January 2021: stocks biggest driver in 2021 too

Various platforms indicate that they are looking forward to the implementation of the new European crowdfunding legislation, that they are making preparations to comply with it, but are also waiting for the national regulators to implement it. But I’m sure investors are even more eager for this. We still have to wait, however, because the law will only take effect 12 months after its official publication, in November 2021.

Inflation amounted to 1.3% in 2020. This means that you must have achieved a return of 2% to 3% in order to offset both inflation and any taxes. I don’t think this was a problem for quite a few investors, but as a saver this was of course not really possible. Investing cautiously and conservatively seems like a happy medium to slowly make your money grow.

Speaking of growth, let’s quickly get to the numbers. After all, that’s what it’s all about.

Portfolio overview January 2021

Last month my portfolio increased by € 3,815.49 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 11.1%. The table below shows the details for each category.

Passive income per month

The extreme highs and lows on the stock market prevent me from adequately determine the passive income that my investments can generate when I stop working. That is why I now calculate the 6-month moving average of my passive income.

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

The XIRR column contains the annualized rate of return since my first deposit into that platform. Click on a column header to sort the table by that column, twice to reverse the sort order. I have an overview page for each platform, you can click on the magnifier glass to visit that page.

 Bondora

The statistics page of Bondora states that the average net return is now 8.8%. As far as I can remember, this was higher a few months ago, between 9 and 10 percent. That would mean that the average return is declining, but I do not know whether this is structural or whether it is due to the Corona crisis.

In any case, it is something that I will keep an eye on, because if it continues to fall, the interest of the Go & Grow may also decrease. And if it continues to decline, the question is of course what this will mean for the future of this platform.

My investments at Bondora returned € 27.86 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Brickstarter

At Brickstarter I received a little more interest last month than the months before. Hopefully tourism can get going again soon. Now my average return is at least slightly higher, and I think that in these times a return of 2.6% is not bad for a platform that relies largely on tourism.

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 5.03 last month, and my average return rate is now 2.6%.

 Bulkestate

I put a reminder in my diary on February 1 to check my Bulkestate account, the auto-invest had not invested anything for a month. Not many projects were published either, but the few that were there filled up quickly. Fortunately I saw today that investments had been made automatically again.

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 198.96 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.1%.

 Crowdestate

Last month, 5 new projects were opened at Crowdestate. All with interest rates of 10-11%. The fact that the properties serve as collateral through a first-rank mortgage gives me the feeling that these are relatively safe investments.

In the more than 5 years that this platform has existed, only 2 projects have been written off, and CrowdEstate has still been able to reclaim 20% and 55% of the invested money.

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 22.67 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.3%.

 Crowdestor

Crowdestor sent a message that investors in the ‘WarHunt Movie’ project could vote. This is a mechanism that the platform has recently been using to, for example, allow investors to vote on various repayment schemes if a project runs into difficulties.

This time, however, there was another reason, as an investor you can choose whether or not your name may be included in the credits:

On January 2, I withdrew 460 euros because this platform is still above my own limit of 5000 euros per P2P platform. This was in my bank account within 2 working days. At the end of the month I withdrew another 250 euros, so I don’t expect it to be long before this platform is below my limit.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 76.96 last month, and my average return rate is now 17.1%.

 EstateGuru

It was a busy year for EstateGuru. Just like the other platforms they were impacted by the crisis but are coming out strong. Last year they raised money through the crowdfunding platform Seedrs, and several investors (including myself) became the owners of a very tiny part of the platform.

EstateGuru closed 2020 with strong results over December: the investors financed a total of €18,3M worth of loans. The biggest contributions came from Estonia (€8,5M), Germany and Finland (combined total €6,9M). All together EstateGuru facilitated €120,2M worth of loans in 2020 which is a 50% increase compared to 2019 (€80,3M).

The number of employees has grown by 11 to 54. The growth in the number of investors can also be called considerable: 53% higher compared to 2019.

Despite the crisis, the number of ‘fallen’ projects has also remained very low (2.6%). But the recovery team has been able to get all the money back, and so far not a single investor has lost any money. In fact, even the collapsed projects still yielded a return of around 10%. All in all, this does strengthen my confidence in this platform.

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 33.66 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.8%.

 EvoEstate

Last month EvoEstate added 10 projects, spread over 3 real estate platforms (Rendity, Property Bridges and Nordstreet) and 5 countries (Spain, Ireland, Norway, Austria and Lithuania). One of the projects was a ‘skin in the game’ project in which the owners of EvoEstate have also invested themselves.

They are real estate projects, with the real estate also as collateral. Until now I am quite charmed by this platform, because you can easily and automatically invest in projects of the 20 connected real estate P2P platforms.

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 4.76 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.3%.

 Fast Invest

A month ago I asked Fast Invest for more clarity about the affiliated lenders, to which I was told that I would receive an answer after the holidays. After another request, they responded with “We do not disclose our loan originators unless they are stated alongside the investments.“. Not a lot of openness yet..

My end of December withdrawal was scheduled for January 7th, but when I checked on January 12th it was still not executed. Your dashboard will clearly state that you will receive compensation in case the withdrawal is delayed:

But this is of course highly undesirable. Now, on February 1st, it still hasn’t been paid out. As an investor you must be able to assume that your uninvested funds are available. This way you score significant downsides as a platform.

I had not turned on my auto-invest yet, and now there is again about 1000 euros available. I think I’m going to withdraw that too. I am now thinking about setting 2 limits for the P2P platforms: a general limit of max 5000 euros per platform and a limit of max 2500 euros for the platforms that I consider to be ‘high risk’. I am now placing Fast Invest in that latter category.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 45.27 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.2%.

 Flender

At Flender, one of my loans has been fully repaid for the first time. I started investing through this Irish platform a little over a year ago. The platform has no buyback guarantees, but it does have a good history. My dashboard there shows that only 38 euros of the 3036 euros is late with payment. And because you receive both interest and repayment every month, your money is spread very quickly over many different loans. In my case that is 26 loans, so an average of 116 euros per loan. That also ensures risk spreading, and I also find the return of about 7% very acceptable.

My investments at Flender returned € 24.32 last month, and my average return rate is now 7.6%.

 Funding Circle NL

My outstanding investment at Funding Circle NL is decreasing fairly quickly. I receive monthly repayments and as a private individual it is no longer possible to invest in new projects. Two of the seven projects in which I invested have already been completed, and two of the other projects will run until the end of 2023. There is no early exit possibility, so I will have to keep this platform in my portfolio for quite some time.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 13.68 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Grupeer

No news regarding Grupeer, but I advise to stay away from this platform even if it becomes fully operational again.

Last month my account value at Grupeer did not change, and my average return rate is now 9.0%.

 Iuvo

There is no further news from Iuvo about the lender CBC / KFP. The Polish court must rule on a company restructuring or bankruptcy. A large part of my investments have been made by the auto-invest in those loans. This shows that just starting the auto-invest is good enough, not all platforms offer the possibility to keep a good spread over the lenders.

Last month my account value at Iuvo did not change, and my average return rate is now 9.4%.

 Lender & Spender

Lender & Spender continues to show stable results, and after I made extra deposits in October, I also see consistently higher interest rates coming in.

The return is slightly lower than other platforms at about 4.5%, but when I start comparing it turns out that they do just as well or better than for example Brickstarter, EvoEstate or Reinvest24. These platforms theoretically have a considerably higher return in the long term, but so far they have yet to demonstrate that.

That is why I am quite satisfied with Lender & Spender. And it is also a Dutch platform, so very close to home. Plus it feels a bit safer than platforms at the very other end of Europe.

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 11.03 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.4%.

 Mintos

Mintos has updated the ratings of the affiliated originators, which is something they do quarterly. I’ve checked my auto-invest again, and it turns out it’s important to do that. I had only selected originatorswith a rating of 7 or higher, but now there were a few with rating ‘SW’.

Mintos sometimes withdraws the rating if there is not enough information about one of the underlying values (‘SW’ stands for ‘Score Withdrawn’). You can filter by rating at the auto-invest settings and then turn originators on or off, but the originator remains selected if the rating changes in the meantime.

Mintos has a page where they explain their loan originator ratings, you can find it here.

My investments at Mintos returned € 54.18 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.4%.

 NEO Finance

NEO Finance has introduced loans with a C rating. Personally, I am not waiting for that, I prefer to keep investing in A and B loans. They do have a somewhat lower return, but also less risk. You can of course cover that risk through the Provision Fund, but you also pay a little extra for that.

NEO Finance publishes figures every quarter, and it shows that they financed just over 5 million euros in loans in December. The total of loans issued in the fourth quarter even increased by 43% compared to 2019, despite the crisis. The number of active investors has grown by about 30% in 2020. Last quarter they also expanded their Neopay payment platform, and it is now also connected to Revolut (All of Europe), Knab Bank (Netherlands), 2 Swedish banks and 2 new Polish banks.

The report also states the distribution of investors across the various countries, excluding investors from the home country of Lithuania. Then it turns out that this platform is popular in the Netherlands: 49% of the active foreign investors are Dutch. 24% come from Germany, followed at a distance by Italy, France and Spain.

I think the popularity can be explained by the fact that this platform is one of the few that has a license as an ‘electronic e-money institution’ that is valid throughout the European Union.

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 18.07 last month, and my average return rate is now 1.1%.

 PeerBerry

Despite everything, 2020 was a good year for PeerBerry: the platform grew by 46% last year, and the number of investors increased by 74%.

No affiliated partner of the platform has had any financial problems, and investors have not been troubled by problem loans or late payments.

My investments at PeerBerry returned € 9.48 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.9%.

 Reinvest24

In 2020, Reinvest24 published 22 projects, almost 3 times as many as in 2019. This platform is slowly gaining momentum, in the beginning there were sometimes no investment opportunities for a long time. It seems that this platform was conservative in terms of projects they choose, also the fact that they successfully completed 5 projects with profit during the Covid crisis points to this.

The number of investors has also grown considerably, with just over 2,000 more. At the end of last year, Reinvest24 introduced the secondary market and that makes it a lot easier to invest. You can choose to enter a new project or to take over shares of interesting projects via the secondary market.

In the first quarter of 2021, Reinvest24 expects to adjust the valuation of various project shares, after a valuation of the projects and properties. In addition to the rental income, investors can also expect returns from the appreciation of the property. This can be cashed in when the property is sold (although this is often a multi-year plan) or by selling the shares via the secondary market.

In recent months I have seen my returns increase rapidly, and the income has completely offset the purchase fee for investing in new projects. That fee has now been halved from 2% to 1%, so that makes it even easier to get a good return here.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 19.50 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.9%.

 Robocash

Robocash did well too in 2020, I myself have seen stable income coming in in recent months. At the end of the summer I received no interest at all for 3 months in a row, but luckily this was paid in one go afterwards. I also don’t hear any negative stories or rumors about this platform.

My investments at Robocash returned € 14.66 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.1%.

 TFG Crowd

I think I keep repeating myself when I say I’m surprised TFG Crowd is still up and running. If investment plans are offered with interest rates of 24-26%, then quite a lot of alarm bells will ring. The point is that they have been ringing for a long time. I keep something invested in this platform, to be able to follow what is happening. But topping up is not what I would do or would recommend. My gut feeling tells me that this is not a platform where your money is really safe.

What is immediately noticeable is that the latest investments have been made by the auto-invest, that orange ‘auto’ indicator cannot be missed. What I do miss, and that is actually much more important, is an indicator of the status:

You can filter by status, and that’s how I found out that the project ‘Real Estate in Cambridge’ has the status ‘Suspended’. This should of course be made much more visible. Even if you open the investment you will not see the status, only at the bottom you will see in the small print next to one of the payments ‘Delayed’.

I have raised this with TFG Crowd, I am curious if they clarify the status of this project and also indicate the status of the projects more clearly.

My investments at TFG Crowd returned € 9.63 last month, and my average return rate is now 17.6%.

 TWINO

At the end of last year, TWINO published the annual figures for 2019 and put them on their website (you can find them here). The accountant, BDO, wrote that almost 4.5 million euros in profit was made in 2019. Immediately followed by the statement that this is due to a one-off income of just over 8 million euros due to a restructuring within the group.

The debts exceed the assets by 2.48 million euros, and the accountant writes that there is considerable uncertainty that may cast doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern (“there is significant uncertainty that could cast doubt upon the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern “). In plain language: it is uncertain whether TWINO is viable in the long run and will survive.

That is why I have decided to phase out TWINO for the time being. I turned off my auto-invest, and at the end of the month I had withdrawn 400 euros that was released. I definitely want to halve my position, and then see what the situation looks like. If things turn out to be better, I can always deposit more money again, but for now it seems better to play it safe.

Of course it may well be that there are platforms that are in worse shape, and TWINO at least publishes all these figures. Not all platforms provide so much insight. But if I get an insecure feeling about a platform, I will phase it out (fully or partially), regardless of the state or openness of other platforms. Moreover, the current crisis will not actually help to make this image more positive …

My investments at TWINO returned € 38.23 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.7%.

 Viainvest

In my opinion, Viainvest is one of the more stable and quieter platforms. You don’t actually hear much about them, and they don’t spam you like some other platforms. My interest income is also very stable here. And frankly, a return of around 11-12% is absolutely nothing to complain about.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 22.03 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.0%.

Crowdfunding

In the past month nothing has changed for me with the crowdfunding platforms. The value of my Seedrs account has changed slightly, but this is due to exchange rates: some investments are in British Pounds. Nothing has happened at CrowdAboutNow and CrowdCube, so I have left out their charts and update.

 Seedrs

Last month my account value at Seedrs decreased by € 98.83, and my average return rate is now 4.9%.

Stock

2020 was a great year at the stock exchange for me. I started in March, when almost all stock values had plummeted due to the crisis. Now everything has recovered reasonably well, and the value of my portfolio has increased by over 30%. Fortunately, this trend continued in January.

 BinckBank

At BinckBank I sold 200 pieces of ‘LOIL’, this ETF has already brought me a big profit before. I had bought 2500 shares of LOIL using those winnings again, so they were actually free. At the time they cost 2.40 each and now I sold the first few at a rate of 4.25. I want to sell the next small batch when the price hits 4.50 and hopefully I can get the most out of it.

My investments at BinckBank returned € 1,848.95 last month, and my average return rate is now 104.3%.

 DEGIRO

At DEGIRO I have now invested in 18 stocks and 2 ETFs, of which only 4 are now in the red. The rest has boosted my result again this month. I started at this platform at the height of the crisis in March, and my portfolio has grown by a whopping 50%! Amazing, although this will probably be a one-off. Not so often such a major crisis comes along, or at least let’s hope so.

My investments at DEGIRO returned € 1,368.27 last month, and my average return rate is now 63.4%.

 ING

This month a small increase in value at ING. I’ve invested here in ETFs: one that follows the AEX and one in gold. In my opinion, this shows that in the long term an excellent return can be achieved via ETFs that follow the economy (for example the AEX) or via precious metals such as gold or silver. Higher returns are possible if you invest in individual stocks, but that is also much more risky. If you want to invest with confidence for the long term, it is better to opt for ‘general’ ETFs. The AEX or world economy also has peaks and troughs, but always comes out of the trough. The same also applies to gold, for example.

My investments at ING returned € 47.12 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.0%.

Blog traffic

The number of visitors has increased by more than 8%, and apart from the significant peak around the Envestio perils, this is an all-time high. The number of subscribers has also increased, by more than 4%. I see this as a considerable appreciation of the work that I put into this. Feel free to let us know if you miss anything or would like to see added.

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.