Help - Advice needed

theconnors18

Hi,

Last year I invested £20K in an investment portfolio with Norwich Union arranged through my bank RBOS. I've been watching the price of my investment drop rapidly over the past few months. It's now worth £15.7K if I withdraw my cash now.

I'm wondering if I would be better cutting my losses and investing my money in a high interest account and dripfeeding my cash into cash isa's.

I invested the cash with a view to leave it invested for 8 years and I'm panicking that my investment will not have recovered in 8 years to a level that could be acheived investing in high interest bank accounts.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen

opinions4u

You chose a portfolio which presumably has an element of risk to it in the belief of achieving a better return.

Values in this kind of investment will go down and up daily. What you hope your investment will do is to enjoy more ups than down and return more to you than a typical bank account.

I can't tell you what will happen over the markets over the next 8 years. One 'expert' on the radio suggests we're close to the bottom of the cycle at the moment and the only way is up.

Another points out that if banks are short of cash over the coming years, their lending for both private and corporate customers will have to be reigned in. This could lead to comparitively slow growth which could hold back the investment you have.

That said, slow growth may still outperform savings rate in a low interest economy.

By cashing in now, you ensure you make a loss. By sticking with it, you give yourself the chance of longer term gains - but could also make the loss bigger.

Others will rightly ask you what your fund has invested in and may be able to tailor their guidance accordingly.

All I will say is it's your call. If you knew markets can go down as well as up when you bought, why the panic? If you didn't, take them to task for mis-selling.