Better solution than bank savings account for cash storage?

[vapid]

I've got a bit of money in Maneo. Interest payments are made every month and the principal is returned when the loan is paid off. I'm not sure if I'll invest any more because I'm a bit wary about the risk of default.

Thank you for being a data point for us all. Think you could share a bit more? How long ago you invested money, number of projects (diversified portfolio), monthly payments etc? 5 to 7% still sounds great when you compare to 0% bank accounts in Japan. But obviously the potential for default is real, though stock or equity market devaluations are equally plausible.

[N00bster]

It should also be noted that as explained on their English video, loans are not necessarily limited to the Japan market, which probably increases the risk of default. I wonder whether it is possible to limit the destination of the funds to "safer" places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE569CkcuLs

Boy, is this video shady...

[RetireJapan]

It should also be noted that as explained on their English video, loans are not necessarily limited to the Japan market, which probably increases the risk of default. I wonder whether it is possible to limit the destination of the funds to "safer" places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE569CkcuLs

Boy, is this video shady...

That is shocking. It's almost like a parody. I don't think I am interested in exploring Maneo any more

[N00bster]

That is shocking. It's almost like a parody. I don't think I am interested in exploring Maneo any more

Well, it just reveals that Maneo is a pure, old-fashioned Japanese company. They took whatever Gaijin-in-charge they had at hand at the time they wanted to promote their services to foreigners, and made him proof-read and repeat an exact translation of the announcement they would have made to a Japanese audience.

The Gaijin-in-charge, knowing more about corporate Japanese culture than he seems to know about tie knots, did not dare speaking his mind about what a business killer that video would be.

Can't say this is the first time I see this pattern, but yeah, I cannot think of a worse way to promote one's business to a foreign audience...

Also I bursted out of laughing when I saw the kilometer-long URL they expect potential customers to type into their browser.

[fools_gold]

Thank you for being a data point for us all. Think you could share a bit more? How long ago you invested money, number of projects (diversified portfolio), monthly payments etc? 5 to 7% still sounds great when you compare to 0% bank accounts in Japan. But obviously the potential for default is real, though stock or equity market devaluations are equally plausible.

When I said "a bit of money" I really meant "almost nothing". I just put in 50,000 yen to try it out. You get to choose which projects you want to lend money to. Some are in Japan, some are abroad. The lengths of the loans vary between 6 months to 2 years. Some loans are backed by guarantor companies. The interest rate varies—longer loans with no guarantor (riskier ones) offer the best rates. The minimum you can put into each project varies between 20,000 to 50,000. There are only so many funds open at a time (16 at the moment), so there's a limit on how diversified you can be. I started in July and every month I get a few hundred yen in interest payments. It takes some time between pledging your money and the loan being made and sometimes loans are paid back early. This means that your money is not be lent out all the time, so your returns might be less than you thought.

Most of the loans are used to flip commercial properties. They've not had a default since 2011, but I wonder what would happen in a recession or downturn in the property market.

[paul]

Just want to chime in that I've been using Maneo this year and have had no issues yet. They are also invested in by a large bank or securities firm, so it's not just some dude in a basement running the site.