Pension Losing Money

dollydiva

Hubby has a small pension amount of £7000 with an old employer so not a fortune, but shocked to see that it lost 3.2% last year. We could have gotten better than that if it had just sat in our Bank Account - at least we wouldn't have LOST money!


How easy is it to get the money from this Pension? Hubby is 56 and we're not sure on all the T&C's


Thanks for any advice

redmalc

Should be able to speak to the company and arrange to withdraw that amount

kinger101

I think you are being unrealistic looking at a single years performance. Given how well the stock market performed last year, a 3.2% loss isn't bad. You might have done better in savings THIS YEAR, but over a long period, the stock market has historically outperformed savings.

atush

And what other pensions do you have? If this is the only one, perhaps you should not remove it, but instead add to it?

The performance of the pension is a factor of the funds you have it invested in, and the charges. Nothing stopping you from changing funds, or adding more money into pensions.

dunstonh

but shocked to see that it lost 3.2% last year.

Sorry. That made me laugh. Shocked a a paltry 3.2% loss.

We could have gotten better than that if it had just sat in our Bank Account - at least we wouldn't have LOST money!

Did he feel the same way when it made 15% in earlier years?

Investments go down as well as up. You have good years, bad years and nothing years. You should never look at one year in isolation. You have to average out the good years, bad years and nothing years to get your average return.

If we look at the most common pension fund investment sector in the country, it had the following returns:

2015: 2.22%
2014: 5.66%
2013: 13.07%
2012: 9.91%
2011: -4.34%

So, in the last 5 years, there was one loss year (2011) of 4.34%. One virtually nothing year (2015) and three growth years. If in 2011, your husband got the "shocking" loss of 4.34% and pulled out he would have missed the four years of strong growth that followed. Look at how different the returns were each year. This is why you average and do not look at one year in isolation.

We could have gotten better than that if it had just sat in our Bank Account

In that statement period yes. However, in any of the previous 5 years almost certainly not. And cumulatively, a bank account would have been far worse.

dollydiva

Hmm...but then again in the past we listened to Equitable Life telling us not to look at their recent poor performance either?

Once bitten...

Superscrooge

dollydiva wrote: »

Hubby has a small pension amount of £7000 with an old employer so not a fortune, but shocked to see that it lost 3.2% last year. We could have gotten better than that if it had just sat in our Bank Account - at least we wouldn't have LOST money!


How easy is it to get the money from this Pension? Hubby is 56 and we're not sure on all the T&C's


Thanks for any advice

Withdrawing your money just because it went down in value during one year would be a mistake.

The stock market historically tends to go down in value approx one in every four years and up three in every four years.

Whilst there are no guarantees. Over the long term your pension is likely to grow in value more if invested in the stock market, than if you converted it to cash and stuck it in a bank account.

[Deleted User]

dollydiva wrote: »

Hmm...but then again in the past we listened to Equitable Life telling us not to look at their recent poor performance either?

Once bitten...

Yeah that's a garbage return.


Cheap trackers in our SIPP were returning ~6% to ~8% growth in 2015...


Christ knows how your pension provider made returns that bad... I'd take a serious look at what your invested in and perhaps even change provider.


No room for excuses here, a year is a long time...


Cheers

Marktheshark

The dumping of bad investments in to pension spreads will be the 2016 financial scandal of the year.
Max keiser highlighted this as the next banking and investments scandal.
as he nailed the last scandal so perfectly almost to the hour of the day it would break, it might be worth listening.

atush

dollydiva wrote: »

Hmm...but then again in the past we listened to Equitable Life telling us not to look at their recent poor performance either?

Once bitten...

this just sounds like you want to get your hands ont he cash and spend it really.

Your pension is nothing like EL, as it isnt with profits?

dunstonh

Hmm...but then again in the past we listened to Equitable Life telling us not to look at their recent poor performance either?

Once bitten...

Which will have nothing to do with the pension type you have.

Yeah that's a garbage return.

No its not. Mainly as the statement wont be calendar year. The santa rally wont be included in it.

The dumping of bad investments in to pension spreads will be the 2016 financial scandal of the year. <snip>

it is best to be sober before posting on a discussion board.