders have decided to increase the registered share capital of Varks.am from AMD 455 to AMD 600 million (the equivalent of approximately EUR 1 million).  The increase of share capital will result in larger equity and raise the financial stability of the company. Share capital changes will be registered in the following weeks.

In addition, Varks.am concluded a subordinated loan agreement amounting to EUR 1.5 million. The subordinated loan agreement will stay in place to ensure at least a 15% Equity ratio for Varks.am, ensuring a stable and balanced growth of the company. This confirms Varks.am shareholders long-term commitment and provides extra security for investors on Mintos investing in the company’s short-term loans.

In addition, Varks.am is expanding its operations in Armenia. The company has opened two new branches in 2018 and a further four branches are planned to be opened during the next five months ensuring a wider presence across Armenia. The expansion will allow the company to cover Yerevan as well as most of the largest regional cities in Armenia.

According to customer feedback clients of Varks.am appreciate its wide network coverage through its branches. This is because Varks.am is located near them, serves clients very quickly and effectively and the lending conditions are very convenient for customers. This ensures a high level of customer satisfaction and a growing number of repeat clients.

Varks.am joined Mintos in February 2018 and offers its Armenia-issued short-term loans with an average repayment period of 30 days. Since its launch, more than EUR 10 million has been invested into its loans by investors. As of February 28, 2018, the company had a net loan portfolio of more than EUR 10.8 million. Currently, Varks.am issued short-term loans with a duration up to 30 days are offered to investors on Mintos with attractive rates of up to 14%. This provides a premium fee for high liquidity investments.

6 tips for improving your family budget

Family budget

In order to be able to draw up a budget of incomes and expenses as accurately as possible, it is best to keep our daily records of spendings so we don’t omit anything. That’s why we can use more tools, either to write daily spending on an agenda at the end of each day, or to use an app on your mobile phone that you have at your fingertips at any time, and we can write down the expenses as we perform them, either use an excel file, so we can personalize it to fit our needs better.

  •  A great deal of daily spendings goes on various occasions, such as snacks during the day or city walks to a coffee. Do not omit to keep track of these costs because at the end of the month you will realize that they will weigh heavily in the budget and you will wonder where the difference is.
  •  For a better financial discipline, it is a good idea first to achieve a forecasted revenue and expenditure budget and then to draw up the budget actually made to figure out what is the difference between estimates and reality, and so you can improve your financial behavior. The forecasted budget can also be considered a target for your budget and try to fit into it.
  • Every month, the first expenses we have to make are the ones for our future, this are the sums allocated to savings and investments. After making sure that we first saved the amounts proposed, we can only then make the fixed costs that if we omit them in a month they will attract interest and penalties. Finally, we can allocate the difference for variable expenses.
  • As with fixed costs, to ensure that we do not postpone savings by the end of the month to see if we still have resources available for them, we can set automatic payments to our savings or investment accounts and so we will have better and better financial results.
  • To ensure that unforeseen expenses do not affect your monthly budget, it is advisable to have an emergency fund of at least 3-6 salaries that you can use only in emergency situations. This way, you will surely know that no matter if your car breaks down or you have an urgent medical problem, you will be able to resolve it without borrowing or delaying until you have the financial resources to solve the problem.
  • To improve spendings, try to divide them into expenditures that represent needs and expenses that are wishes. Start budgeting all the time by analyzing your wishes and see which ones can be eliminated for better long-term results.

Ultimately, the purpose of our revenue and expenditure budget is to manage our financial resources more efficiently. It is important, after realizing the family budget over a period of several months, to analyze its evolution in order to improve our financial behavior in terms of cost reduction in order to save more and ultimately invest in order to reach our established financial goals more quickly.

4 useful strategies to teach children about money

Many parents do not know the right age to start teaching children about money.
Financial education may seem an abstract concept, which surpasses the children if they are very young, especially when they have to learn so much more practical things.
In addition, once they reach a certain age, anything you try to tell them comes into one ear and comes out to the other.
Is there a perfect age at which children are able to understand financial concepts and are receptive to what family members have to say?
Or do you just have to leave the kids on their on and wait for them to make the same financial mistakes?
In fact, it is possible to start financial education for children at a surprisingly young age, and they are able to be receptive to what you are learning indefinitely, as long as everyone attending sees these lessons as fun.

Pink piggy bank

Here are 4 helpful strategies to teach children about money and personal finances:

1. Teach them by the power of the example

Parents have the power to invoke parental authority when it comes to money, but even children can figure out whether you are credible or not. If it is clear to you that you are not making proper decisions about your own money, how can you expect to teach them how to spend their money correctly?
In essence, transparency and sincerity are the best solutions: call the children to look at when you pay your bills, when making other bank payments or directing some money to your investments.
This works especially for younger children who still have the impression that everything their parents do is very interesting.

2. Give them an age-appropriate allowance

No matter how smart some children are, until they do not have money in hand and will not use them to buy things, money will remain for them an abstract notion.
That’s why it’s important to start giving your children a small allowance, age-appropriate, as soon as you’re sure they can learn the money concept.
You can even make the allowance in a shared account with your child. As cash is being used less and less, young people will have to learn the concept of debit card and virtual wallets anyway.
You can also condition the receipt of the entire allowance to perform certain tasks in the house.

3. Eliminate the wrong spending decisions

It is useful to let the children make their own financial mistakes, but to a certain point.
If you start to feel that they really do not know what they are doing or do they make misleading purchases just to defy you, stop them by invoking the abovementioned parental authority.
Explain this by understanding why it is very important to reasonably think about every financial decision you make.
You can help them by providing them with an age-appropriate educational game, such as Monopoly, for example.

4. If in doubt, let them work

Sure, this is not an option for those children who are small or very small. For teenagers, however, a part-time summer job can have a very positive influence and can significantly increase their financial intelligence.
Moving from zero income (or a modest allowance) to a real salary, even if small, earned at a job in the local supermarket, for example, is extremely important.
Just make sure you provide them with the necessary job search support. They will thank you later.

What is Cash Flow? Find out how you can use it to your advantage

Cash, and more so the lack of it, can be a determining factor in whether you will achieve your goal of financial freedom. In short, cash flow is the net amount of cash that is flowing in and out of your accounts each month. Traditionally, this has been an important measure for business owners as they can keep track of how much money they are generating from customers that they offer their services to. It’s also important for them to know how much they are paying out each month for things like business loans, office rental and many other expenses.

However, the same cash flow measures can be used by individuals like you and me. Let’s say that each month you earn €2,000 net per month from your employment, €500 from your side hustle and €200 from your investments. But you need to live, so you can deduct your mortgage payments, car costs and any other expenses you have. The result of this will be either a positive or negative cash flow.

cash flow money

Cash Flow from P2P, Real Estate and Income vs Accumulation Funds

One of the most popular asset classes today is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending, notably for the opportunities it gives investors to become the bank and receive a monthly cash flow. Let’s say you invested €10,000 across thousands of loans from a range of risk ratings, loan durations and countries. Every month, the borrowers will make their loan repayments which consists of principal and interest, you then have the option to withdraw this cash flow or reinvest your profits to compound your interest and maximize your overall returns.

Quite similarly, real estate investments work in a comparable fashion. If you buy a rental property for €100,000, each month you will receive a payment from the tenants (e.g. €600 per month). You might use some of that to pay the remaining mortgage on the property or add it to a growth account to save a deposit for another property. An important difference between this and P2P is risk, as previously mentioned you can spread your risks across thousands of loans where as you rely on the payment from a tenant in a single property – if they default then there is no other cash flow. Protect your cash flow by diversifying within your chosen asset class.

If you are familiar with investing in equity funds, it’s likely you have come across the accumulation vs income conundrum. Simply put, an accumulation class fund will reinvest any cash generated from the investments within back in to the fund, over time this can significantly increase the size of your total pot. On the other hand, an income class fund will pay any cash generated from the investments back to you to use as you wish. This is for those who are looking to increase their total monthly cash flow amount and are not necessarily focused on the long-term growth of their investments. Almost always, the accumulation fund will be the most profitable in the long run.

Take a look at the graph below:

income vs accumulation-en

The same principle can be applied to your investments with Bondora, as the only difference is the underlying asset (consumer loans rather than equities). In the graph above, we have compared the growth of a portfolio with the same interest rate, starting capital and duration, the only difference being reinvesting your monthly cash flow compared to withdrawing it each month. Using our Portfolio Manager, starting with €10,000, an outlook of 5 years and a respectable interest rate of 10% per annum, there’s a stark differential in performance.

In fact, by simply allowing the Portfolio Manager to reinvest your monthly cash flow, your account value at the end of the 5 year duration would be 33.9%, or €4,462 larger (€17,623.42) than if you did not (€13,161.42). This is literally how you can “Make your money work for you” with minimal effort.

Cash for thought

Cash Flow Quadrant

Do you recognize the quadrant above? If you do then you are most likely well accustomed to the benefits of having a positive cash flow, congrats! For those who are still puzzled, this peculiar yet simple diagram is the brainchild of Robert Kiyosaki, the king of cash flow. As the creator of the Cash Flow Quadrant, Kiyosaki divides the general population and their mindset in to 4 separate categories:

  1. E: Employee – This person values job safety and security over everything.
  2. S: Small business owner/Self-employed – An independent person who wants to do everything related to their business by themselves.
  3. B: Big business owners – People who create a large business run by intelligent people.
  4. I: Investor – Those who make money work for them.

His main theory is that people should learn how to become big business owners and learn how to become investors, as the people on the left side of the quadrant only have active income compared to those on the right earning passive income. Creating a viable and sustainable source of passive income is seen as a core principle of achieving financial freedom.

Source: www.bondora.com

Kuky.pl from Poland joins Mintos p2p lending marketplace and offers short-term investment opportunities

Mintos logo

Mintos have a new addition to the loan originators family! Kuki.pl has just launched on the marketplace and offers you the opportunity to invest in its short-term consumer loans issued in Poland. The company is one of the fastest growing online short-term lenders in Poland and now lists its loans on Mintos in EUR and PLN for investment.

Established in 2017 Kuki.pl is a non-bank financial institution located in Warsaw, Poland and has its headquarters in Riga, Latvia. The company is made up of a team of 23 employees and is led by a strong management team which has up to 10 years experience in the online short-term consumer crediting market. Kuki.pl values its relationship with its customers above all else and aims to give the most convenient and fastest service. It achieves this through innovation, as it deploys the latest technologies to ensure instant consumer identification and scoring.

“We are excited to begin this collaboration with Mintos and share our strong performing portfolio with investors on the marketplace. We believe Mintos will allow Kuki.pl to grow at an even faster rate and allow us to reach a larger customer base in Poland, which is our goal,” says Toms Jurjevs, Group CEO.

The average Poland-issued short-term loan from Kuki.pl is around EUR 420 and PLN 1 760. The average repayment period is 30 days. You can expect an annual return rate of up to 13.1%.

Kuki.pl will keep 10% of each loan on its balance sheet to maintain its skin in the game. The company guarantees all of its loans that are delinquent for 60 days will be secured with a buyback guarantee. Kuki.pl and Bino.lv both belong to the same group.

Kuki.pl’s data-driven approach has enabled it to build a well-performing portfolio relatively quickly. Since its inception until March, 2018, it has originated more than 36 700 loans worth more than EUR 12.3 million. As of February 28, 2018, the company had a net loan portfolio of around EUR 4.2 million.

 

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