YieldStreet Review (2023): Should You Take Their Investment Advice?

Updated On: November 23, 2023

Welcome to my Yieldstreet review. My goal is to answer common questions like: how much it costs, if it's a scam, and if you can actually make money with it. The end goal is to help you understand if it's a good fit for you personally, and if there are any better alternatives out there.
YieldStreet Review

This Yieldstreet review has been throughly researched with information and testimonials that are available online to anyone in the public. Any conclusions drawn by myself are opinions.

Table of Contents

Program At A Glance

What I liked
Access to real estate, commercial, marine, legal, and art investments
Applicable for both accredited and nonaccredited investors
Assets-backed investments
What I Didn’t Like
Highly volatile investments
Limited options are available
It's long-term

This review will look at YieldStreet to see if it is really the best alternative investment course available today.

You’ll discover if the alternative investment is the ideal online business for you.

You’ll also find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about YieldStreet and alternative investments in general at the end of this review.

Yield Street is a course that teaches you about real estate investing.

If you’ve read my other articles on real estate investing, you’ll know there are 3 primary ways to invest:

Wholesaling, buy-and-hold, and flipping.

While they each have their pros and cons, there is a ton of potential for success in investing in real estate.

Real estate has created some of the largest fortunes in world history.

That being said, you should take some time to seriously think about something:

Is now the best time for YOU to get into real estate investing?

Because despite the potential upside, investing in properties or land takes a lot of capital, and is very labor intensive.

That means if you:

  1. Have less than 3 hours per day, OR
  2. Aren’t sitting on $20K+ in disposable income

This may not be the best time for you to start investing in physical real estate.

Don’t get me wrong, real estate investing can be an amazing way to protect your assets while generating cash – but there’s a time and a place for it.

But there’s good news!

All you need is a system to generate the cash (& free time) you need to be ready for real estate investing.

My preferred method of getting there is by becoming a Digital Landlord

It takes the benefits of real estate investing, but removes many of the barriers (& annoyances), like::

  • Small cash flow on properties
  • Having to take out debt
  • Dealing with repairs and upkeep
  • Dealing with tenants

The cool part is that the income is mostly recurring (AKA semi-passive).

You could make anywhere from $2,000-$10,000+ per month doing it.

You can build it as big (or small) as you feel like, without the annoyances I listed above.

If that sounds interesting, you might want to think about using the Digital Rental Method.

Then, you can take the profits and start investing in physical real estate a year or two from now.

If you wanna see what Yield Street looks like on the inside, keep reading.

What Is YieldStreet?

What Is YieldStreet

YieldStreet is a platform for investing other than stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. It helps investors get a broader range of investments. This crowdfunded loan platform allows you to invest in art, real estate, and even litigation.

The Appeal Of YieldStreet Investments

The appeal of YieldStreet is that it makes it possible for regular people to discover investment options that are frequently only accessible to professionals. You could also use this investment strategy to diversify your portfolio by putting money into non-traditional asset classes like real estate investments or cryptocurrencies. But, of course, all investments carry some risk, just like the stock market, so this isn’t a foolproof way to make money.

Who’s Behind YieldStreet?

YieldStreet was founded by Milind Mehere (the platform’s current CEO) and Michael Weisz (currently President).

Who Is Milind Mehere?

Who Is Milind Mehere

Mehere is the person who came up with ideas like Yodle and the SMB marketing firm. Mehere started YieldStreet because he didn’t like the few investment options outside the stock market. This is where the idea of a platform for high-yield, asset-based investments came from.

Who Is Michael Weisz?

Who Is Michael Weisz

Weisz and his group concentrated on litigation finance markets for asset-based loans ranging from $5 million to $25 million. During his career, he has handled more than $600 million in transactions involving real estate, marine finance, commercial and consumer loans, and other types of assets.

Where Is YieldStreet Based?

YieldStreet is based in New York, NY, United States, and they have just one office location located in one country.

Accredited Investors Review: Is YieldStreet Going Public?

According to company CEO Mehere, the firm will soon pursue strategic acquisitions to go public within the next 12 to 24 months. The company’s platform has around 300,000 members, with investment requests increasing by 250% year over year (year to date).

YieldStreet Quick Facts

  • YieldStreet is an alternative investment platform that caters to individuals who wish to invest in alternative assets, as there is a variety of assets such as marine vessels, commercial financing, and so on.
  • Besides stocks and bonds, you may add other asset classes to your portfolio.
  • It provides both nonaccredited and accredited investors with long-term investment options.
  • Alternative assets pose unknown and potential large risks.

What Does Yieldstreet Offer?

Yieldstreet focuses on crowdfunded debt, a different kind of investment with an unknown amount of risk.

Most investments, like crowdfunded debt platforms, let you invest in real estate. However, with Yieldstreet, you can also invest in litigation finance, the purchase of a marine vessel, or the aviation industry.

If you invest in legal finance, you may be compensated after an event occurs (sometimes called a settlement event). You can fund someone’s lawsuit, and you’ll receive profits depending on the proportion of your investment after the case is resolved.

Who Is Yieldstreet For?

The platform is available to both accredited investors and unaccredited investors.

Yieldstreet is ideal for investors who do not intend to touch their money for many years.

How Much Should I Invest In Yieldstreet?

Accredited investors have various options to start with Yieldstreet. The Prism Fund requires a minimum of $1,000.

For the individual Offerings, accredited investors can start with $5,000. Whereas for the short-term Notes, the minimum investment is $1,000.

What Are The Asset Classes Of Yieldstreet’s Alternative Investments?

  • Real estate 
  • Marine
  • Art
  • Legal
  • Commercial finance

Is There A Sign-Up Bonus In YieldStreet?

There is currently no sign-up bonus involved.

What Are The Fees And Costs Involved In Yieldstreet?

  • Annual management fee – 1 to 2%
  • Prism Fund Annual Administrative Expense – 0.50%
  • IRA account maintenance fees – $299 to $399, depending on account balance
  • Annual Fund Expense – varies per investment

Yieldstreet is not a traditional brokerage account. Therefore, you will not be charged trading fees, inactivity fees, or other kinds of charges associated with such accounts. However, you will be charged an annual management fee ranging from 1% to 2% of assets, and the Prism Fund also charges an annual administrative cost of 0.50 percent.

Accredited investors must also pay flat yearly fund fees, which vary by investment.

What Is Yieldstreet Wallet?

Yieldstreet Wallet

Your Yieldstreet Wallet is a savings account maintained at FDIC-insured Evolve Bank & Trust. This implies that money placed in your Yieldstreet Wallet is insured up to the legal limit, which is currently $250,000 for an individually-owned account.

Yieldstreet Prism Fund FAQ: In What Asset Classes Does This Fund Invest?

The Prism Fund had assets in Art, Commercial, Consumer, Legal, Corporate Preferred Bonds, and Real Estate as of November 30, 2020.

What Are The Distribution Rate And Termination Date Of The Prism Fund?

The Prism Fund now distributes at an annualized rate of 8%.   This fund will expire in March 2024.

Is There A Minimum Investment Required For Prism Fund?

Yes. At the moment, the least you can invest in the Prism Fund is $1,000, but Yieldstreet has the right to change that amount at any time. Accredited investors should know that they can only buy YieldStreet Prism Fund shares with a minimum investment of $1,000. The only exception is when they buy shares through the distribution reinvestment plan.

I’m A Non-Accredited Investor. Can I Invest In Yieldstreet Prism Fund?

Yes. Non-accredited investors may invest in the Prism Fund regardless of income or net worth. To invest in this fund, you do not need to provide any paperwork to prove your accredited status.

What Does It Mean To Be An Accredited Investor?

Federal securities regulations say that only accredited investors can participate in specific securities offerings. One reason these offers are only open to accredited investors is to make sure that all investors are financially knowledgeable and able to take care of themselves or handle the risk of loss, which would make the protection of a registered offering unnecessary.

Unlike SEC-registered offers, which must disclose specific information, businesses, and private funds, such as hedge funds or venture capital funds, participating in these exempt offerings are not obliged to provide specified disclosures to accredited investors.

Other Types Of Accredited Investors:

The ones listed below may be of relevance to you:

  • Any trust with more than $5 million in total assets that were not established expressly to buy the relevant securities and whose acquisition is guided by a knowledgeable person, OR
  • A particular entity with total interests over $5 million that was not established expressly to buy the relevant securities, OR
  • Any company in which all of the stockholders are accredited investors.

Is Yieldstreet A Broker-Dealer?

Yieldstreet does not hold a broker-dealer license.

The company that runs the commercial real estate platform doesn’t make any promises or guarantees to potential investors about whether or not it is legal to invest in Yieldstreet Securities.

Banking services are rendered by Evolve Bank & Trust, a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

YieldStreet Management, LLC, a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission, provides investment advice.

Can You Lose Money With Yieldstreet?

You can make money with Yieldstreet!

But…

There’s a lot that comes along with crowdfunding investing that many people struggle with.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea…

It’s not impossible to make money with crowdfund investing, but if you’re gonna put in the amount of grueling work to do this business (which, trust me, isn’t easy), you might as well bring in some REAL money while you’re learning the ropes.

The program that helped skyrocket many online businesses to over $40,000+ per month is so simple that making money really does become second nature.

What Is Yieldstreet’s BBB Rating?

Is YieldStreet Accredited by BBB

YieldStreet is not BBB accredited. Nevertheless, they were given an F rating by the Better Business Bureau.

The reasons that the Better Business Bureau gave for the F rating:

  • Failure to respond to ten (10) complaints filed against the company.
  • Three (3) unresolved complaints were filed against the company.

Which Is Better: Stock Market Or Yieldstreet?

Alternative Investment may help you reduce your reliance on stock investment while potentially enhancing your profits. Most alternative investments are not affected by the ups and downs of the market. For example, a company transporting coal and iron ore could borrow money from YieldStreet to hire a ship.

Even if the Dow Jones drops a few hundred points in a week, the borrower will still sail, unload, and pay YieldStreet. Similarly, even if the market rises due to a new trade agreement, the borrower in a Commercial Real Estate offering with three short-term bridge loans will continue to pay YieldStreet interest payments.

It’s hard to say how much investment in stocks is appropriate for everyone. You may want to increase your exposure to alternative assets now that you have them accessible.

Alternatives To YieldStreet?

Alternatives

Yes, there are plenty of other business models to choose from if you want to pursue making money in 2022. Here are just a few:

Is YieldStreet A Scam?

Is It A Scam

So, time for the $1,000,000 question – is Yield Street a scam?

No, not technically. You can 100% make money with this program, though it’s not nearly as simple as they make it seem.

As with most businesses, there is A LOT of work to be done upfront & no guarantee of you being successful.

Not to mention the profit margins are typically pretty small.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big proponent of front-loading work now so that you can reap the rewards later.

But if I’m gonna do that, I want the rewards to be HIGH and virtually guaranteed.

I’d rather put in that same 3 months of work (in my spare time) & build a handful of Digital Rental Properties that each produce $500-$2,000 checks every single month afterward (AKA recurring income).

And the cool part is that you can do it in a lot less time than 3-months (I personally did it in my first 2 weeks of using the Digital Rental Method).

Unlike physical real estate, you can do it from anywhere in the world, so it’s a genuine “laptop-lifestyle” business.

All you need is an internet connection.

Some of my friends are Digital Rental Method that run their 6-figure businesses from:

  • Camping trips at national parks
  • Beachfront in Hawaii
  • On the road in a camper van (with a pet pig!)

They focus on living an enjoyable life first, and focus on income second. All thanks to this program

They can take weeks or months off, and money keeps rolling in.

Living happily is the top priority.

If the thought of living perpetually at your dream vacation spot interests you, using the Digital Rental Method might be for you!

What Is My Top Recommendation For Making Money Online In 2022?

Make Real Money Online With Digital Landlord

Read Our In Depth Breakdown Of The Top 5 Real EstateOpp Courses For 2024

Did Yieldstreet Make The List?

I’ve personally tried all of the major online business models:

  • I’ve sold fidget spinners through Amazon FBA
  • I’ve dropshipped a toilet bowl putting green on Shopify
  • I’ve sold women’s health supplements via Clickbank affiliate marketing

And I made money with all of them, so trust me when I say: there is no “perfect” business model.

It’s worth noting that I FULLY endorse real estate investing as a way to grow wealth, and that’s why I invest my own money in commercial and residential real estate.

That being said, my #1 recommendation for making real money online as a beginner is, hands-down: being a Digital Landlord.

Whether you’re a complete newbie or you’ve been around the block before but have never had that “big win” to propel you forward, using the Digital Rental Method is for you.

Why?

Time: If you’ve got a spare hour or two each day, you can do this. If you want to drop everything and go all-in, you can do this. More time obviously means faster results, but even putting in a few hours per day is enough to see real success.

And because of that flexibility, you don’t need to trade your time for money. Once the income starts, it’s recurring.

That means you can take a month off, travel the country, pursue a passion project, chill on the beach, or charter a boat across the world.

But you can only do that once you’ve created an income stream that doesn’t require YOU to be there all day, every day.

Real estate investing is a FULL-TIME JOB. If you stop finding deals, your money dries up.
Ownership & Control: Unless you’re buying your properties in cash, you don’t technically own the properties – the lender does.

If you miss a single payment, the property can be taken from you.

Why pour your soul into a business that could be taken away from you at the drop of a dime?

With the Digital Rental Method, you literally own all of the assets, which means you have ultimate control.

Ongoing costs: With real estate, profit margins are actually pretty slim. Real wealth is made in owning the assets, and owning A LOT of them.

using the Digital Rental Method, your profit margin is nearly 100%. Watch here to learn how.

Just a reminder: these Digital Rental Properties are worth (at a minimum) $500/mo in semi-passive income. And each time you create another one, your income increases, and the effort put into creating the next property decreases.

Best-case scenario, you have properties bringing in over $3,000+/mo on auto-pilot.

It’s Effectively Copy-Paste: Here’s my favorite part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up, you can literally copy-paste another version of it and find another willing “renter” in a few days. DOUBLING your income doesn’t get much easier than that…

If you wanted to double your income with real estate investing, you would need twice as many properties, or double your profit margins on each property. And I can guarantee you, that’s a lot harder than a few clicks & a phone call.

Make Money Helping Real People: With the Digital Rental Method, you’re helping solve REAL problems that people are ASKING for help with:

Small local businesses around the world need one thing: customers. Without them, their business would fall apart. If you can provide those customers, they’re going to be really happy – and they’re going to pay you for it.

You’re helping a struggling mother or father put food on the table for their families, put their kids through college, or simply live life a little bit more comfortably.

Having this type of impact on the world is what will help you sleep soundly at night.
So, the rest is up to you. You could keep looking at other opportunities Yieldstreet, which might make you money.

You could keep researching and researching for the next few months (or few years), never making a concrete decision.

OR, you can look deep inside, think about those dreams, hopes, & desires, and make the decision to ACTUALLY make it happen, just like it has for thousands of other students before you.

Making a fortune while actually helping real people that need it.

If this sounds like you, click here to see how it all works.

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