Blog Archive: May 2018 | Reinis Fischer

Reducing 10% from existing portfolio (Mintos, Baltic stocks & Crytpo) - To quickly accumulate cash for funding US stock purchases on LynxBroker

20 May, 2018 | Investments | 23 seen

I didn't have a plan to reduce my existing holdings, neither from Baltic stocks, Mintos or crypto investments, but in order to keep up with my investment goals - I just have to

Long story short - I opened a low-cost European brokerage account at Lynx Broker, and despite it requires a minimum deposit of EUR 3,000 to open an account there, I asked could I do it in several batches. Turns out you can.

Low-Cost European Stock Broker - LynxBroker.com Review

Now, I decided to start small and deposited EUR 470 (~USD 550) to Lynxbroker, once money arrived I happily decided to buy first US stock. And here it was, warning saying:

The order on was rejected with reason: 'YOUR ORDER IS NOT ACCEPTED. MINIMUM OF 2000 USD (OR EQUIVALENT IN OTHER CURRENCIES) REQUIRED IN ORDER TO PURCHASE ON MARGIN, SELL SHORT, TRADE CURRENCY OR FUTURE'.

There is a good explanation for this warning on the Lynx broker website (Minimum requirements)

Minimum amount for trading in options

The total value of your portfolio (value of securities plus cash) must be at least $ 2,000 USD (or an equivalent amount of a different currency) in order to be able…

Low Cost European Stock Broker - LynxBroker.com Review

18 May, 2018 | Investments | 61 seen

Lynxbroker.com is a European (Dutch) discount brokerage offering relatively cheap $5 commissions for US stock trades.

Lynxbroker.com is affiliated with Interactive Brokers, and what's really sweet - the minimum required deposit is just EUR 3,000

Best stock options trading platform in Georgia (and most of the rest of the World)

I was struggling to gather a minimum of $10,000 deposit to open an Interactive Brokers account when a blog reader Mikheil recently pointed me to a Lynx broker.

Hi Reinis, take a look at https://www.lynxbroker.com/, https://www.lynxbroker.fi/, https://www.lynx.nl/ in Europe. Their parent company I believe is Interactive Brokers, but with Lynx you can open an account with a minimum of 3000 USD.

Said done, in total it took me about 2 weeks to successfully open a Lynx broker account with even less than EUR 3,000 depositing. After Mikheil' s comment, I proceeded to LynBroker.com webpage and started my application, by filling out some basic data. I didn't upload proof of identity…

Matching interest earned on Mintos.com Peer to Peer Lending Platform

12 May, 2018 | Peer to Peer Lending | 15 seen

Seems that 2018 is a year of great experiments for me, I have started to build up an emergency fund, also I've started 52 weeks money challenge and now I have decided to run another financial experiment - matching interest earned on mintos.com peer to peer platform.

The challenge is simple, at the start of each month I will match and deposit the same amount I received from the platform in the previous month.

Mintos.com Review After 12 Month of Investing in Peer to Peer Lending

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to mintos.com peer to peer lending website, by clicking on links on this page and by making an investment on mintos.com, I might earn affiliate income at no cost to you. Also, I'm not a financial advisor and I don't give you any advice, I'm just sharing my own experience. Investments in stocks, funds, bonds or cryptos are risk investments and you could lose some or all of your money. Do your due diligence before investing in any kind of asset.

I've been investing with Mintos.com since the start of 2017. The platform has turned out to be the most…

High Yield Dividend Stock Buy Ideas: AWP, FGB, DHY

10 May, 2018 | Investments | 8 seen

I still haven't opened a decent discount stock broker for buying US stocks (I have been in talks of opening a broker account at Lynx Broker), while in the middle of the process, I decided to investigate some high yield dividend stocks in the US.

There are dozens of great dividend income blogs, I love to read their monthly dividend income reports and of course, compare my self to others. Just google - "+month dividend income report" and you will be amazed finding a ton of great reading.

Some bloggers are high net individuals while others are not. One interesting blog I have been following for about a year is John from DividendQuest.com, by reading John's monthly dividend income reports I noticed he is investing in high yield REIT's, with a dividend yield ranging 7-11%. Now, this is some serious yield, but sure it's more risk as well. What was more surprising (at least for me). John has in his portfolio stocks paying dividends monthly. Wow, I thought. DividendQuest.com inspired me, and without hiding, I admit I took following stocks from John's portfolio - AWP, FGB, and DHY.

My plan…

Super Charging May 2019 Dividend Income ($300/mo Goal)

8 May, 2018 | Investments | 20 seen

May is one of the busiest dividend paying months from the Baltic Stocks. I've been investing in the Baltic stocks since 2017, and dividend income generated from the Baltic stocks slowly are growing. Nothing to brag about, but still, humble but decent.

In May 2017, I made $65.45 from peer to peer lending and Baltic stocks. Although the May of 2018 is just barely started I'm looking on about $140 this May. That's about $75 increase year on year.

In fact, May of 2018 promised about $200 in passive income, but I rushed a bit and sold one great dividend paying stock, as I believed a dividend cut to 0 is happening, just shortly I sold, it was announced that there will be an increased dividend. I sold with a profit and re-invested this money into other dividend-paying stocks. But after an announcement came I calculated that if I would keep the stock I would make about EUR 45 from this stock in dividends this May. Sadly I sold a day before the announcement.

As they say, that's life, nothing is granted. What at one point seems like the bad stock, in the other morning can turn into best dividend…

April 2018 Dividend Income Report - $95.47

6 May, 2018 | Investments | 12 seen

Welcome to the twelfth (#12) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from the Baltic dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending (both fiat and cryptocurrencies).

Wow, already twelve dividend income reports, that's one year of tracking my road to the million dollars by the time I will turn 60. The last April marked also a small one-year anniversary since I've been investing in the Baltic stocks, you can read my review here: Baltic Dividend Stock Market Review - Thoughts After Investing for a One Year

April turned out neither good, neither bad. I was looking to crack $100 milestone this month, but because of one dividend payment been paid in May, instead of April, the total income was lower as expected. (That's for the bad news, but still, nothing bad here, as I still will get paid in May).

Amazon OneLink? No, Thanks - Improve Page Load times by removing Third Party scripts

5 May, 2018 | Servers | 7 seen

I felt very enthusiastic once Amazon announced OneLink, it seemed like a missing puzzle to serve international customers and boost earnings as an Amazon associate.

Now many months later I have very ambivalent feelings regarding this - yes, I've made some extra dollar (pound and euro) by serving Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de - on the other hand, earnings from these versions are humble not to say more, and in fact earnings from Amazon.com have started to dip for couple of months (I'm not blaming Amazon OneLink here)

After I decided to remove Social Share buttons from my blog to improve Page load times I discovered that on some pages javascript from Amazon actually is the biggest issue for blogs performance, and with combination of low income from Amazon OneLink, I decided it's time to further limit external javascript in order to improve page load times and speed.

Here is the test from an article containing amazon associates third-party javascript (OneLink and Recommendations) before optimizing this page for better load times

Page load times for page with Amazon Javascripts

In fact, that's a pretty…

How To Regenerate Drupal GMAP Marker Cache (Request for Invalid Marker Set)

3 May, 2018 | Drupal Development | 25 seen

Although it doesn't happen often, in rare situations you might get in trouble with GMAP marker sets. The most common case is change with folder permissions or migrating site to another host.

How to add Custom Markers for Gmap Module Drupal

Here is how it looks:

Request for invalid marker set notification

And here is how map field looks:

Map with a missing marker (s)

The default map is displayed.

Luckily there is a simple solution - delete gmap.markers.js file from files/js folder, and markers will regenerate by themselves.

sudo rm -rf gmap_markers.js

Now, run clear cache and all markers should be back

Marker cache cleared

Postcards from Kuldīga

1 May, 2018 | | 7 seen

Kuldīga has been featured on the blog many times, starting old brick bridge over the Venta river, including flying fish over Venta rapid, ending some of the finest Kuldīga restaurants

In today's Piece of Life series - a tranquil sunset from Kuldīga

Statue of Love during sunset in Kuldīga

A cool, wood carved sculpture. Compare this one with the metallic sculpture of Ali and Nino (located in Batumi, Georgia)

Brick bridge in Kuldīga

Brick bridge in Kuldīga over the river of Venta according to some sources is the longest of its kind bridge in Europe.

The brick bridge across the Venta has been serving the people of Kuldīga since 1874. It was according to 19th century standards. The 164 metre long arched bridge with seven spans of brick arches with boulder abutments was not only the largest and most ornate in the territory of Latvia but also one of the most modern in Europe.

Postcards from Kuldīga