Standard Life Stakeholder Pension

mandarin4

This has performed reasonably well till this last year with fund value dropping by about 18 months contributions.

I'd have been better off spending it on beer!

I've reduced the monthly payment to minimum allowed of £16 and now need to find an alternative savings plan.

It seems that 25% of my plan was in a "cautious" fund and the rest wasn't - hence the loss!

Mike

dunstonh

This has performed reasonably well till this last year with fund value dropping by about 18 months contributions.

What has performed well? You havent mentioned much about the investments. Just the container and administrator.

I'd have been better off spending it on beer!

Short term fluctuations and losses are common. You dont worry about it as you average things out and its the periods when it drops where your contributions will buy the most.

I've reduced the monthly payment to minimum allowed of £16 and now need to find an alternative savings plan.

So instead of buying units back at 2004/5 prices you have decided not to? For long term investing, periods like this can be highly beneficial for those paying monthly.

To be honest, at £16pm net, you may as well not bother and alter your future plans on the expectation that you will be poor in retirement. You dont say how old you are but £16 is no good unless you are aged under 16.

It seems that 25% of my plan was in a "cautious" fund and the rest wasn't - hence the loss!

You havent mentioned the size of the short term paper loss.

Old_Slaphead

mandarin4 wrote: »

This has performed reasonably well till this last year with fund value dropping by about 18 months contributions.
I'd have been better off spending it on beer!
I've reduced the monthly payment to minimum allowed of £16 and now need to find an alternative savings plan.
It seems that 25% of my plan was in a "cautious" fund and the rest wasn't - hence the loss!
Mike

Oh dear.

The majority of pension funds are linked to stockmarkets and the majority of stockmarkets went down last year.

Perhaps you should pay more attention to which investments you've 'signed up' to - then gains or losses will be less of a surprise.

Clearly the riskier the investment area, the greater is the potential investment gain or loss. Cash and cautious funds (esp the SL one) held up reasonably well - but then it would be reasonable to expect that.

I would have thought that, in general, SL stakeholder funds performed averagely so you'll need some research if you're picking a new stakeholder/pension provider.

If you're going it alone somewhere like trustnet is a decent source of basic information on fund performance

http://www.trustnet.com/Factsheets/Product.aspx?productCode=STAN0005&univ=P&tab=2