My Investments 02/2022 (War in Ukraine)

Before we get into my latest monthly portfolio update, I hope you and your loved ones are safe right now. Who would have thought we’d ever see war so close to our borders in Europe…

On February 25th, I published a spontaneous video as the shocking events in the Ukraine were unfolding. Many of you are likely wondering how this affects different investment categories and if I changed my investment strategy in P2P lending, ETFs or crypto.

So in today’s post, you’ll find out exactly what I have been doing over the past few weeks.

We’ll also have a closer look at how each of my investments performed in February and see how the major P2P lending platforms are reacting to this difficult situation.

Please don’t forget that none of this is investment advice, just my personal opinion based on my own experience as an investor.

Let’s begin with the largest pillar of my investment strategy, ETFs.

ETFs

We haven’t changed a thing. My wife and I are still buying the accumulating Vanguard FTSE All-World (ISIN: IE00BK5BQT80, Ticker: VWCE) at the beginning of every month.

As you can imagine, due to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine the market was very volatile.

As a result, we’ve been trying to “buy the dip” with some extra money ever since. I know we’ll never be able to time our buys perfectly to hit the lowest price as we don’t have a crystal ball, but that’s alright.

Here is how our ETF performed (in €):

• -3,01% in February
• -6,26% in 2022 so far

Even though our ETFs are currently down over 10.500€ in value in 2022, I’m positive that they will recover. They remain a major pillar of our long-term investment strategy.

In fact, now could be a great opportunity to start investing into stocks & ETFs at a discount.

If you’re looking for the best, low-cost brokers in Europe to get you started on your investment journey, check out Interactive Brokers, Degiro and the full list of my favorite brokers here (including local options if you’re based in Austria or Germany):

• My favorite low-cost brokerage accounts for stocks & ETFs
• ETF Investing for Europeans in 2022 (Incl. Broker Tutorials)

P2P Lending

Ok, let’s get to my investments in P2P lending and see how these were affected by the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine.

So here’s the deal at the moment:

• Many Russian banks and subsidiaries were excluded from the SWIFT banking system about two weeks ago.
• Not only that, the RUB lost 30% in value against the EUR within a single month
• The loan repayments in local currency don’t seem to be affected according to the Russian lending companies. It’s also likely that demand for loans is increasing in the country. But, now that some loan originators have to find different ways to forward the money to the platforms and ultimately investors, we’ll probably see some delays.

Personally, as I mentioned in my video about the Ukraine situation, I excluded Russian loans for now from all the platforms I’m using. That’s simply because these now carry a lot more risk compared to a few weeks ago. I’d like to first see how the situation evolves.

But to clarify, I wouldn’t have a moral problem lending money to Russian borrowers. 144 million people live in Russia and I’m sure the large majority just wants to live in peace and is completely opposed to what their government is doing (or they’re receiving the wrong information). All the sanctions are putting even more stress on the Russian population.

Many of them might need the occasional loan to be able to feed their family. That’s something I think we should keep in mind. I don’t think that virtue signaling by excluding Russian loans out of principle is hurting the people responsible, just the lower and middle class in the country.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my 2 cents on the topic.

This is my platform allocation on the 1st of March, 2022:

Bondora Go & Grow has become my third largest position, as I’ve started using the platform as a cash buffer again. Meanwhile, I’m still removing funds from Crowdestor on a monthly basis.

Let’s see how my investments did:

Mintos

• Income (February 2022): 52,24€
• IRR: 11,37%
• Invested since: 27.09.2018

Sadly as I expected, the funds I had in the Turkish car loan originator Wowwo are now in recovery on my account. Thus, as I announced in my last update, I withdrew 403,93€ from Mintos in February.

I’m moving that money to other, better performing platforms in my portfolio for now.

Viainvest

• Income (February 2022): 31,27€
• IRR: 12,08%
• Invested since: 11.10.2019

Once again there were zero issues on Viainvest in February. The platform doesn’t offer any loans from Russia or the Ukraine, so it wasn’t affected.

• Get a 10€ signup bonus on Viainvest via my link.

Robocash

• Income (February 2022): 34,15€
• IRR: 12,22%
• Invested since: 19.01.2021

Since the Robocash group has part of its operations in Russia, the company’s executives did a Live Q&A in the end of February, to clarify some things for investors.

These were my main takeaways:

• None of the money invested on Robocash is in any way transferred to or from Russia and is not affected by any political tension and resulting sanctions.
• While the group generates 60% of its net income from lending operations in Russia, none of these loans are placed on the Robocash platform and they don’t affect the group guarantee. Since the Russian loans are denominated and paid back in local currency anyway, they’re not affected by international sanctions or the currency devaluation.
• The Robocash Group is still profitable, but due to these events they will pause their expansion for now and focus on their existing businesses.
• All the Robocash investments are managed from Croatia.
• It’s possible that the interest rates will increase again over the coming months.

I remain confident in my investments on the platform, so I haven’t changed anything.

• Get an instant referral here for 1% cashback on all of your Robocash investments within the first 30 days.

Lendermarket

• Income (February 2022): 30,47€
• IRR: 14,45%
• Invested since: 21.11.2019

Lendermarket and the Creditstar Group have no exposure to Russian or Ukrainian loans, so they weren’t affected. Thus, Lendermarket has remained my most profitable investment in P2P lending and I’ve had zero issues in close to two and a half years as an investor.

Lendermarket is still running a 2% cashback campaign for new investors until the 20th of March 2022 (details here), which can be combined with the platform’s regular signup offer below.

• Get 1% cashback on your investments on Lendermarket after 60 days by signing up via my link.

Iuvo Group

• Income (February 2022): 17,49€
• IRR: 11,55%
• Invested since: 05.10.2018

According to Iuvo Group‘s updates on its blog, the Russian central bank placed a temporary restriction on payments to Non-Russian citizens. As a result, the Russian loan originator Kviku is currently exploring other payment options to transfer repayments to investors.

I started excluding Russian loans from my auto invest in the end of February.

• Get 0,75% cashback on your Iuvo Group investments after 60 days when signing up via my link.

Crowdestor

• Income (February 2022): 28,37€
• IRR: 8,38%
• Invested since: 03.04.2019

In February, I withdrew 37€ from Crowdestor, as I’m planning to leave this platform entirely. 26 out of my 37 remaining loans are still late.

Bondora Go & Grow

• Income (February 2022): 13,79€
• IRR (incl. withdrawals): 6,69%
• Invested since: 01.09.2018

Meanwhile, I’ve started using Bondora Go & Grow as a short-term cash buffer again and added another 1.000€ on the 1st of March:

• Get a 5€ bonus on Bondora when you sign up via my link and invest 10€ or more.

Bondster

• Income (February 2022): 9,19€
• IRR: 5,04%
• Invested since: 25.01.2022

I removed the Russian lending companies LimeZaim and Kviku from my Bondster auto invest until the situation calms down.

• Get 1% cashback on your investments on Bondster within the first 90 days by signing up via my link.

My Income From P2P Lending in February

Platform	Income	IRR	Invested	Value
Mintos	52,24€	11,37%	4.005€	6.652€
Crowdestor	28,37€	8,32%	4.836€	6.092€
Lendermarket	30,47€	14,45%	2.513€	3.426€
Viainvest	31,27€	12,08%	2.737€	3.408€
Iuvo Group	17,49€	11,55%	1.562€	2.750€
Robocash	34,15€	12,22%	3.250€	3.613€
Bondster (new)	9,19€	5,04%	2.000€	2.009€
Bondora Go&Grow	13,79€	6,69%	3.400€	3.830€
EvoEstate	0€	7,09%	214€	300€
EstateGuru	3,35€	7,96%	253€	304€
Mintos I&A	0,10€	9,80%	0€	59€
Total	220,42€		24.770€	32.443€

I earned a total of 220,42€ in interest from P2P lending in February.

According to Portfolio Performance, the free tool I use to track my investments, that’s a return of 0,68% for the month and an internal rate of return of 9,12% p.a. from P2P lending in 2022.

Bitcoin & Ethereum

Last but not least, let’s discuss my highest risk investment category, crypto. I try to limit this sector to 10% of my overall portfolio and mostly stick to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

So, let’s see how they did in this crazy market environment:

Bitcoin:

• +17% in February
• -5% so far in 2022

Ethereum:

• +10% in February
• -20% so far in 2022

Crypto returns aside, I earned a total of 74,24€ from crypto lending on FTX last month.

Alright, that’s it for my investments!

How are you guys doing? Are you freaking out yet?

I honestly can’t think of a more difficult time for investment decisions than what we’re going through right now. But this too shall pass!

My Investments in 2022 (February) – The Video

You might enjoy these posts:

• My TOP 3 Investments For 2022 (Yearly Returns & Outlook)
• Viainvest – 2 Years Later (12,08%)
• The Stock Market is Crashing – What Now? (ETF Investor)
• Lendermarket – 2 Years Later (14,45%)
• ETF Investing for Europeans in 2022 (Incl. Broker Tutorials)
• My Top 5 P2P Lending Platforms – Here Is Why