Calling all fitness fanatics, fashionistas, globetrotters, ambitious students, and doting parents.
For decades, the world of investing has been nothing but a taboo mystery to the majority of people. If you find yourself saying “ummm” every time you hear the word invest, you’re not alone. In fact, we’re not going to talk about investing here at all.
To invest simply means you are using your money to make more money. That’s it. You can still say “ummm” every time you hear the word, but from now on you’ll think of our unforgettable acronym—UseMoneyMakeMoney or UMMM.
Now, we should make you aware upfront that this article is NOT filled with graphs, technical analysis, and sexy statistics. You will not find a compelling argument advocating the use of Monte Carlo analysis or a shrine to Jesse Livermore. So if that’s what you’re looking for, you should probably stop reading now and forward this to that friend whom you’ve never really liked.
However, our aim in this article is to teach you the basics of using your money to make more money—namely through a service called Go & Grow. After that, you will have the building blocks to help you understand how you can make real money without giving up your day job.
Before we go any further, it’s important you understand that this is NOT a get-rich-quick strategy. You can earn considerable returns over time, but you are not going to become Bill Gates by the time the next Eurovision airs. Whenever you choose to UMMM, you should always be aware of the risks as well as the advantages before you make any big decisions. The good news is that you do not need to be a financial guru to understand these risks and reap the benefits—quite the opposite.
And congratulations—if you’ve made it this far (to actually reading an article on the topic of UMMM), then you are already two steps ahead of 90% of people who dive head first into the shallow end of the stock market. Oftentimes, they subsequently lose their money and then discourage everyone they meet from investing (oops, from “UMMM”) in the future.
Why should you care about UMMM?
You may be asking yourself, “What’s the point of it all?” We hear you. Does earning interest on your money really make a difference, anyways? Would you be better off keeping your money hidden under the floorboards at home?
Quite simply, the power of compound interest has an undeniable influence on the level of your future wealth. Compound interest means you earn interest on the interest that you have already received—even while you sleep. Let’s take a look at an example:
If you earn 6.75% per year on €1,000:
- End of year 1: You will have a total pot of €1,067.50.
- You have your original deposit of €1,000 and €67.50 in interest. The following year, you will earn 6.75% on €1,067.50, not €1,000.
- End of year 2: You will have a total pot €1,139.56
In year two, you earned €72.06 in interest compared to the €67.50 you earned in year 1. And so on.
Over time, this opens the doors to a huge potential increase in your initial amount of cash. And the best part is you don’t have to do anything. Win!
Different ways to UMMM
Some of the most common ways to UMMM is via stocks and shares, property, and peer to peer (P2P), to name a few. Below, we’ve created basic definitions to help you understand this in the simplest way. If you would like the longer, technically accurate and boring definitions, then you should go to Investopedia.
Investing
Using your money to make more money (UMMM).
Stocks and shares
For the purpose of this article, they’re pretty much the same thing (economists are silently crying). A share is quite simply a small piece of a company that you can buy and sell through a broker—if the company is consistently doing well, the price of the share may increase.
If their CEO recently got arrested for selling knock-off football shirts and the company made a €1 billion loss for the year, it’s highly likely that their share price will decrease. If the share price changes, so will the amount of money you have vested (your equity) and you will have either made a paper profit or loss.
“But why would any company want to let people buy a piece of them?” you may ask. A company might choose to float on the stock market to raise money to help them expand—for purposes that may be to buy a banking license, to build a new rotating solar-powered office block in Dubai, or to hire 300 new staff members who are industry experts.
Fortunately, you don’t have to work on Wall St, Canary Wharf, or anywhere in between, to invest in stocks. Today, there is a huge amount of companies and brokers out there that offer the simple service of buying and selling shares with just a few clicks. Take note—this is still a much more complex way to invest and you should seek professional advice if you choose this route.
Property (Real Estate)
UMMM with property is a classic and popular way to grow wealth. Traditionally, you need a much larger starting amount to begin investing in property. This is because the banks will usually require a deposit of at least 25% on a property (that you will you use for UMMM purposes) to offer you a mortgage on the remaining value. If you’re lucky enough to have this starting deposit, you can either:
- Flip – Buy a property that needs renovation works, then spend some time and money on repairs and improvements. If you’ve done it right, then the property should be of a higher value and you can sell it for a tidy profit.
- Buy and hold – You buy a property that you think has a good rental yield and can give you a monthly cash flow. You should always ensure that your rental payment covers your mortgage payment on the property by at least a multiplier 1.25. If your mortgage payment is €1,000 per month, your rental income should be at least €1,250—this will help you provision for repairs and unexpected void periods.
There are hundreds of other ways to invest in property, but the two options mentioned above are the most common.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a relatively new asset class in the world of finance that has gained traction within the last decade. Most recently, the past five years have seen an explosion of P2P lending platforms offering different UMMM options, rates of return, business models, and the assets in which they invest.
As the baby of the alternative finance world, P2P lending has paved the way to a fair and competitive marketplace that challenges the traditional monopolization held by the high-street bank giants.
The banking landscape has undergone a major shift, in which an individual person like you can now become the lender and earn the exciting interest rates that were previously inaccessible to anyone outside of large institutions. YOU become the bank.
Do you need to have a financial background to take part? No. Do you need access to huge amounts of cash to get started? Nope. Do you need any special licenses? Absolutely not.
How does P2P compare to your bank?
Traditionally, banks have always advertised a savings account as a safe haven for customers to put some money aside each month with the aim of growing their wealth. When opening a traditional current account, it was quicker to add an extra account on with the same bank rather than walk down the street to open one elsewhere.
Now it’s even easier to do all of your banking and investing online rather than going into your local town to the big chain bank. So now that everyone has access to a larger range of products, should you still keep your money in a traditional savings account? That’s up to you.
More about UMMM and P2P
Now that you know the basics, let’s look at how you can get started.
Go & Grow is Bondora’s most simple and easy-to-use UMMM service. Whether you’re a retiree living in the Estonian countryside or an 18-year-old student in Berlin who’s new to the world of investing, Go & Grow will help you to achieve your goals.
Go & Grow works as easily as (if not easier than) traditional investment methods whilst giving you an impressive return of 6.75%* p. a. You simply add money to the account, then you can view and track your return on a daily basis. What’s more, there is no minimum term to hold your investment—meaning you can liquidate your account with ease. Sounds like your cup of tea? Read on.
How can you use Go & Grow?
It’s likely you have a reason as to why you want to put your money to work. To make sure you don’t lose sight of the reason, you have to set a purpose for each Go & Grow account you create (you can create multiple accounts for different purposes).
You can choose from some of the most common reasons for UMMM: retirement, a large purchase, extra income, your children’s future, a rainy day, or travel. Or you can create something completely unique:
- If you’re a fitness fanatic, you could pay for your protein shakes each month #GAINS
- Maybe you want to dress to impress at your annual office party—when the time comes, you’ll make a statement with your outfit.
- No one loves Christmas more than children—except for maybe parents, when seeing their children’s happy faces on Christmas morning. Plan ahead for your holiday season spending.
- Globetrotters – If you’re planning to take some time to travel, then you’re going to need spending money for jet skis, souvenirs, and the occasional cocktail (or two!).
Once you’ve decided on a purpose, it’s time to set yourself a goal. Here’s why.
If you are a runner and decide to participate in a race, you will have a clear goal in mind—the distance you need to run and how you’ll get there. Otherwise, it proves difficult to pace yourself and execute a plan to achieve this goal. You cannot sprint the distance of a marathon and the same goes for UMMM—creating a strategy and sticking to it is key to achieving your goals.
The same goes for Go & Grow—you enter your starting capital amount, the amount you plan to invest monthly, and the duration of time for which you plan to invest. We then combine this with our offered rate of return to give you the “potential gain” figure.
If you’re unsure of the amount you can start with or how much you can afford to UMMM each month, try to think of a realistic amount that ensures you keep on top of your bills while enjoying yourself along the way.
Top up your account
After you’ve decided with how much you’re going to start to UMMM, there are a few simple ways to add money to your Go & Grow account. You can either click on “Add funds” in the main menu list (which will add funds to your main Bondora account) or click on the “Add funds” button on your Go & Grow account (which will add your cash directly there).
The auto-transfer option (if enabled) will automatically transfer all available money in your main Bondora account—as well as any future cash flow—to your selected Go & Grow account. This keeps your experience simple and hassle-free.
The interest is added daily!
Bondora’s business continues to be in P2P personal loans—however, with Go & Grow, we are simplifying the whole process so you don’t have to worry about the duration of loans. Because this also lowers your risk and since the average net return on Bondora consistently has been over 9% p.a., we offer our Go & Grow investors a competitive rate of 6.75%* p.a.
The net return is up to 6.75%* p.a. and Bondora has no claim on any returns generated above this—instead, they will be reinvested and added to reserves in order to ensure the continuous net return of 6.75%* p.a. and to support faster liquidity for investors. That being said, the net return of 6.75%* p.a. is not guaranteed.
You’ve created an account, set your goals, added the moolah, what now?
Now that you’ve done a magnificent job of setting everything up, you’ll notice a simple overview of your Go & Grow accounts. The first box on the left tells you how much you have added to the account—you’ll notice here a percentage figure which lets you know how close you are to your goal. In the next column, you’ll find “Bondora has added”—this is how much interest has been added to your account in total.
In the final column, you’ll notice the “total” which is a combination of the two previous columns. What’s more, below the three columns you will see your UMMM goal tracker. If you have stuck to the plan that you set up in the beginning, then you’ll be on track to achieve your goal. Otherwise, a small red thumbs down will be visible with the amount required to catch up with your original plan.
We all fall behind occasionally—use this to your advantage!
#UMMM with the people you trust for a common goal
Go & Grow is unique to our other services, as you can UMMM in cooperation with your friends and family members. Together, you can UMMM for that holiday to Fiji you have been dreaming about, for your children’s future university fees, or toward a new home.
To add authorized users to your Go & Grow account, click on the blue arrow in the upper right-hand corner of your account next to the settings wheel. You will then see the option “Invite to Go & Grow” appear. Once you click on this, enter the name and e-mail address of the person with whom you want to join forces.
You can also select whether you want to grant this person the authority to withdraw from the account. You should only enable this feature for the people you trust (as beautifully described by Batman above).
Existing Bondora investors, we’ve got your back
If you’ve been reading this article, thinking you’re missing out on the beauty of Go & Grow because you already invest with Bondora, think again. We have a simple solution for you.
To transfer your existing investments, click on the settings wheel visible on your Go & Grow account and then select “Add existing investments.”
Next, you will receive an offer from Bondora to liquidate your existing portfolio based on the current portfolio value. It is possible that you will be offered a lower amount due to—for example—defaulted loans in your portfolio. If you accept the offer, Bondora will transfer your portfolio to your Go & Grow account and you can start earning right away.
Before proceeding, think carefully if this is the right decision for you as the decision cannot be reversed once you accept the offer. It’s important to remember that it’s likely you will earn a lower net return using Go & Grow compared to our other services.
However, there are plenty of other benefits (as discussed above) you will have access to, such as cashing in your investment at short notice.
The special day has arrived and you want to cash in
The reason why you began to UMMM has come around quickly and you’re relieved you set your plan in place when you started. You can request a withdrawal at any time by simply clicking on (you guessed it) “withdraw.”
Regardless of your portfolio size, we charge a flat €1 fee each time you withdraw money from Go & Grow to your main Bondora account.
After that, the money will be visible on your Bondora dashboard in the “available funds” section, ready for you to withdraw to your bank account or to UMMM via our other services.
At this point, you should pause your Portfolio Manager or Portfolio Pro to ensure your funds are not invested. Alternatively, you can change your “spare cash balance” to the amount you plan to withdraw if you do not want to pause Portfolio Manager or Portfolio Pro.
Start your UMMM journey today with Go & Grow
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*As with any investment, your capital is at risk and the investments are not guaranteed. The yield is up to 6.75%. Before deciding to invest, please review our risk statement or consult with a financial advisor if necessary.
