As a seafarer, one of the things I love in my job (apart from being off a few months a year) is that it gives me the opportunity to save a vast amount of money every year. I was wondering if anybody else is doing the same, and if so, in what ways (which would be compatible with our way of life, i.e. passive investments) are you managing to do just that?
I have created a small website called www.seacapital.info that showcases how I am managing my money (mainly through p2p lending and gold reserves) to create a small yet ambitious secondary source of income.
I have a night job as an escort for female fashion models with seven figure incomes. Most of my book is filled with Brazilians but there are a few Polish gals in there too. I like being a man of the people.
It’s easy, all I do is make professional looking websites targeting specific groups of people. Of course I promise them fantastic returns and all that BS. Then I seek them out online and spam forums and message boards with my website.
Sounds great! How much can I invest with you? Most of my money is tied up in a Nigerian prince deal I’ve got going. I guess I could raise a few shekels by pawning the Bentley. But damn, I just got the whole thing chromed…
I was out when it started with “as a seafarer”. I’ve met more broke M-fer’s out here than rich ones. Why else would any of us still be doing it?
Your portfolio is 33% in Mintos, a p2p lending service. Their website boasts a 9.09% average return.
VSTAX (A broad exposure index fund) through Vanguard has a 13% average return over the past ten years. 10k put in in 2009 would be more than $30,000 today. The risk is also far less, investing into VSTAX than p2p lending. An index fund through a reputable broker also takes less effort, you can set up monthly deposits into your investment accounts.
I don’t know why you want to do some fucked up p2p lending scheme. Or why you have your portfolio divied up into multiple p2p services. Your pie chart looks nice, I’m really not sure about your graph below though. Your Y axis has no units. Your website has two articles that offer nothing new or interesting to anyone.
This scam attempt is really half assed. I award you 1/5 stars. You can boost this rating by wiring me some cash.
A modest amount of peer to peer lending might be a worthwhile investment for some people at certain points in time. There are large reputable peer to peer lending syndicates.
The average stock market return over the last 150 years is about 11 percent. A no load index fund is a pretty good way to invest.
Some mariners accumulate enough wealth and decide to buy a boat, a RV, a hobby car, a motorcycle, a bunch of fishing gear, a bunch of guns or something like that to help them pass their idle time. Some take up golf or an adventure sport. When they aren’t with their adult midlife crisis toys they are usually fantasizing, studying or talking about their expensive hobby. Others take a chunk of cash to buy gold or invest in the markets or in foreign currencies. I’m one of the blokes in the last category who use their midlife crisis money to play Warren Buffett. I’m not judgmental about any of it & think it’s all the same. P2P investing & speculating on precious metals aren’t for me but it can’t be any worse than buying a Harley Davidson or a boat IMO.
Also, using your retirement money to fund your hobby is stupid no matter what your hobby is. Mariners who use their 401K & IRA money to play Gordon Gekko day trader are just as stupid as a person who takes their 401K money to buy a jet ski.
Why don’t you just take a grand or two and open a regular brokerage account at e-trade or something similar and look for dividend stocks? You aren’t day trading, you are just buying and selling on your own after doing some research. Roll the dividends back in and buy more. I know a number of folks who do it and I am opening such an account myself. That’s in addition to my 401k type funds.
Catherder is giving you very good advice, but there is nothing wrong with reputable p2p lending either. In an up market, I would not bother with p2p, but in a down market I might.
Real estate is a good long term investment, and in some markets flipping fixer-uppers can be good.
If you plan on opening an account with only a grand or two I would suggest the Robinhood App. The research tools suck but they don’t charge you anything to buy or sell. Robinhood makes it’s money by not paying interest when you hold cash which is a good deal if you don’t have much cash. You can use the free tools from all the other discount brokerage firms or from Tradingview or Stockcharts.com to do your research. Before I started investing in individual stocks a few years ago I paper traded for a few months first. You can open free paper accounts with the big discount brokerage firms as well.
Good luck. Its a lot of fun & as I mentioned before, managing your own small portfolio can’t be any worse of a hobby than buying a boat, a motorcycle or anything else that depreciates in value over time.
I know a guy who told me about a safe investment. Backed by a Coin of some sort. I Bit If I Recalled Correctly. Definitely safe. I’ll ask him about this topic. Probably worth dumping all my cash into.
Thats so interesting, I did not know it but apparently I am related to the prince of Nigeria, he just passed away sadly, but left all his riches to me…his lawyer said all I have to do is wire him like 3k for travel expenses and I can receive my part of the will- can’t wait!!
