October 3, 2022

My Investments Update – October 2022

Nick Investing, Everything Else events, reviews, travel 4 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my September 2022 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). Withdrawals from the latter are still on hold, incidentally, to avert the risk of pound-cost ravaging.

As the screenshot below of performance last month shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £19,292. Last month it stood at £20,344 so that is a fall of £1,052.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £2,921 compared with £3,091 a month ago, another fall of £170.

Here is a screen capture showing performance since January 2022. As you can see, I topped up this account in February this year.

There is no denying that these falls are disappointing, especially with my Smart Alpha portfolio now worth less in total than I have contributed to it. As I’ve noted previously on PAS, however, you do have to expect ups and downs with equity-based investments. And this year there has been no lack of volatility, caused by rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic (among other things).

About my only consolation is that things could have been even worse if – paradoxically – I’d opted for a lower-risk level with my investments. In their latest blog update, Nutmeg reveal that low and medium-risk portfolios actually performed worse overall last month than high-risk ones. I have copied below their explanation for this:

By design, Nutmeg’s low- and medium-risk portfolios have more exposure through ETFs to assets that are priced in sterling and with limited foreign currency exposure. As you will have seen in the headlines this week, the pound hit an all-time low against the dollar with markets initially placing little faith in the chancellor’s tax-cutting and pro-growth agenda.

This year it has been rewarding to hold foreign currency with sterling particularly weak versus the dollar. Some of our high-risk portfolios have benefited from currency moves, while low- and medium-risk portfolios have not. They haven’t lost money from having low foreign currency exposure, they just haven’t benefited from it.

Secondly, low- and medium-risk portfolios by design have more exposure – again through ETFs – to government bonds, which in ‘normal’ times are considered something of a safe haven and have much lower volatility than equities. After all, it is still highly unlikely that the UK government would default on its debts.

In a nutshell (no pun intended) low- and medium-risk Nutmeg portfolios hold a higher proportion of investments in pounds sterling and UK government bonds. These are normally regarded as lower risk, but last month both took a particular hammering. So in comparison nominally higher-risk portfolios like mine actually performed somewhat better.

This is one more reason I’m glad I opted for higher risk levels with my Nutmeg portfolios (9/10 for my main one and 5/5 for my Smart Alpha). If you haven’t yet seen it, you might also 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 actually 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) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

Since I started investing with Nutmeg in 2016 – and despite everything that has happened this year – I have still made a total net return on capital of £4,977 (35% or 52.35% time-weighted) on my main portfolio. So I can afford to be philosophical about the recent falls. Indeed, I am considering topping up my Nutmeg investments again now while asset values are depressed.

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 experience over the last six years, they are certainly worth considering.

Moving on, my Assetz Exchange investments continue to perform well. 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 £76.51 in revenue from rental and £63.58 in capital growth, a total of £140.09. That’s a decent rate of return on my £1,000 investment and does illustrate the value of P2P property investment for diversifying your portfolio when equity markets are volatile.

I now have investments in 23 different projects and all are performing as expected, generating rental income and in most cases showing a profit on capital as well. So I am very happy with how this investment has been doing. And it doesn’t hurt that most projects are socially beneficial as well.

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 14 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. At present most of my Kuflink loans are performing to schedule, though two recently had their repayment dates put back by three months.

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 now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform (including the one shown above) being IFISA-eligible.

My investment in European crowdlending platform Nibble continues to perform as advertised. My latest investment was in their Legal Strategy. These are loans that are in default and facing legal action. Nibble buy these loans at a heavily discounted rate and then seek to recover as much as possible of the money owed. The minimum investment is 10 euros and the minimum period is six months. I invested 100 euros for 12 months initially at a target annual interest rate of 12.5%.

The Legal Strategy comes with a deposit-back guarantee. This is a guarantee to return the full investment amount at the end of the investment period and a minimum yield of 9% per year. The actual yield depends on how successful recovery efforts prove, so in practice you may end up with a return of anywhere between 9% and 14.5%. All has gone to plan so far, but I will obviously continue to report on this in the months ahead.

You can read my updated review of Nibble here if you like. You can also sign up directly on the Nibble website [affiliate link].

Moving on, I had another article published on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This one is entitled My Odd Smart Meter Story and Why Despite This I Still Recommend Them. In the article I discuss my rather strange experiences with a smart meter, which stopped working after I switched supplier and then rather mysteriously started again two years later! As per the article title, I do still recommend getting a smart meter, especially in these times of soaring energy bills.

Also in September I enjoyed a final (probably) short break of the year in Barmouth in Wales. I stayed at a Victorian Gothic hotel called Tyr Graig Castle. I was lucky with the weather, and enjoyed visiting nearby Harlech and Portmeirion (see cover image) as well as Barmouth itself.

I shall be publishing a full review of my short break in Barmouth soon. In the meantime, here is a photo of a rather splendid sunset taken from the hotel restaurant…

Finally, I know a lot of people are extremely anxious about the cost-of-living crisis. As I said last time, though, it’s important not to panic. I recommend a three pronged-approach of maximizing your income, minimizing your expenditure, and budgeting carefully (using your resources as effectively as possible, in other words).

Bear in mind, also, that a range of government support measures have been announced to mitigate the worst effects of the crisis. This government Help for Households website has a useful summary of all the help available and is regularly updated.

In the meantime, please do check out some of the other posts on Pounds and Sense for additional advice and resources, especially in the Making Money and Saving Money categories.

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!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

September 6, 2022

My Short Break in Lavenham

Nick Everything Else events, reviews, travel 6 Comments

I recently returned from a four-night break in Lavenham in Suffolk.

Lavenham is said to be England’s best-preserved medieval town, with over 300 listed, timber-framed houses (see cover image). But I must admit I had never heard of it until I read that my favourite Pink Floyd tribute band, Darkside, were performing there in August. It seemed a great opportunity to see the band and visit somewhere new at the same time. As I live in Staffordshire I normally head west towards Wales for my UK short breaks, so it felt quite strange to be driving east on the A14 instead!

I stayed in a beautiful, self-contained cottage in the heart of Lavenham, which I booked through Airbnb. I’ll say more about the accommodation below.

Lavenham is around five miles north-east of Sudbury. The nearest large town is Bury St Edmunds. Here is a map of the area from Google Maps.

Accommodation

I stayed in a charming, self-catering cottage called The Hay Loft in the centre of Lavenham. It had two bedrooms and bathrooms, so was actually larger than I needed.

I originally booked it so my sister Annie could join me for some of the time. Sadly she broke her wrist in a fall the day before, however, which meant she couldn’t come after all. So I had plenty of room to spread myself out!

This being an Airbnb property, I am not supposed to say exactly where it is, but I guess I can reveal that it’s in a very convenient, central location. There was plenty of free parking on the road outside and in the village itself. The location was quiet and peaceful (in the evenings especially) and I slept well throughout my stay. You can see a photo of the front of the cottage below.

You can read more about the accommodation on this page of the Airbnb website. It had an open-plan lounge/kitchen/dining room on the first floor, and two bedrooms and bathrooms (one ensuite) downstairs. That’s a slightly unusual configuration, but I was actually very grateful for it as my visit coincided with a four-day heatwave. Being downstairs, the bedrooms stayed comfortably cool. Electric fans were thoughtfully provided, though.

The cottage had all the facilities you could want for a short (or longer) stay. The kitchen area was well equipped with a gas cooker, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, toaster, sink, and so forth.

The cottage had free wifi which worked perfectly during my stay (not always the case in my experience). There was also a small garden at the front, down some steps from the gate. This was well tended and pleasant to sit out in (when it wasn’t too hot!).

Financials

As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I should say a word about this.

I paid £550 for my four-night stay, which works out to £137.50 per day. I thought that was very reasonable bearing in mind the size and standard of the accommodation and the convenience of the location. Obviously as this was self-catering no meals were included, but there was more space and better facilities than you would get in any comparable hotel or B&B.

Things to Do

I won’t give you a blow-by-blow account of what I did while I was there, but here are a few highlights.

The Guildhall

Lavenham Guildhall is an impressive timber-framed building. It was originally built in the early 16th century for the Guild of Corpus Christi, an alliance of wealthy local merchant families. In later years, as Lavenham’s wool trade declined, it served as a bridewell (prison) and workhouse. More recently in WW2 it housed a social club for American troops and also served as a restaurant around that time.

The Guildhall became the property of the National Trust in 1951 and it was subsequently opened to the public as a local history museum. It has a range of interesting exhibits, though I did find some of the material about the building’s use as a prison and workhouse a little depressing. My favourite room housed an exhibition dedicated to Lavenham in WW2, including posters and other interesting documents from that period.

At one end of The Guildhall, with its own entry from the square, is the National Trust tea-room. This serves the usual range of snacks and light lunches. It also has a very pleasant garden outside. You don’t need to pay for admission to the Guildhall to use the tea room or sit in its garden.

Little Hall

Little Hall is a late 14th century hall house on Lavenham main square. First built in the 1390s as a family house and workplace, it was enlarged, improved and modernised in the mid-1550s, and greatly extended later. By the 1700s it was giving homes to six families. It was restored in the 1920s/30s.

Little Hall was restored by the Gayer-Anderson brothers, who were both soldiers. They filled the house with art and artefacts collected during their extensive travels, many of which can still be seen there. It is privately owned – by a trust, I believe – and open to the public most afternoons for an entry fee of about £5.

I enjoyed visiting Little Hall and hearing about its long and varied history from the volunteer guide. It also has an attractive walled garden. It doesn’t have any refreshment facilities, but then again the Guildhall tea-room is just a stone’s thrown away!

The Church of St Peter and St Paul

My Airbnb hostess Sheila told me that the Church of St Peter and St Paul was a ‘must see’ in Lavenham and she wasn’t wrong. To quote from the Wikipedia article about it, ‘It is a notable wool church and regarded as one of the finest examples of Late Perpendicular Gothic architecture in England.’

When I arrived a service was just ending and there were quite a few people milling around. While it’s obviously a beautiful building, it is also a busy parish church. I enjoyed browsing in the second-hand bookshop and spent some time admiring pictures by local artists in an exhibition by the main door. But what really impressed me most were the magnificent stained glass windows, such as the one below.

Final Thoughts

As you may gather, I enjoyed my short break in Lavenham and am happy to recommend both the village and the accommodation where I stayed for a short break.

Lavenham is a lovely place to relax and chill out. It is full of beautiful, historic buildings to admire (and photograph) and several you can visit to get a sense of the village’s long history.

Of course, my initial reason for going was to see Darkside (pictured at the foot of this post), and that was inevitably a highlight for me. The concert took place in a large marquee (‘Lavenham Air Theatre’) in a field between the church and the local tennis club. It was a magical setting as the sun went down and a full moon appeared in the clear summer sky. And yes, the band did perform the classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon!

Although I didn’t eat out in the evenings, there are some highly regarded pubs and restaurants which if I hadn’t been on my own (and staying in a self-catering cottage) I would certainly have tried. I had lunch at the National Trust tea-room at The Guildhall on two days. Another day I had a delicious light lunch at The Nook, a cosy bookshop-cum-cafe just down the road from the church.

There are also some lovely circular walks from Lavenham (ask at the tourist information office near the Guildhall for more details). And a bit further afield there are other National Trust properties such as Melford Hall and Ickworth, and the historic village of Long Melford. Because it was so hot during my stay I didn’t really want to go out in my car (which doesn’t have working aircon). But if – or more likely when – I return, I will certainly explore this beautiful area a little more widely.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

September 3, 2022

Credit Card Borrowing Set to Boom

Nick Everything Else events, borrowing, credit cards 6 Comments

Today I am sharing some information and advice from my friends at Smart Money People, the UK’s largest financial services review site

With UK inflation now running at around 10 percent (and forecast to go even higher), many people are feeling the pinch right now. For the large number who have little or no savings to fall back on, borrowing may be their only option to make ends meet.

Research on Borrowing

New research undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Smart Money People shows that the UK’s adults will borrow £101.1 bn on new credit cards, loans, overdrafts and other forms of new credit arrangements in the next 12 months.

The company found that 71% of people currently have less disposable income than they would usually have on average per month due to the current rise in the cost of living. This is leading people to consider other ways to make ends meet:

Two-fifths (40%) of UK adults will have some form of credit over the next year due to the cost of living crisis (i.e. rising prices for fuel, energy and food).
Borrowers predicted they would look to borrow an average of £5,259 each.
43% of people who will take out new credit are already worried about how they are going to meet the terms of their repayments.
A fifth (21%) of the adults who say they expect to take out a new form of borrowing in the next 12 months, will do so to cover day-to-day expenses. This is equivalent to 8% of the adult population as a whole, or 5.5 million people.
One in ten (10%) people borrowing over the next 12 months will do so to consolidate existing debts.

The bulk of this new borrowing is predicted to occur during autumn (15%) and winter (32%). A further 13% were unsure exactly when they would borrow but expect it to be when energy price rises affect them.

Smart Money People’s survey also revealed that the most popular type of credit in the next 12 months will be a credit card: 34% of expected borrowers say this will be their preferred method of credit.

Based on the survey, the other most popular types of borrowing in the next year are expected to be an agreed overdraft (17%) and Buy-Now-Pay-Later (15%), a relatively new form of credit where the method of payment is in instalments with low or no interest rates.

Twelve percent of people stated they would borrow from family and friends.

Other Findings

Other findings from the survey include:

68% of people are more worried about their finances now than during the pandemic.
A quarter (25%) of people don’t understand how inflation and interest rates will affect their finances.
36% of people are unsure whether they have the best financial products for the current situation.

Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People said: “We know that many people have very little, if any, savings to help them get through this period of high inflation, and if they have already made cutbacks, they have almost no choice but to turn to credit.

“Providers will do credit checks for some forms of lending but Buy-Now-Pay-Later schemes do not apply the same rules, and of course, family and friends don’t either, so it is entirely possible to accumulate a worrying level of debt very quickly.

“Anyone who needs to take out a new credit card or another form of credit would be wise to check out the company and the contract and not simply jump at the first provider who will lend to them. Take time to understand if they have good customer service and offer channels that suit your style of managing money.”

Guidance for Borrowers

Smart Money People offers the following guidance for people who are considering taking out a new form of credit:

Borrow responsibly: if you miss a repayment your credit score will be affected for six years.
Don’t simply borrow from the provider who will lend you the highest amount.
Check you understand the product: what you will owe and by when.
Does the interest rate look reasonable compared to other lenders?
You may be penalised if you pay back the debt early – understand the T&Cs.
Find out if the lender has a reputation for good customer service by checking ratings on a financial review site.
When borrowing from family and friends, make sure both parties agree on how and when monies will be repaid.
If you are struggling to make repayments, speak to the credit provider as early as possible to avoid defaulting on a payment. They should work with you to find an affordable means to repay.

My Thoughts

Thank you to Smart Money People for their help in compiling this article, and in particular for their valuable tips and advice about borrowing sensibly.

I would say, though, that borrowing to pay bills should only ever be a last resort. At the risk of stating the obvious, any money you borrow will sooner or later have to be repaid, probably with interest. And credit card borrowing, once the interest-free period has elapsed, is one of the most expensive ways there is to borrow money.

if you’re worried about your finances, before taking on any type of credit, my top tip is to ensure you’ve done everything possible to maximize your income, minimize your expenditure, and budget smartly (using your existing resources to best effect, in other words). These are all subjects I cover regularly on Pounds and Sense, especially in the Making Money and Saving Money categories. By doing these things you may be able to reduce the amount of money you need to borrow, or even avoid the need entirely.

Remember, also, that the government has already set out a range of financial support measures, with more promised when a new prime minister is (finally!) in post. You can find a useful summary of support currently on offer from the government and local authorities on this official web page.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

September 1, 2022

My Investments Update September 2022

Nick Investing events, reviews 4 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my August 2022 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 of performance last month shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £20,344. Last month it stood at £20,407 so that is a modest fall of £73.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,091 compared with £3,108 a month ago, another modest fall of £17.

Here is a screen capture showing performance since January 2022. As you can see, I have topped up this account several times this year.

The falls are obviously disappointing, though August was a roller-coaster month and until about a week ago both portfolios were showing a good profit since the end of July. As I’ve noted previously on PAS, you do have to expect ups and downs with equity-based investments. And this year there has been no lack of volatility in world markets, caused by rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic (among other things).

Even so, since I started investing with Nutmeg in 2016 – and despite everything that has happened this year – I have still made a total net return on capital of 42.12% (or 60.65% time-weighted) on my main portfolio.

I should say as well that I selected quite a high risk level for both my Nutmeg accounts (9/10 for the main one and 5/5 for Smart Alpha). This has served me well generally, but I’m sure investors who selected lower risk levels will have seen fewer ups and downs over the last few months. If you also have a Nutmeg portfolio and plan to withdraw from it soon, there is certainly a case for switching to a lower risk level now.

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 experience over the last six years, they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (as mentioned, my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

My Assetz Exchange investments continue to perform well. 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 £70.81 in revenue from rental and £85.35 in capital growth, a total of £156.16. That’s a decent rate of return on my £1,000 investment and does illustrate the value of P2P property investment for diversifying your portfolio when equity markets are volatile (as at the moment).

I now have investments in 23 different projects and all are performing as expected, generating rental income and in most cases showing a profit on capital as well. So I am very happy with how this investment has been doing. And it doesn’t hurt that most projects are socially beneficial as well.

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 14 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. At present most of my Kuflink loans are performing to schedule, though two recently had their repayment dates put back by three months.

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 now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform (including the one shown above) being IFISA-eligible.

My investment in European crowdlending platform Nibble continues to perform as advertised. My latest investment was in their Legal Strategy. These are loans that are in default and facing legal action. Nibble buy these loans at a heavily discounted rate and then seek to recover as much as possible of the money owed. The minimum investment is 10 euros and the minimum period is six months. I invested 100 euros for 12 months initially at a target annual interest rate of 12.5%.

The Legal Strategy comes with a deposit-back guarantee. This is a guarantee to return the full investment amount at the end of the investment period and a minimum yield of 9% per year. The actual yield depends on how successful recovery efforts prove, so in practice you may end up with a return of anywhere between 9% and 14.5%. All has gone to plan so far, but I will obviously continue to report on this in the months ahead.

You can read my updated review of Nibble here if you like. You can also sign up directly on the Nibble website [affiliate link].

As mentioned last time, I recently set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie. My investment initially dipped, but I am now about $21 in profit. In these turbulent times I am quite happy with that. But in any event I’m looking on this as a long-term investment so won’t be judging it yet. I am also considering a further investment with eToro, possibly in one of their themed portfolios. You can read my full in-depth review of eToro here.

Moving on, I had another article published on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This one is titled Earn a Sideline Income From Online Surveys. In this article I set out my five favourite survey sites for generating a sideline income. Surveys represent an easy, stress-free way to give your income a bit of a boost, which clearly we could all do with just now.

I had quite a busy month in August (one reason I haven’t updated the blog for a while!). In particular, I agreed to present a session for The Joy Club (an online social group for retired and semi-retired people) on the subject of budgeting in the cost of living crisis. This involved rather more work than I anticipated, as I had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation, resources list and accompanying 7000 word script. But it seemed to go down well and I enjoyed the questions and discussion at the end. I know PAS has acquired some extra readers and subscribers as a result of this event, so a very warm welcome if that includes you!

Also in August I enjoyed a break in Lavenham in Suffolk, said to be England’s best-preserved medieval village. My original reason for going was to see Darkside, my favourite Pink Floyd tribute band (see photo below). But I thought I’d make a holiday of it as well, so I ended up staying four nights.

Lavenham is a charming, picturesque place, with various interesting historical buildings you can visit. These include the early 16th century Guildhall and Little Hall, a former wool merchant’s house. I plan to write a post about my Lavenham trip soon.

Finally, I know a lot of people are extremely anxious about the cost-of-living crisis. As I said in my Joy Club presentation last week, though, it’s important not to panic. I recommend a three pronged-approach of maximizing your income, minimizing your expenditure, and budgeting carefully (using your resources as effectively as possible, in other words). Bear in mind, also, that various government support measures have already been announced to try to mitigate the worst effects of the crisis. And once a new PM is (finally!) in place, more will certainly follow.

In the meantime, please do check out some of the other posts on Pounds and Sense for additional advice and resources, especially in the Making Money and Saving Money categories.

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!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

August 2, 2022

My Investments Update – August 2022

Nick Investing, Everything Else events, reviews, property 4 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my July 2022 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 of performance last month shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £20,407. Last month it stood at £19,357 so that is a (very welcome) rise of £1,050.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,108 compared with £2,942 a month ago, a rise of £166

Here is a screen capture showing performance since January 2022. As you may be able to see, I have topped up this account several times this year.

The rises in July are obviously encouraging. In particular, it is nice that my Smart Alpha portfolio (which I haven’t had as long) is worth more than I put into it once again!

Nonetheless, this month’s rises still don’t quite cancel out the falls of last month. And the total value of my Nutmeg portfoiio is still around 8% less than it was at the start of 2022.

As I’ve noted previously on PAS, you do have to expect ups and downs with equity-based investments. And this year there has been no lack of volatility in world markets, caused by rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic (among other things).

Even so, since I started investing with Nutmeg in 2016 – and despite everything that has happened this year – I have still made a total net return on capital of 42.56% (or 61.15% time-weighted) on my main portfolio.

I should say as well that I selected quite a high risk level for both my Nutmeg accounts (9/10 for the main one and 5/5 for Smart Alpha). This has served me well generally, but I’m sure investors who selected lower risk levels will have seen smaller falls over the last few months. If you also have a Nutmeg portfolio and plan to withdraw from it soon, there may well be a case for switching to a lower risk level now.

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 experience over the last six years, they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (as mentioned, my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

I talked about the performance of my Assetz Exchange investment in my July update and also in this recent blog post about ethical investment options. I don’t therefore intend to provide an in-depth report about it on this occasion. I will just say that AE continues to provide steady returns for me, with a lot less ‘excitement’ than my equity-based investments. And as mentioned in my recent post, I like the fact that my money is being used ethically as well (e.g. to provide accommodation for people with learning difficulties or physical disabilities). 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 £2,200 invested with them in 14 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. At present all my Kuflink loans are performing to schedule, though two are showing as ‘pending status update’, which may translate to a delay in repayment.

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 now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform (including the one shown above) being IFISA-eligible.

My investment in European crowdlending platform Nibble continues to perform as advertised. My latest investment was in their Legal Strategy. These are loans that are in default and facing legal action. Nibble buy these loans at a heavily discounted rate and then seek to recover as much as possible of the money owed. The minimum investment is 10 euros and the minimum period is six months. I invested 100 euros for 12 months initially at a target annual interest rate of 12.5%.

The Legal Strategy comes with a deposit-back guarantee. This is a guarantee to return the full investment amount at the end of the investment period and a minimum yield of 9% per year. The actual yield depends on how successful recovery efforts prove, so in practice you may end up with a return of anywhere between 9% and 14.5%. All has gone to plan so far, but I will obviously continue to report on this in the months ahead.

I recently updated my original review of Nibble, which you can read here if you wish. You can also sign up directly on the Nibble website if you like [affiliate link].

As mentioned last time, I recently set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie. My investment initially dipped, but as the screen capture below (of the app page on my mobile phone) shows, I am now about $16 in profit. That’s an increase of over 3% in just over a month. Obviously if it continues to do as well as this, I shall be delighted 🙂

In any event I am looking on this as a long-term investment so won’t be judging it yet. I am also considering a further investment with eToro, possibly in one of their themed portfolios. You can read my full in-depth review of eToro here if you like.

Moving on, I had another article published on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This one is titled Is Car Leasing Right For You? I found this very interesting to research and it gave me food for thought about what I may do when the time comes to bid goodbye to my current vehicle.

Turning to non-financial matters. I hope you are enjoying the (mostly) fine summer weather and making the most of our greater freedoms as we (hopefully) leave the pandemic behind. I recently enjoyed a day out with my friend Jeff at the National Trust’s Snowshill Manor and Gardens in Gloucestershire (pictured in the cover photo).

It was my first visit and I found it a fascinating place. The manor was owned by Charles Wade, an eccentric ex-Army officer. He used it to house his extensive collection of objects of all kinds, from musical instruments to children’s toys, bicycles to Samurai armour (see my photo below). I will try to find time to write a proper review of my trip to Snowshill soon.

And on the subject of summer, can I also remind you about the collaborative Summer Giveaway I am sponsoring in association with other UK bloggers. It’s free to enter, and the lucky winner will receive not only an MSpa hot tub worth almost £1,000 but a range of other great prizes as well. The contest closes on 14 August 2022. Here’s a link to my blog post with details of how to enter.

That’s enough 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!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

July 31, 2022

Summer Prize Giveaway from Top UK Bloggers!

Nick Everything Else events, competitions, families 2 Comments

Summer is here, so it’s high time for another exciting giveaway on Pounds and Sense 🙂

I have joined forces with some of my fellow UK bloggers to bring you the chance of winning a fantastic MSpa Hot Tub with £100 toward the running costs along with a range of other great prizes as well (details below).

After the last couple of years years we all need and deserve a treat, so here’s your chance to grab not just one but a selection for free!

This giveaway has been organized by my colleague Rowena from My Balancing Act, so I should like to thank her very much for this. More details provided by Rowena herself, along with instructions on how to enter, can be found below…

Summer Prize Giveaway

Over 50 top UK bloggers have come together to offer one lucky winner an amazing prize package to ensure your summer will be spectacular! We have an MSpa Hot Tub with £100 towards running cost as well as some other lovely prizes for one lucky winner…read on to find out more!

The Prizes

An MSpa Aurora Hot Tub with £100 to go towards running costs

Thanks to the incredibly generous folk at MSpa, our lucky winner will receive a stunning MSpa Hot Tub worth £949.99. The MSpa Aurora Urban Series U-AU061 features a striking black out-wall fabric with six colour light design. The transparent inner wall is printed with silver stripes, creating an elegant look even in the daytime. And at night, when the light is on, it will look incredible in your garden!

The MsSpa Auroa Urban Series U-AU61 comes with:

All-in-one control box and wired controller
Heat tech anti-icing system
Three levels of bubble speed
03 ozonator to kill odors and bacteria
Energy saving timer
Smart filtration
Child safety lock function
Antibacterial fabric
UVC sanitiser

Not only that, we will give you £100 towards the running costs of your hot tub!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXu2ogn-wNQ

Amazing Garden Toy Bundle from Jaques of London

Now for the kids. To keep them happy this summer our friends at Jaques of London are offering our winner the below prizes:

1 x swing
1 x skittles game
1 x rapid rocket
1 x gardening set

Jaques of London has been inventing and making toys and games since 1795. They care about our children’s future and create games that nurture children’s development and education. Not only that, but they also care about the environment. Their toys are sustainably and ethically sourced, with each order being replanted into new trees.

Citronella and Lemongrass Soy Candle and Room Spray insect repellent

Get rid of those pesky bugs with the help of a Citronella and lemongrass soy candle and spray from Lumiescents.

We love summer but we do not love the pesky insects that come with it! That’s why we are offering our winner this max strength blend of insect repelling essential oils Citronella & Lemongrass from Lumiescents. Our winner will receive this as a room and linen spray and as a beautiful soy wax candle. Perfect for those summer walks, or lazy back garden bbq’s.

The insect repellent from Lumiescents are a summer must have.

Melomania 1+ True Wireless In-Ear Monitors (in white)

We have the Melomania 1+ wireless in-ear headphones in white for our winner, which feature custom-designed 5.8mm Graphene-enhanced drivers. You can listen to all your favourite tunes whilst out and about this summer.

The Bloggers

How to Enter

You can enter the Summer Giveaway by completing as many Rafflecopter widget entry options below as you like. All entries will be collected and one winner will be randomly chosen. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

UK entries only
The giveaway will run from 6pm 31 July 2022 to 11.59pm 14th August 2022.
The winners will be notified by email from rowena@mybalancingact.co.uk
The winner will have 7 days to respond, after which time we reserve the right to select an alternative winner.
This prize draw is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, BlogLovin, Pinterest or any other social network.
Prize open to over 18s only.
If any prizes are out of stock then we will do our best to find a suitable replacement but can not guarantee it.
Anyone who unfollows before the giveaway ends or doesn’t complete the required entry action will be disqualified.
The prize is non-transferable, non-refundable and cannot be exchanged for monetary value.
We may be using a parcel service or RoyalMail for some of the prizes and their standard compensation will apply in the event of loss or damage.
Some items may be sent directly by the supplier and we do not have responsibility if these go missing and we cannot replace these.
We will do our best to get the prizes to you as soon as possible but cannot guarantee a date and there may be some delays.
In the unlikely event one of the companies withdraws a prize we cannot offer an alternative.
The winner’s name will be stated on some the brands and bloggers websites and announced on twitter and other social media channels. By entering this prize draw you give your permission for this.

Good luck, and I really do hope a Pounds and Sense reader wins this amazing prize collection!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

July 17, 2022

Is It Worth Waiting For Black Friday to Buy Big Ticket Items?

Nick Saving Money events, shopping 4 Comments

Amazon Prime Day is over now and the next big shopping event is Black Friday, which this year takes place on Friday 22nd November. But in this time of rising inflation, is it sensible to wait until then for any big-ticket items you need?

My colleagues at Offeroftheday have been crunching the numbers, and their figures indicate that in these inflationary times, waiting for Black Friday might not be the smartest thing to do.

How Are Prices Changing?

Figure 1 (below) shows how prices from eight popular retailers on the Offeroftheday website, including clothing, home & garden and electronic retailers, have changed over the last 12 months. It reveals that during this time average prices rose by over 15%. As the chart shows, this is a significantly higher rate than the UK’s CPI inflation rate.

While the chart does show a dip in prices around the Black Friday period in late November 2021, the data suggests that when prices are rising rapidly (as now) it may still be better to buy as early as possible rather than wait months for possible Black Friday discounts.

Why Are Prices Rising So Fast?

There are various reasons for the rapid rise this year in consumer prices. One is the record increase in energy bills. This has had a knock-on effect on retailers, who are now paying substantially higher running costs for their shops and factories.

A further factor is the big increase in fuel prices, adding to distribution costs. Inevitably, some of these increased costs get passed on to the consumer. The average pump price in June 2021 was 130.73p. Compare this to June 2022 where the average price was 190.93p, a jump of 46% in just twelve months.

Other factors causing prices to rise include logistical issues (e.g. HGV driver shortages), wage rises, shortages of goods and raw materials caused by trade barriers and the war in Ukraine, the effects of extreme weather (possibly caused by climate change), the ending of support schemes for businesses introduced during the pandemic, and so on.

So Is Black Friday Worth Waiting For?

In November 2021, Offeroftheday found the mean average discount of all products on the website was 5.6% compared with the previous month. Given the current trend in pricing shown in Figure 1, by Black Friday November 2022 this discount would need to be significantly higher than that to offset the new base prices.

So does this mean you should do your shopping now? Well, yes and no. Black Friday has a focus on high-ticket items. It is one of the few days when the Apple Store has discounts, and many retailers cut their prices by 50% and more on some electronics and white goods. Even allowing for rising inflation over the next few months, those are significant savings.

While in previous years prices on Black Friday fell far below any other time of the year, Figure 1 shows that Black Friday 2021 only briefly managed to offset price rises, effectively turning the clock back a few months at best. Not surprisingly, many sources reported a decrease in total spend on Black Friday 2021 compared to the previous two years. While some of this can be attributed to lockdown measures and furlough, the data shows that Black Friday discounts simply were not as impressive compared to previous years, especially compared to the prices being charged just a few months earlier.

Black Friday 2022 and Beyond

As mentioned above, Black Friday 2022 falls on Friday 25th November. However, If cost increases continue on their current trajectory, prices could rise as much as 7% between now and November. This means that a product averaging £500 today could cost upwards of £535 in five months time.

Some products will undoubtedly see big discounts on Black Friday 2022. But with inflation currently approaching 10%, we can expect average prices from retailers to continue rising overall. If you’re on the fence about a big purchase, it may therefore be worth buying now rather than hoping for big discounts later in the year. Once we pass August/September, it might be worth holding out for a month or two to reap the benefits of Black Friday discounts. But there is, of course, no guarantee that the particular product you want will be discounted for Black Friday, or whether any discount will be enough to offset price rises caused by inflation.

Black Friday is still the largest shopping day of the year for retailers, so expect to see some big discounts and eye-catching offers. But if it is anything like last year, average discounts may not be as impressive as in years gone by, and for many items you may actually get better prices if you buy now.

Although in this post I have focused on big ticket items, it should be said that Black Friday can also be good for buying cheaper items at a discount. I am thinking here of consumables such as ink cartridges, stationery, clothing, cosmetics, food and drink, and so on. Black Friday can present opportunities for stocking up on such items at bargain prices.

Thank you to my friends at Offeroftheday for sharing their data with me. Please do check out their website for great offers from a wide range of leading online retailers.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

July 5, 2022

My Investments Update – July 2022

Nick Investing events, property 4 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my June 2022 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 of performance last month shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £19,357. Last month it stood at £20,512 so, after another challenging month, that is a fall of £1,155.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £2,942 compared with £3,119 last month, a fall of £177

Here is a screen capture showing performance over the last month.

There is no denying these are disappointing results. Though as I’ve noted previously on PAS, you do have to expect ups and downs with equity-based investments. And over the last few months there’s been no lack of volatility in world markets, caused by rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic (among other things).

It is, however, worth noting that since I started investing with Nutmeg in 2016, and despite everything that has happened this year, I have still made a total net return on capital of 28.79% (or 52.94% time-weighted).

While performance this year has clearly been disappointing, I have no doubt there will be an uptick at some stage, and am considering topping up now while asset values are low. I definitely don’t plan to sell up, as that would only crystallize my losses this year and leave me unable to take advantage when – as I fully expect – things turn around again.

I should also mention that I selected quite a high risk level for both my Nutmeg accounts (9/10 for the main one and 5/5 for Smart Alpha). This has served me well generally, but I’m sure investors who selected lower risk levels will have seen smaller falls over the last few months. If you also have a Nutmeg portfolio and plan to withdraw from it soon, there is certainly a good case for switching to a lower risk level now.

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 experience over the last six years, they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (as mentioned, my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

I talked about the performance of my Kuflink and Assetz Exchange investments in my June update and also in this recent blog post. I don’t therefore plan to provide in-depth reports about them on this occasion. I will just say that both are continuing to provide steady returns for me, with a lot less ‘excitement’ than my equity-based investments!

As I said a few weeks ago, in these turbulent times I believe P2P/crowdlending platforms such as the two mentioned are well worth considering. Not only are the rates of return higher than those on offer from banks and building societies, they are relatively unaffected by ups and downs in the stock markets. P2P loans aren’t a way of hedging your equity-based investments directly, but they do help spread the risk.

To be clear, nobody should put all their spare cash into Kuflink, Assetz Exchange or any other P2P/crowdlending platform, but in my view (and experience) they are certainly worth considering as part of a diversified portfolio.

My investment in European crowdlending platform Nibble (as mentioned last time) continues to perform as advertised. My latest investment was in their Legal Strategy. These are loans that are in default and facing legal action. Nibble buy these loans at a heavily discounted rate and then seek to recover as much as possible of the money owed. The minimum investment is 10 euros and the minimum period is six months. I invested 100 euros for 12 months initially at a target annual interest rate of 12.5%.

The Legal Strategy comes with a deposit-back guarantee. This is a guarantee to return the full investment amount at the end of the investment period and a minimum yield of 9% per year. The actual yield depends on how successful recovery efforts prove, so in practice you may end up with a return of anywhere between 9% and 14.5%. All has gone to plan so far, but I will obviously continue to report on this in the months ahead.

I recently updated my original review of Nibble, which you can read here if you wish. You can also sign up directly on the Nibble website if you like [affiliate link].

Also as mentioned last time, I also recently set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie. As of today my investment has fallen to $473, which I guess in the current circumstances isn’t too bad. In any event I am looking on this as a long-term investment so obviously won’t be judging it yet. I am also considering a further investment with eToro, possibly in one of their themed portfolios.

Moving on, I had another article published on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. This one is titled Starting Your Own Business With a Franchise. If you harbour an ambition to be your own boss, a franchise can be a great way of achieving this. My article sets out some hints and tips for choosing the right opportunity and making the most of it.

I also liked this recent article on Mouthy Money by my fellow blogger Shoestring Jane on The Best Places to Make Money From Your Old Clutter.

Finally, I enjoyed a short break in Criccieth, North Wales, at the end of June. I won’t go into detail about this here, as I plan to write a separate blog post about it soon [now published}. But I will say it was a very enjoyable, relaxing holiday, and I definitely hope to return there before too long. I stayed in a lovely sea-front apartment about five minutes’ walk from Criccieth Castle. Here is a photo taken from the castle showing the main beach…

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 🙂

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

June 17, 2022

Is It Time for Investors to Look Again at P2P/Crowdlending Platforms?

Nick Investing events, property, crowdfunding 6 Comments

There isn’t much doubt this year has been a challenging one for stock market investors.

The war in Ukraine, rising inflation, and lingering fallout from the pandemic have all conspired to damage investor confidence. As a result, what we’re seeing now is a bear market, with share values falling across the board. How long this will continue I don’t know, though one thing I can say for certain is that there will be an upswing sooner or later.

I have witnessed this with my own equity investments and it hasn’t been pretty. My Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA has fallen by 11% in value since January 2022. My Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension) has fallen by a roughly similar amount (I’ve suspended withdrawals from it as a result, to avert the risk of pound-cost ravaging). I’m not panicking about this, as all equity investments have their ups and downs. And since I started both of these investments, I am still well up overall.

There is indeed an argument that now could be a good time to invest, while asset values are depressed. Nonetheless, I do of course understand why many people are wary of investing in stocks and shares at the moment, as markets may well have further to fall.

So today I thought I’d talk about an alternative approach that has fallen out of favour in the last year or two, but still has the potential to generate good returns for your money even when stock markets are in turmoil.

P2P/Crowdlending

I am, of course, talking about P2P/crowdlending. A few years ago these platforms were being touted as an exciting new alternative to banks, allowing individuals the opportunity to club together to buy property or lend to people/businesses. Investors could then benefit from interest paid, rentals received and/or capital gains made.

While initially everything went well, Covid in particular put a big spoke in the P2P sector’s wheel. More borrowers went into default, and platforms struggled to stay afloat as a result. Some (e.g. The House Crowd and Lendy) went bust. Others (e.g. Zopa and Ratesetter) decided to withdraw from P2P lending. Still others (e.g. Bricklane and Crowdlords) continue to operate but have closed to new investors and begun a process of winding down.

While that might sound depressingly negative, it’s not all doom and gloom. A number of P2P/crowdlending platforms are still running and indeed thriving. Three I have investments with myself are Kuflink, Assetz Exchange and Property Partner.

Interestingly, these are all property investment platforms. Kuflink offers secured loans to property developers, while the other two are more ‘conventional’ property crowdfunding platforms where investors jointly purchase a property and share pro rata in rental received and any capital gains on sales. P2P platforms that lend directly to individuals and businesses without the security of property are a lot scarcer nowadays than they used to be.

Regular PAS readers will know I have money in all three platforms mentioned above and am still actively investing in two of them (I am gradually winding down my Property Partner portfolio, though I do still recommend them). One big attraction of property platforms is that investment outcomes are not directly linked to the performance of stock markets. Yes, where the economy is rocky, this might ultimately impact on some commercial properties. Overall, though, these platforms are much less affected by market fluctuations than equity-based investments. That means they can offer an attractive alternative at times (like now) of high volatility.

In this article I’d like to highlight my two current favourite P2P/crowdlending platforms, Kuflink and Assetz Exchange. I will say a word about each and explain why I am still enthusiastic about them and continue to invest with them.

Kuflink

Kuflink offers opportunities to invest in loans secured against property. These loans are typically made to developers who require short- to medium-term bridging finance, e.g. to complete a major property renovation project, before refinancing with a commercial mortgage. They offer three types of investment, as follows:

Select-Invest (individual loans)
Auto-Invest
Tax-free IFISA (Innovative Finance ISA)

Auto Invest and IFISAs both automatically invest your money across a number of loans and pay a fixed interest rate, typically between 5 and 7%. You can choose a 1-year, 3-year or 5-year term, and interest is paid annually. The Auto-Invest product is basically the same as the IFISA, but without the tax-free wrapper. Self-Invest loans can also be put in an IFISA, with most (not all) loans on the platform being eligible.

I have been investing with Kuflink for nearly five years now. My experiences have been entirely positive and my investments have been generating the promised returns. I started cautiously with them, but have gradually built up the amount I have invested. Although – like all property P2P platforms – they were adversely affected by the pandemic, they appear to have come through it strongly, with new loans now being added almost daily.

There have been no defaults so far on any of my loans, and Kuflink say on their website that to date nobody has lost a penny on their platform. I have experienced short delays with loans being repaid, but in such cases you continue to earn interest, of course.

Although Kuflink don’t pay the highest rates in P2P lending, I think the returns on offer are realistic and sustainable. The steady expansion of the platform seems to testify to this, as does the fact that they have received several industry awards. .

Kuflink are also highly rated on the independent TrustPilot website, with an average 4.7 out of 5 (‘Excellent’). At the time of writing 80% of reviewers award them the maximum five-star rating, which is among the highest figures I have seen for a financial services platform.

As with all P2P lending, your money doesn’t enjoy the same level of protection as bank and building society accounts, which are covered (up to £85,000) by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Nonetheless, the rates of return on offer are significantly better than those from most financial institutions. And the fact that all loans are secured against bricks and mortar – and Kuflink themselves have cash invested in them – clearly offers some reassurance.

From my experience, Self-Select loans tend to fill up quickly. On the positive side, this shows investors have confidence in Kuflink and want to invest through the platform. On the minus side, it means there are typically no more than two or three new loans open for investment at any time.

You can read my full review of Kuflink in this blog post, or sign up directly here if you wish [affiliate link].

Assetz Exchange

Assetz Exchange 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 £59.49 in revenue from rental and £60.93 in net capital growth, a total of £120.42. That’s a decent rate of return on my £1,000 investment and does illustrate the value of P2P property investment for diversifying your portfolio when equity markets are volatile (as at the moment).

I now have investments in 23 different projects and all are performing as expected, generating rental income and – in all but three cases – showing a profit on capital. So I am very happy with how this investment has been doing. And it doesn’t hurt that most projects are socially beneficial as well.

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].

Final Thoughts

Clearly, no-one should put all their spare cash into Kuflink, Assetz Exchange or any other P2P/crowdlending platform. Nonetheless, in my view it’s certainly worth considering as part of a diversified portfolio. Not only are the rates of return higher than those currently on offer from banks and building societies, they are relatively unaffected by ups and downs in the stock markets. P2P loans aren’t a way of hedging your equity-based investments directly, but they definitely do help spread the risk.

If you have any comments or questions about this post, as always, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: I am not a registered financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as personal financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and seek advice from a qualified financial adviser if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.

This post (and others on PAS) includes 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 any fees you may pay.

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media:

June 1, 2022

My Investments Update – June 2022

Nick Saving Money, Investing events, property, crowdfunding 8 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my May 2022 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 of performance in the year to date shows, my main portfolio is currently valued at £20,512. Last month it stood at £20,799 so, after a roller-coaster month, that is a fall of £287.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,119 compared with £3,166 last month, a fall of £47

Here is a screen capture showing performance this year.

Obviously the continuing falls are disappointing (though much smaller than last month). As I’ve noted previously on PAS, you do have to expect ups and downs with equity-based investments, and certainly over the last few months there has been no shortage of volatility in world markets. And it’s also worth noting that since I started investing with Nutmeg in 2016 I have still enjoyed a total return of 36.48% (or 62.07% time-weighted).

I should also mention that I selected quite a high risk level for both my Nutmeg accounts (9/10 for the main one and 5/5 for Smart Alpha). This has served me well generally, but I’m sure investors who selected lower risk levels will have seen smaller falls over the last two months.

If you also have a Nutmeg portfolio and plan to withdraw from it in the next few months, there is certainly a case for switching to a lower risk level right now.

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 experience over the last six years, they are certainly worth considering.

If you haven’t yet seen it, check out also my blog post in which I looked at the performance of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 (as mentioned, my main port is level 9). I was actually pretty amazed by the difference the risk level you choose makes. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) opting for a hyper-cautious low-risk strategy may not be the smartest thing to do.

Moving on, my Assetz Exchange investments continue to perform well. 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 £57.24 in revenue from rental and £92.28 in capital growth, a total of £149.52. That’s a decent rate of return on my £1,000 investment and does illustrate the value of P2P property investment for diversifying your portfolio when equity markets are volatile (as at the moment).

I now have investments in 22 different projects and all are performing as expected, generating rental income and – in every case but one – showing a profit on capital. So I am very happy with how this investment has been doing. And it doesn’t hurt that most projects are socially beneficial as well.

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 have been doing well recently, with new projects launching almost every day. I currently have over £2,150 invested with them, quite a large proportion of which comes from reinvested profits. 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. At present all my Kuflink loans are performing to schedule, though one is showing as ‘pending a status update’. I suspect this may translate to a delay in repayment. We shall see.

My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I invest no more than around £150 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 now build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform (including the one shown above) being IFISA-eligible.

I also recently published a blog post about another P2P property investment platform called BLEND. Like Kuflink, they offer the opportunity to invest in secured loans to experienced property developers. They offer (on average) somewhat higher rates of return than Kuflink, though arguably with a little more risk. As well as my blog post about BLEND, you can also check out what they have to offer on their website [affiliate link].

As mentioned last time, I invested some more money in European crowdlending platform Nibble last month. On this occasion I invested in their Legal Strategy. The loans in question are in default and facing legal action. Nibble buy these loans at a heavily discounted rate and then seek to recover as much as possible of the money owed. The minimum investment is 10 euro and the minimum period is six months.

The Legal Strategy comes with a deposit-back guarantee. This is a guarantee to return the full investment amount at the end of the investment period and a minimum yield of 9% per annum. The actual yield will depend on how successful recovery efforts prove, so in practice you may end up with a return of anywhere between 9% and 14.5%. All is going well so far, but I will obviously continue to report on this in the months ahead.

I recently updated my original review of Nibble, which you can read here if you wish. You can also sign up directly on the Nibble website if you like [affiliate link].

One other thing I wanted to mention is that I have just opened an account with online share trading/investment platform eToro. I’ve been planning to do this for a while, with a view to reviewing it on PAS. I’m finding it quite different from other online investment platforms I have used such as Bestinvest.

As well as commission-free share trading, eToro offer a popular copy-trading feature, where you can copy the trades of other successful investors automatically. You can also practise with a virtual portfolio of $100,000. I put some of this into Platinum on the eToro commodities market and initially its value soared. But then it went right down again. So I am not the investment genius I thought I was at first 😀 It’s all very interesting, though. If you’d like to check out eToro for yourself, here’s an invitation link [affiliate]. And keep an eye open for my full review in due course.

Moving on, I have two more articles on the always-excellent Mouthy Money website. The first concerns Two Important State Benefits Many Older People Are Missing Out On. And the second is on the subject Could You Make Money as a Blogger? I have been blogging for over twenty years now, initially about freelance writing and now about personal finance. So I had plenty to talk about in this article!

Incidentally, Mouthy Money currently have a vacancy for a graduate-level personal finance reporter. This is a one-year paid internship working partly from home and partly from MM’s London office. If you know anyone who might be interested in this opportunity, please do draw it to their attention.

Finally, there has been a lot of talk about the cost of living crisis this month. As you may know, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a raft of measures to try to mitigate the worst effects of this.

Whatever your political or economic views, I do think he has been quite generous to older people in particular. Not only will those of us receiving the state pension get £400 off our household energy bills, we will also receive an extra £300 on top of our usual Winter Fuel Allowance (that means I’ll get £500 this year).

Many pensioners will also qualify for the £150 bonus for those on non-means-tested disability benefits such as Attendance Allowance. And they may also get the £650 cost of living payment going to anyone receiving various means-tested benefits (everyone getting pension credit will qualify for this, for example). Some households will receive a total of £1,500 in additional benefits through these measures, which should certainly help in these challenging times. .

If you would like to know more about the latest round of financial support from the government, Martin Lewis has a good summary on his Moneysaving Expert website. The government has also published a web page which sets out all the help that may be available for those on lower incomes.

That’s enough for today, so I’ll close by wishing you a very happy Jubilee Holiday. Whatever you are doing in the next few days – going away or staying home with family and friends – I do hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable time. As ever, if you have any comments or queries, please feel free to leave them below. I always love hearing from my 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!

If you enjoyed this post, please link to it on your own blog or social media: