Updates

May 8 2021

Is MyConstant Still the Best Crypto Lending Platform?

Ok, so here we are in May already and I feel like I just finished my April update yesterday. There is a little bad news I want to share with you about MyConstant and how this will affect new and current users.

I do not want to make this an entirely negative post but there have been some developments that are making me steer my funds away from MyConstant and look for other opportunities.

As the old saying goes, if it is not broken do not fix it. Well something was broken and MyConstant had no other choice but to fix it. The problem was the ACH method of transferring funds into MyConstant from the bank was causing a large number of ACH reversals. I am not entirely sure I understand the reversals but they were costing the platform money for each one that was reversed.

I had some issues with the ACH but it was still a good way to send less than $5,000 USD from my account to MyConstant and it usually took only a couple of days. I then started having issues with the error message saying I has insufficient funds in my account, even though I could see that I had more than enough in the account.

I reached out to customer support through the chat function and they gave me a way to remedy the situation. I do not know why but I had to reconnect my bank to the platform and after that was complete the system was working nice and smooth. The ACH reversals continued and were eventually suspended again and I had to shift to using Zelle.

I am not really a fan of Zelle. Mostly I do not like the very low limits that they allow. I understand this is probably in an effort to reduce fraud but for me they are just too low. I was able to do a couple successful Zelle transactions before that to was suspended.

The platform currently only does wire transfers. They will pay $15 of your wire fees if you are moving more than $1,000 at a time which is cool but when the bank charges $25-$30 for a wire you are still loosing quite a bit each time you make a transfer. In my opinion if this is the only way to move my money out of the platform then they are sort of keeping my money hostage. I look at my statement from time to time to see how much I am making with the platform and really if I have to pay $10 or $15 to get any money out that wipes out any profit that I have made.

The high wire fees also will not make sense for someone who wants to contribute $100 a month to the platform and keep the money growing. I think that this is a huge mistake by MyConstant and I do not have evidence but I am guessing that there is probably very little funds going into the platform right now.

The second thing is that the interest rate on idle crypto which was one of the best things about the platform has been reduced. It was high when the platform was new and then the rate settled at 8% which was still a pretty awesome rate. Well the rate was cut down to 6% and then down to 4% where it sits right now. By cutting the rate in half I have seen my balance which used to grow nicely come to a trickle.

I am investigating another platform that is paying 8% for BTC which is what I have. Once I am sure that it is legit and everything is on the up and up I will be moving my Bitcoin over to the new platform. I will for sure be writing a new post once that is up n running.

I do still have a little fiat in the platform that I will continue to use for my flex account and also for secondary orders. I have been having decent luck with the secondary orders and have managed to make a few dollars in interest. If the wire in and wire out remain the only way to move money that interest I earned will be chewed up with the wire fee which is a real bummer.

I am hopeful that MyConstant is able to secure a new channel for ACH transfers and once that happens I will be posting a new update but until then we all have to either leave our funds in the platform or we will have to suck it up and pay the wire fee.

Thanks for reading, I have the comments turned off since I was getting too much spam in the comment section.

Feature Image: Photo by Richard Lee on Unsplash

April 24 2021

I Got Back Into Groundfloor They Gave Me and My Referral $20.00

The Beast Opportunities, Updates

I got back into Groundfloor because they gave me $20.00 I know I said I was cutting ties with the real estate lending marketplace, but they had a pretty good offer for new referrals that got me to add some more money to the platform. The offer was that both me and the one I referred would get $20.00 each if they signed up and invested at least $10.00.

The previous reason I was pulling back from investing more capital on the platform was due to what I perceived as poor communication and a low level of due diligence conducted by Groundfloor. The question you are probably wondering is, was I wrong? I do not think I was “wrong” I mean it is an opinion and I still believe that Groundfloor has an opportunity to improve greatly in those two areas.

My heartburn was mostly due to a lack of communication on Groundfloor’s part. I still feel like they are slow to post updates and I believe this is mainly due to the size of their portfolio of loans. There are so many loans (LROs) available on the site that I am sure they do not have a staff large enough to keep up with all of them.

I use another similar site called Fund That Flip (FTF) that although has a smaller number of opportunities available they are extremely diligent and I feel like they have set the standard when it comes to due diligence and communication. In fact I have seen several of my investments go full circle on FTF and I have never once been left wondering what is going on.

Back to Groundfloor. I did find a couple opportunities on the platform that I felt were pretty solid investments. The rate of return was in my sweet spot and the term of the LRO was in line with what I was looking for. Now when I look at a LRO on the marketplace I do some searching and look at who the principle borrower is and I do some google work on those individuals. I found once individual who was previously under federal investigation. I reached out to Groundfloor to see what the deal was. They (surprisingly) were well aware of the investigation and were able to confirm my findings. There was nothing behind the accusations and the individual had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

I found another one that looked promising and did some digging on the guy. He was a former military officer who from what I could find has a business related to real estate and I saw enough reviews and there was enough information that gave me a good feeling about the potential for getting paid back.

My two problem loans have continued to be problems, but one of them is currently in closing and hopefully will be paid back soon. As usual the estimated closing date has come and gone and I have no word from Groundfloor in regards to the status. I reached out to them and they gave me the standard answer of the closing has not been completed but it should be done soon. I have bought and sold several houses and I understand that there are issues that creep up and can cause a delay.

So that is why I got back into Groundfloor, because they gave me $20.00. Hopefully one of my loans will be closing out soon I will probably roll those funds over into more LROs. I will keep you updated with what is going on with them.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to sign up for Groundfloor and get started investing in real estate loans for as little as $10.00 click here.

*Feature Image: Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash

April 23 2021

I am Looking for a New Crypto Lending Platform

The Beast Crypto, Opportunities, Updates Crypto, Passive Investments

I am looking for a new crypto lending platform and I will update you if and when I find one. Keep reading to find out why.

Must all good things come to an end?

I was about to write my monthly update for how MyConstant was working for me and although it is still doing pretty good I was sad to see that the interest rate for crypto was going down. It was previously 8% APR and I thought is was awesome. That is one reason I was a big advocate for the platform. It was subsequently reduced to 6% and I just received a heartbreaking email letting me know that the rate was dropping even further to 4%.

The reason for the 4% return was that there was less of a demand for crypto loans by the exchanges. Talk about a buzzkill. I was not overly surprised by the drop in the rates though. Recently MyConstant had lowered the fiat rates as well. I am not entirely sure why they dropped, but I would guess that the site is getting bigger and they have more capital to work with and as such they can afford to lower rates.

So I have some choices to make and I do not think they are going to be easy. I am on the hunt for a new crytpo lending site and I think I have some contacts who have been using a couple other ones with some success. I have not decided if I will shift some of my fiat money out of MyConstant but I generally like to find one site that can provide all my needs. The idea of tracking several different sites with money in each of them gets complicated the more I seem to have.

I used to use worthy as a spot to keep my emergency funds but when I saw that MyConstant was offering a percent higher return it only made sense to shift everything to MyConstant, especially with the outstanding rate they were giving me on my crypto.

I know a few months back I mentionedFebruary 2021 MyConstant Update that I was moving and thought that I would need some extra funds for the move, so I was keeping the majority of my fiat in the flex account. It earns 4% APR which is not too shabby but, and there is always a but. I initially was a huge fan of the ACH transfer ability with MyConstant but the entire system got jacked up with so many reversals that they suspended the ACH function.

I tried the Zelle feature and it seemed to work fine sending money from my account to MyConstant. I was getting an error when I tried to send from MyConstant to my account. I am not really sure what the deal was with Zelle and I am not really a fan of Zelle anyhow. My biggest complaint with Zelle is the limits, which I consider to be way on the low side. I just tried to move some money via ACH (apparently it has been fixed) and I should have my funds back in my account in a few business days.

So I kind of went off on a tangent there, my moving experience has yet to be finished as finding a suitable home has been difficult and I may end up shifting focus to an entirely different region. With the possibility of having to make a major move I am still keeping a few thousand dollars in my Flex account.

I am looking for a new crypto lending platform and I will update you if and when I find one. So, until I find a better option I will keep my crypto in the MyConstant account. I mean 4% is better than no percent which is what most wallets or sites like crypto.com give you.

I know I have been slacking with my blog for the past few months as I have been on the road staying in various AirBNBs and have been working on a couple of other websites and projects. Not to say this one is not important but I have been dividing my time and taking a little break while I pursue some other avenues that have been in the works for quite some time. I will make a concerted effort to provide more content as I can see that my page views has gone down significantly with the absence of updated content.

As always thank you for reading, I would say leave a comment but I am disabling comments for now since I have been getting lambasted with spam comments and I just do not have the time to filter through them in order to get to the legitimate comments.

*feature image credit: Photo by Tom Pumford on Unsplash

March 17 2021

Still The Best Bitcoin and Crypto Interest Account: MyConstant

The Beast Crypto, Opportunities, Updates Bitcoin, Interest, Passive Income

The Best Bitcoin and Crypto Interest Account

Before we get into this month’s review I want to remind you that MyConstant remains the best Bitcoin and crypto interest account I have discovered so far. This is the March 2021 update on the MyConstant progress. If you are looking for past updates you can find them here for Dec, Jan, Feb.

I have been a little hesitant to commit funds to any of the 30, 90, or 180 day loans since I am still in the moving process. We have not had much luck finding a home that meets our requirements yet. We had a few prospects but for one reason or another they have all fallen through. Some were due to the owners raising the rent (beyond our budget) and other changing their mind about either renting or renting the homes unfurnished.

The Flex Account is a Winner

So, I have kept the majority of my funds in my flex account which is still earning a pretty decent 4% APR. The 4% is not bad considering that a traditional savings account gives less than a percent. I do have a small point of contention that I will get into later in this article.

The Elusive Secondary Market

I have been trying like crazy to snag some of the secondary market orders which provide excellent rates, sometimes up to 137% but only for a few days which is great if you are looking for liquidity. The bad part is that since it it only for a few days you will only earn the return for a short time. There is no change in the risk level on these secondary market orders which is also great. One problem I have noticed is that the investor pool seems to have grown substantially. That just means that there are more and more people competing for these loans that your odds of snagging one of these sweet deals is reduced.

Screenshot from MyConstant App — *Here are some of the secondary market orders I have been lucky enough to have won.*

Sign Up to Be In the Know

If you have not been a member on Myconstant I would encourage you to sign up ASAP. There is a deal going on right now where MyConstant is giving 10% APR return on newly deposited funds for 6 months. This rate is pretty awesome and I have not found anything this high with this low of a risk anywhere. They just extended this deal for two more weeks which is giving me a chance to get a few dollars into one of these deals.

Just to recap on how it works, you deposit funds into your account. You can do this by Zelle, ACH, or a wire transfer. I prefer the ACH option since there is no fee and allows you to transfer larger amounts than Zelle. Now here comes my point of contention. I have had issues with the ACH system. The problems I have had go both ways. I have been getting an error sending money into MyConstant and sending it back to my account.

Issues and Delays

I am not sure why I am having issues but I have been getting an error saying that I do not have enough money in my account. This is not true at all. I contacted the customer support at MyConstant and they did inform me that Plaid (the ACH processor) will give an error if you try to take out more than half of your balance.

There is also a delay sending money back to my account. This really goes against my liquidity requirement. The idea that I was using my flex account as a pseudo emergency fund is not playing well as the idea I have is that I will still be able to access my funds in a timely manner. MyConstant recognizes this issue and is compensating me with a rate of 4% APY for each day that the funds are delayed. This is pretty nice but honestly I would rather see the funds in my account. Apparently there was a front end issue on the site and the 12% was only for the withdrawing of stable coins.

*A 4% (not 12%) return while waiting for my funds.*

I Love That Bitcoin Interest

I always like to finish things off on a positive note and I have some great news to share with you. This is actual proof that MyConstant is the best Bitcoin and crypto interest account I have ever found. I have been manually tracking my interest earnings on my crytpo deposit. I stopped buying and adding crytpo to MyConstant back in August of 2020. I had 0.07502260 Satoshi on 09 August, 2020 and as of today (17 March, 2021) I have 0.07845710 Satoshi giving me .00659450 Satoshi in interest. Now today’s high price of Bitcoin is helping me out but that equates to $362 in interest earned.

I believe that the price of Bitcoin will continue to rise (to the moon baby!) so, I anticipate that interest earned to not only continue to compound but I also believe it will continue to go up in value. This is not an article about when to buy Bitcoin, or how high I think it will go. I just know that at whatever price I buy Bitcoin at I can always park my crypto in MyConstant because it remains the best Bitcoin and crypto interest account I know of. I know I will be earning 8% on my Bitcoin and that will be compounded every second. I still see a Satoshi earned every 51 seconds.

When I break it down I get .00000070 an hour or .00001680 per day. At today’s rate that’s about $0.04 an hour or $0.93 a day. That’s not too bad if you ask me. If we continue to see the value of Bitcoin rise I think I can expect that amount to grow nicely this year.

Thanks for reading. I would ask you to leave a comment but I am turning the comments off as I have been inundated with spam comments lately and will likely have to make a few changes as to who can comment on the blog.

February 26 2021

February 2021 MyConstant Update

The Beast Opportunities, Updates Bitcoin

We are off to a new month (it is actually almost over) and it is time for my February update to the progress I am making with MyConstant. There are always a few changes that the site makes to the platform and this month is no exception.

A couple small changes to the platform, we see that the Flex account is still around but there is not really a Flex tab. The name has also changed to reflect more accurately what the account does and can do. It is now called “instant access” and it is really the same thing as the Flex, any money you have in the platform is earning the 4% APR compounded every second. I just had a couple thousand dollars worth of loans mature and since I did not have the auto reinvest button turned on the money went back to my flex and I can really see the balance moving.

I am moving this month which as you probably know is one of the worst things we have to do and always costs us more than we think it will. This is why I am keeping a couple thousand out of the lending pool until I know how much this is going to cost me. On the bright side, every time I move I look at it as a chance to learn a new place and an opportunity to lighten my load. I see stuff that I am pretty sure I have not used since the last move which I am either selling or donating.

One thing that has not changed is the excellent return I feel I am getting on my Bitcoin. I am hodling for when Bitcoin hits $100k or more a coin. So, right now I am just racking up some interest on something I am saving anyhow. I actually did get a little monthly earnings report from MyConstant and just for having my (small) Bitcoin balance sitting in the platform I made almost $17 in Bitcoin interest.

I have about $800 invested in Bitcoin that has gone up in value to around $2,800 worth of Bitcoin and I earned 0.00046942 satoshi which is around $17. Now the really cool thing is that they pay me interest in more Bitcoin so when the value spikes that “free money” becomes worth even more. Free money is one of my favorite things and I will keep on earning more crypto with MyConstant since this is really a passive income stream that I believe will really pay off in the near future.

You can also see I was curious about the PRV token and I did switch my earning from the 8% BTC rate to the 11% PRV reward just for a couple of days so I could say I have some PRV. As you can see in just a couple days of earning I snagged 0.86502870 PRV. I still do not know what I will use the PRV token for so I am planning to keep my interest earning in Bitcoin.

Speaking of Bitcoin as I write this article (mid Feb) Bitcoin has hit yet another all time high and broke through the 50K mark. This was likely due to more institutional investors jumping into the game and buying up more of the crypto. I am sure that Elon Musk’s 150 Billion dollar purchase was also a contributing factor.

I keep waiting for a decent pullback on Bitcoin before I purchase more but I feel like the more I wait the less there will be an opportunity to buy on the dip. I want to increase my holding in MyConstant since the little bit I do have is still building. There is one sticking point for me and the transferring of Bitcoin into Myconstant. The minimum I can transfer is 0.005 which equates to about $250 worth of Bitcoin so I am not yet able to gather all my small balances from all the faucets and sign up bonuses just yet.

Etherium is another avenue I am going to pursue and the minimum deposit amount is 0.1 ETH which works out to be around $181 which is a little easier to get started earning that sweet 8% APR on the idle crypto.

As always if you are looking for a referral code I would greatly appreciate you using mine. If you are holding crypto where do keep it and what kind of return are you getting? Please leave a comment below and let us know.

Thanks for reading.

I am turning off the option to comment since I have been getting spammed in the comments. Really I have had over 1,000 comments trying to advertise online pharmacies. I did not realize those were still a thing.

January 16 2021

Cutting Ties With Groundfloor (For Now)

The Beast Opportunities, Updates Investing, Passive Investments, Peer-to-peer

Well as you might have been able to tell from my featured image I am cutting ties with Groundfloor. I do not know if this will be forever but I am not investing in Groundfloor for the foreseeable future.

What is Groundfloor?

Groundfloor is a really cool concept that brings investors (lenders) and borrowers together in order to flip or rehab properties. This is one of the best sectors of the peer to peer (p2p) lending space largely in part because the the loans are backed by a piece of real estate.

Groundfloor allows you to invest in a “loan” for as little as $10 allowing even those with humble investments amounts to diversify over many different loans. This is one of the lowest points of entry into the p2p lending space that you will find.

The returns are decent on the platform, not the best but certainly they outperform many other platforms out there today. The platform also allows you to search for the time horizon that meets your needs. For me I search for the highest return with the shortest amount of time remaining on the loan. I prefer the higher rates but like to cycle my money more often so, I appreciate the flexibility.

There are some good aspects to the site and I do not want to completely flame them as a company. I do feel that for some reason, either the platform is too large or is not properly managed they fall short in two key categories.

Communications from Groundfloor is mediocre at best. I continue to watch the properties (virtually) that I invest in. I track the progress and I watch them on the different real estate sites. I track the listing prices as well as any reductions. In some instances I see the reduction in listing price before there is an update on the platform.

Due diligence is really the responsibility of the investor but that being said there are some things investors need to rely on Groundfloor for. Things such as who the borrower is and their past performance which is reported on the platform. I believe that this makes Groundfloor one of the better sites in that they have the ability to report the past performance (with Groundfloor) on the site. I am curious about the reporting since often times the platform will indicate that the borrower has completed X number of projects although there is no further information in relation to the timeliness of the completion. The borrower could have completed four projects but three of them could have gone past the maturity date. There appears to be no way to verify the timeliness of payments.

In closing I am still a huge fan of the platform’s concept and the structure seems sound. I am just concerned that some of the borrowers may be more of a mom and pop operation who may not be able to deliver on the timeline indicated on the site. At least the handful of loans I have invested in have had small issues meeting the maturity date.

I do not want to group Groundfloor in the same category as Prosper but my success rate is starting to look pretty similar to what I had experienced on Prosper, and I am sticking to “B” rated loans and above.

You will have to determine for yourself whether or not Groundfloor will work for you and allow you to achieve your investment goals. Right now Groundfloor is being shelved as there are better opportunities available to me right now.

January 6 2021

Update: January 2021 MyConstant p2p Lending Progress

The Beast Crypto, Opportunities, Updates Bitcoin, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Passive Income

First of all I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I know we have all set some great investing goals for 2021 and I hope you achieve yours.

This is my second MyConstant monthly update and I am planning to continue writing updates every month for a year to keep you guys in the loop as to how the site is working for me.

There have been a couple changes, not only in my financial situation but also with the website and app. The site and app have both been updated and there are a couple cool new features that I will talk about. I have used some of them but there are some that I have not yet tried but can still explain what they are and how they work.

Gift cards have now been added to the site which is pretty cool. The best part is that you can save a little bit on the purchase of the gift card, actually up to 3%. There are currently over 40 different options (retailers) available and some pretty big names are available. For example there is an Amazon cash card and these days almost everyone is buying something from Amazon. Also there are food options like Dominoes Pizza. Very cool, cause I mean come on who does not like pizza?

The second new feature is called Feed and Give. Feed and give is a little emoji dog that you feed. You do basic tasks which give you different amounts of food. For example if you deposit you get 1.5 lbs of food, if you just do a daily check in you can get .5 lbs of food and when you get 3 lbs you can feed your little dog. There is a feature to compete with friends but the coolest part of this feature is that you can donate the coins you earn to charity. I think this is something great that MyConstant has rolled out as a way to give a little something back.

The third and probably the best is the Prize Wheel. Since MyConstant is now two years old (Happy Birthday BTW!) you can send them a Birthday wish and complete a few other tasks to earn spins on the wheel. The grand prize on the wheel is $1,000 USD. I have not won the 1k prize (yet) but I have won a ton of membership points (which can be used for more spins) or used to upgrade your status to a gold membership. I will share that I did win the $1 prize. I hope my long lost relatives do not come out of the woodwork looking for a handout.

Those are the three new features on the site as for me, I set a goal to get back up to where I was previously with my investments and I was able to put another $4,000 into the site. I have most if it invested in the 30 day 6% APR loans since I like the liquidity and a little bit in my Flex account.

You might be wondering why I bother to keep a little in my Flex account when the rate is 2% higher in the 30 day crypto backed loans. Well there is always the hopes of snagging one of the highly lucrative secondary market orders. If you think this sounds complicated let me tell you the hardest thing about those is the timing. They open them up and you just click on the ones you want to try and fund. All the ones who want in are placed into a “pool” of investors and one is chosen. They are only open for a few minutes so I have the notifications turned on so I can try and get some. I have been successful on some in the past.

I might have to pull some money out next month as we are moving to another house and there are always extra expenses involved with that. I am hopeful that I will be able to replace whatever funds I pull out very quickly though. So right now MyConstant is kind of where I am keeping my extra cash so I can earn interest at a much higher rate than any bank could ever offer right now.

Finally we have all seen the crypto market on fire and next month I will talk a bit more about the changes made to the crypto interest and give an update on how much interest I am earning on my Bitcoin. I will give you a hint, it is doing pretty darn good right now.

As always I encourage others to sign up and get in on this greatness. If you use my referral link I do get a small bonus for you signing up through the link which costs you nothing. Thank you for reading I appreciate it and happy investing.

December 1 2020

MyConstant p2p Lending Update December 2020

The Beast Opportunities, Updates Bitcoin, Crypto, P2P, Passive Investments

If you do not know by now I am a pretty big fan of a rather new peer to peer (p2p) lending site that offers more than the typical unsecured p2p loan options. I am starting a new series of web articles about MyConstant.com and I will be giving monthly updates. I plan to do this for a year, so that I can track my progress of building up not only #Crypto mostly #bitcoin but also to build up some USD.

This would probably be a great spot to insert my goal and outline what I hope to accomplish with this platform. So, I want to be able to build back up to at least $5,000 USD to continue to invest in the crypto backed loans at the current rate of 6% which will bring in $25 monthly. Additionally I would like to make some moves with my crypto holdings which would bring me up to at least 1/10^th of a Bitcoin by the end of next year. So I threw down the gauntlet on my goals and I am confident that by using MyConstant I will not only achieve those goals but most likely I will exceed them. (Check back next month to see where I started and how much I have improved.)

You may have read some of my previous postings about MyConstant and how the platform functions. In case you have not you can either read one of them here or here.

In essence MyConstant is a p2p lending platform. I know what you are going to say. I had bad experiences with p2p lending in the past as well. In fact I have a few sub-standard experiences with Groundfloor I could share with you right now. I am telling you though this one is different. That is what everyone says though. Hopefully after you see the progress I am going to make with MyConstant you will be convinced and will give it a try for yourself.

I think it was the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, himself who said “the number one rule of investing is to not lose money” and the number two rule was “never forget rule number one.” Or, something along those lines. Now I personally cannot say that I have never lost money on an investment. I can say that thankfully I have made more than I have lost. I can also say that I have never lost a single red cent through the MyConstant platform.

My whole mission is to share information with other people that they could use to increase their wealth. I truly believe there is enough wealth in the world for everyone.

I do not sell, push, or promote any get rich quick techniques or promise that you can double your money overnight. I can assure you though that with the MyConstant platform everything is explained pretty clear and what you see is what you get. I have invested several thousand dollars at a time in this platform and again, I have never lost a penny.

A quick disclaimer: I do have referral links in my articles and in the future I plan to have an affiliates page built into the site. But once again the reviews I write are my own thoughts and my own words, I share my honest opinion and if a site is great I want to pass that along. If a site is shady or I believe it to be a scam I am not afraid to point that out as well. I will have an article shortly about a crypto trading platform that scammed me out of $200.

As I mentioned I had several thousand dollars invested in MyConstant. I say “had” because I had to pull some money out of the platform to pay for a purchase we made recently. This was pretty simple and I had my money back in my account in a couple days, typical for an ACH transfer.

I am someone who does not like debt at all. I have been drowning in debt and I have been debt free (including my mortgage). I will say that debt free is definitely a better way to live your life. If you are not debt free (yet) I hope you can experience that freedom soon.

One thing that MyConstant does is it allows users to store cryptocurrencies on the site and pays interest on that digital asset. Right now I only have Bitcoin stored in the site which has been on fire during the end of 2020. I bought into Bitcoin when it was around $8,000 USD to one Bitcoin. I am always leery of these digital currencies and did not purchase very much. All in I think I have about $600 invested. With the current price of Bitcoin hovering ever so close to the $20,000 mark I could sell half of my Bitcoin and recoup 100% of my investment.

If you follow me on instagram you might have seen the post where I showed everyone the email I got from MyConstant indicating that I earned $10 USD in Bitcoin through interest. My current holdings in BTC are not substantial but the current rate of 9% APR compounded every second adds up. I plan to keep storing some BTC on the site and will continue to let that balance build.

I can say that if you are not interested in buying Bitcoin there are ways to earn crypto for free. How you ask? Well, there are sites that are called crypto fountains. You basically get a free click usually every hour or so and they reward you with small (like really small) amounts of coins. When you have enough you can transfer to a wallet. Once you have .005 worth (as of Dec, 2020 that is about $90-$100 worth) you can start earning that 9% APR.

There are many out there who do not want to even mess with crypto and I understand that. There are other ways to earn decent interest that I will cover next month. So, be sure to check back often.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment or any questions you might have.

October 15 2020

Loans at 100% Loan To Cost

The Beast Beginners, Opportunities, Updates 26

I know I have been spending a lot of time writing about MyConstant but I wanted to add another update to my blog about another p2p platform that I have been using and I mentioned before that I was going to shift away from Groundfloor for a couple reasons. (Obviously I ended up keeping some funds rolling through the platform) If you want to sign up I would appreciate if you used my referral link.

So if you did not read my previous post about Groundfloor I will give you a quick rundown of what it is. Groundfloor is a p2p platform that connects borrowers to lenders and the loans are usually backed with real estate as collateral. Sometimes the loan is being used to rehab and resell the home used as collateral. Other times there is a home used as collateral to rehab a separate home. In both instances there is some real estate backing the loan in the event that the borrower defaults then the home could be foreclosed on and the proceeds of the home sale would be used to satisfy the loans.

What I really like about this is that Groundfloor allows very small investments (as small as $10) allowing someone to potentially diversify into many different loans. I think the general loan to value (LTV) is usually in a range that would allow for a fairly quick sale to satisfy the loans. The LTV also ensures that the borrower has some “skin in the game”

One of the many things I use as criteria for my loans is the option to only loan in states that have a non-judicial process for repossession. Basically these are states where the whole repo process does not need to go to court which can significantly increase the time line. Another thing I consider is how much skin in the game the borrower has. Generally the more equity the borrower has put in the more serious they are about not defaulting on the loan.

I think that Groundfloor has decent rates of return on the loans and you are able to find an array of different terms. I generally search out rates that are above 7% and have terms of less than six months. Groundfloor is open to non-accredited investors so pretty much anyone has the opportunity to invest in these deals. I think this is a great option for people who are just getting started and may not have a lot of extra money to get going.

There is a new option available on Groundfloor called Loan100 which I think benefits the borrower more than the lender. This particular loan allows for a 100% Loan To Cost (LTC) but is reserved for lenders with a long track record with Groundfloor. Basically Groundfloor is allowing borrowers to borrow the entire cost of the rehab.

This is great for borrowers and allows them to move quicker on deals and potentially reduce time between projects. Some investors might actually prefer these loans since they will undoubtedly be reserved for only those borrowers with impeccable track records, making them much more likely to repay and repay on time. This is an opportunity to invest in loans for borrowers with an excellent track record.

Would you loan money out at 100% LTV?

Thanks for reading and be sure to leave a comment below to let us know what you think about this 100% Loan To Cost opportunity.

October 6 2020

Possibly My Last MyConstant Review

The Beast Opportunities, Updates Investing, MyConstant, Opportunity, Passive Investments, Review 18

This is my third review of the MyConstant platform. Will this be the last time I do so? Read to the end and find out.

This is one more update to my experiences with the MyConstant peer-to-peer (p2p) platform and here I will highlight some of the things I like and a couple of the things that I dislike.

First of all, if you have not read my previous posts on my constant you can check them out here and here. MyConstant, for those of you who do not already know is a secured non-custodial p2p lending platform responsible for linking up investors with borrowers and do so by cutting out the middle man (the banks). As a side note, I am trying to build my amount of referrals up (Sign up here) and I am compensated for that. I just wanted to be transparent about that but this is a site that I do personally use and have several thousand dollars invested through the platform.

*These are my current active loans with MyConstant. They are all 30 day loans made at 6% APR.*

The loans on Constant are underwritten and secured by an escrow system that stores cryptocurrency as collateral. So, an example would look like this. Tom would like to borrow $1,000 for 30 days. Tom would deposit a crypto coin such as Bitcoin (BTC), Etherium (ETH), or BNB (A coin developed by Binance in 2017). You might be adverse to dealing with Crypto for several reasone, but do not worry you do not need to get into Crypto anything in order to enjoy the returns MyConstant is offering. The key here is that Tom needs to deposit $1,500 USD worth of the coin as collateral. This is necessary due to the volatility in the crypto markets and ensures that the collateral could be sold to repay the loan in the event of a default.

Therefore, Harry wants to earn interest on some of his money so he loans $1,000 to Tom for a 30 day term at 6% interest. This is all done anonymously through the MyConstant platform and completed through a smart contract. In the event that Harry does not pay Tom back his principle, Tom’s crypto is sold and Harry gets repaid his principle and interest. Furthermore if the value of the collateral is diminished through market conditions, the crypto is sold to pay Harry back.

*MyConstant does allow users to top up their crypto in the event that there is a big swing in the value and allows the loan to continue without the crypto being sold.

But why would I put up my Crypto as collateral? Why would I not just sell the Cyrpto and use those funds instead of taking a loan? There are many people who believe that the value of Crypto will increase significantly which would require them to have to buy more Crypto and miss out on the price increase.

I really like the idea that my loans are collateralized. I have used other p2p platforms in the past and have been burned. You can read about it herePeer-to-peer lending, is it right for you?. Too often p2p platforms fail investors by a lack of due diligence which leaves us with losses.

I also like that I am able to chose the term of my loan. Loans are available in 30, 90, and 180 day increments with the interest rates set at 6%, 6.5%, and 7% respectively. Personally I prefer the shorter 30 day terms which I feel provides me with a more liquid position allowing me to invest in other things should a hot opportunity present itself.

*MyConstant offers different rates for different lengths of time.*

I wanted to try out the loan aspect of MyConstant so I went took a 30 day loan and used some of my BTC stored on the site as collateral. Now here is where I come to the point I am not a fan of. There is a matching fee of 2.5% which is OK because the site needs to generate some revenue in order to keep running. There is also an early repayment fee. I chose to terminate my loan early because I really did not need the funds, I just wanted to check out the function to have a better understanding.

The early repayment fees look like this: If you repay the loan before 3/4 of the term you will end up paying 50% of the interest that you would have incurred if you took the loan to term. If you repay your loan after 3/4 of your term (up until the due date) you will pay 100% of the interest for the term. If you repay late you will incur an additional 10% of the total interest due. I will say that there are multiple warnings and notifications of the fees before you repay any of the loans so they get a plus for the transparency.

I have pretty much covered the 4% return on the Flex account in my other articles and anyone who has ever had money in a traditional bank in the past decade knows that 4% return on your idle cash completely destroys the rates that any bank or credit union is currently offering. That also includes rates on Certificates of Deposit (CDs).

There is one more part of MyConstant that I would like to cover, and this is probably the most lucrative opportunity on the entire site. That special little portion is called the secondary market. These are where some people are willing to sell one of the loans they are invested in and get their funds back early. You might be asking yourself why you would want to buy one of those short term loans. The deal with these is that the interest rates are very high. Let me say that again. The interest rates are very high. I have seen rates as high as 137% for a few days term. Now these are APRs so that is a yearly percentage which you will only be able to earn the rate for a few days.

The way MyConstant does this is they open the option up to diamond level members (invest 100K within 180 days) and they get the first shot at trying to get these loans. MyConstant then open up the loan to all members for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 minutes the pool closes and one of the entrants is chosen (at random) to fund the loan. I have seen pool sizes of 15-30 people, so I feel confident about the odds. The problem is that they seem to always come between 7PM and 1AM and you have to be quick, 10 minutes goes by quick when you are not in the pool and very slow after you are in.

I have yet to win one of the secondary market loans but I am confident that once I reach diamond status I will increase my odds.

My final thoughts on MyConstant are pretty much in line with what I have thought since I started using them. I am a huge fan of MyConstant and I think they offer one of the best ways to grow your money securely. They only require $10 to get started with a Flex account and $50 minimum for the Crypto backed loans. I started small because I wanted to get a feel for the site and make sure it was not a scam. I now have several thousand dollars in the site that I am continually rolling over into new loans and I am thoroughly enjoying watching my money grow.

So, will this be my final update on MyConstant? I do not think so. I will continue to use this platforms as I think this is the best one I have found and once you get the hang of it, the site is easy to use.

If you have any questions reach out or leave a comment. Thanks for reading.