February 2022: Ups, downs, and the war

A lot of mixed feelings these times: all the suffering and damage caused by a war, and at the same time rising profits because of the falling and rising stock markets.

Further on in my overview of the stock exchange platforms, you can clearly see how the different sell order prices were suddenly hit. This has unexpectedly yielded a hefty profit, and I donated 100 euros of this to a crowdfund action for Ukraine. More about this action can be found below in my update on EvoEstate.

All platforms that finance loans from the Russia-Ukraine region quickly released an update that no loans from those countries are being published for the time being. Currency exchanges has also been restricted, several measures to protect investors from the extreme fall of the Russian Ruble:

In the chart above you can see the rate of the Ruble in the last month, with the fall in the last days clearly visible.

I have adjusted my auto-invest on the different platforms just to be safe and disabled investing in Russian loans and Russian originators. Even if platforms have already done that themselves: I want to choose for myself whether and when I want to invest in Russian loans again. I did not disable auto-invest in Ukrainian loans, so if the platforms open that up again my auto-invests can start investing in Ukraine. I think they can use all the support there in the rebuild.

Portfolio overview February 2022

Last month my portfolio increased by € 2,390.50 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 13.3%. 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

Flender isn’t really affected by conflicts, it as as far away as a European platform can be from the war: they’re only active in Ireland. One of the safest markets in the EU I think, and it is about the most West you can go for a platform in Western Europe.

Last month another project was fully paid off, and a few days after I received a message from the auto-invest that this had been automatically invested in a new project. Flender does not have a buyback guarantee, but if you ensure that the auto-invest invests with small amounts, your money will be divided over a lot of loans (currently 29 for me). This spread also ensures safety. About 136 euros in loans have been written off here so far, a large part of it this month. That is also the reason why my account value has decreased this month. Anyway, that is offset by 533 euros in interest received, so even if things don’t go well, my return remains fine here.

Last month my account value at Flender decreased by € 78.83, and my average return rate is now 5.9%.

 Funding Circle NL

The two remaining projects on Funding Circle NL continue to pay interest and principal nicely, and my returns are still fine here. It’s just a shame that you can no longer come here as a private investor.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 5.15 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Lender & Spender

Lender & Spender is taking spreading your investments over a large number of loans even more to the extreme. This Dutch platform invests fully automated for you, there is nothing to set. Nice and easy, and because it concerns Dutch consumer loans the reliability is also quite high.

Currently my investment of 3520 euros is spread over no fewer than 3611 loans, so that is less than 1 euro per loan. In the time that I invest here, only 21 euros in loans have been written off, and I have received no less than 457 euros in interest. Pretty good for being so close!

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 10.93 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.8%.

 Max Crowdfund

In March last year I invested 300 euros via Max Crowdfund in a project in Antwerp. This project was fully repaid last month, and because it was repaid early, extra interest was paid for 2 months. Now I suddenly have 349 euros in cash here, so I can make some nice investments in Western European projects.

My investments at Max Crowdfund returned € 10.16 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.7%.

Crowdlending (east)

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

 Bondora

Bondora offers loans from Estonia, Finland and Spain, so no real problems to be expected here due to the war in Ukraine.

The net return of all investors has decreased slightly again, by 0.1% to 7.4%. This is still well above Bondora Go&Grow’s promised maximum return of 6.75%, so I don’t expect the interest rate to be adjusted soon.

My investments at Bondora returned € 18.20 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Brickstarter

I also do not expect any impact from the latest developments at Brickstarter, because this platform mainly focuses on buying and renting properties in Spain.

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 3.30 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.9%.

 Bulkestate

Bulkestate focuses on the Baltic States and Finland, including real estate loans with collateral. The interest rates of the most recently published projects are around 13-14%, but there are projects that do not have a mortgage as collateral (and are therefore covered by the real estate itself), but Equity. I would avoid this one, because this effectively means that there is no real guarantee whatsoever that you will be able to get a part of your investment back if something goes wrong.

In the meantime, my uninvested amount here has risen to slightly above 200 euros, soon I will withdraw something here so that this platform comes closer to my own limit of 2,500 euros per platform.

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 35.38 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.1%.

 Crowdestate

Crowdestate has not been going well for me lately, but that’s not because of the war. A large part of my investments is also in the ‘Tammelehe’ projects, and they are in trouble. As a result, monthly interest income has come to a standstill. Efforts are being made to complete these projects and be able to cash in on them, but that will take a little longer.

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

 Crowdestor

At Crowdestor again 128 euros are uninvested, I’m still not sure whether I’ll include this or put this in Crowdestor Flex. My growth here is now mainly dependent on Flex, because all 7 regular projects that remain from my investments are now behind in payments. Hopefully some of this will come back one day, but if I still invest here, it will only be through Flex.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 2.83 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.3%.

 EstateGuru

I can only say about EstateGuru that it proceeds to run without any problems. The return remains very stable at around 10%, and the income stream is also very stable.

I’m still happy with this platform and with my direct investment as well (through Seedrs I bought a share in the platform itself a while ago), but I’m going to withdraw quite a bit here in the coming week. As a result I can also bring this platform under my general limit of max 2,500 euros per Eastern European platform.

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 26.83 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.9%.

 EvoEstate

EvoEstate has started a crowdfunding campaign where people can donate money for Ukraine. The minimum tuition is 10 euros, and all possible costs are paid by the platform so that all donations go completely to Ukraine. The action and all its details can be found on this page.

For the promotion, InRento is collaborating with the international Caritas. Donations that come in are not saved, but deposited to charity every working day.

As you can see in the screenshot I also made a contribution, I thought that was the least I could do.

This week a project on InRento was also completed and sold. All investors, including the undersigned, have realized a very nice return of 20.3% in one year.

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 42.58 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.2%.

 Fast Invest

Fast Invest has not paid out the withdrawals for a year, according to its own words due to problems at the borrowing companies. But you can also not withdraw the free amount, while this should always be available. Therefore, stay far away from this platform, this is just not right.

Last month my account value at Fast Invest did not change, and my average return rate is now 11.7%.

 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 6.0%.

 Iuvo

Iuvo has withdrawn all open loans from Kviku, the only affiliated Russian originator here, from the primary market. It is also no longer possible to convert money to and from Russian Rubles. However, they will pass on repayments they receive for existing Russian loans to the investors.

Last month my account value at Iuvo did not change, and my average return rate is now 7.2%.

 Mintos

Because of the war, Mintos withdrew all Russian and Ukrainian loans from the primary market. At the start of the crisis, they had only removed three Russian lenders from the ‘conservative’ strategy, a kind of predefined auto-invest. At the time of the invasion, however, this has been fully implemented, and it is only possible to buy or sell these loans on the secondary market.

In addition, it is also only possible to convert money to and from Russian Rubles to a limited extent. This was previously completely disabled, but they are now going to allow it to a limited extent in the morning on workdays, given the highly fluctuating exchange rates.

Besides a Euro account I also have accounts in RUB and KZT at Mintos. I have disabled the auto-invest there for the time being, but the return there in rubles has not (yet) decreased. For making my blog overviews I convert the value into euros at the current exchange rates, and then it can be seen that the value in euros has decreased by almost 10%. But as long as I leave the money in Rubles, I don’t mind that, in the long run I expect the price to pick up again. That could of course take months, but I don’t feel like selling my Rubles at such an unfavorable price right now.

Last month my account value at Mintos decreased by € 94.99, and my average return rate is now 9.3%.

 NEO Finance

The number of loans at NEO Finance has recently been somewhat lower, so that the free amount here had risen to a few hundred euros. So I had 500 euros transferred back to my own bank account.

NEO Finance was one of the first regulated platforms in Europe to be licensed, so I’m not including it because I don’t trust the platform. I recently set a new limit for myself: a maximum of 2,500 euros in each Eastern European platform, including for the fully regulated platforms.

I want to invest the amount withdrawn via a (new) platform in Western Europe, but given the current situation I will first wait and see what happens.

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 15.86 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.5%.

 PeerBerry

PeerBerry has notified all investors that they are not placing any new loans from Russia and Ukraine for the time being, and that they had already secured sufficient financial reserves to cover the loans from those areas as a precaution.

Nevertheless, I myself have adjusted my autoinvest here, and excluded Russian loans. If they are added again, I want to decide for myself whether I can invest in them or not. I have not ruled out Ukraine, I think they can use all the support and loans in the future.

My investments at PeerBerry returned € 9.34 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.4%.

 Reinvest24

Reinvest24 is active in Spain, Germany, Moldova and the Baltic States, and is therefore not affected by the war. Moldova is in that region and the government there has declared a state of emergency as a precaution, but they do not expect any impact on their employees or projects.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 7.36 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.2%.

 Robocash

Robocash is 5 years old this month. In that time, more than 23 thousand investors have financed more than 373 million euros in loans via this platform. They are now even 10th in the ranking of European P2P platforms.

Through this platform you automatically invest in loans from Spain, Singapore, Kazakhstan and the Philippines, so I didn’t have to adjust my auto-invest here.

My investments at Robocash returned € 9.89 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.6%.

 TFG Crowd

TFG Crowd is a platform to stay away from. Luckily I was able to withdraw a little more here than I deposited, so I am no longer at risk with this ‘red flags’ platform.

Last month my account value at TFG Crowd did not change, and my average return rate is now 13.6%.

 TWINO

TWINO is also monitoring the situation in Ukraine, but continues to offer Russian loans. In their own words, they have built up enough buffers to fulfill any buyback guarantees, even in the event of a significant devaluation of the RUB. However, they expect that redemptions can continue as usual, even if Russian banks are closed from SWIFT. About 20% of all loans on this platform come from Russia, the rest from Latvia and Poland.

My investments at TWINO returned € 15.87 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.7%.

 Viainvest

Viainvest only lists consumer loans from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania and Poland. So I didn’t have to adjust my auto-invest here. The monthly interest income and the return show that this platform will not be hit, although it could of course take weeks or months before it becomes really clear what the consequences of the war are on the entire European market. Viainvest has everything completely under control because the affiliated originators all belong to the same group.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 20.35 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.9%.

Crowdfunding

 CrowdAboutNow

I have two investments running through CrowdAboutNow; in Beer in a Box and in LOC Brewey. The latter is a 4% loan, but it only pays the interest after the third year.

There are some goodies for the investors in LOC, such as a free beer package, a free tasting and tour and a free beer on your birthday on site. My investment in Beer in a Box is not a loan but a stake in the company itself and comes with a free bi-monthly beer package, each time filled with surprising beers that you are guaranteed never to have received from them before.

Wonderful concept, such a beer subscription. I have just received another box, but they need to be cooled before I can enjoy them. Hmm, maybe one will have cooled enough by the time I’m done writing this update, if I put it cool now… Hold on, I’ll be right back!

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

 Crowdcube

Continuing with Crowdcube, my last (and second) investment here was in Meatless Farm. As an investor you get an update a few times a year with the latest news, this time the news is that Meatless Farm’s turnover has grown by 50% compared to 2020, and that they have received the “Rising Star” award from Deloitte UK. They have also concluded several new partnerships and launched a new chicken breast (and won an award with it). Well, a vegetable chicken breast.

Last month my account value at Crowdcube decreased by € 17.94, and my average return rate is now 0.7%. Changing exchange rates are the cause of this, as one of my investments here is in British Pounds.

 Seedrs

Last month my account value at Seedrs decreased by € 108.49, and my average return rate is now 10.2%. This change in value is due to exchange rate movements as most of my investments here are in British Pounds.

Stock

 DEGIRO

DEGIRO is my only exchange platform where there is no growth. This account doesn’t rely on oil or precious metals, so things get hit a little harder here. I’m not worried about that, in the long run those prices will pick up again.

At DEGIRO I want to focus more on dividend. That’s why I bought 5 different ETFs that focus on stocks that pay a big and stable dividend. I bought about 300 euros at each ETF, to give them the best possible start. If I buy more, I will divide that equally again. A bit similar to the 50-50 strategy I follow at ING, but divided into 5 categories/ETFs. Over time, this should provide a clear picture between these ETFs and how they perform.

Last month my account value at DEGIRO decreased by € 230.29, and my average return rate is now 28.9%.

 ING

With my ING account it is really clear to see what the effect of the war is on the prices. Here I’ve been following the 50-50 strategy for a while, investing exactly as much in ETFs that track the economy as ETFs in precious metals. In the chart below you can see what percentage of my portfolio is in each category, and it is easy to see that the economy ETFs have fallen sharply in value and the precious metals ETFs have risen in price. This is because in times of uncertainty investors ‘flee’ to gold and other precious metals. The ratio is now 46.8% economy to 53.2% precious metals.

Also this month I just deposited 50 euros for each category, and bought a few ETFs with it. If the ratio becomes much more skewed, I will think about performing the rebalancing action earlier, but for now I will keep an eye on it.

My investments at ING returned € 207.32 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.6%.

 Saxo Bank

In the event of war, the demand for oil always rises, which is of course also noticeable in the skyrocketing energy prices. At Saxo Bank I have quite a few ETFs in oil, and their prices have therefore risen considerably. Below is the price of my LOIL ETF in the last three months, and she sees the uptrend due to the improving economy. On the far right you see a big sudden jump upwards, which is clearly the result of the war in Ukraine.

Here I cash in my profit according to a fixed strategy: always sell so that the proceeds are 500 euros, whereby 1 piece less is sold in successive orders. I had already created 4 orders in advance, and suddenly all four were hit and executed.

My investments at Saxo Bank returned € 2,479.69 last month, and my average return rate is now 91.8%.

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.

When you found this update interesting, consider hitting the Like button. Feel free to share it with your friends using the buttons below. You can find my previous posts here: my tips, warnings, results of the previous months, and other articles.

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.