October 2020: fluctuating stock market and stable P2P

The ongoing crisis shows that the stock market’s behavior cannot be predicted, except that it mainly goes down these days. Starting to invest here now, or investing more, seems more like Russian roulette..

However, it can be seen that investing in ETFs is much more stable and seems to be a better choice both in the long term and during a crisis.

I am glad that my results from P2P crowdlending are stable, and do not fluctuate that much. It is important to avoid high risks, and this month I found a study where the platforms were grouped by interest rates. A handy way to see at a glance which platforms are potentially very risky and which platforms seem to offer less risk.

Portfolio overview October 2020

Last month my portfolio decreased by € -2,674.23 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 5.1%. The table below shows the details for each category.

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 investing 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

I am very satisfied with just over 400 euros in crowdlending income this month. Actually it was a little under 400 euros, but I got a welcome bonus of 20 euros at PeerBerry. Especially the reasonable stability of the P2P income is very pleasant. The stock market has been going in all directions. So I prefer the somewhat lower but more constant income that crowdlending provides.

 Bondora

If I calculate my return at Bondora, it fluctuates a bit per month, between 6.5% and 7.0%. Over a whole year it just comes out to about 6.75%, so I think it has to do with small things such as the different number of days per month.

In the graph below you can see that 26% of all loans with Bondora are completely up to date with payments. 36% of all loans have been fully repaid (the gray part), so if you only look at the open loans, the percentage of loans without arrears is slightly less than half. That is not very high of course, but I do not know how much of it is caused by deferred payments due to the Corona crisis.

My investments at Bondora returned € 27.41 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Brickstarter

In order to counter the consequences of the crisis and the lack of tourists, Brickstarter is going to rent out the apartments for a somewhat longer term in the coming low season, from 30 days to a year. They expect this will result in an income decrease of approximately 1% -1.5%, partly because costs will also drop considerably (because, among other things, the supply and cleaning costs will disappear).

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 1.56 last month, and my average return rate is now 2.9%.

 Bulkestate

This is the second month at Bulkestate that I have received interest again, after having received nothing at all for three months. There are a few projects that have problems with payments, but Bulkestate communicates about this regularly in the forum. For example, for the Silgaiļi project there is a repayment plan to sell one of the properties with all proceeds going to Bulkestate to repay the loan.

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 13.26 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.8%.

 Crowdestate

On the 14th I have withdrawn 1,400 euros from Crowdestate, and this platform is now under my own limit of 5,000 euros. After the withdrawal I turned on my auto investment again.

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 21.78 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.4%.

 Crowdestor

Today I saw that I had 177 euros free again at Crowdestor, and I have withdrawn 175 euros of this (I like ’round’ amounts).

Crowdestor has also refreshed the website, so you can now clearly see on your dashboard how diverse your portfolio is:

As you can see, this could be better, although I am more focused on lowering the amount I have out here. At the end of this month I expect to receive a repayment of more than 200 euros and I will take that again immediately.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 53.21 last month, and my average return rate is now 16.6%.

 EstateGuru

At EstateGuru, the number of loans provided is completely back to the old level, and even above:

They also indicate that they have no major problems with repayments, if borrowers have problems with the repayment, they usually transfer the loan elsewhere or part of the collateral is sold.

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 30.34 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.0%.

 EvoEstate

With about 15 new projects this month, things are going well at EvoEstate. The projects are spread over approximately 4 P2P platforms and 8 countries.

A few of the projects come from a new platform: Raizers. This platform was founded in 2014 and is regulated by the French and Belgian financial authorities.

In the Q3 report, EvoEstate indicates that the average return of the completed projects is 12.9%. My return is still at a stable low 2.5% so there is still room for growth.

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 4.53 last month, and my average return rate is now 2.5%.

 Fast Invest

I have not received any interest at FastInvest this month. It has almost completely disappeared since June, and Fast Invest also communicates very little. No news or emails, and no blog updates. To me, this is cause for worry.

In any case, little seems to be happening: Dutch was added a while ago as a supported language on the website, but only a small part has been translated. And it looks like that has not improved in the past month.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.9%.

 Flender

I am satisfied with Flender. This Irish platform offers a lot of new projects to invest in every month, but the auto-invest means you don’t have to worry about this. And you receive both interest and repayment monthly, so the investments are not fixed for very long times.

There is no buyback guarantee, but the statistics look good. Of the 2,883 euros that I have invested, there is only a payment arrears of 38 euros. And because repayments are also made monthly, the auto-invest quickly invests this in new projects, creating a wide spread. If a project really gets into trouble, I expect that only a very small amount is at stake.

My investments at Flender returned € 26.09 last month, and my average return rate is now 7.4%.

 Funding Circle NL

Of the 6 projects that I have open at Funding Circle NL, one is in arrears, namely a delay of 32 days. Furthermore, nothing exciting happens because as a private individual you can no longer invest in new projects.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 12.79 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Grupeer

Grupeer is still online, but that is about all that can be said. It is still unsure if and how much of investor funds will be returned.

My investments at Grupeer returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.1%.

 Iuvo

At Iuvo I receive 10-20 euros in interest and repayment every month, so it takes a while before I can get this platform under my limit of 5,000 euros. Next month I can withdraw a round amount of 100 euros again, but that is like a drop on a hot plate.

That’s why I only put part of my investments up for sale on the secondary market, with a small discount. However, I cannot put a large part for sale, because the loans from lender CBC (KFP) are blocked. Iuvo is now working with a Polish law firm to enforce refunds.

My investments at Iuvo returned € 18.70 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.4%.

 Lender & Spender

At Lender & Spender I deposited an additional 500 euros this month. This Dutch platform does not offer very high returns, but the Dutch market is a lot more stable. And of course it is still much higher than a savings account yields. My investment is automatically spread over 1758 loans, so this platform gives me a certain feeling.

The top-up was very easy via iDeal and the money was then credited to my dashboard within a few minutes.

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 10.41 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.5%.

 Mintos

At Mintos I switched my free Kazakh Tenges to euros:

Investing in other currencies (and countries further away) naturally offers opportunities and higher interest rates, but it also creates a lot of uncertainty. That is why I want to focus more on investments in Euros and in the eurozone.

Mintos has replaced the rating of the lenders with a Risk Score: a figure from 1 (high risk) to 10 (low risk).

This is therefore a good time to check the auto-invest settings again and to check whether they are not investing in loans with a (too) high risk.

My investments at Mintos returned € 43.38 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.3%.

 NEO Finance

NEO Finance has now achieved a positive return for me. The return per individual month was already about 10-11%, but because I had insured a large part of the investments through the Provision fund, my return was still negative. You pay the costs for the Provision Fund in advance at the time of investing. After that you are of course assured of a good return, so I expect my return to continue to increase in the coming period.

NEO Finance also gives me a good feeling because it is a regulated platform. It is listed on the stock exchange, regulated by the financial authorities and has an EMI license. Of all the platforms I invest in, this platform feels the most like a real bank.

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 20.37 last month, and my average return rate is now 0.6%.

 PeerBerry

Last month I started at PeerBerry, and it is running smoothly. This platform started as part of the Aventus Group and is now independent, but the majority of the loans still come from the Aventus group. Aventus made a profit of more than 12.6 million euros in 2019, so that seems to me to be a solid financial basis.

Because I had registered through another investor, I also received a welcome bonus of 20 euros. That is of course very welcome, although you should never let that guide you when choosing a platform. What I have been guided by is the good reviews I hear about this platform, and the size: they are in eighth place in Europe with a market share of 2.5% -3%.

My investments at PeerBerry returned € 4.13 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.6%.

 Reinvest24

I feel that Reinvest24 is now also starting to run smoothly. My return is starting to increase, and in addition to this rental income, an increase in value is also expected over the coming years. Investing via this platform is therefore slightly more for the long term (think of 2 to 4 years instead of a few months), although Reinvest24 indicates that a secondary market is planned.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 15.96 last month, and my average return rate is now 2.0%.

 Robocash

According to a study by Robocash, P2P platforms that offer lower interest rates are growing faster and more stable:

For this they have analyzed 13 popular European platforms and their data from 2019. Not a very large group, because there are more than 50 platforms in Europe. As an explanation for the faster growth of platforms with lower average interest rates, they say that investors are now more cautious and prefer lower risks to higher profits.

A bit of an open door, but the most interesting thing I find is how they have classified the platforms: low interest rates (up to 10.5%), average interest rates (10.6% -12.5%) and high interest rates (12, 6% and above). This is also a nice way to classify the platforms, so I think I will add this classification to my platform overview soon. It is even more convenient to keep this in mind when selecting platforms, and realize that interest rates above 12.5% come with a much higher risk.

My investments at Robocash returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.8%.

 TFG Crowd

My investments at TFG Crowd returned € 22.46 last month, and my average return rate is now 17.7%.

 TWINO

At TWINO, the number of investors has increased by more than 10% in recent months. At the start of the year, and the crisis, many investors took a break, but now more investment is being made. The total volume is also almost back to the old level.

My investments at TWINO returned € 42.19 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.7%.

 Viainvest

Viainvest is in the process of applying for an IBF (Investment Brokerage Firm) license. Like Mintos and TWINO, they are implementing the first guidelines of the Latvian financial authorities.

Viainvest uses Vialet as a bank, and both Viainvest and Vialet are part of the VIA SMS Group. Vialet has an EMI (Electronic Money Institution) license from the Lithuanian central bank.

It would therefore be logical if every investor would get their own IBAN account with Vialet, so that you can deposit money directly into your own investor account. Now, as with many other platforms, you still have to transfer it to the general Viainvest account number, stating your investor number.

Vialet already offers free IBAN accounts, so it seems to me that we should expect this within a few months.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 19.27 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.9%.

Crowdfunding

Little news in the field of equity crowdfunding. Like many investors, I now take it easy and first look at how companies get through this difficult time.

 CrowdAboutNow

Almost 2 weeks ago I received the email with a link from Beer in a Box to pass on my wishes for my beer package. Via CrowdAboutNow I invested in Beer in a Box, and as part of that I now have a subscription: a box with alternating beers every 2 months.

They keep track of which beers you receive, and ensure that you never get the same beers in your subscription, so variety is guaranteed.

And a few days ago the first package was delivered, so I’m now typing this while enjoying a nice beer:

 Seedrs

My investments at Seedrs returned € 80.74 last month, but this is because of fluctuating exchange rates: some of my investments are in British Pounds. My average return rate is 6.5%.

Stock

This month it was a battlefield at the stock exchange. Much of the profits have evaporated, the ongoing crisis is also becoming a war of attrition. Fortunately, I had built up a considerable margin and the return from a distance is still very good at 23.5%.

 BinckBank

At Binck Bank, it is mainly oil that has made a dent in the value of my portfolio. ING, Aegon and ABN AMRO are doing well there and against the background and are making a big profit.

My investments at BinckBank returned € -1,603.41 last month, and my average return rate is now 45.9%.

 DEGIRO

At DEGIRO, Air France-KLM in particular has to endure it. But even though it is at a considerable loss and state aid seems to be postponed, I am holding on to it anyway. Maybe optimistic, but I think they will recover if the crisis does not last for years.

My investments at DEGIRO returned € -1,494.83 last month, and my average return rate is now 15.0%.

 ING

At ING, the value of my portfolio has also declined in value, but only slightly. In that respect, this shows the great advantage of investing in ETFs. The convenience, the spreading of your risks, and investing with a more relaxed feeling. The possible gains are lower, but the lows are therefore better absorbed. I think it is therefore wise to first look at ETFs when investing and only later on investing in individual stocks. Although you can of course also stick to ETFs.

My investments at ING returned € -44.57 last month, and my average return rate is now 1.8%.

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.