Hi everyone and welcome to my second portfolio update! 🙂

Here we are, at my favourite time of the month when I and many others check and update our portfolio and analyse how closer (or further) we are getting from our dreamed goals. In spite of this being my second portfolio update, it’s my first one as a full month since I started this blog, which still makes it very exciting, as I can compare results with the previous month.

I’ve been running a bit crazy this month. Blogging is a completely new experience to me, and it takes some time to learn how this whole thing works, and how to schedule my time to read other blogs, while also keeping this one alive. This blog is still quite in a development phase and it may change in the future, once I feel more comfortable with new ideas after the initial learning curve.

It has been a little nuts at work too, the majority of our customers want their products designed and manufactured prior to the end of March. I’m wondering if that’s got something to do with Brexit and whether this workload trend will continue after March or not. Exciting months coming up/down here in The UK guys!

Other than that, nothing much has been going on these last four weeks, rather than keeping myself warm at home, discovering such a great people with amazing content in their blog sites and spending some awesome time with my girlfriend, who sometimes complains about me spending so much time doing the first instead of the second, hehe. I promise to improve the second one in February ;).

Let’s get to the main stuff, the numbers!

Monthly Highlights

  • Portfolio value: 160,617 (+11 %)
  • Monthly Transactions (Deposits – Withdrawals): 1219 €
  • Monthly earnings: 14,471 € 
  • Passive income: 428 € (+33%) 

January has been a much better month than December was. My favourite Index, the S&P 500 rallied a few points, propelling my Vanguard ISA account above my previous 0.04% return, bonds funds paid its average interest, pound gained value against the euro, my crowdfunding sites performed well, as usual, and finally my algotrading account made a nice jump too, gorgeous!

The following chart shows how the value of my portfolio is evolving, my monthly transactions and earnings:

one million journey january 2019
Total Portfolio Evolution

Passive income

My passive income increased slightly compared to December. My S&P 500 shares paid its quarterly dividends, which impacts the total amount. I’m also investing more money in crowdlending platforms that pay monthly interests, as I would like to reach the 700€ target by the end of the year, and expect crowdlending platforms to help me substantially with it.

Monthly earnings by platform

As usual, the platform that has generated more money this month is Algotechs, followed by Vanguard and Grupeer. The Pound Sterling value against the Euro has increased a little bit, from a 1.11 ratio at the beginning of the month to a 1.15 (£1=1.15€). That’s good news for me, as I own some Pounds but make the numbers in Euros. I am very curious to see what’s going to happen to this ratio in the next couple of months, it adds some excitement I must say!

PlatformInception dateValue DecemberTransactionsValue JanuaryEarningsReturn JanuaryCumulative Return
Algotechs20/11/201781143094574
13431
14.2 %
115.8 % *
Vanguard (£)14/03/201825359 (28148.5 €)
500 (575 €)26,487.4 (30,460.5 €)628 (722.2 €)
2.4 %
2.8 %
Property Partner (£)21/01/20185840 (6504.6 €)05847 (6724.05 €)7 ( 8.05 €)0.12 %6.8 %
Housers26/03/201865830660320
0.32 %3.2 %
Grupeer19/05/201815765-120014755
191
1.42 %10.3 %
Mintos05/08/20182089+10003107180.6 %4.8 %
Crowdestate16/0820182022-1561890
241.3%2.3 %
Envestio15/10/2018147910002503
251 %5 %
Fast invest29/10/20181020.18
01031.2
111.1 %3.1 %
TOTAL144,731 €1,219 €160,617 €
14,471 €
14 %63.8 %

*A 25% success fee is not deducted yet

Algotechs

My algotrading account increased by 13,431€ this month. This is the best month I’ve ever had with Algotechs. It was quite scary, to be honest! The drawdown was high during these last days, on Brexit news and federal reserves’ meeting on Wednesday, having open positions with an accumulated negative value of -17.000€, at certain times (see mobile phone screenshot down below). The % drawdown is not high generally with this ATS software, so I panicked a little bit (a lot actually!) and reached to my account manager, who calmed me down and told me that everything was under control. He was right, soon after the conversation, the application began closing positions at values between 400-2000 €, phew! Could you image to deal personally with such a huge trades? I would completely lose my nerves, and end up as most Forex traders do – losing money.

One million journey algotechs
Algotechs January 2019
Algotechs forex algotrading
Click on the picture to see the last trades of the month

Vanguard

Federal Reserve decision on leaving interest rates unchanged and the better than many expected results of Apple and Facebook sales fueled US markets. Both news are very positive for my S&P 500 ETF held in my Vanguard portfolio. Will Apple rally like an rocket overcoming Amazon market capitalitzation and get back up to the top as it once was?

Even though I got my pay check late (31st) I managed to pay myself first £500. I added more shares to my existing USD Corporate bond ETF with a 4% coupon average and A- quality average. Note that even though stocks are in a position for a good run in the next weeks after the FR good news
(according some analysts), I opt to follow the opposite and buy Bonds, to keep my Stocks/Bonds ratio balanced, that’s similar to what some would call ‘contrarian investing’ – buy when masses sell, sell when masses buy.

I created a dedicated page in my blog to better display my Vanguard portfolio. as it will play an important role in my retirement. If you click on the link and visit the page you will only see a few screenshots at the time of writing, but I plan to describe my Vanguard pound investment strategy in the near future. For those that don’t know it, I am a Spanish guy living ‘temporary’ (or perhaps
unconsciously permanently) in The UK and building my free-tax ‘British empire’ account. More on this soon.

To conclude with, my account returned £628, from which £87 are passive income from my S&P 500 and bond ETFs.

One million journey vanguard
Vanguard Portfolio Evolution

Regarding the S&P 500 Index, the increase has seen a nearly 10% upwards move against 2.4% in my ISA account.

The two indicators down below on the picture are the MACD and Stochastics, both show that the Index is overvalued. My guess (and it’s only my guess!) is that the price will correct slightly and bounce back up again after the positive recent news (if no worse news surge) topping at the 3000 resistance level. These are just assumptions and don’t affect my investment decisions, but I just love the fun of whether I will be right or not.

one million journey s&P500
S&P500 jumps nearly 10% in January

Property Partner

Earnings from Property Partner were lower than usual for this month. Even though having a record rental income, I had to pay the purchase fee for the last property acquisition, leaving total net earnings of 7£ in January. After this acquisition, my forecasted monthly rental income increased to £19.41. This should raise a bit higher by an approximate value of £27, after the purchase completition the other two properties that are being processed with expectations to be completed shortly.

We only had one new opportunity in January and it is only available for High Net Worth or Sophisticated investors. They have raised more than £1.6m so far. If even the ‘Pro’ investors (those that know what they are doing and not me) use Property Partner, maybe for a reason. I am not a pro yet, so retail investors will have to wait a bit longer until the next opportunity comes.

Property Partner recently introduced “Innovative Finance ISA”. This could be good news for Property lovers with UK residence. Personaly, I prefer to keep my ISA with Vanguard.

If you feel like interested in Property Partner, you could check what property shares I own and how much cash flow they are giving me on this page. I also wrote a review after one year of investing, where I share my personal opinion and results. Hope it adds some value to you.

one million journey property partner
Property Partner Portfolio Evolution

Housers

Income from Housers climed slightly in January. As I said in my previous portfolio update, part of my invested funds are located in buy-to-sell opportunities. One of this propertites was sold in December, three months earlier than expected, returning the principal payment plus interest to investors this month. I invested 130€ back in April and returned me 6.92€ gross interest. That is a 5.3% (7.95% AER) return in 8 months VS the promised 7.1% AER. I was looking forward to exiting the first project to personally verify that the rates promised are somehow similar to the ones delivered and so has been in this case.

I was able to sell 50 more Estadio Nacional shares but still have 100 more to go that no one seems to be in a rush to buy.

I reinvested the money returned from the exited project and Estadio Nacional shares in newer development loan opportunities, averaging 8-9% interest rate. I expect around 20€ of earning next month after this move, hoping to boost the returns rate.

One million journey housers
Housers Portfolio Evolution

Grupeer

Grupeer also exited some projects successfully, returning me 1200
€, which I withdrew thereafter for diversification purposes. I’ve got not much to complain about Grupeer, being still one of my favourite platforms, except for their website. I find it complex to track my investments in detail. For instance, I never know whether interests are paid on time or what my annual net return is. It doesn’t extremely bother me, because the numbers work out at the end of the month, but these little things should be taken into account if they want to expand further.

Two loans will reach maturity date early in February, that should cash me in another 2200€, which I will also diversify to somewhere else. I plan to keep withdrawing until I reach an approximate value of 10k in my Grupeer account.

An account manager was appointed to me ready to answer any questions I may have, thanks for this professional approach.

Grupeer portfolio evolution

Mintos

I deposited 1000€ in Mintos. My weighted average interest rate is improving, but its also becoming riskier, as the newer loans I invest in have a B and B- rating with a higher defaulting risk. Although they all come with buyback guarantee, I am not completly sure if it is worth the risk after seeing the number of loans defaulting is accelerating month by month. More than 500€ were bought back, meaning that 24% of my invested funds are being lended to someone who can’t pay back. I am not comfortable with this margin, so I’m changing back to my previous auto-invest strategy; secured loans with A ratings, 12 months term and 8-10% average interest.

mintos portfolio january
Mintos Portfolio Evolution

Crowdestate

Most of the projects coming from Crowdestate don’t pay monthly interest lately. That is an issue for me, as my goal for 2019 is to increase my monthly passive income to a value of 700€. That’s why I took the action of withdrawing some free funds. It’s also annoying that I can only invest in a bunch of 100€. That means if I have 185€ in my account I can only invest 100€ and not the full amount, leaving me an 85€ cash drag until next month, no thanks! 

From my own experience, I would recommend to any new crowdfunding investor to try a platform first depositing little money and waiting for a few months to get comfortable with it, learn how the platform operates and value whether it’s convinient for you or not before depositing more funds.

Crowdestate is an excellent platform, but it just doesn’t seem to work out with my short term goals by now.

one million journey Crowdestate
Crowdestate Portfolio Evolution

Envestio

I increased my Envestio balance by 1000€. As I imagined, newer opportunities offer lower returns than before, but they are still the top ones within my crowdfunding platforms. In addition, as I joined through a referral link I get a 2.5% bonus for 270 days in any deposited funds, which quite motivates to keep raising this account for that period.

If you would also like to enjoy these benefits, you could do so by joining throgh my referral link. I will also get a bonus, but as I explain in my blog post “the reasons behind One Million” I plan to donate the 100% of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation throughout 2019.

one million journey envestio
Envestio Portfolio Evolution

Fast Invest

I’ve got not much to talk about Fast Invest this month. I had the idea of adding more funds, but I didn’t have a convincing first touch with their customer service. Besides that, same average good returns as in December. This is the perfect platform for those that just want to add money somewhere and bother about absolutely nothing. Fast Invest reinvests your money like a clock. Not much to play within their platform.

One million Journey Fast Invest
Fast Invest Portfolio Evolution

How are my 2019 goals going?

On my first portfolio update I set several goals I would like to accomplish this year, it’s time to review how I’m progressing:

Increase portfolio value between 180,000 – 200,000€

→ 160,617€ I’m getting there! 🙂

Increase passive income to 700€/month

428€ – Getting closer but not quite yet.

Read at least 12 books

0.8/12 I can’t stop reading blogs instead!

Become fitter, reduce body fat to 15% (21% now)

20% – Happy with that for now 🙂

Improve my writing and speed

→ Am I getting there? Nope 🙁

Write 20 blog posts

→ 5/20 I’m getting there! 🙂

Earn my first blog income and donate it to a charity

No income yet – Bill Gates will have to wait a bit longer before he can hear from me. 🙁

Savings Rate

‘My monthly savings rate is terrible, only 11%, basically it’s because it includes a period longer than 30 days. My December pay date was on 20th and got the next pay check on 31st of Janary, these sum up 42 days in total.

We also moved recently to a new area and my girlfriend hasn’t found a job until now, so I had to take care of the monthly expenses. I think I quite managed at the end to be able to save at least something under these circumstances. Next month I should be able to increase this saving ratio up to at least 30%, although I have some unexpected expenses like travelling to Spain to renew my passport and ID (just in case a possible hard Brexit would become as hard as Titanium).

Let’s get in touch

Thanks for reading my second portfolio update, hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it (or should I say uploading pictures?).

Where do you think the S&P 500 is heading in February? Up or down? Do you reckon 2019 will be a good years for stock markets?Let me know your thoughs in the comments down below.

You can follow me on twitter where I share some thoughts from time to time and connect with other like-minded people.

Disclaimer: Some of the links on this post are affiliate ones and some others are not. If you join to a platform using my affiliate links you will get a bonus or commission and so will I. I’m going to donate any commission I get throughout 2019 to a charity. You can read more about the purposes of this blog here and where this money is going to go here