April 2020: Shift towards stocks

In this uncertain times I have put crowd lending and the P2P platforms on the back burner. I have withdrawn some money from platforms where I have an above average amount of money, but it is now more uncertain which platforms will survive the coming crisis.

Instead, I deposited more money into the online brokers. I mainly invested in oil, which has plummeted in the past month, as was heard in the news. You can read more about that later.

I have never been home as much as these last few weeks. Still, this month I spent little time on the P2P platforms, because of work but also because I was much more focused on stocks. And because I felt I needed more time to relax. It had been years since I read as much as I do now, and the sunny weather of the past few days helped a lot. I spent quite a few hours in the sun with an old fashioned paper book. Hopefully you have been able to use your time well, and the impact of the crisis is limited for you!

Portfolio overview April 2020

Last month the interest payments I received totalled € 1,046.86 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 2.6%. The table below shows the details for each platform.

Passive income per month

You can find my definition of passive income on my portfolio page.

Activities

To show you how little effort is involved when investion via crowdfunding and crowdlending I have added an overview of the manual actions in the last month:

I did check the platforms every now and then, but this was purely for fun. It wasn’t necessary to get these interest payments and return rates.

Crowdlending

This month my crowd lending income has recovered a bit, partly caused by price fluctuations at Mintos. I also moved money from a number of crowd lending platforms to the brokers DEGIRO and BinckBank.

Soon I will also have to think about writing off Grupeer. I will wait a while until more is known.

 Bondora

Bondora‘s CEO answered questions online last week. One of the questions was about Go & Grow, and why Bondora has confidence in the interest rate of 6.75%. The answer is that the loans that compose the Go & Grow portfolio have an average interest rate of 14%. So that is a 100% buffer, which makes the 6.75% indeed very feasible. There are no plans to raise the interest rate of 6.75%, to keep the buffer high enough to provide stability in the next crisis.

He also indicates that most costs for Bondora are variable. If income is less the costs also drop, making it eassy for Bondora to weather the crisis. The financial statements for 2019 will be published by June at the latest, but the most important thing is that Bondora was profitable in 2019.

My investments at Bondora returned € 32.79 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

When you register through this link you’ll receive a 5 euro bonus. Just give their Go & Grow option a try for a few months, and don’t try the other advanced options.

 Brickstarter

No income from Brickstarter this month. This was of course to be expected with the lockdown in Spain, apartments will not be rented out and so there will be no rental income.

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.3%.

 Bulkestate

Revenues at Bulkestate are the same as last month, and therefore very stable. New projects are also regularly becoming available, 5 of them in the past month. So this platform does not seem to be bothered much by the crisis.

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 10.17 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.1%.

 Crowdestate

As of next week, Crowdestate charges a 2% fee if you want to sell an investment in the secondary market. Buying remains free. The reason is that many investments are offered at a discount, making the secondary market more popular than the primary market. As a result, there was less interest in the projects that were newly published.

In Estonia and Latvia there are no restrictions on construction activities and everything continues as usual, in Romania the impact is limited. In Italy, everything was shut down, but everything can be restarted on May 3. This month, 4 new projects have been published at Crowdestate.

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 5.91 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.6%.

 Crowdestor

Crowdestor has conducted a poll among investors with a number of payment deferral options to accommodate borrowers in this crisis. Very surprisingly, according to Crowdestor most investors voted for the option that allows Crowdestor to decide this by themselves per borrower. Hmm.

It was also possible this month to invest in Crowdestor itself via the platform and become a shareholder. I did not do this myself, although the promised minimum return of 26% sounds attractive. Perhaps too attractive. Lots of new projects with an interest rate above 20% have been published recently, and I don’t feel good about these return rates anymore.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.8%.

 EstateGuru

It is now possible to invest in EstateGuru itself: a campaign has been opened on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs where you can buy EstateGuru shares at EUR 23.33 each. In total, an investment of € 349,950 is sought, which corresponds to 1.2% of the total number of shares of the company. This amounts to a total value of EstateGuru of approximately 29 million euros. Frankly, that seems to be on the very high side. So you really have to ask yourself whether it is wise to invest in this.

But what better opportunity to gain insight into a platform than being a shareholder? I have no idea, so I bought 100 EstateGuru shares.

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 43.09 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.8%.

 EvoEstate

On April 9, I received back the investment of EUR 200 in ‘Marquis of Cádiz’ at EvoEstate because the project was canceled. As compensation, 1% of the invested amount has been paid. Via EvoEstate you can invest in projects on a number of other crowdlending platforms, this project was on the platform ‘StockCrowd IN’.

EvoEstate has added a page where you can see per platform how many projects have been published, how many are behind with payments, and which are licensed by the local authority.

I now have a little more than 200 euros uninvested, but I am waiting to invest until a new ‘Skin in the game’ project is added (a project that the owners of EvoEstate themselves also invest in) in which I have not yet invested directly via the originating platform.

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 5.34 last month, and my average return rate is now 1.3%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a bonus of 0.5% of all your investments in the first 6 months.

 Fast Invest

This month was another shock moment. Half of Fast Invest‘s website stopped working over Easter weekend. You could no longer see your list of investments and your account statement. Actually exactly the information you would like to secure and download in case the platform goes down.

As a test, I then tried to withdraw money, and that didn’t work anymore. Of course that is when you start to worry! Especially considering the recent problems at Grupeer. Actually, I had more confidence in Grupeer than in Fast Invest, but it is still a shock when the website of a platform (partly) turns out to be no longer working.

Fortunately, everything worked again the day after Easter! All information was accessible again, and it was also possible to withdraw money. Because I had quite a bit of uninvested funds, I immediately withdrew 500 euros. When withdrawing, it is clearly stated up front that the processing will only be processed after approximately 7 working days. But I have more confidence in a platform that makes delayed payments and communicates clearly about it than in a platform that stops all payments.

I was even more surprised when I received an email two days later that my payment was being processed. And that the day after that the money was already in my own account. That restores some trust.

Fast Invest has just opened the secondary market. Here you can sell your investments to other investors. This is good news, because now you can keep the interest that has been paid so far. Until now, the only option was to sell an investment back to Fast Invest itself, but then you lost the interest already paid on that loan. The seller can choose whether to give a discount, so that it is more likely that someone will take over quickly.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 55.56 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.4%.

 Flender

At Flender, 3 of the 9 loans I invested in are currently struggling with monthly payments since the crisis. After consultation, Flender granted these borrowers a few months’ grace, and the payment schedule has been adjusted.

Quite a few new loans were added in March (11) and April (7). In previous months there were about 3 to 6. To me this seems to be a direct result of Covid-19. But if these loans allow the companies to get through the next 1 to 2 years, I guess they are happy and the investors are happy. The percentage of non-repayable loans at Flender is still very low at 1.1%. Of the 2,800 euros that I have invested at Flender, only 100 euro is currently late.

My investments at Flender returned € 8.75 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.2%.

 Funding Circle NL

This month I received less repayment and interest at Funding Circle NL. Payment of one of the loans has not yet been received, but I suspect that this has just been delayed somewhat. There have been no previous payment issues and it doesn’t seem unusual to me during these times.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 20.72 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.6%.

 Grupeer

Still silence around Grupeer, but part of it is still working as I have received a whopping 7 cents interest this month. But it is not possible to get in touch, Grupeer does not respond. A blog post has been published in which Grupeer indicates that they have a plan to stabilize the situation within 1 to 2 years, but this is considered to be an attempt to give them more time: otherwise Grupeer could also have simply answered questions and allowed withdrawals to continue if the money is in the account.

As with Kuetzal and Envestio, a lawsuit is being prepared. The people behind this want to keep costs as low as possible by automating as much as possible, which is why it is important that account statements and other evidence get a standard format and name. If you are an investor at Grupeer, it is wise to download these overviews in case the site goes down. Even if you do not yet know whether you want to participate, it is wise to download this data. Then you can always decide later.

In this online document you can read how to download the neccessary overviews and documents so they will be in the right format.

The most recent information can be found in the Telegram group ‘Grupeer discussion’ and ‘Grupeer Discussion Summary’.

My investments at Grupeer returned € 0.07 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.4%.

 Iuvo

At the beginning of this month I withdrew some more funds from Iuvo: 200 euros. This was deposited into my bank account the same day. I received a lot less interest this month, but other than that this platform actually seems to be running well.

One of the originators, KFP, has extended the term of their loans by three months, with only interest being paid for the next 3 months. This statement came after an earlier report from Iuvo that there were problems with payments by KFP. Everything seems straightened out, but we have to wait and see how this will develop.

Kviku has been added as a new originator. This originator is also present at Mintos, and Mintos has given this originator a B rating, so that’s not too bad.

My investments at Iuvo returned € 20.51 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.1%.

 Lender & Spender

The impact of the crisis is limited at Lender & Spender. This is partly because borrowers have an employment contract for an indefinite period of time, and therefore still have income that allows them to make the repayments. The platform has agreed a payment arrangement with 3 borrowers, whereby the monthly amount is temporarily reduced.

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 9.18 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.0%.

 Mintos

This month Mintos suspended a number of originators due to payment issues: Capital Service, Akulaku, GetBucks Botswana and GetBucks Zambia. As a result, loans of these originators are frozen and it is no longer possible to invest in them. Mintos is in consultation with these companies to ensure that payments get going again.

The suspension of originator IuteCredit Kosovo has been lifted immediately. The IuteCredit Group took over the payments in December and fulfills all obligations.

The exchange rates of the Ruble and Tenge have recovered somewhat, so this month there is a significant increase in the value of my RUB and KZT accounts (because I convert them to euros at the current exchange rate). Without conversion, they are very stable and have a return rate of around 14-16%.

My investments at Mintos returned € 113.04 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.0%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 1% cashback bonus over all your investments in the first 90 days.

 NEO Finance

At NEO Finance I received the first interest. Last month I made a lot of costs: the one-time contribution for the fund that guarantees the repayments. This is arranged much more strictly and officially at NEO Finance because it has an EMI license. You could say that the platform is more like a bank compared to the other platforms.

This month I received 14 euros in interest. On an annual basis, that monthly amount would be a return of 7.4%, so that doesn’t seem like a bad start.

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 14.02 last month, and my average return rate is now -20.2%.

 Reinvest24

In May Reinvest24 has a cashback promotion, where you get a bonus of 2% if you invest 500 euros or more. This compensates the purchase costs that are charged, which are also 2% of the invested sum.

Due to the purchase costs, my return has been negative so far, but if the payments continue next month, my return will finally be positive.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 5.55 last month, and my average return rate is now -3.8%.

 Robocash

Robocash has indicated that they are in a great position to get through the crisis. They cut costs by 30%, and made a net profit of 4.9 million euros in the first two months of this year.

KPMG is currently auditing Robocash and the audited annual accounts for 2017, 2018 and 2019 are expected in July.

My investments at Robocash returned € 28.38 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.8%.

 TFG Crowd

TFG Crowd shared a few statistics: 33 projects financed, of which 16 were repaid with an average interest of 18%. And zero projects with payment problems. They are also up to date with the withdrawals by investors.

Last month I tasted all the flavors of the Cofediction coffee. Quite a task, but the crisis has helped a lot: working from homehas led to a dramatic increase in coffee consumption (over half a kilo per week). Apart from the colors, pictures and names, the packaging is almost the same, only the description of the coffee differs:

By filling a small amount of beans and making coffee quickly, it is possible to taste two cups of different coffees at the same time. And then youcan indeed taste the differences. For example, the ‘Pacific’ seems a bit more fruity, the ‘Baro’ a bit more floral, and the ‘espresso’ blend seems a little less bitter. But I’m not a barista, of course.

What is striking: Fivo Capital, the company behind Cofediction, is based in London, but the coffee is shipped from Latvia. That could also explain the high shipping costs.

The price of the coffee itself is also on the high side: 20 euros per kilo. You buy private label beans under 10 euros per kilo, brand beans between 12 and 16 euros, but on the other hand you also have brands and coffees such as Illy that go for 25 euros per kilo.

My investments at TFG Crowd returned € 33.45 last month, and my average return rate is now 19.0%.

 TWINO

At TWINO I turned off the ‘currency exposure’ setting in the auto-invest. Last month, the total value of my account declined due to the falling exchange rates, but luckily this month it was almost back to the previous level.

My investments at TWINO returned € 41.84 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.5%.

 Viainvest

It was a good month at Viainvest, with a sharp rise in interest received. I think this is because loans with a higher interest rate were added.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 19.42 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.1%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 10 euro bonus if you invest 50 euro or more.

Crowdfunding

 Seedrs

I invested via Seedrs again this month, wven though I have already invested quite a big sum there. A campaign for EstateGuru was published and that seemed like a nice link between crowdlending and crowdfunding. Plus EstateGuru is one of the real estate platforms that I feel confident about.

My investments at Seedrs returned € 173.29 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.7%.

When you want to try Seedrs for yourself, you can register via this link and you’ll receive £25 free investment credit after investing £150 or more within 30 days of signing up to Seedrs (around 175 euros).

Stocks

This month I made an extra deposit to DEGIRO, and I also moved funds from my ING investment account to BinckBank. I tried ING because I have my regular bank account there, but I find it really limited and annoying. The online brokers DEGIRO and BinckBank do work ok, I think DEGIRO is my favourite so far.

I am surprised that the stock markets are already starting to recover. Maybe we can expect another big drop when the longterm effects on companies and the economy become clear. The charts below show the big drop that is caused by the Covid-19 crisis, but as you can see the recovery started around March 20th. I would have expected a bigger impact from such a big worldwide crisis..

 BinckBank

At BinckBank I invested heavily in oil. Oil prices and corresponding indexes have dropped big time. I do expect these prices to remain quite low for some time, and of course the crisis will bring more attention to energy savings and alternative fuels. But the world is still so dependent on oil that I expect prices to rise again eventually. A gamble maybe, but I am hopeful that this will provide a significant return in a few years.

I invested a bit in a Brent oil ETF, but mostly in the ETF ‘WisdomTree WTI Crude Oil 2x Daily Lev’ (symbol LOIL, ISIN JE00BDD9Q840). This ETF follows the Bloomberg WTI Crude Oil Subindex but it doubles the fluctuations:

As you can see, it fluctuated between 30 and 40 euros in the past year. I bought them for 1.28 each, and since then the prices dropped even more to just below 1 euro. But of course it is impossible to predict what the lowest point will be. I hope that after the crisis everything will pick up again and this will make a nice profit. In the short term, I expect the price to remain low and therefore at a loss for the time being.

My investments at BinckBank returned € -318.56 last month, and my average return rate is now -18.8%.

 DEGIRO

I bought the same WTI oil ETF at DEGIRO, some for 1.25 and some for 1.09 each. Here too the prices could stay below my purchase price for some time, but I am in this for the long run.

I also placed several purchase orders for shares of big companies that might make another price drop. And especially big companies that either can survive on their own, or will be bailed out by their government. Think AirFrance-KLM, ING, etc. One of those orders was executed last week, for 100 shares of Lufthansa. Within a week the price went up and it is now at a 9% profit.

My investments at DEGIRO returned € 521.77 last month, and my average return rate is now 50.3%.

 ING

I withdrew half my funds at my ING investment account, as I am not happy with it. I invested in a ETF that follows the AEX index of the Amsterdam stock exchange. I have not decided yet whether I will keep this account for some stocks to keep for a long time, or to close it.

My investments at ING returned € 202.57 last month, and my average return rate is now -6.2%.

And finally…

That was it for this monthly update. You can subscribe via the contact page and you’ll receive an email the moment a new update is published. Or just visit again next month, that’s up to you.

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Below you can also find the link to my previous posts, where you can find my tips and results of the previous months.