My Investments Update – May 2023
Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my April 2023 Investments Update here if you like
I’ll start 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 year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £20,740. Last month it stood at £20,632 so that is a modest (but welcome) rise of £108.
Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,201 (rounded up to the nearest pound) compared with £3,170 a month ago, a small increase of £31. Here is a screen capture showing performance since the start of this year.
As you can see, this has been another up-and-down month for both my Nutmeg pots. Overall, though, the value of my investments rose by £139 or 0.58% month on month.
Of course, all investing is (or should be) a long-term endeavour. Over a period of years stock market investments such as those used by Nutmeg typically produce better returns than cash accounts, often by substantial margins. But there are never any guarantees, and in in the short to medium term at least, losses are always possible.
- Also, as you may know, both my Nutmeg pots have quite high risk levels (9/10 main, 5/5 Smart Alpha). If you haven’t yet seen it, you might like to check out my blog post in which I looked at the performance over time of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 . I was pretty amazed by the difference risk level makes, with higher-risk ports over almost any period of three or more years in the last ten generating significantly better overall returns. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) choosing a hyper-cautious low-risk level might not therefore be the smartest strategy. The one exception is if you plan to withdraw your money soon and don’t want to risk losing too much if there is a sudden downturn.
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) and Junior ISAs as well.
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 £110.99 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, 8 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 3 are breaking even, and the remaining 15 are showing (small) losses. My portfolio is currently showing a net decrease in value of £23.65, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £87.34. That’s still a reasonable rate of 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.
- Obviously the fall in capital value of my AE investments is a bit disappointing. But it’s important to bear in mind that unless and until I choose to sell the investments in question, it is largely theoretical. The rental income, on the other hand, is real money (which in my case I have chosen to reinvest 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. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.
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].
Another property platform I have investments with is Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching almost every day. I currently have around £2,500 invested with them in 18 different projects. 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.
My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I invest no more than £200 per loan (and often less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms in the past. My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are behind me now! Nowadays I mainly opt to reinvest the monthly repayments I receive from Kuflink, which has the effect of boosting the percentage rate of return on the projects in question
Obviously a possible drawback with Kuflink and similar platforms is that your money is tied up in bricks and mortar, so not as easily accessible as cash savings or even (to some extent) shares. They do, however, have a secondary market on which you can offer any loan part for sale (as long as the loan in question is performing and not in arrears). Clearly that does depend on someone else wanting to buy it, but my experience has been that any loan parts offered are typically snapped up very quickly. So if an urgent need arises, withdrawing your money (or part of it) is unlikely to be an issue.
You can read my full Kuflink review here. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year with built-in automatic diversification. Alternatively you can build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform being IFISA-eligible.
- Until 31 May 2023 Kuflink are offering enhanced promotional rates of up to 9.73% (gross annual interest equivalent rate) for their Auto-Invest products (IFISA-eligible). There is limited availability for this offer and it may be withdrawn any time before 31 May 2023 if the limit is reached. For more information, click here [affiliate link].
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. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares. My original investment of $1,022.26 is today worth $1,121.90, an increase of $99.64 or 9.75%. in these turbulent times I am quite happy with that.
Since last month the price of my Tesla shares has fallen somewhat (though still well in profit). My copy trading portfolio with Aukie2008 continues to perform steadily. And my most recent investment in Oil Worldwide is back into profit again, though – as you can see – not spectacularly so.
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.
- 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 recently and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here.
I had another article published in April on the excellent Mouthy Money website. This was Could You Save Money by Switching to an Electric Vehicle? I found this a very interesting article to research and write, even though there turned out to be no clear answer to the question posed in the title!
As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is an excellent resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. I always look forward to reading the articles by my fellow contributors. Shoestring Jane is a particular favourite of mine and I enjoyed reading her latest article How to Save Money in the Garden.
I was pleased to be able to publish a couple of interesting guest posts on Pounds and Sense in April. One of these was Investing in Classic Cars from my friends at the popular Car & Classic marketplace.
This is a subject I previously knew very little about and I found it quite an eye-opener. It was interesting (and slightly depressing!) to learn that some of the cars I drove as a young person are now regarded as ‘modern classics’ and fetching premium prices.
- There can also be tax advantages to investing in classic cars, as they are generally not liable for capital gains tax (as discussed in this recent blog post).
The other guest post I published in April was Inflation – What Does It Mean for Your Savings or Loans? This one came from my colleagues at Money Marvel. Again it’s thought-provoking stuff, especially the fact that in some cases higher rates of inflation can actually be beneficial for consumers. Have a read and see what you think.
Also in April I published Here’s Why Older Pensioners Especially Should Apply for Pension Credit. I recently helped an elderly friend do this and it has made a big difference to his finances.
Pension credit is a seriously under-claimed benefit. Apart from the (admittedly modest) financial boost, it can act as a passport to a range of other benefits and discounts, including the government’s latest tranche of cost-of-living payments. So if you’re of pensionable age yourself, or have friends/relatives who are, I highly recommend looking into this. You can now apply for it online, which does make the whole process a bit quicker and simpler.
Finally in April I enjoyed a short break in Aberdovey, a charming coastal town in mid-Wales (see photo in cover image). I will be publishing a post on Pounds and Sense about my visit soon. What I will say here is that it’s a great place for a chilled-out seaside break, but you definitely wouldn’t go there for the nightlife 😀
That’s all for today. I hope you enjoy the holiday weekends in May, and in particular the festivities around the coronation. I am by no means an avid royalist, but we all need a bit of fun in these challenging times. So I’m looking forward to watching it on TV and going to a street party with my neighbours afterwards. The bunting will be going up soon!
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!
Coronation Vectors by Vecteezy