How often do you check the value of your pension? And is contributing to a pension simply gambling?

Sea_Shell

We try and only check our investments (DC pension and ISAs) once a month.

After almost 4 years of living entirely off our pot (no SP or DB in payment yet), we still have more than we started with!

handful

I look at mine daily on an app (SIPP) with II) but have become quite accustomed to it and don't panic when they tumble! I have trained myself to understand that moving funds out in a lull just crystallises the loss. Leave it where it is and it's just a snapshot in time.

michaels

Sea_Shell said:

We try and only check our investments (DC pension and ISAs) once a month.

After almost 4 years of living entirely off our pot (no SP or DB in payment yet), we still have more than we started with!

Is that in real terms?  SWR is about real terms as inflation can be a big driver of fund exhaustion

Sea_Shell

michaels said:

Sea_Shell said:

We try and only check our investments (DC pension and ISAs) once a month.

After almost 4 years of living entirely off our pot (no SP or DB in payment yet), we still have more than we started with!

Is that in real terms?  SWR is about real terms as inflation can be a big driver of fund exhaustion

It's in £.   

Had £X, spent £Y, still got more than £X

One can try and factor in inflation, but to what end.  I'm not going to get a job, so why worry 😉.  

But I've done all this to death on my old "nuts" thread.  I'm not going to rehash it all here.

michaels

IN general £500k now can only buy as much as £418k could in 2019.  Part of saving for retirement is protecting oneself against the impact of inflation.

SouthCoastBoy

michaels said:

IN general £500k now can only buy as much as £418k could in 2019.  Part of saving for retirement is protecting oneself against the impact of inflation.

Yes ignore inflation at your peril, compounded over a 20 to 40 year period it can have a dramatic effect. The number of conversations I have with people that go something like this, I have a 600k pot I want 30k a year so that will last 20 years. I then ask have they considered inflation and they say they don't need to worry about that. True if investment returns after fees keep up with inflation, but there is no guarantee, especially if some of the pot is held as cash

Albermarle

I then ask have they considered inflation and they say they don't need to worry about that. 

I am guessing that this is because they are confident they are OK with inflation today, but have not grasped that the long term effect could be very damaging. Thinking long term seems almost impossible for a lot of people, or they think they will probably be dead before they probably will be.

DT2001

michaels said:

Sea_Shell said:

We try and only check our investments (DC pension and ISAs) once a month.

After almost 4 years of living entirely off our pot (no SP or DB in payment yet), we still have more than we started with!

Is that in real terms?  SWR is about real terms as inflation can be a big driver of fund exhaustion

From memory of sea shell’s excellent thread they do not need their pot to provide, at it’s current rate 3.2%, for too long as they have DB’s and SP’s to come on line.

SWR’s work on long term historical data which include higher inflation periods. How do you intend to protect against high inflation? 

michaels

DT2001 said:

michaels said:

Sea_Shell said:

We try and only check our investments (DC pension and ISAs) once a month.

After almost 4 years of living entirely off our pot (no SP or DB in payment yet), we still have more than we started with!

Is that in real terms?  SWR is about real terms as inflation can be a big driver of fund exhaustion

From memory of sea shell’s excellent thread they do not need their pot to provide, at it’s current rate 3.2%, for too long as they have DB’s and SP’s to come on line.

SWR’s work on long term historical data which include higher inflation periods. How do you intend to protect against high inflation? 

I guess my point is that if we had had zero inflation over the last 4 years and a pot had fallen from 500k to 420k then perhaps the pot owner would be thinking that is worse than I had hoped whereas instead frame the same performance as pot unchanged but inflation of 16% and it all seems fine.