FTSE at 3700 and no winners.

sabretoothtigger

Japans problem was corruption I thought though Ive not read much on it recently

Dithering_Dad

Californication wrote: »

I've transferred an old pension with PR to a Hargreaves Landown SIPP and it all seems to work really smoothly. Also, their charges look very reasonable.

--C

Thanks for the feedback, Californication. I'm assuming that there are restrictions on where you can invest the PR part of your pension?

My pension dropped a bit yesterday (£1825.16):

Closing Price Friday 24th October
£61,893.00 - Amount my pension pot would be if I had left it alone.
£75,362.45 - Amount in my Pension Pot now (Equities).

Closing Price Monday 27th October
£60,564.39 - Amount my pension pot would be if I had left it alone.
£73,537.29 - Amount in my Pensions Pot now (Equities).


Bit of a spike in the FTSE this morning, but it's going down like the Titanic now .

Realy

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Bit of a spike in the FTSE this morning, but it's going down like the Titanic now .

And up again.
I bet you have aged 5 years already this week.;)
Looks like it should be an up day to me if the US follow suit.

Dithering_Dad

Realy wrote: »

And up again.
I bet you have aged 5 years already this week.;)
Looks like it should be an up day to me if the US follow suit.

Actually, I'm strangely sanguine about the whole thing. I guess it's because I know that by moving into a cash fund when the FTSE100 was at 5500 I saved myself £12k losses. I also know that I increased my pension by £5k from £70 to £75 the week before last when I moved temporarily back into equities and the market climbed.

My strategy at the moment is that I'll stay in equities unless my fund goes back down to £70k where I started from. Obviously my hope is that we have some good news and the market rises again

Generali

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Actually, I'm strangely sanguine about the whole thing. I guess it's because I know that by moving into a cash fund when the FTSE100 was at 5500 I saved myself £12k losses. I also know that I increased my pension by £5k from £70 to £75 the week before last when I moved temporarily back into equities and the market climbed.

My strategy at the moment is that I'll stay in equities unless my fund goes back down to £70k where I started from. Obviously my hope is that we have some good news and the market rises again

Be very very careful old thing. As you have to trade at the closing price you can't set a stop loss. Want to bet that equity prices won't fall 10% in a day at some point or even more?

The reserves of the insurance companies must be stretched pretty thin. What do you think would happen to prices if Putnam or Fidelity were to announce (or for it to come out) that they are forced sellers into a declining market?

Dithering_Dad

Sobering words Gen and good advice as usual.

They did mention something similar on Radio 5 this morning, but the Insurance Company concerned said there wasn't a problem and that they had healthy reserves. Hmnn, where have we heard that before.

Would my money be safe within a Cash Fund though in this scenario?

Generali

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Would my money be safe within a Cash Fund though in this scenario?

Define 'safe' and I'll try to answer your question. Nothing in life is risk free and certainly no investment is.

How many of the below phrases will survive the turmoil:

"Sound as a pound" (sahnd as a pahnd?)
"Safe as houses"
"You can bank on it"?

Dithering_Dad

True. It kinda makes one wonder what's the point of it all.

We should all club together and buy a farm and create a House Price kibutz.

Generali

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

True. It kinda makes one wonder what's the point of it all.

We should all club together and buy a farm and create a House Price kibutz.

Basically what you need to find out is whether or not your cash fund is given client money protection. If it is then you'll get less (or perhaps no) interest but you should get your money back in full if the bank it is held in collapses AIUI.

Of course then your pension fund is exposed to the ravages of inflation, not that I think that is going to be a problem for long but who knows?

A pension is a risky investment. That people have been lied to about final salary schemes (that they're not risky investments) will make the ultimate betrayal worse.

Private DB pension schemes have £700,000,000,000 in assets and £800,000,000,000 in liabilities. Their liabilities are being flattered right now because they use the average AA rated corporate bond interest rate for 'discounting'. As this is much higher than one would normally expect it reduces their calculated liabilities.

There is a massive pension scandal waiting to errupt that will put the whole banking thing at the moment in the shade. If you're under 50 and think you're going to be retiring at 60 on a comfortable pension, think again unless you have massive amounts of assets.

Dithering_Dad

I used to always be annoyed that I missed out on DB (Defined Benefit AKA Final Salary) schemes, but now I'm starting to think I'm lucky that I have always had DC (Defined Contribution AKA Money Purchase) schemes.

I might not get 1/60th of my final salary but then my pension isn't reliant on a single company staying afloat. Plus I have a modicum of control over my pension pot.

All you can really do is diversify your retirement portfolio and hope for the best. I still think that Kibutz idea may be the way to go.