November 2021: Big drop on the stock markets

The stock markets have been hit hard in recent days, prices have fallen sharply in almost all markets. My stock portfolio has also fallen considerably in value. Fortunately that was all profit, and there is also enough profit left.

In addition, it seems to be a significant drop but if you look at the last three years you will see that the fall is actually not that big at all. Below you can see the developments of the Dutch AEX stock exchange, with the big fall from early 2020 in the middle, when the Corona crisis surprised everyone a bit.

If you look closely, the scale starts at 300 so it’s actually not that bad. Just before the crisis the stock market was already at a record high, and we are now even 23% above that. But of course the moment people have stepped in and held their positions determines the amount of profit or loss, which can vary greatly. If you have just started and have suddenly made a big loss, don’t worry too much. Especially if you’ve been wise and gone for general ETFs rather than speculating on niche stocks. History shows that long-term ETFs that track the economy or precious metals are always a good idea.

Portfolio overview November 2021

Last month my portfolio decreased by € -7,426.44 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 11.9%. 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

I have grouped by P2P platforms into two groups, one containing all platforms based in Western Europe and one containing all platforms based in Eastern Europe. In the table below you can see the balance between them.

Crowdlending (west)

In the table and paragraphs below you can see which platforms make up my “Western Europe group”.

 Flender

This month on the Irish platform Flender a loan was paid off in full, and the auto-invest invested in 3 new loans. As long as you set the auto-invest conservatively, you don’t really have to worry about this. I have set the auto-invest to only invest in loans with an A or B status. There is no buyback guarantee here, but the number of loans that fail is very low (1.8%).

Loans are repaid monthly, and because the auto-invest keeps investing in new loans my portfolio is increasingly diversified. More than 6,500 euros have now been invested, I have received almost 500 euros in interest, and yet only 38 euros in problem loans have been written off.

My investments at Flender returned € 19.53 last month, and my average return rate is now 7.2%.

 Funding Circle NL

My investments at Funding Circle NL are automatically reduced, monthly repayment and interest are deposited into my bank account. And private investors can no longer invest, the platform only focuses on large institutional investors.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 6.06 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Lender & Spender

Despite the crisis, the number of loans from Lender & Spender with payment arrears has decreased to only 0.26%. In addition, your investment is automatically spread over thousands of loans, so that limits the risks enormously.

My return here has been at 3.8% for some time, which is lower than with other platforms, but I feel the risk is also much lower here. Plus they operate on the stable Dutch market and are supervised by the AFM.

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 11.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.8%.

 Max Crowdfund

Four open projects, it becomes easier to invest via Max Crowdfund. A while ago you had to be very quick, because a project could be fully funded within an hour.

Of the 4 open projects, 3 are from England and 1 from Germany. The platform is therefore expanding considerably across the border. In fact, they recently launched a new website focused on New Zealand and published their first loan there. In addition, they are also applying for a European license. But due to delays at the AFM they expect to receive it in six months or so.

I’ve only just started here, but I like it. And it is a “local” platform for me, from the Netherlands itself. The only drawback I now see is the minimum investment amount of 100 euro. This means it takes longer before I can invest the received interest again.

My investments at Max Crowdfund returned € 4.30 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.4%.

Crowdlending (east)

In the table and paragraphs below you can see which platforms make up my “Eastern Europe group”.

 Bondora

At Bondora, the net return of all investors has decreased slightly again, by 0.1% to 7.7%. At the beginning of this year this was still at 8.8%. I assume that the now long-running crisis has a lot of influence on this, and that these numbers may improve once the ‘corona dust clouds’ have lifted and the economy picks up again. I also assume that it will not affect the interest rate of Go&Grow for the time being (I do not recommend the other options at Bondora).

With Go&Grow you can in principle withdraw your money at any time, so it is more like a savings account with an interest rate of up to 6.75%. That 6.75% is a maximum but so far I have never seen it lower than that. If the general return continues to fall I can imagine that that 6.75% will also come under pressure, but it seems that this is not an issue for the time being.

In any case, in terms of volume Bondora continues to grow considerably: they have reached the milestone of 500 million euros in investments. They are expanding the team considerably, they have 11 vacancies open.

My investments at Bondora returned € 18.55 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Brickstarter

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 5.77 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.1%.

 Bulkestate

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 21.56 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Crowdestate

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 2.37 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.0%.

 Crowdestor

Crowdestor has been a high-risk platform in my eyes for some time now. The promised interest rates of 20-30% seemed very interesting in the beginning, but nowadays I focus more on the big associated risks. Certainly if loans with these kinds of extremely high interest rates fall behind with payments, you should seriously take into account the fact that the investment may not come back al all. Crowdestor does have a kind of guarantee fund (Provision Fund), but this is so small that only a very small part of investments can be repaid.

I started at Crowdestor at the end of 2018 and in February 2019 I had invested EUR 2,500 in “Energy production plant”, a project with a duration of 2 years at an interest rate of no less than 19.5%. You guessed it, this should have been repaid about 9 months ago. Didn’t happen. Since the bulk of my money was spent here on this project, I decided to sell it on the secondary market at a hefty discount. That didn’t work at first, until I gave a discount of a few hundred euros. Then it was gone in no time, and I then immediately had the money paid out to my own bank account.

Now I can hear you thinking: “what, throwing away hundreds of euros like that??”, but the calculation is very different because I had already received a lot of interest payments in those first 2 years. That is the advantage of the high interest rates. All things considered I still made a net profit of 496 euros, which still comes down to a return of 6.77% over those almost three years.

In addition to that acceptable return rate there is another big advantage. By withdrawing this large amount I have now withdrawn 845 euros more than I have ever deposited to the platform. Yet the value of my account is still more than 1,440 euros. This is because I invested much more in those early years, and then those extremely high (risky) interest rates quickly added up. In short, I don’t have to worry about this platform anymore at all. Of course I will continue to invest with this platform, but only through Flex. Then you can withdraw it at any time and receive daily interest (12% on an annual basis). As long as the platform continues to run well, of course.

Last month my account value at Crowdestor decreased by € 529.27, and my average return rate is now 13.4%.

 EstateGuru

EstateGuru continues to do well, my returns here are very stable. And with 10% of course also nice and high. The loans have real estate as collateral, which also provides more security. But of course it also applies here that it is not wise to invest in loans with higher risks. I only allow investments in loans with a first-class mortgage as a guarantee, max 65% LTV, and I have also excluded terms of longer than 2 years.

I have also invested a small amount in the platform itself, via the crowdfunding platform Seedrs. So maybe I should add some kind of disclaimer, but an investment of 2,333 euros in a company that is valued at 50 million euros is not that significant I think…

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 30.59 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.0%.

 EvoEstate

My dashboard at EvoEstate shows that 2 out of 20 investments are now behind on payments. It is only now that I notice that filtering the overview with investments is actually very limited. It is difficult to find out which projects are overdue. It concerns 400 euros of the total invested 2200 euros, so about 18% of my portfolio.

I have asked them for clarity and also whether they want to add the missing information to the overviews. In the meantime I will check my account more often.

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 7.55 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.2%.

 Fast Invest

Fast Invest is still having trouble transferring withdrawals. They indicate that this is due to late payments by borrowers, but of course this is not true for the money that has not been invested. Most of my account value is now marked as “available to invest”, but can’t be actually withdrawn? Then something is really wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised if this also becomes a platform to write off.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 0.24 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.1%.

 Grupeer

Grupeer’s website remains active, but nothing else happens and investors still can’t access their money. Don’t even come close as an investor.

Last month my account value at Grupeer did not change, and my average return rate is now 6.5%.

 Iuvo

I’ve been thinking about investing in IuvoUP at Iuvo because I haven’t had a great experience with single investments here. Most of my account value has gone into loans from CBC (KFP), which is now in default even though the loans had the second highest rating (a B rating).

But IuvoUP offers up to 4% interest, and that’s roughly what I get from Lender & Spender. And then I have more confidence in a Dutch platform that automatically spreads your investment over thousands of loans from Dutch consumers.

Last month my account value at Iuvo did not change, and my average return rate is now 7.6%.

 Mintos

My investments at Mintos returned € 10.56 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.3%.

 NEO Finance

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 17.70 last month, and my average return rate is now 2.9%.

 PeerBerry

PeerBerry is exactly 5 years old this month. They have certainly been on the rise in the last year, and the volume of outstanding loans has tripled:

I started investing here a year ago and this is one of my favorite platforms to date. The return is very stable here, which undoubtedly also has to do with the buyback guarantee (after 60 days of payment arrears you get your invested money back plus the accrued interest). Of course this is not a 100% guarantee, this is still a form of investing. But in addition to the buyback guarantee there is also the group guarantee. If one of the originators gets into trouble the other originators in the group have to deal with it.

My investments at PeerBerry returned € 9.24 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.4%.

 Reinvest24

I’ve been investing through Reinvest24 for a little over 2 years now, and there has been a cost associated with investing here since the beginning. This is one of the sources of income through which the platform is financed. In the beginning this was 2% of the investment, and earlier this year this had already been halved to 1%.

From now on Reinvest24 will no longer charge costs when investing in new projects. Instead there is a “success fee”, so you actually only pay the costs when the winnings are cashed in. Nothing will change for existing projects and investments. Secondary market purchases also become free (for new projects), the seller then pays the fees. Of course it is the purchaser then that has to pay the success fee. The costs remain the same, 1% of the value of the investment.

If a nice return is made, this is actually even more favorable for investors. Paying 1% afterwards or 1% of the investment makes a significant difference, according to Reinvest24 this roughly amounts to an extra return of 1.9%.

The platform announced that they are in the final phase of obtaining a financial institution license, which is also good news for investors. They expect to receive it this year or else in the first quarter of next year.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 27.16 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.3%.

 Robocash

Also Robocash is part of a group, and it is also financially healthy. This means that they can absorb blows and just as important: fullfilling the buyback guarantee (with Robocash this is already after 30 days, including the accrued interest).

Last week, Robocash adjusted the interest rates. The interest rate is linked to the term, the longer your investment is fixed, the higher the interest rate:

My investments at Robocash returned € 1.23 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.4%.

 TFG Crowd

At TFG Crowd the investments are going quite downhill, one after the other is getting into trouble according to TFG Crowd. I do not have an investment that isn’t behind in terms of payments.

Last month my account value at TFG Crowd did not change, and my average return rate is now 14.6%.

 TWINO

In the coming month TWINO should publish the annual figures for 2020. I will go through them carefully to see how Twino is doing. The latest report for 2019 showed that 55% of outstanding loans were late, but the group as a whole had made a profit. It will be interesting to see what the effect has been of the corona crisis in 2020. It is a pity that it takes so long for the annual figures to be released, but they have been audited by an accountant. And transparency is always good, not all platforms are this open.

My investments at TWINO returned € 16.24 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.7%.

 Viainvest

Viainvest is one of the most stable platforms in my portfolio, with a nice return rate of around 12%. The knowledge that they are now licensed is of course also reassuring, because if the platform falls the (Latvian) government guarantees investors funds (up to a maximum of € 20,000 per investor). In addition, the platform and the lenders all belong to the same business group so they have everything under control themselves.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 22.42 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.9%.

Crowdfunding

 CrowdAboutNow

At CrowdAboutNow there is a stock equity campaign again. The last months there were only loans available. It concerns ‘Rechtstreex van de Boer’, a company that builds short local food chains in the Netherlands. So far they have already achieved 158% of the target amount, and you can already become a co-owner with an investment from 250 euros.

Because I already invested in a loan via this platform last month, I’m waiting a little longer.

Last month my account value at CrowdAboutNow did not change, and my average return rate is now 0.0%.

 Crowdcube

Crowdcube raised money with and from an American investor, Circle Internet Financial. This investor owns the American crowdfunding platform SeedInvest.

I think that the rejected merger between Seedrs and CrowdCube is the reason why these platforms started looking for other collaborations, or were seen as takeover candidates.

My investments at Crowdcube returned € 2.12 last month , but this is caused by currency flunctuations. Some of my investments here are in British Pounds. My average return rate is now 0.1%.

 Seedrs

Today news came in that Seedrs is being bought by Republic, an American investment company. The deal values Seedrs at around USD 100 million, so I’m curious what the effect will be on the small investment I made in Seedrs through Seedrs. At that time, Seedrs was valued at GBP 42 million.

The acquisition will give the platform more clout to enter the American market, and they also expect to be able to grow significantly within Europe as a result.

Last month my account value at Seedrs decreased by € 17.57, but this is caused by currency flunctuations. Some of my investments here are in British Pounds. My average return rate is now 9.9%.

Stock

 DEGIRO

At DEGIRO, my pullback is pretty limited, only half of last month’s gains.

Last month my account value at DEGIRO decreased by € 661.02, and my average return rate is now 34.9%.

 ING

My ING account also shows that the economy has taken a major hit. Here I follow the “50-50 with rebalancing” strategy, where I invest exactly the same amount in precious metal ETFs and economics ETFs. So if the prices of gold and silver are moving in exactly the same way as the economy, then the ratio in my portfolio should always be 50% precious metals and 50% economics. Since my rebalancing in June, the economy has been improving and precious metals have been on the decline:

This month it can be clearly seen that the economy has suffered a significant decline, and then investors try to look for security in precious metals. So the price of precious metals and the economy are moving somewhat counter cyclically, in opposite directions. The occasional rebalancing tries to take advantage of that to get an even better return in the long run. But all investment strategies are for the long term, trying to make short term profits is all gambling and speculation.

This month I deposited another 100 euros, 50 euros for the precious metals and 50 euros to buy economics ETFs. In addition, I also got a nice bonus: last month I bought 1 Amundi Prime Europe UCITS ETF and I already received dividends for it. Not much, 61 cents, but I appreciate all bonuses big and smal.

Last month my account value at ING decreased by € 79.00, and my average return rate is now 11.0%.

 Saxo Bank

I also received dividends at Saxo Bank: € 3.06 for my shares in ASML.

This platform is where the impact of the decline in confidence in the economy is greatest. Much of my portfolio here is in oil, and in the last few days the price of my LOIL ETF has fallen by almost a quarter. I’m not worried about it though. I was able to cash in a nice part last month. And I have already amply withdrawn my investment, so the more than 1500 pieces that I still have are pure profit. And that is of course very soothing: the knowledge that I can never lose money on that again, only theoretical unrealized gains.

Last month my account value at Saxo Bank decreased by € 6,373.77, and my average return rate is now 78.0%.

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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Disclaimer: I share my experiences on this site, and blog about my results and things I encounter. It is for informational purposes only and cannot be considered professional advice. Investments bring risk and you should never invest funds that you are not willing to lose. I think my site is a nice start, but do your own research and make sure you understand the risks before you start to invest yourself. You can read more about this here.