My Investments 04/2023 (Feeling Bullish About ETFs)

Could it be time to turn bullish even though another major bank failed and the FED hiked interest rates again?

Let’s see how my investments in ETFs, P2P Lending and crypto performed in April and discuss current events up to May 8th, 2023 (the time of my video).

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

ETFs

So, let’s begin with stocks in the form of ETFs, as this is the part of my investments that seems to be the most impacted by the uncertainty due to the still ongoing banking crisis.

Here’s my ETF portfolio, which I share with my wife:

Luckily, even with all the volatility, we’re still up about 7.700€ since the start of the year or about 26.000€ in total.

Considering we’re in a bear market since 2022, which will end at some point, I can’t complain.

The one and only ETF we buy, the accumulating Vanguard FTSE All-World (ISIN: IE00BK5BQT80, VWCE), still managed to finish April on a positive note, up 0,52%, for a cumulative performance of 5,65% year to date.

We just saw another major bank fail in the US, this time First Republic. Not only that, this is the second largest US bank failure ever recorded and yet, the FED raised interest rates one more time.

Even though that’s exactly what has been causing most of the problems in the banking sector in the first place… Oh well.

Our main ETF, the accumulating Vanguard FTSE All-World (ISIN: IE00BK5BQT80, VWCE) still managed to finish the month up +0,61%, for a performance of +5,1% in Q1.

But, there’s a good chance that was the last rate hike, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they started cutting interest rates sometime in the second half of the year. That would be a bullish signal for the stock market.

Whatever happens, I’ll keep buying on a monthly basis and I’m not changing my simple, one ETF investment strategy.

Interest on Cash Deposits

And since we’re talking about brokers, I received my fourth monthly interest payment on Trade Republic, where I’ve been keeping my cash reserves since January to earn a bit of interest (2% p.a.) on them, secured by a 100.000€ bank deposit guarantee:

P2P Lending

With ETFs out of the way, let’s move on to my investments in P2P Lending.

Mintos

• Income (April 2023): 46,47€
• IRR: 10,32%
• Invested since: 27.09.2018

I deposited an extra 340€ to my Mintos account in April. Earnings wise, April would have been my best month in a long time on the marketplace, but since the remaining 35% (33,29€ to be more precise) in my loans by the Russian lending company Revo were written off as bad debt, I only ended up earning around 46€ last month.

Still, I think Mintos made the right call by settling for a recovery of 65% of the outstanding amounts within a short amount of time.

Based on the low monthly limit of 10 million Russian rubles set by the Russian central bank, which is only about 118.000€/month, a full repayment of outstanding amounts would have otherwise taken 11 years, assuming everything were to go as planned. So I think they made the right choice.

• Sign up to Mintos via this link and invest 1.000€ or more before 31.05.2023, to get a €50 instant bonus and 1% cashback on your average investment in the first 90 days.

Esketit

• Income (April 2023): 51,82€
• IRR: 13,49%
• Invested since: 19.09.2022

Esketit, one of my favorite platforms, also ran smooth as usual.

• Get a 0,5% bonus on all of your investments on Esketit within the first 90 days via my link.

Viainvest

• Income (April 2023): 36,72€
• IRR: 12,16%
• Invested since: 11.10.2019

And so did Viainvest.

• Get 1% cashback on your average daily investment balance on Viainvest within the first 90 days via my link

Robocash

• Income (April 2023): 41,90€
• IRR: 12,32%
• Invested since: 19.01.2021

Robocash also had a good month. I added 550€ in April to bring my account over the 5.000€ needed for the 0,3% extra interest on all of my loans in the form of the bronze loyalty bonus.

The Robocash Group also published its audited consolidated financial results for 2022, where it generated a net profit of 13,1 million USD, which is great to see.

The group’s financial strength is one of the reasons why I’m ok with a slightly lower interest rate of currently 10,8% on my investments on the platform, most of which have a duration of 6 months.

Income

• Income (April 2023): 53,09€
• IRR: 13,18%
• Invested since: 17.03.2022

Meanwhile, Income Marketplace had an excellent month with over 53€ in earnings.

• Get a 1% bonus on your average investment balance on Income after 30 days using this link.

Lande

• Income (April 2023): 27,14€
• IRR: 14,35% (incl. 1% investment bonus)
• Invested since: 19.09.2022

Last but not least, Lande had a good month as well, earning me over 27€ from collateralized loans. As a result, I made another 500€ deposit in April.

• Get a 1% bonus on all of your investments on Lande within the first 180 days via my link.

Withdrawal in Progress: Lendermarket, Iuvo, Crowdestor, Bondster

I’m still continuing my withdrawals from Lendermarket for the time being.

P2P Lending Income April

Platform	State	Income	IRR	Value
Mintos	Active	46,47€	10,32%	9.020€
Viainvest	Active	36,72€	12,16%	4.964€
Robocash	Active	41,90€	12,32%	5.037€
Esketit	Active	51,82€	13,49%	5.588€
Income	Active	53,09€	13,18%	3.814€
Lande	Active	27,14€	14,35%	3.160€
Lendermarket	Leaving	55,91€	15,99%	1.274€
Iuvo Group	Leaving	0,97€	10,77%	727€
Bondster	Leaving	6,42€	12,48%	701€
EvoEstate	Leaving	0€	5,62%	300€
Crowdestor	Leaving	0,20€	6,02%	4.489€
Total		298,77€		39.074€

I earned a total of 298,77€ from P2P lending in April.

According to Portfolio Performance, the free tool I use to track my investments, that’s a monthly return of 0,77% which translates to an internal rate of return of 10,48% from P2P lending this year.

Crypto

This brings me to my two speculative, high-risk investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum, which I limit to 10% of my portfolio. Surprisingly they didn’t move much in April.

• Bitcoin: +66% year-to-date
• Ethereum: +50% year-to-date

They are currently still my best performing investments so far in 2023, but let’s wait and see how the rest of the year goes.

Finfellas

By the way, as I mentioned in February, I’ll be at the Finfellas P2P conference in Riga in the beginning of June.

You can use the promo code: Angelo-P2P-Finfellas for 30% off the ticket price in case you’re planning to go to the event.

Reach out to me if you’re in Riga as well from the end of May to the 3rd of June, I’d be happy to meet you in person, either at Finfellas or somewhere else. Some of you have done that already, which I’m looking forward to!

Thank you for being here, have a great rest of the week and until next time!