Aegon Stakeholder Pension gone down alot

purplelavender

I have a small (circa 20k) stakeholder pension plan with Aegon which has  reduced in value by 10% ( 2k) in 8 mths. Yes i know the markets are volatile but as I'm 66 this is very worrying. It's in a Mixed fund. I was still contributing £20 pm but I've cancelled that as the money is better off in the bank. I wish I'd withdrawn 25% last year. I don't know what to do.
I'm a non taxpayer, get about 9k from SP and small LA pension. I have another small pot from past employment but that has gone up.
Can anyone help? Financial advisors can't/won't help little people like me.
Please 

xylophone

Are you saying that you wish to access this pension now?

purplelavender

xylophone said:

Are you saying that you wish to access this pension now?

I wasn't planning to. Before this i was happy to leave it as a form of investment. Maybe i need to just leave it. I don't know what to do really 

dunstonh

I have a small (circa 20k) stakeholder pension plan with Aegon which has  reduced in value by 10% ( 2k) in 8 mths

Only 10%. So, not much then.

It's in a Mixed fund. I was still contributing £20 pm but I've cancelled that as the money is better off in the bank. 

So you have decided that buying units whilst they are cheaper is not as good as buying units when they are more expensive?  Not only that, your have decided to give up on 20% tax relief, which equates to a 25% increase because your investments have gone down 10%.   Why?     You are still up with the pension.  Unlike the money in the bank.

Investments zig zag in value. It went down by more in 2020.  it went down a similar amount in 2018 and 2015/16.  So, what is different for you this time that didn't cause you to take any action last time?

I wish I'd withdrawn 25% last year. I don't know what to do.

When do you plan to draw it?  .....

Before this i was happy to leave it as a form of investment. 

So, why not leave it as an investment and let it do what investments have done for hundreds of years and we all know what investments will do.

purplelavender

This is why i need advice. I'm pretty useless with this sort of thing. That's why i came here! 
But thank you for your advice. Perhaps it was rather a knee jerk reaction, stopping contributions. I hadn't thought to look at it this way 
I don't need to draw the money as have savings elsewhere.
So hold my breath, leave it and reinstate contributions 

Albermarle

You could also look back over the last few years, and very likely see that even with this recent drop and subtracting your contributions, it will have grown significantly. ( Maybe will make you feel better) .

Also a 10% drop is at the lower end of the range of drops recently, so it sounds like it is invested appropiately.

Marcon

purplelavender said:

This is why i need advice. I'm pretty useless with this sort of thing. That's why i came here! 
But thank you for your advice. Perhaps it was rather a knee jerk reaction, stopping contributions. I hadn't thought to look at it this way 
I don't need to draw the money as have savings elsewhere.
So hold my breath, leave it and reinstate contributions 

You don't need advice - a few deep breaths will probably do just as well! - and there is nothing 'useless' about not being a financial whizz. Most people aren't, and at least you realise it's not your strong suit.

If you are worried about the fund dropping in value, remember it's the underlying funds in which the pension is invested that determine performance, so you could always choose something less volatile - but that in turn limits the possibility of future growth.

Have a look at https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot/pension-investment-options-an-overview and you might feel both better informed and more confident about your own abilities to select funds which will align with your objectives/risk tolerance.