It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Crabby

Me and Mrs C are coughing, sneezing and have runny noses, but it's Carnival in Cadiz, so We're not going home.

Suffolk_lass

crv1963 said:

Mrs CRV is back from Costa Adeje but flew home on the 12! Weather was much better than here, we indeed got snowed in on Monday but by the evening it had melted enough to be able to drive to work Tuesday. Not looked at the pensions, rather leave them until nearer the time to use them I have put my pension forms into the Pension Officer and given formal written notice at work- taking my DB pension 1st May!

Having the whole of May off before returning to the workplace for a couple more years! Have been offered a slightly less than half time post, substantive so will work less agency work but be assured of a defined income.

Congratulations on taking the plunge to take your DB Pension from 1st May - we will delay drawing down from the DC if it is substantially impacted by the SM shenanigans

Sea_Shell

Will update my spreadsheets tomorrow for the month end.  Be "interesting" to see where we are, compared to this time last year.

Where's the EEK emoji when you need it!!

Sea_Shell

Well the damage for January to February month end, overall, is down £20k.  £13k of that is pension pots, and £7k ISAs. 

Feb 19 to Feb 20 still up by £30k.    I wonder what March will bring!!!

DairyQueen

Sea_Shell said:

Well the damage for January to February month end, overall, is down £20k.  £13k of that is pension pots, and £7k ISAs. 

Feb 19 to Feb 20 still up by £30k.    I wonder what March will bring!!!

Do you know your percentages? What be interested to see how others have fared during the first correction in over a decade.

Fortified by a full-strength coffee I just took the plunge and checked our portfolios. Last week I completed a minor rebalance. Slightly increased Mr DQ's equity exposure (groan) and moderately decreased mine (sigh of relief). Drawdown (due to start April 2021) will be heavily front loaded for me for tax reasons. Cash allocation was quite high in order to fulfil drawdown requirement in years 1-5.

Not looking as bad as I feared courtesy of the high cash allocation.The scores on the doors (over one month):

Pension portfolio me = -7.2%
Pension portfolio Mr DQ = -8.5%
Combined portfolio = -7.9%

Combined pension portfolio allocation at the beginning of this week:
Equities 74.45%
Fixed Interest 7.53%
Cash 16.48%
Other (WP) 1.54%

I suspect that the bottom is still some distance away but this week has been a reasonable test of my tolerance to risk. I definitely need that cash buffer to act as a psychological safety net against a highish 75% equity allocation.

Anyone else able to share performance and allocation over the last month?

Sea_Shell

It's about a 3.6% drop overall.

Pot was £562k end January, now £542k

£100k of that pot is cash, so actually £20k off of £462.   So more like 4.4% 

(assuming my maths is right!!)

LHW99

Overall around -7.5% over the last week, -6.3% over February

Greatest drawback -20% (holding only ~2.5% of portfolio), another similarly small holding +3% on the month

Still waiting for a good top-up opportunity.

Stubod

..just completed another "what if" analysis based on if all our S&S Isa's are wiped out and it still suggests we can continue with our current level of spending, which in itself tells yet another story! (We probably have 40% other money in "safe", (apart from inflation) accounts, NSI etc.). That model also assumes inflation at 4% ongoing and interest rates at 1% on remaining savings.

So happy to "sit tight" and see what happens....     

Amateurretiree

We are down 8000  this week on our ‘cautious ‘ portfolio, which is 40/40/20 equities/bonds/ cash plus we have several years expenses in savings and my NHS DB pension which covers all essentials. So 8 grand is about 3% of our SIPP so don’t feel thats as bad as some poor buggers. We are currently in drawdown, but may pause it if things get too bad .

Who knows how much more the markets will drop so not counting our chickens yet.

DairyQueen

I am also happy to sit tight. Enough cash to see us through until 2026 and then sufficient FI for another few years after that.

This is definitely a good opportunity to test attitude to risk and portfolio resilience for those of us in/approaching drawdown.