My Investments 02/2023 (Are ETFs Crashing Again?)

Well, after a period where it felt like everything was up only, this has been an extremely volatile month in the markets.

With more and more people worried about inflation staying higher for longer and monetary policy around the world tightening further than expected as a result, I can’t blame you for feeling uneasy about your investments in the stock market right now, no matter if you invest via single stocks or passive ETFs as I do.

Today I want to have a look at exactly what happened in February and what I’m doing regarding my own investments. We’ll also review how each part of my portfolio (ETFs, P2P lending and my speculative bets) performed and discuss any important events that occurred.

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

Are ETFs Crashing Again?

Let’s begin with where the large majority of my money is invested: Stocks in the form of ETFs.

After an extremely bullish month of January, last month has been a bit of a roller coaster.

Until the middle of the month it looked like we were continuing the upward trend in price, but then the market started going lower and lower and we actually finished February in negative territory, with the Vanguard FTSE All-World being down -0,92%.

Then again, it needs to be said that we’re still up substantially (+4,46%) since the start of 2023:

Still, with high inflation potentially sticking around for longer than expected, which could result in both the FED and ECB having to raise interest rates above what they initially planned to get inflation under control, we might still be in for a rough ride this year.

As I mentioned in my post about my predictions for 2023, I’m still expecting positive returns for the year as a whole, but as we’ve just seen, I think we’ll still have a lot of volatility.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if we experience a correction of -10 or -15% at some point, followed by a quick recovery. Or maybe we don’t see a correction and we just move sideways for a few months.

To be honest I have no way of knowing either, just like anybody else.

The thing is, it doesn’t really matter what happens in the short run, ETFs are long-term investments anyway. Periods of uncertainty like we’re seeing right now are the perfect time to keep dollar-cost averaging (euro-cost averaging?) into the market at regular intervals.

That’s precisely what we’re doing by sticking to our simple 1-ETF investment strategy, where we buy the accumulating Vanguard FTSE All-World (ISIN: IE00BK5BQT80, VWCE) every month.

If you’re looking for the best low-cost broker in Europe to buy stocks or ETFs, I recommend checking out Interactive Brokers.

Meanwhile, here are the best alternatives if you’re based in Austria or Germany, where taxes are more complicated and it makes sense to choose a local broker that takes care of those for you.

Interest on Cash Deposits

Speaking of brokers, we’ve now received our second monthly interest payment on Trade Republic on our cash reserves, which we moved there in January (as I announced in my review):

Yes I know, 2% p.a. isn’t much when looking at inflation, but I’d argue it’s a lot better than what banks offer right now, while also being secured by a deposit guarantee of up to 100.000€.

It’s still nice to finally earn a bit of interest on money that’s not meant for investments as well.

P2P Lending

Alright, let’s get to my investments in P2P lending, starting with my largest investment.

Mintos

• Income (February 2023): 51,41€
• IRR: 10,42%
• Invested since: 27.09.2018

I had my best earning month in a long time on Mintos.

I made an additional 500€ deposit to my account in mid February, as the marketplace is still offering loans with high interest rates for its best rated lending companies.

Sadly it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns last month. Mintos finally released an update on the legal proceedings regarding the Turkish car loan originator Wowwo, which I had been looking forward to, since I have 755€ in recovery from the lending company.

As it turns out, the arbitration court decided that the case should be reviewed in a general court instead, which means that we still have to wait for the situation to be resolved at some point. That’s quite disappointing.

• Sign up to Mintos via this link and invest 1.000€ or more before 31.03.2023, to get a €50 instant bonus and 1% cashback on your average investment in the first 90 days.

Esketit

• Income (February 2023): 46,23€
• IRR: 14,13%
• Invested since: 19.09.2022

Next is Esketit, my second largest investment in P2P lending, which had another great month with zero issues.

According to its latest management report, Money for Finance (the Jordanian lending company) generated a gross profit of 6,6 million euros in 2022, which is great to see.

According to Esketit, the Creamfinance group ended the year with record profits as well and we should see its audited financial statement in the coming months. Not only that, Creamfinance will be rebranded to AvaFin in a few days.

Now comes the bad part: Due to the continued high demand from investors, Esketit decided to lower the interest rates for all Creamfinance loans from 12 to 11% and the loans from Jordan from 14 to 12% per year.

While I’m obviously not excited about the change, it’s understandable and I’m still ok with the updated rates.

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

Viainvest

• Income (February 2023): 42,24€
• IRR: 12,34%
• Invested since: 11.10.2019

Then we have Viainvest, where I had another great month with no surprises. I’m glad that the platform is keeping its interest rates locked at 13%.

I was also informed that the VIA SMS group will publish its financial statements for 2022 soon and that they are still planning on getting their 2021 report audited, just as they’ve done in the 9 years before.

Still, one thing that I would like to see improved is more regular communication with investors, as I feel that’s something that has been lacking since they became regulated last year.

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

Robocash

• Income (February 2023): 37,87€
• IRR: 12,39%
• Invested since: 19.01.2021

Robocash also performed like clockwork in February, there was nothing noteworthy to report here.

• Sign up using this link before March 9th, to get 1% cashback on all of your Robocash investments after 30 days.

Income

• Income (February 2023): 49,07€
• IRR: 12,52%
• Invested since: 17.03.2022

Income Marketplace had an excellent month as well, which pushed my internal rate of return above 12,5% per year.

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

Lande

• Income (February 2023): 18,79€
• IRR: 14,00%
• Invested since: 19.09.2022

Lande, the platform where I invest into asset-backed loans, also performed as expected in February.

• 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, until the Creditstar Group starts repaying its loans according to its original schedule instead of extending them and fully repays pending payments on Mintos.

One thing I found quite surprising is that even Lendermarket is now rating Creditstar’s loans below it’s other two lending companies, Credory and QuickCheck. That’s something I did not see coming.

P2P Lending Income February

Platform	State	Income	IRR	Value
Mintos	Active	51,41€	10,42%	8.570€
Viainvest	Active	42,24€	12,34%	4.390€
Robocash	Active	37,87€	12,39%	4.402€
Esketit	Active	46,23€	14,13%	5.131€
Income	Active	49,07€	12,52%	3.720€
Lande	Active	18,79€	14,00%	2.595€
Lendermarket	Leaving	47,04€	15,64%	2.868€
Iuvo Group	Leaving	3,44€	10,85%	1.021€
Bondster	Leaving	6,96€	12,77%	815€
EvoEstate	Leaving	0€	5,79%	300€
Crowdestor	Leaving	5,36€	6,21%	4.489€
Total		308,41€		38.301€

I earned a total of 308,41€ from P2P lending in February.

According to Portfolio Performance, the free tool I use to track my investments, that’s a monthly return of 0,81% which translates to an internal rate of return of 10,63% from P2P lending this year.

Crypto

It’s time to finish things off with the speculative 10% of my portfolio, my investments in Bitcoin & Ethereum.

Even though they are highly correlated to the stock market, surprisingly they still managed to finish the month of February in positive territory:

• Bitcoin: +5,35% (+43% YTD)
• Ethereum: +2,91% (+37% YTD)

Things aren’t looking quite as hot in March so far, but then again these are extremely volatile assets and we’ll have to wait and see how the rest of the year goes.

As for what’s coming next, I’m currently working on a video & blog post comparing the most popular ETF investment strategies, so stay tuned for that. If everything goes well, it should be out later this week!

Are you feeling a bit more worried about your investments now that the latest numbers on inflation came in hotter than expected or are you sticking to your strategy?

Thank you for being here, have a wonderful week and until next time!