What did the smart pension money do when values dropped in March/April?

balbs

Kept with my plan of sticking with a mixture of funds that I pulled out of a hat - still doing ok.  Meanwhile wife asked me to invest a few bob in Zoom of her money and she triples it ... theres no justice in the world :-).

MarkCarnage

Sorry if this sounds personal, but your question implies you may not have the mentality to lose the certainty of a DB pension and replace it with the uncertainty of a DC investment. You sound like you think you can "time" the market. Just make sure you know what you are letting yourself in for if you go ahead with the transfer.

Don't apologise. This is excellent advice.

My experience over a long time is that doing nothing works much of the time, which is essentially what passive does. The trick of adding value is knowing when it's really going to matter whether you do something or not, as opposed to keeping brokers/platforms in business by overtrading. 

In reply to the OP question, I did nothing in March/April as I didn't need to. Your time horizon should be years or decades not months too. I have done something recently - reduced a couple of investment trust holdings which have done exceptionally well and have now exceeded my single holding size limit by a fair margin, have redeployed into WP ITs. 

pensionpawn

TBC15 said:

I immediately and without delay did nothing.

Ditto.

Spreadsheetman

Absolutely nothing. I carried on adding my regular monthly contributions as the plan called for and just ignored the market.

Bravepants

I certainly didn't sell anything following the drop, I kept my monthly contributions going; drawing at least one comment on the forums about my "throwing good money after bad!" from one contributor who shall remain nameless. Ha!

I have dabbled a little with Investment Trusts for income, but I realised though that I wanted a bigger Emergency Fund. So when I saw my multi-asset fund recover I sold some and stashed it in Premium Bonds.

However, now I am thinking that before the end of the financial year I will use the money to buy Added Pension and boost the portion of my DB pension I intend to start drawing from as part of an early retirement around 55 or so. 

Anonymous101

Absolutely nothing.
My plan is to contribute monthly for another at least another 10 years. Market declines are part and parcel of investing and should have been contemplated beforehand. My strategy is to invest in low cost index funds and leave them alone no matter what. The best investors are either dead or forgot they had the accounts. That should tell you everything you need to know....

pip895

Anonymous101 said:

Absolutely nothing.
My plan is to contribute monthly for another at least another 10 years. Market declines are part and parcel of investing and should have been contemplated beforehand. My strategy is to invest in low cost index funds and leave them alone no matter what. The best investors are either dead or forgot they had the accounts. That should tell you everything you need to know....

I think I disagree with that, although it is true that there is little point in trying to predict what the markets will do, you can see what they have just done.  It doesn't take a great intellect to work out that when markets drop 25% they represent better value than they did does it?  There for, it is a better time to buy and this holds true even if they then drop another 20%.  Taking advantage of market drops and to a point taking profits when markets are soaring to new heights is basic good investing.   

Anonymous101

pip895 said:

Anonymous101 said:

Absolutely nothing.
My plan is to contribute monthly for another at least another 10 years. Market declines are part and parcel of investing and should have been contemplated beforehand. My strategy is to invest in low cost index funds and leave them alone no matter what. The best investors are either dead or forgot they had the accounts. That should tell you everything you need to know....

I think I disagree with that, although it is true that there is little point in trying to predict what the markets will do, you can see what they have just done.  It doesn't take a great intellect to work out that when markets drop 25% they represent better value than they did does it?  There for, it is a better time to buy and this holds true even if they then drop another 20%.  Taking advantage of market drops and to a point taking profits when markets are soaring to new heights is basic good investing.   

I see your logic. As you say they possibly represent better value after the decline. Although there was a reason for the decline.

My issue with that approach is that you’re always missing out on any returns whilst you’re waiting for that decline. Then how much of a decline is worth acting on?
There could also be the possibility of a very long wait and when the declines do come they might not be anywhere near the growth there has been between declines.
I believe that time in the market beats timing the market.

Prism

pip895 said:

Anonymous101 said:

Absolutely nothing.
My plan is to contribute monthly for another at least another 10 years. Market declines are part and parcel of investing and should have been contemplated beforehand. My strategy is to invest in low cost index funds and leave them alone no matter what. The best investors are either dead or forgot they had the accounts. That should tell you everything you need to know....

I think I disagree with that, although it is true that there is little point in trying to predict what the markets will do, you can see what they have just done.  It doesn't take a great intellect to work out that when markets drop 25% they represent better value than they did does it?  There for, it is a better time to buy and this holds true even if they then drop another 20%.  Taking advantage of market drops and to a point taking profits when markets are soaring to new heights is basic good investing.   

How can you take advantage of market drops unless you are holding back cash which means you are not fully invested? Why would you take profits at any given time when you don't need the money? Just to hold in cash for some future possible drop?

Holding cash on the sidelines and taking profits is not basic good investing. It is a type of more complex investing that is difficult to make work.

cloud_dog

Prism said:

pip895 said:

Anonymous101 said:

Absolutely nothing.
My plan is to contribute monthly for another at least another 10 years. Market declines are part and parcel of investing and should have been contemplated beforehand. My strategy is to invest in low cost index funds and leave them alone no matter what. The best investors are either dead or forgot they had the accounts. That should tell you everything you need to know....

I think I disagree with that, although it is true that there is little point in trying to predict what the markets will do, you can see what they have just done.  It doesn't take a great intellect to work out that when markets drop 25% they represent better value than they did does it?  There for, it is a better time to buy and this holds true even if they then drop another 20%.  Taking advantage of market drops and to a point taking profits when markets are soaring to new heights is basic good investing.   

How can you take advantage of market drops unless you are holding back cash which means you are not fully invested? Why would you take profits at any given time when you don't need the money? Just to hold in cash for some future possible drop?

Holding cash on the sidelines and taking profits is not basic good investing. It is a type of more complex investing that is difficult to make work.

Although the word 'future' covers a very broad spectrum, and by its very nature is subjective.