February 3, 2024

My Investments Update – February 2024

Nick Investing events 1 Comment

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my January 2024 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll begin as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the largest investment I hold other than my Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension).

As the screenshot below for the last 12 months shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £22,386. Last month it stood at £22,292 so that is a modest increase of £94.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,530 compared with £3,501 a month ago, a rise of £29. Here is a screen capture showing performance over the last 12 months.

Finally, at the start of December 2023 I invested £500 in one of Nutmeg’s new thematic portfolios (Resource Transformation). As you can see from the screen capture below, after a storming start in December this fell back in January before recovering again to £519, a small drop of £4 or 0.76% month on month. It is still around 4% ahead since I invested at the start of December, though.

January was obviously a mixed month for my Nutmeg investments. Overall I was still £119 up, though. If you add this to the increase of £1,160  last month, that gives a total value increase over the last two months of £1,279 or 5.17%. In these turbulent times I am more than happy with that.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your annual ISA allowance, based on my overall experience over the last seven years, they are certainly worth considering. They offer self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), Lifetime ISAs and Junior ISAs as well.

I also have investments with the property crowdlending platform Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching every week. Last month I withdrew £350 from completed projects to help pay for a much-needed holiday in the spring. I currently have around £1,570 invested with them in 10 different projects paying interest rates averaging around 7%. I also have £14 in my Kuflink cash account.

To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

There is now an initial minimum investment of £1,000 and a minimum investment per project of £500. Kuflink say they are doing this to streamline their operation and minimize costs. I can understand that, though it does mean that the option to test the water with a small first investment has been removed. It also makes it harder for small investors (like myself) to build a well-diversified portfolio on a limited budget.

One possible way around this is to invest using Kuflink’s Auto/IFISA facility. Your money here is automatically invested across a basket of loans over a period from one to three years. Interest rates normally range from around 7% for one year to 9.83% gross for a three-year term.

• As a special Valentine’s Day promotion, however, until 14 February 2024 they are offering enhanced rates of 9% for one year, 10.5% for two years and 12.25% gross for a three-year term. These figures are AER (annual equivalent rates) that incorporate reinvestment of interest paid at the end of each year. These are actually the highest rates I have ever seen Kuflink offering ❤

You can invest tax-free in a Kuflink Auto IFISA. Or if you have already used your annual iFISA allowance elsewhere, you can invest via a taxable Auto account. You can read my full Kuflink review here if you wish.

Moving on, my Assetz Exchange investments continue to generate steady returns. Regular readers will know that this is a P2P property investment platform focusing on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing). I put an initial £100 into this in mid-February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £161.85 in revenue from rental income. As I said in last month’s update, capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 6 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 3 are breaking even, and the remaining 19 are showing losses. My portfolio is currently showing a net decrease in value of £40.87, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £120.98. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.

The overall fall in capital value of my AE investments is obviously a little disappointing. But it’s important to remember that until/unless I choose to sell the investments in question, it is largely theoretical, based on the most recent price at which shares in the property concerned have changed hands. The rental income, on the other hand, is real money (which in my case I’ve reinvested in other AE projects to further diversify my portfolio).

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned (especially now that Kuflink have raised their minimum investment per project to £500). You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

• As I noted in this recent post, Assetz Exchange is particularly good if you want to compound your returns by reinvesting rental income. This effectively boosts the interest rate you are receiving. Personally, once I have accrued a minimum of £10 in rental payments, I reinvest this money in either a new AE project or one I have already invested in (thus increasing my holding). Over time, even if I don’t invest any more capital, this will ensure my investment with AE grows at an accelerating rate.

My investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Last year I set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (then about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie2008 (real name Mike Moest).

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen captures below, my original investment totalling $1,022.26 is today worth $1,209.37, an overall increase of $187.11 or 18.30%.

You can read my full review of eToro here. You may also like to check out my more in-depth look at eToro copy trading. I also discussed thematic investing with eToro using Smart Portfolios in this recent post. The latter also reveals why I took the somewhat contrarian step of choosing the oil industry for my first thematic investment with them.

• eToro also recently introduced the eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here.

I had three more articles published in January on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first is How to Save Money on Your Water Bills. In Britain we’re lucky to have high-quality running water on tap whenever we need it. Like everything else in life it costs money, however. And in these times of rising prices and squeezed incomes, those costs can be a growing burden. So in this article I set out some ways you may be able to reduce your water bills.

Also in January Mouthy Money published How to Make Money With Classic Cars. In this article – written in association with my friends at the Car & Classic website – I described the surprising number of attractions to investing in classic cars, and provided a range of tips for those new to the field.

My final article published on Mouthy Money last month was Top Tips to Avoid Online Scams. This article set out my top ten tips for staying safe online and avoiding becoming a victim of the scammers. Do check it out!

As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. I particularly like the ‘Deals of the Week’ feature compiled by Jordon Cox (‘Britain’s Coupon Kid’) which lists all the best current money-saving offers for savvy shoppers. Check out the latest edition here.

I am also a fan of my fellow MM contributor and money blogger Shoestring Jane. She writes mainly about money saving and frugal living. Her  latest article How to Get Almost Everything More Cheaply has some great tips and ideas. You can see all of her articles for Mouthy Money via this web page.

I also published several posts on Pounds and Sense in January. I won’t bother mentioning those that are no longer relevant now, but the others are listed below.

In How to Start Copy Trading With eToro I discussed how to get started using the popular copy trading facility on eToro. This allows you to automatically copy successful traders on the platform – so when they make money, you make money too. As mentioned above, I have done this myself following Dutch professional investor Mike Moest and am currently around 23% in profit. You can read more in my post about copy trading on eToro and my experiences with it.

I also published HMRC Crackdown on Side Hustles – Truth and Fiction. As you may know, from January this year digital platforms like eBay, Etsy and Airbnb are required to collect additional information from sellers, including numbers of sales and amount of income generated. This data will be automatically shared with HMRC, who will compare it against their records to see if any tax may be due. This news has caused some consternation on social media, with many who have side hustles to help pay the bills worried they may be hit by an unexpected tax demand. In this post I explain what exactly is happening and set out to separate the truth from the fiction.

In Planning a UK Holiday This Year? Here Are Some Ideas For You! I set out a list of destinations in the UK I have visited myself, with links to my full reviews of the places concerned. They range from Bath to Barmouth, Lavenham to Llanbedrog. If you’re looking for ideas for a short break (or longer) in the UK this year, this could be a good source of inspiration for you 🙂

One Key Lesson About Investing I Learned From My Dad’s Big Mistake reveals an important lesson I learned from my late father about investing. It is a lesson I have tried to apply in all my investing myself. While it hasn’t stopped me making some mistakes along the way, it has certainly helped me avoid any disastrous losses. This article was first published in a slightly different form on Mouthy Money.

Finally in January I published How to Harness the Power of Compounding. In this article I discussed the power of compounding and compound interest. This is a wealth-building secret every saver and investor should embrace. I also revealed two particular types of investment where you can apply compounding to help boost your returns.

• Also, from January I have become a regular contributor to the new Over 60s Discounts website. You can read my first article here: How to Cope With Loneliness in Later Life. As you may gather, as well as personal finance I will also be writing about ‘lifestyle’ matters for O60D.

On other things, the opportunity to get a free share worth up to £100 with Trading 212 has now closed. However, you can can also still Get a Free ETF Share Worth up to £200 with Wealthyhood. This DIY wealth-building app is aimed especially at people new to stock market investing. The minimum investment to qualify for the free share offer is £50 – but on the plus side, they now guarantee your free ETF share will be worth at least £10.

I am still using and getting good results from the cashback app JamDoughnut. You can see my review of JamDoughnut here, along with a referral code that will get you a £2 bonus when you sign up. To be honest I’m surprised more PAS readers haven’t taken advantage of this opportunity. Not only can you get discounts of up to 20% using the app, they also hold regular contests and promotions offering additional bonuses and discounts.

Finally, a quick reminder that you can also follow Pounds and Sense on Facebook or Twitter/X. Twitter/X is my number one social media platform these days and I post regularly there. I share the latest news and information on financial (and other) matters, and other things that interest, amuse or concern me. So if you aren’t following my PAS account, you are definitely missing out!

That’s all for today. As always, if you have any comments or queries, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.

Note also that posts may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!