Standard life stakeholder pension

oceanobsession

Hello to everyone.
Can anyone help me understand how to pick standard life funds, im a complete novice with not much understanding. At present im in standard life stakeholder pension, ive been in it for 3 years and ive got 18 years till im 65. ive invested in four funds:

1. managed fund
2. uk equity fund
3. property fund
4. bgi uk equity index fund

I picked these funds 3 years ago because of the last 4 years growth, also the funds present value. This i thought was a good indicator, as the more investing in it the better it was. Anyway as i understand, you pick funds they buy shares (units) every month, you then replace them for more stable sorces sterling fund etc.
What worries me is...What if i were taking my pension now in this climate i would not get a good price for my funds, so it depends what happens in the future, so without a crystal ball how do you pick funds? Ive got £190.00 a month going into it, please help with some advice.
Cheers oceanobsession, thanks.

dunstonh

1 is a bog standard managed fund that is for people that dont know what they are doing. It will never be best but it wont be worst.
2 and 4 are virtual duplications of each other.
3 is useful diversification but shouldnt have too much in it.

What if i were taking my pension now in this climate i would not get a good price for my funds

Unit prices are back at 2004/5 levels. Not so good for units bought after 2004/5 but great for units bought after late last year and still being bought with monthly contributions.

so without a crystal ball how do you pick funds?

If you know what you are doing then you will have a strategy. It could be asset allocation, sector allocation (best for using with funds), high yield or another. If you dont then fund picking can do more damage than good and it is often better off staying in the default balanced managed fund. I wouldnt want my money there personally but as many managed funds reinvest into the other funds in the range and leave the allocation to the fund manager, then it does the job for you.