Welcome to another post part of the exclusive investor stories! This month we had the pleasure of interviewing Jens, check out his story below.
“I have 2 accounts running on Bondora. All are using the Portfolio Manager. Returns are 13% and 9%, so overall I am happy compared to other asset classes.”
1. Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Jens, I am from Denmark. Me and my family, wife and 3 kids, have been living abroad for many years, but decided to move back to Denmark in 2009. I am an engineer by training and I have been self-employed for 17 years and work as a freelance consultant specializing in Sustainability, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS). I have always been interested in business, finance and economics and read a lot on the subject whenever I have time besides my family and job. That is how I came across p2p investing and Bondora in 2013/14.
2. What made you start investing with Bondora?
After taking a closer look at the P2P market place I decided to invest in Bondora and Lending Club in 2014 via my company. I chose Bondora due to their relatively long history, track record and that the company turned a profit. Nobody knows yet what is going to happen if a p2p lender goes bankrupt. I am still keeping an eye open to invest on other platforms for diversification purposes within P2P, but I am very cautious because it seems new platforms are launching every day! I am following the market via newsletters from p2p-banking.com and AltFi News.
“I choose Bondora due to their relatively long history, track record and that the company turned a profit.”
3. What were your investment goals when you started and how is your portfolio doing now?
My investment goals for P2P were and still are primarily a steady return and diversification across asset classes, like shares, bonds, FX, property, etc. I myself consider p2p a new asset class. When I started investing in the year 2000 the goal was to save for retirement. But by also focusing on saving money on an everyday basis I hope to not have to ‘work’ so much anymore and spend more time reading, investing and building ‘stuff’, i.e. more freedom.
I have 2 accounts running on Bondora – 1 for my company and 1 for my wife. All are using the Portfolio Manager. Returns are 13% and 9%, so overall I am happy compared to other asset classes. Looking forward it is going to be interesting to follow how returns are going to be affected on p2p platforms once the next recession(s) hits various countries/regions.
4. What features/strategy do you use and how does it work for you?
I have always used the Portfolio Manager and all are set to ‘Progressive’. I have for some time been playing with the idea of using some kind of ‘big data’ analysis and if successful I could use the Portfolio Pro or API. In the US ‘robot investors’ do exist already using APIs. I have not come across any for the European platforms.
“Start out with an amount you can do without for a couple of years, but big enough to be able to diversify across at least 200 loans.”
5. If you could give any advice to someone starting out with Bondora, what would it be?
Start out with an amount you can do without for a couple of years, but big enough to be able to diversify across at least 200 loans. Use the Portfolio Manager. Monitor, learn and gain experience for at least a year and then decide what to do next.
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