In the meantime, savings interest rates are rising again and you no longer get 0.02% on your savings when you put it in a savings account. However, there is still a lot to be gained in this area. To put some of my savings “to work” I use Nexo (insert affiliate link here). I ended up at this party because I was looking for a higher savings interest rate on my euros. At that time, Nexo (insert affiliate link here) had just closed a deal with Lloyds Bank of England for a guarantee fund. This piqued my interest and I started reading up on this platform. Here I quickly came across something exceptional, namely that a “real time audit” (Put a link here) is done and this can be requested at any time. This means that you can submit a request at any time to see whether Nexo (place an affiliate link here) has enough money in hand to pay everyone back. This in combination with the guarantee fund gave me enough confidence to start working with them.

Nexo (insert affiliate link here) provides several options. Because in addition to saving, you can also trade, farm and apply the so-called DCA strategy. For now I'll stick to saving. The other points will be discussed later. What's interesting about Nexo (insert affiliate link here) is that they give a decent interest rate on the money you can withdraw freely. This means that you can withdraw your money from the platform at any time. “What is that percentage then?” Do I hear you thinking? Well that starts at 5% (at the time of writing) and if you tie up your money for a longer period of time (a kind of deposit) you will get paid a higher return for it. For example, you get 7% when you lock your money for 3 months and 10% when you lock your money for a year on Nexo (place an affiliate link here) (at the time of writing). If you look at the fact that the highest interest rate currently paid in the Netherlands is 2.86% (at the time of writing) on your savings (at Bunq), then this is almost twice as high as standard! When you fix it even up to almost 4 times as high! But higher returns come with risks. For example, at a Dutch bank you have coverage of up to EUR 100,000 on your savings, but that is not the case here. Euros are held 1 to 1 by Nexo (place an affiliate link here).

You can also choose to buy Nexo's own crypto (place an affiliate link here). This allows you to increase your own loyalty level so that you get paid more interest. (This does entail risk because the value of the Nexo token can fluctuate in value).

What I do:

I deposit x amount to Nexo every month (place an affiliate link here). I then do the following with this: I create an interest carousel. This means that I set different terms on my deposited money. This means that over time you will receive your interest payments at several times a year, creating a kind of “cash flow system”. (An interesting book about this is the book “Cashflow” (insert affiliate link here)). If I were to deposit 100 euros per month, it would look like this for me:

I fix -10 euros for a year on day 1.

I fix -20 euros for 3 months on day 1.

I fix -20 euros for 3 months at half of the month.

I leave -50 euros variable.

I then enable the “immediately extend” option for all terms. This means I don't have to think about it myself and the money is fixed again immediately after the term expires at the then applicable interest rate. It is also possible to turn this off again when you need your money again.

PLEASE NOTE: if your money is tied up, you MUST wait until the term has expired before you can access your money again!

The next month you do exactly the same again with the 100 euros. When you have done this for 3 months, this means the following:

-Every day you get paid interest on 150 euros.

-Every 2 weeks you get paid interest on 20 euros.

-You will still receive increased interest on your 1-year term, but you cannot do this yet.

After this you can choose to do the following:

-Let the deadlines expire and do nothing with them.

-To restart the deadlines.

-Increase the installments with the next month's deposit.

-Increase the installments by the following month's deposit plus the interest received.

If you were to put 100 euros per month on Nexo (place an affiliate link here) for a year, this would mean the following:

-You get paid interest every day on 600 euros.

-You will be paid interest on 80 euros every 2 weeks.

-You will be paid interest on 10 euros every month.

So you have now created a complete interest carousel! Now you can see whether this strategy still suits you or whether you would rather do something else. With the percentages of 5.7 and 10%, this strategy means that you earn the following:

-You get paid 5% on 600 euros: 30 euros.

-You get paid 7% on 480 euros: 33.60 euros.

-You get paid 10% on 120 euros: 12 euros.

In total this is 75.60 euros over 1000 euros, which equates to a return of 7.56%!

Now we're going one step further. Because there is something special in the world of crypto. Some projects (Blockchains) use “proof of stake”. In short, this means that they reward people by keeping their crypto. Large parties ensure that these tokens are fixed and cannot be moved for a certain period of time. This makes the value of the coin more stable. To promote this you can assess transactions. When you do this you will receive a reward in return. This reward is therefore paid in their own crypto currency (token). This whole process is way too complicated and way too expensive for most people (like me). Fortunately, a solution has been devised for this: you can delegate (a kind of loan) your tokens to the major parties that do this. Of course, these parties do this for a reason. They want something in return: a portion of the reward received. So you don't have to pay them anything yourself, because they deduct this from the return you receive. If you are already more familiar with crypto and you already have a so-called “defi wallet”, you can choose to look for higher returns on the blockchain itself. I will tell you more about this later. For now we'll keep it simple and look at the major parties that are easy to use.

For this I will not go into all platforms myself. But I personally use the following platforms/crypto providers:

Bitvavo, Blox, Coinmerce, Nexo, Coinbase, Bybit (insert affiliate link here).

But why not use just 1 platform? Well that has several reasons:

-I spread my risk. Because it is of course possible that a party goes bankrupt. Then you lose your money. That is why I am in favor of not leaving too much money with one central party.

-Not every provider gives the same interest or, more accurately, “staking percentage” (some parties keep a much larger part of the reward obtained for themselves). This is how I look at every crypto where I can get the best return. (This can make a huge difference to your returns).

-Not every provider has the same offer. It may be that one party has just the one crypto that you wanted.

Now there is a significant risk associated with striking. If you lend your money to a large party and they do not adhere to the rules, you may lose part of your investment. In addition, you also suffer from price fluctuations. A very high interest rate is often not desirable in the event of discontinuation. Because think of it like this:

You go to the bakery and you are standing in the bakery with 10 other customers. Unfortunately, the baker only has 1 loaf left. You all really want this bread, so the baker can suddenly charge a lot more for his bread. Instead of selling his bread for 2 euros, he sells his bread today for 4 euros!

Now you come back a day later and the baker thought it would be just as busy as yesterday. Unfortunately for the baker, you are the only one who comes by, but he has now baked 10 loaves of bread. Because you are now alone and the baker does not want to throw away his loaves, you get a fixed discount. 4 loaves of bread for 2 euros.

Now you have to think of the breads in this example as the crypto coins. So if there are suddenly many more of them but there are not many more people who want them, they will quickly become less valuable. Please believe me that I misunderstood this at first. I have chased the mountains of gold and have come home from a rude awakening almost every time. From now on I will mainly look at the large projects that have been around for a long time. (In crypto it is quite an achievement if your project has been around for 4 years). A good example of this is Etherium (ETH). The number 2 of the largest cryptos ranking. You get paid +- 4% interest for this crypto. You could see this as a “Divident”. So you are, as it were, paid a fee for your confidence in the project. What you do with this compensation is up to you. You can reinvest this again and discontinue it or you can cash it out. By having more tokens, you receive more interest, but you also have more exposure to price fluctuations (which can be quite intense in crypto).

Before you start staking:

-Watch a video from BLOX (insert affiliate link here) about staking.

-Check the crypto project's website to see whether it is actually “proof of stake”.

-Look up the price development of the crypto token at www.coingecko.com or www.coinmarketcap.com.

Again, no financial advice. But especially if you're going to start with this: keep it easy. Start with the biggest guys because the chance that you will completely lose your money is much smaller than if you go for a mini project or a project that is very new. Once again, crypto is not about getting rich quick. But not to lose all your money. That money is lost very easily. But you have to work very hard to earn it back! A small example:

Suppose you have 100 euros. You put this in a crypto and it loses 50% of its values. You then have 50 euros left. If you want to go from 50 euros back to 100 euros, you should not earn 50% because then your 50 euros are worth 75 euros. No, you have to make 100% profit to get back to where you were when you started.

Now if we were to invest those 100 euros in crypto a for 5% and 100 euros in crypto b that gives 100% interest. I'm sure 80% would go for crypto b (because that's what I did before). Now the following happens: after a year, crypto a is still worth 100 euros. Thanks to your interest, you have now earned 5 euros. Unfortunately, crypto b turned out to be too good to be worth and is no less than 80%!! (this really happens very often) loses its value. Due to your interest, the loss has been limited, but you now have 40 euros instead of the 100 euros you started with. So you lost 60 euros. Suddenly that 5% doesn't sound so crazy, right?

Crypto tokens are also called Crypto currencies. Which actually means that it is/can be a form of money. You can buy anything with money, including crypto. But what if you want to buy something but you can't afford it? Most people would say save until you can afford it. But there are also a lot of people who borrow money. Now there is a very easy option in crypto to lend you cryptos or money. Keep an eye on. If someone goes bankrupt and can no longer pay his/her bills, you as a money/crypto provider will lose your money/crypto. So handle this wisely!

Once again, a lot is possible in the DEFI world. I will come back to this later. Good returns can be achieved here and people are often only allowed to borrow a certain percentage of the collateral they have deployed. Consider a mortgage as an example. You cannot borrow more than your house is worth and if you do not pay back your loan properly, the bank may sell your house.

Many platforms give you the opportunity to earn interest on your money/cryptos. Bitvavo, Blox, Coinmerce, Nexo, Coinbase, Bybit (place an affiliate link here) are some examples of this. This makes it possible to get paid interest on almost every crypto. However, as explained earlier, this is not without risk. In my opinion, this risk is higher than when you stake your cryptos. If the percentage you get is minimal, you should ask yourself whether you think this is worth the risk. Just like with any investment you make, you must look at the risks and possible profits (risk and reward). If you want to know more about this, you can take a look at the guys from Doopiecach. These are traders and investors. What they are very good at is not just explaining what they do. But they ALWAYS insist that you must cover your risk or at least have thought about the risks. Again, no financial advice. But looking at your risks is always wise (see the example with staking).

But suppose you have confidence in the crypto project and you have enough confidence that the platform on which you put your cryptos has properly checked who is lending the money. Then it is of course a great way to get some extra returns!

Stable coins are extremely important in the crypto world. Because if everything changes a lot in value (is volatile), then it is nice if there is something with a fixed value. That is how stable coins were created. First with USDT and later also USDC and many others. What both of these tokens do is track the value of the Dollar. In theory, the value of 1 USDT and 1 USDC should always be the same as the value of 1 Dollar. Nowadays Circle (the company behind USDC) also has a stable euro: EURC.

But what can you do with these stable coins? The answer: everything. A lot is possible, especially with the USDT and USDC. Here you can get a good interest rate on most platforms. Again the following examples:

Bitvavo, Blox, Coinmerce, Nexo, Coinbase, Bybit (insert affiliate link here).

(Put the interest rates next to this)

As you can see, the interest rates you get on depositing your dollars are quite high. They can increase to a variable interest rate with a free withdrawal of 12%! The disadvantage, however, is that if you pay for everything in your life in euros, you will have to deal with exchange rates. So it's nice that you get a higher interest rate than on your euros, but if the dollar becomes less valuable it could quickly have been a bad financial choice. If you live in a country where they pay with dollars, this is of course no problem. Once again, a lot is possible in the DEFI.

If you live in the Netherlands and want to save in dollars and take the risk, there are several options:

-Read carefully Marco economic news. I personally watch a lot of videos of “Madelon Talks” on YouTube. Once a week a summary is given here about what is going on in the global economy. Which is also not entirely unimportant: it happens in normal Dutch. Of course there will be terms you don't understand at first. But it is a channel made for ordinary citizens just like me. You will naturally learn more and more and in my opinion it is really worth it if you want to get more involved in the world of stable coins!

-Keep an eye on the interest rates of the central banks of Europe and America.

-Look at the possibilities for Farming (I will come back to this later).

-See if you can adjust your strategy by, for example, exchanging the interest you receive for Euros every week/month. This limits your exposure to exchange rates. For example, when you do this on Nexo (place an affiliate link here) you could choose to convert part of your invested money into USDT or USDC. With a variable interest rate of 12%, this means 1% per month. With 100 dollars you would earn 1 dollar per month. You can then exchange these for Euros and put them back in your interest rate carousel (not financial advice).

In short, a lot is possible, but there is also risk. See what suits you best and make a great plan for it!

Investing sounds very tough and complicated. Here I'm not going to make it more difficult than it is. What you do when you invest is that you buy a crypto and want to sell it again at a later time for a higher amount than you bought it. When trading you do this in the short term and when investing you look at the long term. So you buy something that you will only sell in at least 5 years, for example. This is much less intensive after your purchase, but requires more knowledge before your purchase. Before you invest in a crypto (a share or invest at all) you must gain knowledge and have a plan. To get started, here are the steps I follow:

-What do I know about this crypto/share?

-How long has this crypto/stock been around?

-Who uses this crypto/share?

-Do I use it myself?

-How did I find out about this crypto/share? Have I known about it for a long time or is it through the grapevine?

-Do I need the money I'm going to put into this in the short term?

-How does this crypto/company make its money?

-Is the company making a profit or loss?

-Will I be paid dividends or another form of profit sharing/interest?

These are some of the questions I ask myself before buying a crypto/stock. This takes time, but in the long run you will be very happy with it! Now there are several ways to invest in the crypto world. You can buy cryptos, but you can also buy shares of companies that earn their money from their activities in the crypto world.

You can once again contact the following parties to purchase your cryptos:

Bitmymoney, Bitvavo, Blox, Coinmerce, Nexo, Coinbase, Bybit (insert affiliate link here).

(add the costs per transaction or the costs for holding your cryptos)

I use Etorro myself to purchase both cryptos and shares of companies active in the crypto world (place an affiliate link here). The advantage of Etorro (place an affiliate link here) is that you do not pay any commission on a transaction and that you can buy part of a share instead. you have to buy the entire share as with many other brokers. This means you can get started with a small amount!

The advantage of exposing yourself to the world of cryptos through shares is that the prices of shares often move less violently than those of cryptos. This means that if things go badly you could make less loss, but if things go well you could also make less profit. The knife always cuts on both sides.

Companies that (partly) make their money with cryptos include:

-Crypto exchanges: Coinbase (insert affiliate link here) (coin).

-Mining Parties.

-Manufacturers of equipment needed for the crypto world.

-Companies with many cryptos on the balance sheet (micro strategy).

With these options it is possible to gain exposure to crypto without having to physically buy cryptos yourself.

If you have decided in which crypto or which share you want to invest, the next strategy is a relatively boring but proven strategy according to many major investors, the “DCA” method. In other words, Dollar Cost Average. This means that you choose, for example, to purchase this crypto or this share every month, regardless of its value. This means that sometimes you buy a little more expensive and other times a little cheaper. But the theory behind this way of investing is that on average you pay the best price. This can also be a good way to start since you start with relatively small amounts. This means there is a much greater chance that you can let things take their course and you are less concerned about price fluctuations. Over time you become more accustomed to this and it makes it easier for you to ignore your emotions. Once again the guys from “Doopiecash” have made several good videos about this. Via Bitmymoney (place an affiliate link here) you can easily have a monthly direct debit placed, so you no longer have to look at it or think about it yourself. This party is also registered with the Dutch Bank, which of course gives an extra nice feeling.

Everyone dreams of becoming rich while sleeping. Unfortunately, that is not as easy as you think. At least, that's what I always thought. Lately I have been looking into all kinds of things about trading bots, because they can continue trading 24/7 and trade without emotions. Unfortunately, this also means that you have no control over it. In my experience it is quite a risky option. Now you can try to make such a bot yourself. If you are good with programming and ask for some help from Chat GPT, you will certainly get a long way. However, you still need knowledge about trading itself. Due to my lack of programming knowledge, I quickly got stuck and started looking for existing bots. This is where I ended up with Coinmerce and Bybit (paste your affiliate link here). These two platforms give you an option for using a Bot. Coinmerce (Paste your affiliate link here) Has 3 options: Defensive, Neutral and Aggressive. This allows you to determine the risk you want to run yourself. You can also look back at the graphs to see what the results of the bots were. At Bybit (Paste your affiliate link here) there are an incredible number of types of bots. In addition to choosing a bot that already exists, you can build your own bot. This can be done with existing parameters or with the help of AI, for example. You can also copy the profiles of traders here. This means you make the same trades as someone else, so you don't have to do anything yourself. However, many of these accounts to be copied are often bots. This means that there is a good chance that you are investing your money in someone else's bot... So be careful because that person will receive a nice compensation and if things go well, everyone is happy. Until things go wrong and then you lose your money, he only loses your money. It is therefore extremely important that you realize that this all seems very nice, but that it can also end badly very quickly. So think VERY carefully before you start this. I have only just started with this and have invested minimal amounts of around 5 euros to see what exactly these bots do. When I have more information about this subject, I will of course let you know!

Of course, farming sounds a bit special. But what it really comes down to is this:

An exchange in both the regular market and the Defi market needs money to enable their users to trade. When a platform or exchange offers a “Trading pair”, both cryptos must be sufficiently present to ensure that people can trade on them. Now they can buy these cryptos themselves. But what they can also do is find people who both want to have these cryptos and want to “lend” them to them so that they don't have to purchase them as much themselves. An exchange then makes money from you because every time a user makes a trade, the exchange receives a commission. As a thank you for delivering the cryptos that the exchange offers to the exchange in a pair, you will receive part of this commission. Your “farm reward”.

This is a technique that is widely used in the Defi world. For this you need a Defi wallet and that can be a barrier. Because besides the hassle of having to set everything up (which is quite fun to do), there is also a chance that something will go wrong. For example, investing money in a farm on the Etherium network is not affordable for small players. (You will only really benefit from this if you have thousands of euros at your disposal). But when something goes wrong, you immediately lose everything. You can be tempted too quickly by interest rates that are too attractive.

My checklist before you start farming:

-Read about “Impermenent loss” (post a YouTube link).

-Read about the differences between “APR” and “APY”.

-Read carefully about the tokens you will be farming with.

On major platforms such as: Nexo and Bybit (Paste your affiliate link here) you have the option to use a “double investment” or “Liquidity Mining”. Since this is an advanced way to invest and earn money, you often have to take a quiz first. This is an option if you have been on your crypto journey for a while. You can make good money with it, but you can also lose your money very quickly. So pay close attention to what you do here! Once again, a high percentage carries a high risk. It's not possible to get rich quick, so don't fall for it. Because if it really were that easy, why isn't everyone doing it already? If something seems too good to be true, it often is. So make sure you keep those thoughts in mind! If you still want to try it, I would choose to start with a small amount. If something goes wrong or you have overlooked something, it is not a disaster (risk management). The important thing is that you have to learn from your mistakes! Otherwise it's still a waste of your money.

You could also call this gambling when you have no idea what you are doing. I have tried this many times myself. Luckily I didn't lose a lot of money in the end. But I realize that this could have gone very wrong very quickly. Because all those stories about cryptos where you only have to invest 100 euros and then you never have to work again... If I did find them, I left them too quickly or I was too late. Studying projects is therefore really important because if you don't do your research properly first, you are just gambling. It is often the case that even with the largest crypto Bitcoin you could achieve much higher returns than if you invested in shares. Only again: A high return means a high risk. So if you consider that a large crypto entails a lot of risk, then you can imagine how much risk there is in a small crypto! If you do start with this, these were my learning moments:

-If everyone is talking about a certain crypto then you are too late.

-Don't trust infulencers.

-Create an X account and start following projects.

-Start sorting out crypto projects from top to bottom (If you look at the market cap)

-Don't make hasty decisions.

If you want to purchase your cryptos, you can do so again on the following platforms:

Bitmymoney, Bitvavo, Blox, Coinmerce, Nexo, Coinbase, Bybit (insert affiliate link here).

Here you have huge amounts of cryptos on offer. The selection is enormous, especially at Coinmerce. But the greater the supply, the greater the chance that there will be a crypto that could cost you a lot of money. An average return if you were to buy a stock index in the stock market on, for example, Etorro (place an affiliate link here) is 10%. Everything you can achieve above is a bonus! But if, for example, you are looking at a Nexo where you can even get this percentage paid out as interest, then you might have to wonder whether you want to burn your fingers with such a small crypto.

This is a special branch of sport and there are entire companies specialized in it. It is therefore very difficult to intervene here as an individual. When you are mining, this actually means that you are helping the blockchain find new blocks and thus offering computing power to the network. For this you will receive a reward based on the computing power you provide. You often need very specialized equipment for this. If you find this interesting to look at, I have a link here: (link to bitcoin mining equipment). Now I was recently told that there is also a crypto that is still in development but that makes it possible to mine crypto from your phone! This project is called “PI” (place an affiliate link here) the project says that they want to be a crypto project that is really there for everyone. As a result, it is only possible to mine via a mobile phone. This makes it possible for almost everyone to participate! It is currently not possible to sell your cryptos, but you can already mine them! The project is completely self-financed and therefore does not involve a major investor. So it really is a project where you, as a small player, can still earn something nice from it. With the current value (at the time of writing) of 34 euros per token, this means that you earn approximately 8 euros per day by mining this crypto on your phone! Every day you press the mine button this happens automatically and after 24 hours it stops and you have to click it again. So that's 8 euros for just 5 seconds of work. They can't be earned much faster! When you use my link (place an affiliate link here) you will also receive 1 PI bonus in addition to this 8 euros per day! A great start to a new adventure!

What I should mention here is that this project is not completely live yet. This means that the course and use of the project can still change enormously. This can be positive but also certainly negative. So read carefully before you start!

In addition to “PI” (insert affiliate link here), I recently came across another project: “Gomining” (insert affiliate link here). This project makes it possible to start mining BTC without huge investments! You download the app (place an affiliate link here) buy an NFT and you will receive BTC rewards deposited into your balance every day! A lot is possible with this project. You can upgrade your NFTs, you can participate in games of chance, you can buy NFTs from others and you can pay your fees with their own token “GMT” this will lower your costs and increase your potential profit. At the time of writing, you get approximately 30% return per year on your invested money. So if you buy an NFT for 30 euros, this would mean that in addition to the NFT you would also be paid approximately 9 euros worth of Bitcoin per year. So, for example, if you choose to invest 30 euros every month by purchasing an NFT on “Gomining” (place an affiliate link here), (no financial advice) then you would be paid approximately 9 euros per month after 1 year. . The profit depends on the price of Bitcoin and it is also necessary to create a Bitcoin wallet. You can do this with a central party such as: Nexo, Bitvavo, Bybit. When you have mined enough Bitcoin, it will be sent to your wallet.

Right now I'm looking into this option myself! There are many possibilities but also a number of pitfalls. When I know more about this project and have used it myself for a while I will tell you more about it!

What I still use myself is a checking account with a crypto party. This is something you have to want because it is another extra bill. However, they are often accounts with a cashback on every purchase. For example, with some cards you get up to 2% cashback deposited into your account with every purchase! So if you pay for your groceries or petrol with this card, you will automatically save a little. Still a nice bonus. The catch: You often only get the nice percentage if you have a lot of the tokens from the card provider. So it's all a bit less beautiful than it often sounds.

Bybit card: (Link) Get 10 USDT when you apply for a card and make your first transaction.

Nexo card: (link) You can choose between a Credit Card (where you borrow against your cryptos and have to repay this loan yourself) or a Debit Card where you get the same interest on your euros as if you had a savings account.

Finally, I think it would be useful to talk about decentralized finance, also known as DeFi. In short, this means that you can often use financial services anonymously. It is about projects and platforms that you can trade on that are located on the blockchain itself. In my opinion, this is the area where you can not only make the most money, but also where you can certainly lose it. The possibilities here are almost endless. You can't imagine it being so crazy that it does exist. Lending money, trading cryptos, buying "NFTs" but also playing crypto games and gambling. What you must realize very well here is the enormous amount of scammers that are here. It also means that if you start trading in defi, you are responsible for your own mistakes. If you transfer an amount to the wrong party, you cannot change anything. So you also need a DeFi wallet for this. The YouTube channel "every bit helps" has many good videos on how to create a metamask wallet and how to then place your first trade with, for example, "pancakeswap". The big advantage of DeFi is that all returns are much higher than with centralized parties. The idea is often that a centralized party gives you a reward for, for example, Staking, but that you also want to earn something from this yourself. So they take a bit of commission for the service they provide you. With DeFi you therefore remove an intermediary. This means that there is extra profit to be made for you as a user. However, this does require a large amount of knowledge that cannot be easily acquired. If you want to start with DeFi, there are a number of tips:

-Start with a blockchain that has a lot of liquidity and low transaction costs.

-Start with small amounts.

-Read carefully.

-Create an "X" account and follow some big projects such as "avalanche, solana, aave, curve, uniswap, pancakeswap".

-Learn how to make optimal use of all services.

-Only do this with money you can really afford to lose!

I personally find the world of DeFi really interesting, but it also moves really fast. The progress in the way you can make your money and therefore the complexity of these products is really increasing at a very rapid pace. So pay attention and don't get lost in all the promised returns!