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  • ElmoR
    ElmoR Posts: 413 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Is anyone else holding their head in their hands as a result of the year's S&S / pensions investments being so dire this year?
    I know that the sensible thing to do is ignore it all and trust in a recovery happening at some point in the next few years, but do you ever start to wonder if there's one coming??
    Has anyone switched their strategy now that saving rates are increasing a bit? I know savings rates are less than inflation but they are still better than the "on paper" loss. How do you all stay sane during the bumpy ride?

    ElmoR xx

  • hugheskevi
    hugheskevi Posts: 4,486 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    ElmoR said:
    Is anyone else holding their head in their hands as a result of the year's S&S / pensions investments being so dire this year?
    I know that the sensible thing to do is ignore it all and trust in a recovery happening at some point in the next few years, but do you ever start to wonder if there's one coming??
    Has anyone switched their strategy now that saving rates are increasing a bit? I know savings rates are less than inflation but they are still better than the "on paper" loss. How do you all stay sane during the bumpy ride?
    I've not changed strategy - the performance of last year was disappointing, but well within expected parameters.

    Having a very solid DB base which forms the majority of our retirement provision is extremely helpful, but we still have around £550-£600K in investments which will be used over the next 23 years (until we are both at State Pension age) so have incurred losses. We were fortunate that the downturn occurred after we ended our leveraged investment - we had previously used 0% credit cards and mortgage borrowing to accelerate investment but as we entered the first stage of our early retirement we ended all of that, so had been repaying all debts and building up cash savings in advance of going traveling. Hence downturn hit at around the best time for us, compared to a few years ago.

    For me, I don't really care about the downturn - I can go back to work for a while to make good losses, and the impact of that is huge (ie a year working and saving compared to a year drawing down resources). It would be much worse if this occurred after I had fully left work, I would have a much higher cash component, and that would be badly hurt by inflation. Hence I'm very happy to see higher interest rates, I haven't changed strategy, but will be moving more into cash in a couple of years, so hopefully, there will be returns on cash equal to at least inflation by then.
  • Suffolk_lass
    Suffolk_lass Posts: 10,253 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    In contrast, the timing for us was rubbish. We are no longer working and are gradually drawing down a DC pot that depleted by over a third at the exact time we were in the process of removing this year's portion. This was in addition to the hit over the year that it had just taken and was as a direct result of the nonsense with Truss and Kwateng.

    The rest of our investments are doing better, although the managed ISA pot has done really badly too. The self invested ones are doing much better.
    Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
    OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
    I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
    My new diary is here
  • edinburgher
    edinburgher Posts: 13,820 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    @Suffolk_lass - Vanguard have just introduced a managed ISA - can't say I'm tempted...
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 28,937 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I'm lucky most of my pensions are DB. I think anyone who went through 08 had an inkling of what could happen.
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
    2) £3K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
    3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £22.5K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.1K) = 28.2/£127.5K target 22;12% updated 6/7
    4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
    5) SIPP £4.6K updated 6/7/25
  • ElmoR
    ElmoR Posts: 413 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    @Suffolk_lass @hugheskevi Timing seems to be a somewhat unfair factor in one way. I know that the passive funds and our work pension fund try to reduce risk as you near your target retirement year, but there still seems to be a bumpy ride of sorts.

    @savingholmes I remember 2008 and also the episode in the late 1980/1990s when the mortgage rate went up to something mad like 15%, one month of that and we were using a credit card to pay ours, very, very scary stuff at the time. For some reason, 2008 didn't bother me so much, probably because like @Cornish_mum we were 15-20 years away from a sniff of any retirement.

    Timing. I feel some additional research and reading coming on...
  • I still have 24 years til state retirement but hoping to go in 16 if I can.
    It's been a bit sobering this year to see how much pension pots and ISA values have dropped. Altough mine will have time to recover, the same thing could happen closer to my retirement age and have a much more serious impact. No access to DB schemes, so really need to increase my contributionsnext year.
    MFW 2024 £27500/7500 Mortgage £129,500 Jan 22 Final payment June 38 Now £68489.08 FP May 36 Emergency Fund £20,000 100% Added to ISA 24 £8,060 Save 12k in 24 #31 £20,034.76/20,000 Debt Free 31.07.14
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