Do you monitor your pension position daily?

Ant555

Im starting out 'learning' about how to manage a pension for when I hopefully get to retire in a few years - probably on a drawdown.
I put all my current pension funds/units in to morning stars portfolio tracker a while ago with a view to seeing what information is available to me for free.
Yesterday my total holdings across 14 funds with two separate providers dropped by around £5000 - I realise this may be a general market position but how stressful is it to watch?
Its probably investing 101 to many people on this board but do people just need experience to understand its probably just a blip, it all seems to add up to a stressful situation if looking after your own money - ive never been a stocks and shares person so doing this with a pension would be the first time ive had to follow the markets.
I feel like im an apprentice training for a one-shot rocket trip to the moon with the knowledge that if im off by a few degrees then im going to miss the moon altogether and float off into space!

kinger101

It's good to monitor the performance of your investments, but daily movements are just noise. Daily movements of 1% or more of fund value are not unusual.  What I find useful to know is the performance of funds relative to an appropriate benchmark.  And knowing how much I'm paying in fees.

Mutton_Geoff

I manage my own on a platform with an app and do look at it almost on a daily basis. I've seen movements of £30k in a day but this doesn't faze me, I'm in it for the long term and certainly not tempted to try to time the market. My costs are as low as they can be and my choice of funds stand well against their benchmarks.

westv

I check  "portfolio" on Trustnet daily.

webnibbler

Checking your portfolio everyday is going to be stressful and could potentially lead to emotional decision making, like selling when assets fall in value, which they inevitably will at some point.

I use the Morningstar portfolio and used to check it everyday which I now resist the urge to do. This has reduced my stress levels quite a bit. Checking once a month or even every six months is enough. 

princeofpounds

Ant555 said:

I feel like im an apprentice training for a one-shot rocket trip to the moon with the knowledge that if im off by a few degrees then im going to miss the moon altogether and float off into space!

LOL love the analogy.

But that's not really the way it works. It's more like a plane coming in to land - you will get buffeted by the wind in various ways, but small course corrections over a period of time will help you get to the right place.

What 'course corrections' can you do? Raise or lower your ongoing contributions, raise or lower your planned drawdown, raise or lower your retirement date or consider semi-retirement, change the mix of assets you are invested in etc. Some of these are more important at different life/pension stages than others.

There's a bunch of different ways to conceptualise and manage all of these things, I'm sure people on this board can help with that.

And no, it really doesn't help to view your funds on a daily basis. But obviously it can be a bit captivating to do so.

Costabit

I get a daily email from Trustnet portfolio.
I don’t open the email everyday as that’s definitely too much to look everyday and couldn’t tell you what it was yesterday or any day really, but the info is there in an easily available source should I want it daily.
Once you have seen the vast daily drops and rises a few times, you get over the stress of it all, if you are correctly invested.
So go ahead and check whenever it suits you.

shinytop

I formally check and update my spreadsheets monthly.  Other than that, I see/hear general market information without necessarily looking for it, which gives me an indication of the way thing are going.  

parcival

Keep an eye on it about monthly - would not really see the point of more often for me. Always interested in how the major stock markets are doing which I check daily. However large daily falls or rises in stock markets would not cause me to make changes to pension funds.

dunstonh

Do you monitor your pension position daily?

No.  That would be a silly thing to do and would only lead to anxiety and the potential of poor decision making.   If you are in a multi-asset fund, then once a year is fine.  If you have a portfolio of single sector funds then a bit more frequently.

thickasabrick

Ant555 said:

Im starting out 'learning' about how to manage a pension for when I hopefully get to retire in a few years - probably on a drawdown.
I put all my current pension funds/units in to morning stars portfolio tracker a while ago with a view to seeing what information is available to me for free.
Yesterday my total holdings across 14 funds with two separate providers dropped by around £5000 - I realise this may be a general market position but how stressful is it to watch?
Its probably investing 101 to many people on this board but do people just need experience to understand its probably just a blip, it all seems to add up to a stressful situation if looking after your own money - ive never been a stocks and shares person so doing this with a pension would be the first time ive had to follow the markets.
I feel like im an apprentice training for a one-shot rocket trip to the moon with the knowledge that if im off by a few degrees then im going to miss the moon altogether and float off into space!

Need to bear in mind the timescales that you are investing for with your pension, decades.  As in 20, 30 40 years !
This article on Monevator "Weekend reading: Common Sense for crazy times" mentions a table from Ben Carlson's book where he states "The longer your time horizon, historically, the better your odds are at seeing positive outcomes"
After 20 years investments in the S&P 500 were 100% positive.
Personally I only look when I'm updating the portfolio with new contributions, which is once a month for my work pension and occasional contributions to my SIPP.
Lots of articles explaining market volatility but this one by JLCollins is as good an explanation as any "Stocks — Part 1: There’s a major market crash coming!!!! and Dr. Lo can’t save you"
UK based blogger version of it here by The Escape Artist "There’s a major market crash coming…"