Any particular types of pension fund to avoid at the current time? Or good ones to invest in?

zAndy1

With market conditions as they are now if you was going to direct your pension contributions towards any particular sort of fund which would it be? Any particular funds that should be avoided right now? I'm 55 , currently invested in 3 funds in my aviva stakeholder pension , Aviva stewardship managed (54%), Blackrock world ex uk equity index tracker (40%) and blackrock uk equity index tracker (6%) and the overall pension has decreased in value by just over £8000 in the last 12 months with a current value of £99k. Any opinion on whether those funds are suitable for my age and the current market conditions and if not what sort of funds would you suggest I look at instead? Perhaps this could be seen as verging on financial advice and I'm not sure how that rocks around here but I'm just after some general opinions not any specific advice really. Ta

Linton

Two points…
1) individual funds don’t matter much as long as they aren’t something bizarre.  What is important is the structure of the portfolio as a whole. I don’t see anything wrong with what you have now. Just invest more of the same if you are not going to withdraw a significant amount in the next few years. 

If you are, I suggest you look for greater safety in case further falls mean you will have less in the pot than now.

2) I hope you have a lot more invested elsewhere or in DB pensions.  £99k at 55 is rather low. It is equivalent to perhaps £3500 per year, useful but not life changing.
  

MallyGirl

you have approx 84% equity, 16% other. As @Linton says this is fine if you are planning to work and invest more for some years to come. It would be too frisky for me if I wanted to retire early and actually use this pot to fund the gap till SP.

Albermarle

 and the overall pension has decreased in value by just over £8000 in the last 12 months with a current value of £99k. Any opinion on whether those funds are suitable for my age and the current market conditions

An 8% drop in the last 12 months , is better than average. Probably because that despite market drops , higher risk/higher % equity funds have done better than low risk ones. Your actual age is not that relevant, what matters is when you intend to start drawing from the pension and by which method. I would not worry too much about 'current market conditions' the market is always unpredictable.
A chat with this free government service may be of some help to clarify your options.
Pension Wise: free pension guidance | MoneyHelper

dunstonh

Any particular types of pension fund to avoid at the current time? Or good ones to invest in?

What do you mean by "current time"?
There is nothing going on at the moment that is unusual.

With market conditions as they are now if you was going to direct your pension contributions towards any particular sort of fund which would it be? 

Nothing has changed on where it should be.   If it was suitable previously, it will be suitable now.

Don't over think these things.   Don't read the scaremongering press.    I have just watched the BBC news on this at 6pm and it was quite frankly dumbed down to kids level and no context given.  Plus, a bit of anti-UK bias by making out the EU is in better shape when in reality it is not.    What we are going through is bad by the last decade or two but actually closer to the historic norm.

QrizB

Linton said:

2) I hope you have a lot more invested elsewhere or in DB pensions.  £99k at 55 is rather low. It is equivalent to perhaps £3500 per year, useful but not life changing.

OP has other threads on the go with more info re. their pension savings. Example:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6398014/pension-options-to-deal-with-debts-mortgage-situation

[Deleted User]

zAndy1 said:

With market conditions as they are now if you was going to direct your pension contributions towards any particular sort of fund which would it be? Any particular funds that should be avoided right now? I'm 55 , currently invested in 3 funds in my aviva stakeholder pension , Aviva stewardship managed (54%), Blackrock world ex uk equity index tracker (40%) and blackrock uk equity index tracker (6%) and the overall pension has decreased in value by just over £8000 in the last 12 months with a current value of £99k. Any opinion on whether those funds are suitable for my age and the current market conditions and if not what sort of funds would you suggest I look at instead? Perhaps this could be seen as verging on financial advice and I'm not sure how that rocks around here but I'm just after some general opinions not any specific advice really. Ta

You pick funds as a last step in the process.  You first select strategy (eg passive or active), asset allocation and only then the funds. My suggestion would be to a) go passive and b) increase fixed income allocation.  That would translate to removing the managed fund and adding a bond fund to your mix.