Pullout vs Hold vs Careful investments? (Bo)

You can ask from many parents that relying on pulling out is a bad strategy. You should think a few steps ahead at least.

I wondered if anyone would ask.

I'll start with some perspective.  I'm, retired, I have all the time in the world.  I actually enjoy the feeling of achievement, particularly when I write myself a new database and so reduce the time spent on it by 50%.  Even with all this, I spend between 1 and 3 hours a day - days like today (Sunday) when nothing much is happening, 5 minutes every hour sees it ticking over, tomorrow (a big payment day), it's an hour first thing to catch up, then more than 5 minutes an hour as things happen and money has to be spent.

I know it's less than minimum wage, but as I said in my original answer, I don't actually need the money, I know Bondora's IT Shennanigans infuriate me, but beside putting wood in the stove(s) every hour this time of year, what else should I do to keep the brain working? (Actually, I have an answer, I intend to teach myself a modern programming language and try to automate it using the API, but it hurts!)

If only it were that easy . . . .

It's been a year, so things have changed (as they always do with Bondora!)  I am still on track with the 50% p.a. returns target, but only just.

12 months ago, the vast majority of my loans were Spanish, with a quoted average interest rate of 60%+ across my "current" loans.  As of today, the vast majority are Estonian, with the average interest rate across the "Current" loans being 48.06%.  Doing the maths using a simple compound interest calculation with all returns re-ionvested, I double my book value every 2 years = 50% return in simple terms. (I know, it's arguable!)

A year ago, my book max'd out its delinquency rates at 17% (10/2/20) and 28% (13/4/20) on "Current" loan values of 1640 and 1200 Euros respectively.  This year, my book has "min'd" out its delinquency rate at 0% (that's right - no delinquent loans) on 3 days so far - 30/1/21, 20/3/21 & 31/3/21, on loan numbers of 1864, 1992 & 2013 (I know, I changed my counting, unforgiveable, but I'm old and lazy) and my "Current" book value as I write this is 2531 Euros - so about double this time last year.

Bondora has changed things a lot over this year (situation normal, I hear you say).  They now look a lot like your average bank - low returns for the punter (who does not have to think at all for it, while they make shedloads using our money, because they do all the work for us!) while people who want to think hard about things have to think even harder to make less.  They do this by disconnecting us from the people we are making money from. It's called "Disintermediation", basically, inserting yourself between the supplier and the customer and making money in that space.  Think "Deliveroo" and "Uber" and "Just Eat".  At least Bondora actually employ their people and pay them properly, so they are not Ogres.

So it is that I now run a few "Portfolio Pro" scenarios, where I sell (cheaply) 95% of the loans I am "given" because my experiance has taught me that they will fail to produce my required return.  I use the return from these along with my book returns to buy on the secondary market.  I buy with the intention of holding until I have doubled my stake.  I then sell them cheaply to my wife's account, which is really for our grandchildren, whilst retaing my 100% return over my holding of the loan.  My wife's account is returning a "Dashboard" Net return of over 23%, whilst mine is 8.16%.

In reality, few loans make it to our grandchildrens account.  I sell at the first sign of trouble, usually at a profit.  I stop buying loans that cross the "event horizon" of my buying criteria, usually destined never to return.  I target loans with a value of less than 10 Euros. 95% of my loans are of 1 Euro - they are far easier to sell than higher denominations, but it makes the work harder, just keeping track of everything.

All in all, I just enjoy myself (but I realise that expression is not what some people would call it!).  The mental challenge and discipline of keeping things on track while Bondora try their hardest to make things hard for me is added piquancy as I try to keep my aging brain active.

My criteria for purchase? That would be telling! Suffice to say that I buy loans that (look as though they will) pay back. Simple really.

I hope this helps