May 2021: East vs West, a surprising comparison

Investing is all about choices. I wanted to post my update again on the first or second of the month, but the weather was finally summery and the terraces beckoned.

Investing is also about choosing the platforms where you invest and the types of investments. If you know how to choose the platforms well you can, for example, achieve very high returns if you invest via the crowdlending platforms in Eastern Europe. In this respect, the Baltic States are a financial hotspot, not only because of the focus on technological innovation and infrastructure, but also because the banking system there is underdeveloped and there is a high demand for alternative financing. This, and the associated higher risk, ensure that interest rates and returns are extremely high and attractive to investors. Of course, the risks can be huge and nothing is certain. A lot of investors lost money, including myself, when a few platforms turned out to be a fraud.

Investing via platforms in Western Europe is less popular, because the loans provided here generally have much lower interest rates. Yet there is a sizeable market for alternative financing here, because the banks play it safe and set fairly strict requirements.

So my surprise was quite big, when I decided to split my huge collection of P2P platforms into a group of platforms in Western Europe, and a group of platforms in Eastern Europe. Envestio and Kuetzal’s losses cut it pretty badly, but I certainly didn’t expect my average return “in the west” to be higher than the “eastern return rates”…

For the past month I’ve mainly been busy doing this split, it was more work than I expected. But luckily it already provided more insight than I initially expected. This update contains therefore less news, next month I have more time for that. Then I also want to make the graphs more informative and clear.

Portfolio overview May 2021

Last month my portfolio increased by € 2,583.38 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 12.8%. 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

Crowdlending (west)

 Flender

My investments at Flender returned € 23.56 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Funding Circle NL

It is no longer possible for private individuals to invest via this platform, existing loans are still handled and repaid monthly. This will be deposited directly into your bank account. The outstanding loans are therefore getting smaller and therefore the interest received continues to fall.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 10.50 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Lender & Spender

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 10.58 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.9%.

 Max Crowdfund

At Max Crowdfund I received an introductory discount of 1.50 this month. This nicely offsets the cost of 20 cents and 30 cents of my first two investments here.

The second loan I invested in has now also been activated and paid out, and the interest will be paid monthly. As with most platforms, you get the interest and redemption in your account and you can choose to reinvest or withdraw it. What is quite unique: received payments that are not withdrawn or reinvested within 60 days will automatically be transferred to your linked bank account. This way you never have too much money or too long that there is nothing to do.

My investments at Max Crowdfund returned € 1.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 0.3%.

Crowdlending (east)

 Bondora

Bondora has published figures showing that the volume of loans has grown enormously in the last 4 months, by almost 20% per month. However, the number of problem loans is also quite large, this is (partly) compensated by the higher interest rate that they ask.

The table above shows that all loans come with high interest rates, the minimum is slightly above 17%. In the highest risk classes this is even above 45%. Then it is of course not surprising that a part cannot be repaid. The net return of all investors has been slowly declining in recent months, 8.3% now but six months ago it was 8.8%. The big difference between this net return and the interest rate of the loans provided does indicate that investing manually here is not wise, so only Go&Grow is an option here as far as I’m concerned. Then you get up to 6.75% interest, which is below the general return at Bondora, so they still earn from this (and I think they can keep up with this). And at Go&Grow you can normally withdraw your money at any time, such as with a savings account. That is of course also nice. Most loans have a 5-year maturity, so I’m curious to see what this big long-term growth will have on investors’ overall returns.

My investments at Bondora returned € 18.57 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Brickstarter

After the successful exit of the San Telmo project on Brickstarter, I have now invested part of this in the next project in Cadiz: San Telmo II. Hopefully this one will turn out just as well. I save the rest for future projects, to ensure more spread.

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 2.40 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.5%.

 Bulkestate

Bulkestate is showing a significant increase in value this month, but I believe this is due to an error. For the “Kusantie” project, 65 euros in interest has been added, but the repayment of 335 euros with the description ‘Partial principal repayment’ also has the type ‘Interest’ in the transaction overview.

I expect this to be corrected in the coming days. This is not the first time such a mistake has been made, I think there are a lot of manual actions and something is entered incorrectly here. Sloppy, you expect an investment platform to show your account value well and even if they correct it quickly, you look at it with a little less confidence…

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 420.89 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.5%.

 Crowdestate

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 18.18 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.1%.

 Crowdestor

On May 14, I received a message from Crowdestor that the Timberland project had been paid off and the amount of 344 euros would be deposited into my account. Hermij, my free amount had increased to just over 500 euros, and I immediately withdrew that amount.

Yesterday it was reported that another repayment of the Timberland project had been added, this time 219 euros. They do their best to repay the loan in such close succession. Actually, these payments should have come in January, but I don’t think you should complain too much at this time if you get your money a little later.

I see this as one of the high-risk platforms, so I want to downsize my position here. Most of the projects here are now abandoned, so that’s not really good:

What is positive in any case: if you can withdraw money freely, this will also be in your own bank account within a day or two. In that respect, this platform is still doing very well.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 58.88 last month, and my average return rate is now 17.0%.

 EstateGuru

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 27.23 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.1%.

 EvoEstate

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 6.60 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.9%.

 Fast Invest

I have heard that a number of people have received their withdrawals from December at Fast Invest into their own account. That’s good news, hopefully I’ll soon receive the payout that should have taken place in January.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 12.64 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.8%.

 Grupeer

Also this month no news about Grupeer, neither positive nor negative. Avoidance remains the motto.

Last month my account value at Grupeer did not change, and my average return rate is now 7.8%.

 Iuvo

Iuvo has had some success in the lawsuit concerning the (almost) bankrupt lender CBC from Poland. They were able to block a deal through the courts whereby all CBC assets were sold in a package at a low price. The judge has now decided that a recovery procedure should be initiated instead of bankruptcy. So no real news for investors yet, but hopefully this will mean that we will see money back in a while.

Last month my account value at Iuvo did not change, and my average return rate is now 8.6%.

 Mintos

Mintos the largest platform in Europe, has shared an interesting fact: a whopping 1.5% of Estonia’s population has registered as an investor with Mintos. Germany has the largest number of investors with Mintos: 137 thousand. In total, Mintos now has 410644 registered investors.

My investments at Mintos returned € 57.45 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.8%.

 NEO Finance

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 4.68 last month, and my average return rate is now 1.9%.

 PeerBerry

My investments at PeerBerry returned € 9.47 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.6%.

 Reinvest24

Last month I got almost 400 euros back from Reinvest24 by paying off the Bauskas loans. I have invested this in three new projects.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 44.02 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.6%.

 Robocash

Robocash has published the annual figures for 2020, after they have been audited by the accountant. The Robocash group is doing quite well, also given the crisis:

I think one of the reasons is that all affiliated lenders are completely controlled and controlled by the Robocash group. Providing loans and getting a good return on them is the main goal, not the investment platform itself.

A new lender has also been added to the group, UnaPay from the Philippines. Like the other lenders here, the interest rates rise to 12%, although the 30-day buyback guarantee is of course more important. If you already invest via this platform, you must manually check this lender with your auto-invest.

My investments at Robocash returned € 0.01 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.2%.

 TFG Crowd

My investments at TFG Crowd returned € 6.55 last month, and my average return rate is now 17.0%.

 TWINO

My investments at TWINO returned € 21.10 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.7%.

 Viainvest

My investments at Viainvest returned € 22.37 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.9%.

Crowdfunding

 CrowdAboutNow

At CrowdAboutNow, the value of my portfolio has remained the same for the past month. Nothing has changed or happened since my investment and so there is no return yet.

 Crowdcube

At Crowdcube, the value of my portfolio has remained the same for the past month. Nothing has changed or happened since my investment and so there is no return yet.

 Seedrs

At Seedrs, my portfolio has decreased in value by €568.74 in the past month. This decrease in value is purely due to exchange rate differences between the euro and the British Pound. The average return is now 9.4%.

Stock

 BinckBank

BinckBank is now Saxo Bank, from next month I will also implement this name change on my blog. At the beginning of this month I received a nice message from them that I received dividends for my ASML shares.

My investments at BinckBank returned € 1,110.77 last month, and my average return rate is now 103.5%.

 DEGIRO

In the past month I have not bought or sold anything at DEGIRO, but I have seen a reasonable increase. Next month I want to (partially) sell some positions, to cash in on profits and have more free cash. I want to prepare myself for a possible broad decline in the stock markets and have some spending money, although it is not at all certain that a decline is really imminent.

My investments at DEGIRO returned € 1,015.02 last month, and my average return rate is now 49.0%.

 ING

Next month I want to rebalance my portfolio at ING, according to the 50-50 strategy. I have only just started with this strategy, but have been investing mainly in the AEX ETF for over a year. If I rebalance now, that will provide me a good baseline for this strategy. Looks like this means I’ll have to shift a bit from the economic ETFs to the precious metals ETFs, and since I’m regularly hearing signals that the market could collapse again sometime in the coming months or years, I don’t think this is a bad move.

My investments at ING returned € 249.65 last month, and my average return rate is now 17.0%.

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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