Has your pension taken a massive dive?
- Thread starter Petcha
- Start date
I've just merged mine into a Diversified Lifestyle Portfolio. Sorry. Just wanted to type those words. Getting old is hilarious.
Thistlewaite
Member
I have never really understood it, I just know I will be skint at the end of it either way when I die or retire at like 81 years old.
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Mine was doing ok and had made gains post covid, then dropped by about 20% in the year from August 2021 - July 2022. It’s reversed around 1/3 of those losses in the last month though.
I was invested in about 6 or 7 funds, and haven’t touched the fund selection or weighting since I left that job in 2019. From memory there were a mix of equities with with a small sprinkling of bonds and property.
My current work pension is a career average public sector scheme which I am very thankful for even though I earn 60% of what I did in the 2019 job.
I was invested in about 6 or 7 funds, and haven’t touched the fund selection or weighting since I left that job in 2019. From memory there were a mix of equities with with a small sprinkling of bonds and property.
My current work pension is a career average public sector scheme which I am very thankful for even though I earn 60% of what I did in the 2019 job.
I dunno what age you are, but it's actually worth learning a little bit more about it. Coz someone will be taking the money if you don't.
Sounds like there's some wise people on here who might be able to advise. The very word 'pension' has always filled me with dread hence why I never gave a shit about it when I was in my actual good years.
Thistlewaite
Member
I feel the same and just know I wouldn't understand any of it despite paying into it for over a decade. I really am useless at processing information lately.
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Mines up somewhat since the start of the year.
pseudonarcissus
fluttering and dancing
I´m down about 10%. Mine is about 70% stocks and shares, 30% bonds. It will go up again...eventually.
There are lots of numbers about how much you need here from Which?.
If you don´t know what to do, the best thing is probably to do nothing. Try to keep contributing as stocks are ´cheap´, and with interest rates going up existing bonds are losing value.
If you are about to retire, it would probably be best to try and delay it until inflation is under control...inflation is a killer for retirement incomes. People that retired in the late 60s did much worse, even than those that retired in the late 1920s (according to modelling here). Check you are not paying excessive fees and run away from actively managed funds.
The pensions industry likes to suggest bonds are lower risk. This is a dubious claim. They may be lower volatility, but the real risk is running out of money before you´re pushing up the daisies, and the returns on shares have out-performed bonds.
I´m in no way qualified to provide anything that could be constituted as advice
There are lots of numbers about how much you need here from Which?.
If you don´t know what to do, the best thing is probably to do nothing. Try to keep contributing as stocks are ´cheap´, and with interest rates going up existing bonds are losing value.
If you are about to retire, it would probably be best to try and delay it until inflation is under control...inflation is a killer for retirement incomes. People that retired in the late 60s did much worse, even than those that retired in the late 1920s (according to modelling here). Check you are not paying excessive fees and run away from actively managed funds.
The pensions industry likes to suggest bonds are lower risk. This is a dubious claim. They may be lower volatility, but the real risk is running out of money before you´re pushing up the daisies, and the returns on shares have out-performed bonds.
I´m in no way qualified to provide anything that could be constituted as advice
Riklet
procrastinación
Mines an ethical green one and went way down but then is way back up again now.
I wouldnt worry. these things are long term investments and theres not a lot you can do. although id recommend Royal London ethical pension for sure if you can transfer. I have mine set to the highest risk and mostly stocks I think and its worked out v well.
I wouldnt worry. these things are long term investments and theres not a lot you can do. although id recommend Royal London ethical pension for sure if you can transfer. I have mine set to the highest risk and mostly stocks I think and its worked out v well.
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
Maintaining a modelling career into your 70s is going to be challenging tbf
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
"Sustainable" funds have to replace oil/mining/defence/tobacco companies etc with something else. Usually that just means more of the rest, which means more tech.
The price of tech stocks tends to depend more on future growth than current earnings, so when inflation and interest rates are set to rise, the price of such stocks tends to decline more than the market average.
So it's not really a surprise that "sustainable" funds have performed worse this year than plain global funds that include everything.
The price of tech stocks tends to depend more on future growth than current earnings, so when inflation and interest rates are set to rise, the price of such stocks tends to decline more than the market average.
So it's not really a surprise that "sustainable" funds have performed worse this year than plain global funds that include everything.
tommers
It was... Rebekah Vardy's account
checked mine today and apparently it's now worth 25% less than the amount that has been contributed. I did recently consolidate all the other little pots I had from various jobs over the years, so that contributed amount will include whatever amounts those had grown but for actual fuck's sake. Fucking joke.
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
No idea if it's gone down. I never check the value and just assume it'll be inadequate when I retire
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
pretty much the same - I get predictions for the Local Authority Pension, and the private pension (which I'll take as a lump sum in a couple of years) I'm hoping that early retirement is an option in a couple of years (rumours of a big restructure at work) . Quite fancy working part-time for a few years if that does happen.
Depending on how big your private pension is, might be better to use drawdown. (If you take it in one go, you could lose of it in tax.)
furluxor
snake with a claw
Mine's down 3% from it's highest point, looks good but hard to know as I only finished consolidating my pensions in April. I've put it all in an index tracker fund, 100% in U.S. stocks. I'm in my thirties and have time to ride out the bumps so it's all gas, no breaks. I don't really understand what I'm doing but I had to buy into some investing religion or other and I went for this one because it seemed to make sense.
I've looked into the actual portfolio of a sustainable option (different provider than the OPs) and it was bullshit - companies like Nestle and Amazon. It's not even a lesser evil, just a different evil. I couldn't see the point of taking lower returns for that.
I've looked into the actual portfolio of a sustainable option (different provider than the OPs) and it was bullshit - companies like Nestle and Amazon. It's not even a lesser evil, just a different evil. I couldn't see the point of taking lower returns for that.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
If you're not due to retire in the next few years, forget about it, don't even bother checking, except maybe to move it into a global tracker rather than one that's UK focused if it isn't already.
Thanks, I'll look into that.
I don't know what it means or how I do it, but I'll try
Is the consensus that once this shitshow is voted out my pension going to spike massively up then?
These things go in cycles. Pensions etc went down massively with Covid but went back up again. Sure the same will happen this time, you just need to wait it out. And what else can you do anyway..?Thanks, I'll look into that.
I don't know what it means or how I do it, but I'll try
Is the consensus that once this shitshow is voted out my pension going to spike massively up then?
spellbinder
Well-Known Member
I've stopped looking at mine it depresses the life out of me.
At the beginning of the summer i'd lost 15% since april - fucked my head right up, makes me wonder what really is the point in trying to make it better for my old age, i'll be living in a skip by then and won't give a shiny shite.
At the beginning of the summer i'd lost 15% since april - fucked my head right up, makes me wonder what really is the point in trying to make it better for my old age, i'll be living in a skip by then and won't give a shiny shite.
The stock market goes up on average by about 7% or 8% per year, but that doesn’t mean that every year it grows by 8%. Some years it goes up 25%, other years it goes down 25%. The positive years outweigh the negative years. The stockmarket ultimately reflects the accumulation of profit of all private companies — so long as capitalism continues to favour this, you can expect that the general trend will go up. However, capitalism also contains boom and bust cycles, so you can’t expect it to go up smoothly. It will be very bumpy.
Unless you have strong opinions about what is going to gain value and when, your best option is to stick regular money into a global tracker within a pension fund and forget about it until you’re about 5 years before retirement. If you want to end up with a pension worth more than half your salary, you should aim to do this with 10-20% of your income. The later you start, the higher that % is going to be (and if you don’t start until your 40s, it will probably need to be higher than 20%). I know, I know, this is not necessarily realistic. I’m just giving you the maths.
5 years before retirement, you need to start thinking about the actual strategy for retirement — buy an annuity, draw down and so on. That’s another subject for another day.
If you have a DB pension, of course, you don’t have to worry about any of this. Not that you are totally inoculated from the movements in the stock market, but it’s pretty close.
Unless you have strong opinions about what is going to gain value and when, your best option is to stick regular money into a global tracker within a pension fund and forget about it until you’re about 5 years before retirement. If you want to end up with a pension worth more than half your salary, you should aim to do this with 10-20% of your income. The later you start, the higher that % is going to be (and if you don’t start until your 40s, it will probably need to be higher than 20%). I know, I know, this is not necessarily realistic. I’m just giving you the maths.
5 years before retirement, you need to start thinking about the actual strategy for retirement — buy an annuity, draw down and so on. That’s another subject for another day.
If you have a DB pension, of course, you don’t have to worry about any of this. Not that you are totally inoculated from the movements in the stock market, but it’s pretty close.
This.
Petcha if you’re in your early 40s don’t sweat it. It goes up & down but over decades the trend (so far in capitalism) has been up.
Making changes because it’s gone down for even a few years is not understanding this kind of graph:
Thanks.
It's not gonna be much anyway. It was at 20k and now its down to 17k. I get the distinct feeling im gonna lose my job pretty soon anyway but hey, ill be able to buy a pint of the cheapest shit in the spoons and bitch about life and young people in a few years.
My employer is fairly generous as I understand it and put 10% of my salary in every month and i dont actually contribute anything. so ill be hangin on to this job by my fingernails.
