Hey amigos, I am a teenager again!
May has been the best month so far in terms of everything! It finally seems that I am attracting good vibes around me and I am feeling the happiest so far this year 🙂
There are several reasons for so but the principal source is probably the weather. Sunny and warm days have been taking prominence and living at 2min walking from the beach makes a huge difference indeed! It’s a premium I don’t mind paying for. The weather also influences Brits mood a lot, from being grumpy and annoying humans to the most lovely and friendly things I have ever seen – that also applies to myself 🙂
I’ve also felt lazier in terms of getting stuff done, I´ve been “suffering” from the “mañana” mood, perhaps my Hispanic national heritage has been awakened by the sunshine, don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind being sitting on a sunny terrace eating “tapas” and drinking “” with amigos the whole day long! Hehe.
Generally, everyone who lives in a foreigner country has some periods of time when we miss home, when that happens we say that we are homesick. In my case it normally happens during this time, when the summer gets by I miss the Spanish vibes of enjoying life.
Some more beautiful things that have been happening this month besides the good weather:
- I stopped smoking! YEEPIII! I AM A NON-SMOKER!! I am smiling from ear to ear while writing this, I’ve long waited this precise moment, it finally arrived! I finished Allen Carr’s book and extinguished my last cigarette on Friday 24th at night. Since then I’ve exercised and run during morning ans evenings. I can breathe better already, last longer (in general terms), and have more energy throughout the day.
- I’ve got an invitation to apply for the International Experience Canada Visa. I think I haven’t spoken much about it on my blog. Both, me and my girlfriend joined the candidates pool back in January, where candidates are randomly picked. We both had to be chosen in order to go, while I have, she hasn’t, meaning that we can tick Canada off the list. That makes our uncertainty a bit less uncertain, we have only two options left regarding our future plans now; Settling in England or Spain. It’s a very important and tough decision to make. We are writing down a list with pros and cons and England seems to be winning by only a few points, so choosing from these two is turning into a complicate decision.
- I was involved in the design of three gardens that won a Gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show! I can’t give details or share any pictures, otherwise, I’ll be risking that my boss would find out about this blog and me. But yeah, I am quite proud of myself, if you ask. Hopefully, I will be able to ask for a pay raise sometime later this year. So far, I’ve had two pay raises in less than 12 months, so asking for another one now doesn’t feel right to me yet. My LinkedIn profile is being visited much often. The bad side though is that we have so much to do now, it is literally impossible to catch up with all the workload, and combined with the task of stop smoking…….. Well, I am lucky some of my colleagues are being very patient and respectful with me!
- I obviously was invited to the Chelsea Flower Show and spent an awesome flower day with colleagues. The British tendency on pursuing perfection was perfectly laid down on the show, everything was spot on, it was so pleasant to watch! Wealthy spenders and little Queens were the major audiences of the show, and of course, they were ready to crush their debit cards by buying the latest bespoke trendy designs for their gardens. That reminded me of the global economic inequality issue, some spend thousands on things they don’t actually need, while others can barely afford basic needs like water. Then I realised that these spenders are actually paying my bills every month! So, hopefully, they will keep spending and never hear about FIRE!
- My girlfriend has started investing! Hurray! It has only taken me 6 months, phew! We set her ISA with Vanguard and purchased the Lifestrategy 60% Equity Fund as she or we may need the money in the next 3-5 years. We also set an account on EstateGuru (a.l) to utilise some Euros she had saved. She also wanted to set an account on Mintos (a.l) but they are not accepting investors form the UK as they are in the process of obtaining newer necessary permissions.
This was kind of how I reacted after hearing about her investing news:
Now that I am a non-smoker I am no longer a monkey but a lovely little (pig) hehe.
Well and finally:
- I haven’t lost any more money again for the second month in a row! Yaayy! – I am going to be celebrating this every single month guys, so you better get ready for the repetition involved.
From now on, the portfolio updates will be rather shorter than before. With all my respects and no aims of offending anyone, it is so d*mn boring and time-consuming to be writing about the same stuff month by month, especially on the P2P portfolio side. So, unless there’s something relevant, I’ll be just sharing my charts, which I think are quite self-explanatory.
So, it’s time to show you the numbers babies! 😉
Table of Contents
Monthly Highlights
- Portfolio value: 82,646€ (+10.4 %)
- Monthly Transactions (Deposits – Withdrawals): 9,053 €
- Monthly growth from investments: 150 €
- Passive income: 390 € (-13%)
- The €45K Project Fund has begun at a value of £244.
- Days as a non-smoker: 7
Passive income
A usual, my passive income always decreases the month after stocks dividend payments, which take place once per quarter. Besides that, the overall tendency of my passive income is positive and heading upwards.
What a better way to show that than with my FI ratio chart?
More details on my passive income – HERE
Monthly earnings by platform
Both of my stocks, AMAT and FSLR got hit after new concerns regarding the never-ending trading war between USA and China. The value of both of these stocks depends completely on reaching a deal, as a large part of their revenues come from the Chinese market. After the drop and planning to hold for the long run, I bought more AMAT shares.
My alternative investments have performed excellently, Crowd Estate and being my top performers, as usual.
My ISA has also done a good job when compared with the S&P500 this month.
The GBP/EUR currency ratio decreases from 1.16 to 1.13. That has also impacted the overall value of my portfolio as I am making the numbers in Euros.
| Platform | Inception date | Value April | Transactions | Value May | Earnings | Return April | Cumulative Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanguard (£) | 14/03/2018 | 31,124 (36,103 €) | +5500 (6215 €) | 36,252 (40,964.76 €) | -89 (-100.6 €) | -0.3 % | 7.9 % |
| Property Partner (£) | 21/01/2018 | 5,398 (6261 €) | +498 (562.7 €) | 5,921 (6,690.7 €) | 25 ( 28.25 €) | 0.5 % | 8 % |
| Housers | 26/03/2018 | 6,671 | 0 | 6,690 | 19 | 0.3 % | 4.6 % |
| Crowdestate | 16/08/2018 | 1,970 | 0 | 1,999 | 29 | 1.5% | 8 % |
| EstateGuru | 10/05/2019 | 0 | +2000 | 2,003.7 | 3.7 | 0.2 % | 0.2 % |
| Grupeer | 19/05/2018 | 11,160 | 0 | 11,296 | 136 | 1.2 % | 16.3 % |
| Mintos | 05/08/2018 | 5193 | 0 | 5,248 | 55 | 1.1 % | 7.8 % |
| Envestio | 15/10/2018 | 5255 | 0 | 5,332 | 77 | 1.5 % | 11 % |
| Fast Invest | 29/10/2018 | 1,066 | 0 | 1,078 | 12 | 1.1 % | 7.8 % |
| Abundance (£) | 31/05/2019 | 0 | 244 (275.7 €) | 244 (275.7 €) | 0 | 0 % | 0 % |
| Trading 212 | 03/2019 | 1,176 | - | 1,067 € | -108.9 | -9.3 % | -2.3% |
| TOTAL | 74,530 € | 9053 € | 82,646 € | 150 € | 0.2% | -43.5% * |
*Includes Algotechs loss
Vanguard
Besides paying myself another £500 out of my payslip, I also added a stack of £5000 to purchase stocks and bonds funds equally in my ISA. I had over 35K EUR in cash and thought that the drop on the Pound sterling could be the chance to load up my ISA account. I still have more than 30K EUR that are getting bored in my bank account, so if the £ drops further I will exchange more funds again.
The S&P500 got hammered, I am assuming that this is also because of the uncertainty on the trade deal between the USA and China and also the Trump’s Tariff Threat to Mexico. The gambling side of me tells me that this is just a temporal thing.
So far this year:
- S&P 500 Index : +9.6 %
- My 50/50 balanced Vanguard ISA: + 6.9 %
As it was proven back December 2018, my current ISA strategy works well during market corrections. This month the S&P500 has fallen -6.6% while my ISA -0.3%.
All charts and portfolio details – HERE
Vanguard is a portion of my little British Empire as an Expat
Property Partner
The rental income on Property Partner (ref. link) keeps increasing, £24.09 in May (£19.87 in April).
The total income is £25, £24.09 of rental + £1 of enhanced dividend bonus.
If you are a first-time reader and feel curious about the platform, you can check out my personal review here.
Property Partner is also a portion of my little British Empire as an Expat
Housers
Net income from Housers (referral link) in May was 19€, that’s better than the previous month (10€) but I would still expect a higher return out of this platform.
Housers improved the “tell a friend” referral program during May, and for the first time (I think) has given the chance to invest with a 0% commission. Because of that, the secondary market has been boiling and I got my Estadio Nacional shares sold, hurray!!! It just took me 5 months!
I made some other transactions, for instance; I bought some more shares of a flat in Barcelona (home sweet home!) as it is the only property I don’t pay taxes on. The rental yield is low but housing prices in Barcelona and generally in Spain are growing whilst on the platform I was able to buy them at the initial purchase price. The market outlook still remains positive for 2019 and 2020.
EstateGuru
This month I have added EstateGuru (aff. link) to my real estate investment portfolio. After spending loads of time researching all over the platforms that you guys suggested me on the last update, EstateGuru has been my choice.
This is the first time I add a new platform since I started this blog. It is quite tempting to add any of those offering the best referral or affiliate programs. The fact that I am donating all my blog income allows me to be honest and transparent with my readers. As I am not greedily controlled, I chose what I think is the best and safest investment for my portfolio. Obviously, that wouldn’t be the first time I am wrong (Algotechs) so always do your own due diligence, please.
My impressions so far are great. My first idea was to invest in “bridge loans” only, however, due to the good weather conditions and my Spanish laziness increase mentioned above I opted for the auto-invest strategy.
The verification process and first deposit run smoothly, 2000€ went in and are being invested automatically very quickly, with an average of at least one new project per day.
As I joined through an affiliate link, (0.5% cash back on the money invested during the first 90 days since account activation), I’ve already got some income this month
Crowdestate
The available cash in my (neither affiliate nor referal) account is finally over 100 EUR, that means I will be able to invest in any new project I may like during June, great!
Grupeer
Mintos
The availability of loans with higher interest rates on Mintos (aff. link) has increased over the last few weeks, which has translated into a record earnings month. Most of my recent investments are for the same loan originator Tengo, which is offering short-term loans up to 15% on the interest rate.
My plan:
Keep feeding Tengo until it reaches % of my portfolio, currently 2.5%.
Envestio
Fast Invest
Fast Invest (ref. link) is the ruler guys, it draws straight lines to perfection! Up to the moon?
Abundance
Oops! Besides EstateGuru (aff. link), another new platform has been added to the “maybe one day one million euros portfolio! – Abundance (neither aff. or ref. link)
Welcome to the beginning of my new personal project –> “The €45K Project Fund”, where I will be trying to recover from my 45.000 EUR loss through investing in myself first (basically through stop smoking, which I already did) and side hustling with match betting.
I commented that I would allocate and invest the money I save out of being a non-smoker and match betting income in a world index tracker. I know this is the best thing to do, but I don’t know what it is wrong with me that I just couldn’t!
I will try to write a post to explain it, if the weather conditions and my current level of laziness allow me, hehe!
So far, I have recovered the 0.6% of my loss. £12 saved + match betting income= £244 (275.7 EUR).
44,724.3 EUR left to go.
Savings Rate
My total net income in May was £2120 (2395.6 EUR). My match betting income through (ref. link) this month is £232. The next thing is to learn how accumulators work, which seems a bit more difficult. So, I will be expecting less income from June.
I managed to save £1047, that’s a 49.4% savings rate for this month! 🙂 As said earlier, £500 out of this savings were invested in my ISA and another £498 in the new Property Partner deal.
Life as a non-smoker
It’s been a little over a week since I stopped and it’s being much easier than last time I tried. My girlfriend doesn’t smoke and the friends we hang around with are non-smokers too. Last time I was trying to stop while enjoying the Brighton Pride, a difficult task!
I’ve been running along the beach promenade twice per day, noticing how my lungs pump air in an out easier each time I run, and my heart runs blood through my veins effortlessly. My blood oxygen levels have also improved, giving a boost to my muscle performance and recovery times. I’ve practised meditation more often as well. The combination of both routines have kept my stress levels derived from nicotine cravings more stable and I have been able to control it pretty well. Thanks, me! 😉
The hardest time is at work. The smoking area is 5 seconds away from my workplace and the managing directors and owners of the little company I work for are smokers both. I got my last pay rise while smoking a cigarette with one of them. I’ll have to come up with a different strategy or system to get further pay raises in the future from now on!
The images down below show the improvement achieved after only 7 days of -smoking.
Resting Heart Rate
Cardio Fitness Level
Conclusions after 7 days of -smoking
I didn’t realise how damaging smoking was for my health. Well…, I knew it, obviously, but I didn’t know that it can influence so much. My health improvement during these last 7 days has been the best investment return I have never had. Earning money feels great, but it is such a momentary thing. Investing in my health and myself first is something that will last for the whole of my life.
The best asset I own and it’s not shown on my net-worth (myself) has just got better, and this is only the beginning. I can sense a life-changing from now on, with tons of different possibilities or things to do, try or experience from the deepest sense of feelings as a non-smoker.
Finally, I’ve been enjoying Fitbit a lot in May, running some weekend and weekdays competitions events with some friends, including Janneke and Caveman. If you own a Fitbit yourself and want to help me get fitter as a non-smoker, or you simply want me to motivate you to stretch your legs more often during the summer I would love to add you to my list, you can get in touch with me on Twitter.
The donation milestone
GOAL: Earn 25€ and donate it by the end of 2019.
Getting closer to the 25 Euros goal! 🙂
The image above illustrates my income from Mintos (aff. link) and EstateGuru (aff. link) only, which is currently my blog income total.
Some people have used my links this month to join Property Partner (ref. link) and (ref. link), thanks! I haven’t got paid yet, but as soon as I do it will be added on the donation at the side bar.
Until next time, I’ll see you around!
… and once again, thanks for reading! 🙂
You can follow me on twitter where I share some thoughts from time to time and connect with other like-minded people.
Disclaimer: Most of the links on this post are affiliate or referral ones. 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