March 2021
Spring is definitely in the air with one of the hottest March days in 50 years in the UK. Lockdown has started to be lifted and schools are back on this side of the Chanel, due to the successful roll out of our vaccine programme. The numbers of new infections has climbed a little however the numbers of patients requiring hospitalisation or dying has fallen dramatically. Across much of Europe a much slower roll out of their vaccine programs has consequently left them in the midst of a third wave of Covid.
March tends to be a flat month for many investments and so has been the case this month. The stock market has come off its dramatic highs of last year, with tech and renewable stocks taking the greatest hit. They have somewhat stabilised now, but their short term direction of travel is uncertain. Bitcoin and Crypto posted some decent gains before tailing off towards the end of the month.
My strategy aimed at income rather than capital appreciation makes the market prices of various assets much less of a factor for me, allowing me to look on with almost an outsiders dispassionate view.
As you will see later on this has been a bumper month for income, but first let’s have a look at where my investments have been this month.
Investments
TheSunExchange received my third investment into the Nhimbe Fresh project, the same as last month. This project has finally closed for funding and is expected to be generating electricity in August. Invested £527
CrowdProperty has a cash drag of £8300 at the end of this month, so no need to invest further. It is going down slowly but surely.
ElfinMarket claimed its current level of investment. In April it will get its regular £100 at the start of the month and then I will open an IFISA account with them after April 6th and transfer my general account across to the ISA. Invested £100
In the world of European P2P investing there was no new money invested but I did shift around some money. I have withdrawn the majority of my investments from the IUVO and Lendermarket and transferred the balance to Moncera and RoboCash. The process is ongoing in my rationalisation of this area.
Invictus IML… There has been some progress with the fees, Invictus has mentioned they are looking to deploy their funds on the Binance Smart Chain which will dramatically drop the fees for interacting with the smart contracts. I am encouraged by this news, so a further investment in this fund should be possible in the upcoming months.
NEXO has changed their interest rates this month. They have dropped their rates for flexible accounts. If you choose to lock up your assets for a month then you can achieve the previous rates. In the locked savings interest is paid out monthly. Due to this change I withdrew my TUSD and GBP savings. The GBP I converted to BTC on the NEXO platform and the TUSD I converted to BTC and transferred to my Celsius wallet. The reason for swapping from fiat/stable coins to BTC is my perception of potential gains over the next 9 months. Net effect was zero investments.
Following last months Yield Farming experiment, I invested a chunk into Staking and Yield Farming. Invested £1640
FreeTrade had a complicated investment journey this month as I sold most of my investments in my General Investment account. I cashed in some healthy gains in my growth stocks and have transitioned to Dividend stocks. I opened an ISA account and transferred £7K across to max out this years ISA allowance. I also withdrew a small amount to my bank account. Net investment -£500
Lastly this month JuicyFields received 2 investments. I only have a couple of further investments to make in JuicyFields before it becomes self sustaining and compounding. Invested £261
Total Invested £1963
Monthly Income
Earnings this month have really exploded 💥. I was impressed with last months increase, but this months has been an eye-opener.
TheSunExchange was expected to post lower earnings compared to last month, but they must have had a sunny month in South Africa as the earnings are up. Income £44
CrowdProperty and EstateGuru both posted steady incomes. Dependable and reliable. Income £32
ElfinMarket continues to increase its returns and should start to look really healthy once I invest more heavily in its IFISA account in the coming months. Income £11
Euro P2P is back up to a healthy income. As I am not currently adding to this investment class, just rationalising into fewer platform I am not expecting much change in the future. Income £27
The Invictus IML fund had a disappointing month with a slow and steady growth. I have grown to expect more from this investment, but I suppose every month can’t be an increase on the last. Income £23
My Crypto Lending continues to benefit from the bull run with steady increases in income complimented by fantastic increases in the value of the underlying assets. Income £137
Now this is where things start to look interesting… Following on from my dabble into Crypto Staking and Yield Farming at the end of last month, this month has seen a full month of returns. It is truly mind blowing what is available if you look carefully and manage your risk. Not all of my investments were successful so there were some negative returns but overall the result was extremely positive. The bulk of the income comes from staking CAKE tokens from Pancake Swap, but there are also some smaller contributions as well. Income £568
Income from FreeTrade this month is on par with previous months. I have now transitioned to a much more dividend rich portfolio so I should see an increase coming in the next few months. Income £16
Lastly this month is a new income stream. My initial investments in crowd-growing with JuicyFields 4 months ago have now harvested and been sold creating my first income. I have made further repeated investments so this should now be a regular income. Next months should be a little smaller, followed by an income similar to this month the following month. The following 4 months should be double with an increasing trend thereafter. Income £81
Total Passive Income £941
In the next few weeks HMRC is going to update its tax advice regarding Cryptocurrency investments. It should cover Crypto Lending, Staking and Yield Farming income, so I am watching with baited breath to see how this will pan out.
The Lazy Way 2 FIRE 