Portfolio Update – My Investments in 2021 (April)

Another month has passed, so welcome to my portfolio update for April 2021!

Let’s see what happened and how all of my investments performed last month. In case you’re new, I’ll be talking about my investments in P2P lending, stocks in the form of ETFs and my small bets in cryptocurrencies.

Please don’t forget that none of this is investment advice, just my own opinion based on my personal experience as a 31-year old investor.

ETFs

Let’s start with what makes up the biggest chunk of my portfolio, ETFs. My goal is to have around 60% of my investments allocated here.

My long-term strategy regarding ETFs has not changed. I like to keep it as simple as possible, while being diversified over thousands of companies from all over the world.

At the beginning of every month, I buy a single ETF, the accumulating version of the Vanguard FTSE All-World, via an automated savings plan on my Austrian broker.

And sometimes, if there is a dip and I have extra money, I place market orders to buy a bit more using other brokers, which are cheaper for direct purchases.

• The Brokers I use
• Finding the best ETFs in 2021

In case you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that I used to buy the distributing version of the same ETF before making the switch to the accumulating version this year.

I didn’t sell any of my old shares though, from which I received 195€ in dividends in the beginning of April, so some nice extra income!

To clarify, the companies in the accumulating Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF also pay out dividends regularly, but the ETF automatically reinvests them, so you don’t see them being paid out directly to you.

The total performance of the two ETF versions is the same, but most of the time, distributing ETFs are less tax-efficient because dividends you receive have to be taxed that same year. But that’s another topic and can differ depending on the country you live in!

Anyway, the stock market is still going strong in 2021. Here is how the ETF has been performing:

• +1,22% in April
• +10,94% since the beginning of the year

Just remember that the stock market doesn’t only go up, we’ll also see periods with negative returns. So make sure you treat ETFs as a long-term investment.

• The Best Brokers for European Investors in 2021 (ETFs & Stocks)

P2P Lending

Ok, let’s talk about the next asset class I like to invest in for diversification and extra cashflow, P2P lending.

Generally speaking, things have been going well. Here is my P2P platform allocation right now:

I like my distribution, with one exception. There is a platform which I’ve been increasingly annoyed with over the past few months.

I’m talking about Crowdestor.

Crowdestor

• Income (Apr. 2021): 4,95€
• IRR: 9,34%
• Invested since: 03.04.2019

My account balance of over 6600€ only generated 4,95€ in interest last month, with even more projects being late on their payments.

Crowdestor’s communication regarding this has also been lackluster to say the least.

I got into Crowdestor in 2019 to diversify my P2P portfolio via business and real-estate loans. I also understand that the global crisis over the past year has hit this sector particularly hard.

But now I’m getting the feeling that more and more recent loans are also delayed and not paying back on time.

As a result, I’m starting to wonder about Crowdestor’s ability to choose trustworthy borrowers and to recover funds from loans that have been late for a long time.

Unless they prove themselves over the next few months, I can’t recommend this platform to new investors and I’ll be withdrawing my funds.

How do you feel about Crowdestor? Let me know in the comments!

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about P2P platforms that have been doing better.

Mintos

• Income (Apr. 2021): 52,76€
• IRR: 12,31%
• Invested since: 27.09.2018

My funds in recovery on Mintos dropped by 15€, hopefully that’s a good sign for the future. The platform also updated its custom automated strategies, which I’ll be taking a closer look at over the coming days.

Lendermarket

• Income (Apr. 2021): 29,01€
• IRR: 14,26%
• Invested since: 21.11.2019

The Creditstar Group, the lending company offering all the loans on Lendermarket, published its financial results for the first quarter.

According to the report, they generated a net profit of 1,69 million euros, which is great to see.

Omayra Roig, the business manager at Lendermarket, told me that the full, audited financial statement for 2020 should be out around June.

Furthermore, Lendermarket sent out an e-mail announcing a new cashback campaign a few days ago. The platform is offering 2% cashback on new investments until the end of June 2021, which you can combine with the 1% bonus (paid out after after 60 days) using my link.

Viainvest

• Income (Apr. 2021): 18,12€
• IRR: 12,04%
• Invested since: 11.10.2019

Viainvest announced that they’re leaving the Spanish consumer lending market, as they see more opportunities in other countries. But they’re still looking at other opportunities in Spain, so we might see something like Spanish business loans at some point instead.

Iuvo Group

• Income (Apr. 2021): 20,87€
• IRR: 13,17%
• Invested since: 05.10.2018

Robocash

• Income (Apr. 2021): 26,06€
• IRR: 12,14%
• Invested since: 19.01.2021

In case you’re wondering, there was an issue displaying interest correctly on Robocash on May 1st (when I took the screenshot), as it was counted in the total account balance but not in the earned interest section. Luckily that has been fixed, as you can see here.

• Robocash Review: How Did I Miss This One?
• Use this link or the referral code advE to get 1% cashback on all your Robocash investments after 30 days.

Bondora Go & Grow

• Income (Apr. 2021): 6,68€
• IRR (incl. withdrawals): 6,67%
• Invested since: 01.09.2018

EstateGuru

• Income (Apr. 2021): 6,32€
• IRR: 7,33%
• Invested since: 12.10.2020

EvoEstate

• Invested since: 03.02.2020
• IRR: 0,46%

Sadly, my two full loan repayments (incl. interest) are still late on EvoEstate. Maybe this month?

My Income From P2P Lending in April

Platform	Income	IRR	Invested	Value
Mintos	52,76€	12,31%	5.409€	7.571€
Crowdestor	4,95€	9,34%	5.712€	6.652€
Lendermarket	29,01€	14,26%	2.013€	2.590€
Viainvest	18,12€	12,04%	2.177€	2.567€
Iuvo Group	20,87€	13,17%	1.562€	2.562€
Robocash	26,06€	12,14%	2.500€	2.569€
Bondora Go&Grow	6,68€	6,67%	900€	1.247€
EvoEstate	0€	0,39%	730€	733€
EstateGuru	6,32€	7,33%	500€	520€
Mintos I&A	0,19€	9,91%	36€	142€
Total	164,96€		21.538€	27.153€

I earned a total of 164,96€ in interest from P2P lending in April. That is a 0,61% return on investment for the month, so the missed income from Crowdestor was certainly noticeable.

Bitcoin & Ethereum

Alright, let’s get to the last, most speculative part of my portfolio, where once again we saw quite a bit of volatility and action.

I’m talking about my investments in crypto, mostly consisting of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I started this year trying to keep this part at around 10% of my portfolio, but it has grown quite a bit since then. As a result, I’m planning to do some rebalancing later this year.

After three very strong months, one of the two digital assets was finally down a bit, while the other one soared. Here are the details:

Bitcoin:

• -4% in April
• +100% since the start of the year

Ethereum:

• +46% in April
• +299% since the start of the year!

My small allocation to this sector has definitely paid off so far. Let’s see what the future holds.

Just please remember that this is a highly risky asset class, where prices can shoot down just as quickly as they go up. So never invest money that you can’t afford to lose.

Before you ask me – no, I did not participate in DOGE or other hyped up meme-coins, as I don’t consider these investments, more like playing the lottery.

But that’s just me, so if you made some money from that, then I’m happy for you!

The exchange that I’ve been using the most this year is Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world.

You can get a -10% fee discount when using my link.

Security

Just a few words on this, as I think it is important.

When using exchanges, make sure you stick to the largest, most reputable ones, like Binance, Kraken, Coinbase or Bitpanda. These are also going to be the most secure, as they have the necessary funds to ensure the highest security standards.

Personally, I feel comfortable holding on to larger amounts of money there.

On the other hand, I don’t see a benefit in using small, lesser-known exchanges. So I would stay away from those.

Just make sure you secure your accounts well, using strong passwords (a password manager can help with that) and activate two-factor authentification both for your email as well as your exchange account.

I’ll probably talk about this in more detail in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that!

Alright, that’s it for my investments in April!

All in all, April has been a great month for my portfolio. I hope the same was true for yours as well!

You might enjoy these posts:

• The Best Brokers for European Investors in 2021 (ETFs & Stocks)
• FIRE Mafia – My Video Podcast About Financial Independence in Europe
• CapTrader: Interactive Brokers Without Monthly Fees
• Robocash Review: How Did I Miss This One?
• Finding The Best ETFs in 2021 (European Investor)
• Viainvest Review – 15 Months Later (2021)
• How To Buy ETFs – My Investment Strategy
• PeerBerry Review – Worth It In 2021? (My Personal Opinion)

My Investments in 2021 (April) – The Video