Amigos, here we are back again, back at the 6 figures :D.

The last time I crossed the 100k was in November 2019. Then in March 2020, the sh*t hit the fun (COVID-19) and that put me back below the 100K.

As they say, the hardest part of getting to the million is to save the first 100K, once this is achieved the magic of compounding starts being more noticeable, which creates a bigger snowball effect as time goes by. However, I seem to be in a constant loop that turns around this number.

Moreover, being realistic I may need to sell some of my portfolio assets to purchase a home, so the 6 figures may turn back to become 5 once again at some point during 2020/21 despite any market ups and downs.

But even so, temporary or not, I see no reason why I should not celebrate the achievement! ?

Quick Recap of June Numbers

  • Portfolio value: 100,347 € (2.24%) – details HERE
  • Monthly Transactions (Deposits – Withdrawals): 1,700 €
  • Monthly growth from investments: 1,279 €
  • Passive income: 230 € – details HERE

Overall, it has been another painless face — happy avatar — month, which is good as it means I took no further losses.

The monthly and total rate of returns brake down as follows:

Portfolio Performance

Please note, links containing a star (*) are either affiliate or referral links. P2P lending is a risky business, so you could end up losing all your invested money if you choose to join any of these platforms.

** 20 % discounted as estimate future withdrawal tax payments

Pound Sterling saw another drop in value against the Euro and Dollar. As it’s near the lowest it has been for a while I am converting some Euros into Pounds, which I immediately transfer into my core portfolio (S&S ISA). These Euros is capital I am withdrawing from my alternative investments.

Probably many will say that this is pure speculation, which may be true. However, I would like to point out that the fact of not wanting to convert Euros into Pounds in the past was the main reason why my stake on alternative investments was so huge, which consequently incurred an undesirable amount of loss.

I sometimes wonder about how my portfolio would look like if I had moved to Ireland instead of England. You know, earning and paying with Euros, drinking proper Guinness, singing and dancing in a Spanglish way in a random traditional Irish pub…

Well, put it that way, probably not much better! XD.

Alternative Investment Portfolio

I noticed more activity in the P2P lending market as strict lockdowns were coming to an end.

I still aim to reduce the number of platforms down to 5 or 6, but this will take (a lot of) time. So, in order to express my level of contentment with all the platforms I use, I am going to number them from 1 to 9 in this section, being 1 my favorite and 9 my not so favorite. The Abundance Investment ethical investing platform takes its own whole section (down below as The 45K Project Fund) and it would take the number 0 — the favorite of my favorites until further notice.

Bear in mind that I am not a professional financial advisor. I am just sharing my own experience and personal point of view. Please, do your own due diligence and take your own decisions.

1. Crowdestate

I know some investors who are not happy with Crowdestate* due to some defaulted loans. My experience so far is different as I managed to sell all loans on the secondary before they defaulted. Maybe that was just luck, but it doesn’t hide the fact of me being happy with the results I’ve got so far.

Furthermore, Crowdestate’s lastest annual report looks good to me. Besides the 2019’s positive numbers (464,107 Euros of profit) and expansion plans, the report describes the process of the upcoming European regulation as well as it gives us some details of what steps the platform is taking to comply with it (crowdfunding license, license payment institution and the opening of segregated bank accounts with LHV Bank AS to protect investors interests).

2. Estateguru

Estateguru* also comes to be one of my favourites. I must say though that it previously was my top favourite one, however, I’ve changed my mind after the platform published the 2019 annual report, which unfortunately shows a loss of -533K. The main purpose of any business is to make money, so seeing negative numbers followed by the previous profitable year 2018 (+119K) adds a certain degree of bankruptcy risk.

Apart from that, I am happy with the platform as usual. My portfolio consists of 52 loans, where 42 are being paid on time and 10 are late. I have no defaulted loans so far and withdrawals are processed on the very next day.

If you want to give it a try, please consider using this link and get a 0.5% bonus on your investments made during the first three months.

3. EvoEstate

Even though I am happy with EvoEstate I still want to leave the platform. I originally had plans to add 5K as a rental property investment, but a lot has happened back since then and I’ve now taken the decision to lower my exposure in the P2P industry. My account balance was only at 1.1K, so I just don’t think is worth the hassle for that money.

In June, I successfully sold my shares on the High yielding office space in Rocca Al Mare, a Reinvest24* project. That’s 508.6 EUR that were transferred to my bank account without issues the very next day.

If you want to give EvoEstate a try then please consider using this link* and get a 15 Euros bonus.

4. Crowdestor

I have a good feeling about Crowdestor*, but that’s all I have, just a feeling that can change overnight. The company succeeded in raising funds via the Equity campaign and it seems they’ve got the financial strength to ambitiously expand their team of professionals. But this isn’t proof of success. The company still seems young and risky to me.

As payment schedules are getting back to normal so does my income: 9.2 EUR in June (4.1 EUR in May).

5. Robo.cash

No income from Robo.cash* in June. All my remaining loans are long term. I have over 80 EUR of accrued but unpaid interests, which I am confident it will be paid at any time.

Despite things going well, this is another platform I plan to leave to simplify things out.

6. RateSetter

RateSetter is having a tough year as it was forced to halve interest rates for the rest of 2020 in an attempt to stabilize their provision fund. Obviously this is better than facing bankruptcy or stopping all payments as Grupeer or Property Partner did.

The key risk indicators on the website show an interest coverage ratio of 67%, which is still quite low. This is a fundamental ratio to watch, as anything below the 100% means that the provision fund isn’t big enough to cover all interest payments in a case of default.

Also, Metro Bank is in talks to acquire RateSetter, so we could see some structural changes in the near future.

Ratesetter is currently offering a £100 bonus when investing a minimum of £1000 if using my referral link. If interested, email me at tony (at) onemillionjourney (dot) com or a message me on Twitter and I will happily tell you more about this offer

7. Property Partner

Property Partner has extended the suspension of all dividend payments to the 30th of September.

That means that my money isn’t making any money which sucks.

8. Housers

The Housers disappointment increases exponentially. Monthly income was 3 EUR out of 6,696.8 EUR invested.

The monthly income chart on my Housers page says it all.

Vague communication and failure to keep inventors informed leave this platform in a really bad position.

9. Fast Invest

Besides only making 0.15 EUR of interest for the whole month, the platform keeps having withdrawal issues. I still did not get any of my pending withdrawals and what’s worse I had to cancel some transactions as they were linked to a TransferWise account that expired on the 1st of July. 🙁

On the 17th of June, support told me that pay-out payments from April were being processed, but this did not actually happen before the 30th of June.

I decided to reinvest this money to see whether it has got any implication with withdrawal preferences.

Let’s see how that goes, though!

Dividend Portfolio

June was another reasonably quiet month for my dividend portfolio.

This is the outlook of my holdings at the end of the June:

Dividend portfolio holdings June 2020

The total return of current holdings still remains in the red but has improved slightly since May (- 8.48%).

However, what really matters on a dividend portfolio is:

Dividend Payments

And that was a pretty good month for it.

Let me show you:

  • Kroger (KR): 3.05€
  • Wells Fargo (WFC): 6.61€
  • Invesco (IVZ): 9.11€
  • Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): 5.29€
  • ExxonMobil (XOM): 9.81€
  • Microsoft (M): 0.96€
  • 3M (MMM): 7€
  • Walgreen Boots (WBA): 2.14€

Total Income in May: 43.97 €

That’s makes almost 22% of my total monthly passive income. 🙂

New Holdings And Purchases

My dividend portfolio makes 10% of my total investible assets, which is the limit size I want to keep it at.

  • 5.3 Unilever (UNA) shares @ 47.67€ *NEW POSITION*
  • 1 Under Armour (UAA) @ $9.41 *FREE SHARE*
  • 4.54 Wells & Fargo (WFC) shares @ $27.67
  • 4.54 Wells & Fargo (WFC) shares @ $27.89
  • 2.5 AT&T (T) shares @ $30.91
  • 8 Invesco (IVZ) shares @ $10.25

In mid-June, the total value of my dividend portfolio dropped below the 9.4K, that was the time when I decided to add another well-know stock to my dividend building machine:

Unilever is a British-Dutch consumer defensive stock with a focus on the household and personal products industry. The company has a long track record as it was founded in 1930. Headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, it makes it a great famous candidate for geo and currency portfolio diversification. The base currency can be both Euros or Pounds, depending on what ticker you choose. I chose Euros.

During the past 10 years, the average Dividends Per Share Growth Rate was 6.90% per year. (data from Guru Focus)

Also, I would like to inform you, dear reader, that from now on every time you purchase a product from any of these brands:

“Axe, Clear, Dove, Lifebuoy, Lux, Pond’s, Rexona, Signal, Suave, Sunsilk, TRESemmé, Vaseline, Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Brooke Bond, Heart (Wall’s), Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lipton, Magnum, Pukka, Sir Kensington’s, Unilever Food Solutions Cif, Dirt is Good, Omo, Persil, Domestos, Seventh Generation, and Sunlight brands.”

… You’ll be contributing to my dividend growth portfolio.

Thank you for that! 🙂

For the curious minds, if you want to know more about Unilever then the following is a good video to watch. I like the approach that the current CEO Paul Polman is taking to make a healthier world, especially regarding plastic pollution.

The €45K Project Fund

Another month, another £54 saved as a non-smoker and put in the 45K Project Fund.

Things are moving out slowly at Abundance Investment but it’s picking up some momentum as three investments were paid out in June.

The platform is struggling to raise funds within time schedules. The last project was cancelled, but they added a new opportunity right away after.

This latest project is called Agrogen, which is a plant that uses maize grown on the farm, and waste, such as slurry, to generate home-grown, green electricity and heat.

This process is called anaerobic digestion (AD).

I had absolutely no idea what that was about, so I asked my friend YouTube and found a great visual explanation:

So far, I have recovered 2.29% of my loss = 1,033.08 EUR

I surpassed the 1K which is good!

43,966.92 EUR left to go.

Related content: How I FIRED 45k with algo trading, Investing Ethically, Recovering €45K through Investing in Myself First

This is it for this month, be back in August. You guys take care and stay safe.