It’s time for my 47th portfolio update, this time for September 2022.
As always, we’ll have a look at how each of my investments performed:
- ETFs, which have been going through a painful period lately, even though I tried to buy the dip several times last month
- P2P lending, where I’ve been changing quite a few things around – among other things, I fully exited one platform and replaced it with a new one (Esketit)
- and lastly, my small portion of crypto.
We’ll also discuss any important events up to October 3rd.
Please don’t forget that none of this is investment advice, just my personal opinion based on my own experience as an investor.
ETFs – The Pain Continues
Let’s start with ETFs, the largest part of my investment portfolio. Stocks have been hit very hard this year and sadly, last month was no exception.
This is how my ETF portfolio, which I share with my wife, has been holding up last month:
I even bought the dip on four occasions last month using Interactive Brokers. Yet, our portfolio still finished below its value at the start of September.
Meanwhile, here’s how our main ETF, the accumulating Vanguard FTSE All-World (ISIN: IE00BK5BQT80) performed:
- -7,23% in September
- -13,39% since the start of 2022
At least we received a total of 375€ in dividends from our distributing Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF shares. We purchased these before 2021, which is when we made the switch to the accumulating version of the same ETF.
Time To Turn Bullish?
But, things might be looking up a bit in the stock market, according to Chamath Palihapitiya, a famous billionaire VC investor. Here’s what he had to say on the latest All In Podcast (which I highly recommend):
I tend to agree, I don’t think we’re going much lower than this, meaning a turnaround in the stock market might not be too far away. Either way, I’m sticking to my long-term investment strategy, so I’m buying more shares on a monthly basis.
Interactive Brokers vs. Degiro
Speaking of that, if you’re looking for the best, low-cost broker in Europe, I recommend checking out Interactive Brokers, which is what I’ve been using the most over the past few months.
Since someone asked me in my last video – no, there’s nothing wrong with Degiro, they’re still one of the best choices in Europe. In my opinion Interactive Brokers is just a bit better. The fees for buying & selling are lower when using the tiered model, there are no exchange connectivity fees and Interactive Brokers doesn’t lend out your shares. That’s basically why they’ve become my number 1 choice.
I’ll do an updated comparison soon, so stay tuned for that.
P2P Lending
Alright, let’s have a look at my investments in P2P lending, where I’m making plenty of changes.
Mintos
- Income (September 2022): 29,29€
- IRR: 10,68%
- Invested since: 27.09.2018
Due to the higher interest rates for loans from some of the platform’s best rated lending companies, I added 500€ to my Mintos account in September.
- Sign up to Mintos via this link and invest 1.000€ or more before 30.11.2022, to get a €50 instant bonus and a 1% bonus on your average investment in the first 90 days.
Lendermarket – What About Late Loans?
- Income (September 2022): 53,16€
- IRR: 14,58%
- Invested since: 21.11.2019
I had my best month in over two years on Lendermarket, with over 53€ in earnings.
If you’re wondering about the higher rate of late loans, that’s because my auto invest has mostly been buying short-term loans over the past few months, which tend to be late or bought back more often than those with longer terms.
- Get 1% cashback on your investments on Lendermarket after 60 days by signing up via my link.
Viainvest – Interest Rate Increase
- Income (September 2022): 32,38€
- IRR: 12,35%
- Invested since: 11.10.2019
Viainvest ran as expected in September, but the platform’s new split between loans and securities in its interface is still confusing.
In what can only be explained as a genius marketing move (ok, not really) pending payments were renamed to payments in process.
All jokes aside, Viainvest keeps performing well and interest rates were increased to 13%. So make sure you update your auto invest if you haven’t already. Here’s mine:
- Grab a 10€ signup bonus on Viainvest via my link.
Robocash
- Income (September 2022): 38,25€
- IRR: 12,26%
- Invested since: 19.01.2021
September was my second best month on Robocash so far, with 38€ in interest payments.
The Robocash Group, offering all the loans on the platform, published its financial results for the first 6 months of 2022. It’s impressive to see that they were able to increase revenue and keep their net profit almost the same even in the current, difficult market environment.
- Sign up using this link, to get 1% cashback on all of your Robocash investments after 30 days.
Why I’m Withdrawing From Iuvo Group
- Income (September 2022): 16,64€
- IRR: 11,10%
- Invested since: 05.10.2018
Now, let’s get to Iuvo Group. I’ve been investing on this platform since 2018, mostly to get exposure to loans from Bulgaria and Romania from financially sound loan originators within Iuvo’s holding company, the MFG group.
While I haven’t had a bad experience, I’m just a bit disappointed by the platforms performance after tracking it more closely.
Even when excluding the 663€ I have in recovery (loans from Russia and the Polish lending company CBC), I’m “only” making about 10% p.a. on my money, which is just too low in my opinion right now – at least, when comparing it to similar loans in the industry.
That’s even though I’ve only been investing into loans paying the highest available interest rates on Iuvo Group.
Sadly, Iuvo has one major downside compared to others: There’s no interest on the delay period if a loan goes into buyback after 60 days, which makes a substantial difference when it comes to yearly returns.
As a result, I made the decision to stop my auto invest and to withdraw free cash from Iuvo Group to other, more productive platforms.
Crowdestor
- Income (September 2022): 6,27€
- IRR: 7,11%
- Invested since: 03.04.2019
Why I’m Withdrawing From Bondster As Well
- Income (September 2022): 25,87€
- IRR: 11,73%
- Invested since: 25.01.2022
Bondster is in a similar boat, even though I only added them about 8 months ago. I just don’t like how few of my loans are paid back on time or without extra interest for delay periods. The communication surrounding delayed loans from Russia also needs to be a lot better, especially compared to Mintos.
Since I haven’t seen new crypto collateralized loans by ACEMA in a while, right now I don’t see enough reasons to stay on the platform. And that’s disappointing, since I had a great time meeting the Bondster CEO and the team in person.
Regarding RapiCredit, if you have any loans that haven’t gone into buyback after 60 days (like I do), that’s supposed to be because of a technical error. According to Bondster, they should be fully repaid by the end of October, including extra interest for the delay.
Income Marketplace
- Income (September 2022): 30,54€
- IRR: 11,54%
- Invested since: 17.03.2022
Meanwhile Income Marketplace has been performing very well. As a result and to take advantage of many loans paying 15% interest now, I added an additional 400€ to my account in September.
I’m ok with giving up a bit of diversification right now on Income to increase the portion of these higher interest rate loans in my auto invest.
- Get a 1% bonus on all of your investments on Income after 30 days using this link. You can add the referral code: I4IEMZ during signup, but it’s not needed to qualify for the bonus, as long as you’re using one of my links.
No More Bondora Go & Grow?
- Income (September 2022): 1,47€
- IRR (incl. withdrawals): 6,69%
- Invested since: 01.09.2018
Shall we get to Bondora Go & Grow?
As you can see, I withdrew my remaining funds (1.024,87€) in September and moved them to another platform, which we’ll get to right after.
6,75% p.a. are just not enough for me in the current high inflation market environment.
I’m not saying Go & Grow is bad by any means. After all, it has long been one of the most flexible ways to invest in this space. And I did earn a total of 525€ in interest on my money since 2018.
But the recent developments, with worse conditions for new investors (like just being able to use Go & Grow unlimited paying only 4% interest) made me decide to look for better alternatives, which I think I found with Esketit.
Esketit – Why I Started Investing On This Platform
Esketit is a P2P lending platform started in 2020 by the founders of a well known, profitable lending group (Creamfinance), with over 10 years of experience in the space. More than 96 million euros worth of loans have already been funded on the platform.
Esketit could be especially interesting if you prefer investing into short-term loans, which is understandable given the current market environment, or if you need to exit your investments earlier than planned.
Right now, loans from Spain and the Czech Republic are paying 12% interest, while loans from Jordan are paying 14% interest per year.
All loans come with a buyback obligation after 60 days, which covers both principal and accumulated interest.
Loans from Spain and the Czech Republic come with an additional group guarantee by the Creamfinance Group:
Still, a buyback obligation is only as good as the financial situation of the company that’s offering it, so let’s have a look at the financial statements:
Luckily, Creamfinance has very good numbers according to its audited financial statement, with a net profit of €3,4 million in 2021, €1,3 million in Q1 2022 and an equity/assets ratio that keeps getting better.
Meanwhile, we also need to take a look at the lending company in Jordan, Money for Finance. While that is also owned by one of its founders, it doesn’t offer the same group guarantee in addition to the buyback obligation after 60 days:
While it had a small loss in 2021 (its first year of operations), it has been profitable every month so far in the first half of 2022.
That’s good to see, this makes me confident in the buyback obligation that’s offered on all loans on Esketit.
So, let’s have a look at my account.
I deposited a total of 2.000€ to my Esketit account towards the end of September.
If you’re wondering about the 20€ in pending bonus payments – you can get the same 1% bonus on all your investments within the first 90 days by using this link.
As for the auto invest, I chose the diversified strategy, which invests into loans from all three currently available countries – Jordan, Spain and the Czech Republic:
According to my portfolio overview, my money was split pretty equally among the three countries, with the large majority being in short-term loans with a duration of up to 30 days.
Esketit also comes with two more nice features:
- The platform has a secondary market without fees if you’re planning to sell any loan in particular early
- As well as a cash out function, to automatically sell a portion or all of your investments to other investors
All of this could make Esketit a very good alternative to Bondora Go & Grow for short-term investments in P2P lending, while paying a much higher interest rate.
- Get a 1% bonus on all of your investments on Esketit within the first 90 days via my link.
P2P Lending Income September
| Platform | Income | IRR | Invested | Value |
| Mintos | 29,29€ | 10,68% | 3.853€ | 6.692€ |
| Lendermarket | 53,16€ | 14,58% | 1.964€ | 3.163€ |
| Viainvest | 32,38€ | 12,35% | 2.737€ | 3.666€ |
| Robocash | 38,25€ | 12,26% | 3.250€ | 3.868€ |
| Income | 30,54€ | 11,54% | 2.900€ | 3.038€ |
| Esketit (new!) | 0,84€ | 1,72% | 2.000€ | 2.001€ |
| Iuvo Group | 16,64€ | 11,10% | 1.308€ | 2.608€ |
| Bondster | 25,87€ | 11,73% | 1.314€ | 1.469€ |
| EvoEstate | 0€ | 6,26% | 214€ | 300€ |
| Crowdestor | 6,27€ | 7,11% | 4.566€ | 5.868€ |
| Bondora G&G | 1,47€ | 6,69% | 0€ | 0€ |
| Total | 234,71€ | 24.106€ | 32.673€ |
I earned a total of 234,71€ from P2P lending in September.
According to Portfolio Performance, that’s a return of 0,57% for the month and an internal rate of return of 8,41% p.a. from P2P lending in 2022. It would have been higher if it hadn’t been for a loan repayment on Crowdestor, which returned less than expected. I tracked the difference as a fee.
Bitcoin & Ethereum
Let’s finish things off with the highly speculative 10% of my portfolio I have in crypto, namely Bitcoin and Ethereum.
With the general market being down badly, sadly so were these:
Bitcoin:
- -1,7% in September
- -53% so far in 2022
Ethereum:
- -13% in September
- -59% so far in 2022
So yeah, that’s pretty painful. But, once the stock market starts going back up, I’m confident these will as well.
At least I earned a record 193€ from crypto lending on FTX in September, so it wasn’t all bad:
That’s all for my investments.
My Life Is About To Change Forever
On a more personal note, I’ll most likely already be a dad by the time I publish my next monthly update! How crazy is that?
I still can’t believe it. I guess I’ll finally have to start being a responsible adult…
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Valuable Resources
- My Investment Tools
A list containing all my investments in P2P Lending, the brokerage accounts I use to buy ETFs, my speculative investments in Bitcoin and my free bank accounts. It even includes the tools I use for blogging and YouTube. - P2P Bonus Offers
A collection of all the best, currently available bonus and cashback offers in the P2P lending space. Regularly updated.
Disclaimer: Investing involves risks of losses. You should always do your own research before investing into anything. Also, some of the links are affiliate links, which help support me, the website & YouTube channel. I only link to services I use myself, none of them are sponsored.
Hi Angelo,
I have question regarding Bondster not paying extra interests for delayed period.
From Bondster’s FAQ – https://bondster.com/en/frequently-asked-questions/
—
Am I entitled to a late payment interest?
When a repayment is overdue, investors are entitled to interest payments for the period of delay if the loan includes a buyback guarantee. If the loan does not include the guarantee, you are entitled to penalty fees. Their amount is specified in the loan details.
—
There is also “Received penalty fees” in weekly summary mail.
If I understand correctly, above section from FAQ explains that interests/penalty fees are paid for delayed period of time.
Am I missing or misunderstanding something?
Best regards,
Gasper
Hi Gasper,
Penalty fees are only offered for some loans (eg. 0,04% for ITF), while not for other lending companies (eg. RapiCredit).
Regarding late interest payments – you’re right, I’ll reach out to Bondster for clarification on that. I think I got confused by the “default interest” field in the loan details.
I didn’t know that penalty fees are only offered from specific lending companies (and not all).
Let us know what you will learn from Bondster about late interests. I was planing to send them email, but won’t bother them with the same question.
Thank you!
Will do! I sent Marketa from Bondster a message – she was on vacation but will get back to me on Monday. I’ll let you know what she writes me.
Marketa (Bondster) just got back to me. It seems like investors do actually receive interest for delay/buyback periods as well! Sorry about the confusion. Penalty fees seem to be something different.
This is great to hear. Thank you for feedback!
Hi Angelo, regarding the All-in podcast excerpt, I would be very careful with such bold statements, specially if they are not backed up by meaningful facts/data (only a bit of market jargon). There is a lot going on such as problems in the eurodollar system, China economy, the war, the central banks decisions towards QT vs QE, and specially for Europe, the energy crisis. With such uncertainty, is reasonable to expect more turbulence in the markets and even more lows in the months to come (maybe 1 to 3 years). That said, I think anyone pursuing passive ETF strategy should continue, though probably some good opportunities to buy great companies will appear in the near-term if one wants to play some tactical allocation.
Hi Orlando,
There will always be something to worry about next – and as a result, most people will stay on the sidelines, never invest and lose out on the recovery when it occurs. All the problems you mentioned are currently priced into the market, with most investors being similarly pessimistic. I prefer to stay positive. This is not a trading site/channel either way, so I hope everyone understands that ETFs should be treated as long-term investments anyway!
Hi Angelo, regarding Iuvo I was surprised to know about this “no interest on the delay period if a loan goes into buyback after 60 days”…with Iuvo support I got to know this:
“Most loan originators we work with provide buyback on the principal but some provide buyback on both the principal and interest. The credit companies that cover buyback on principal and interest are: Access Finance, AXI Card Spain, AXI Card Romania, and NordCard.”
Had a long discussion about this not being clearly stated in the FAQ, but they seem to believe that having this on each loan terms to consult and old blog posts (when each LO is onboarded) is enough…not too happy about this. Thanks a lot for that insight!
, which makes a substantial difference when it comes to yearly returns”, I was surprised to known this…I was looking at Iuvo site and that was not clear to me on FAQ, for instance. How or where did you learn about this?
Yeah, sadly none of the lending companies within Iuvo’s MFG holding company pay interest on buyback.
The FAQ links to this article:
Parameters of the buy-back guaranteeAll iuvo originators provide a buy-back guarantee for the principal, which is one of the main tools for us at iuvo to provide a safer environment for our investors. Guarantee for the interest, on the other hand, would create tensions for iuvo’s loyal partners, and will also create conditions for limiting available credit from a higher risk class, which would also reduce opportunities for diversifying your portfolio.
Nice update!
Are you sure that “Interactive Brokers doesn’t lend out your shares”?
According to broker-test, it’s in the AGB (conditions) of both Interactive Brokers and Degiro (while apparently no Austrian or German broker uses it).
If you’re looking for the source, it’s on the page “Einlagensicherung & Anlegerentschädigung”.
Maybe they haven’t updated their info, I don’t know.
Hi Simon,
Yes I’m sure. The broker-test source is out of date and not even relevant for European investors, who need to read the Interactive Brokers Ireland (or Central Europe) customer agreement, not the one from the US entity. And there you can see that there is only share lending if the customer explicitly wants it – first by switching to a margin account and then by activating the stock yield enhancement program – and in that case, IBKR even splits any interest earned with the investor.
Hello Angelo,
Long subscriber, thank you so much for the detailed breakthrough of your journey. It is an inspiration and a must read.
When you have time, can you explain a step by step how do you lend crypto? Similar to how you show us the process to autoinvest in different p2p.
Thank you and good luck to your family!,
RM
Hi Robert,
I’m very happy to hear that, thank you for the kind words!
Hopefully this will help for now. I haven’t changed anything since then , I’m still exclusively using FTX to lend out crypto.
Wishing you and your family all the best of luck as well!
Hello angelo,
Are you going to continue investing with Bondora go and grow given the minimum amount you can invest plus the percentage rate of interest they give?
Hi Leanne,
As you can see in the post you’re commenting on, I withdrew my funds from Go & Grow in September 🙂
Hi Angelo,
I have been reading you with interest. I have one question to the text: you seem to be worried with 660 EUR worth of delayed payments in Iuvo but are totally fine with almost 2900 EUR (above 40% of your portfolio) of loans in recovery from Mintos.
Why is that so? Is Mintos’ cash in recovery somehow safer than with any other lending platform?
Thanks,
Rafal